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PEOPLE

CHAPTER X.

KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE.

EOPLE in the Northern States during the month of July, 1854, were holding meetings to form a new political party which should have for its object resistance to the aggressions of the slave power.

1854.

Twenty-three years had passed since William Lloyd Garrison was put in prison for saying the slave traffic was piracy. The Abolitionists, as they called themselves, proposed to bring about the abolition July, of slavery by convincing the people that it was morally wrong— a sin against God and their fellow-men. They denounced the Constitution because it recognized slavery, and they advocated the dissolution of the Union because it was in league with iniquity. They saw the aggression of slavery, but were opposed to any political action to restrict it. The Free Soil Party of 1848 was formed more to avenge the slight put upon President Van Buren by the slave power in not renominating him for a second term than from any deep-seated sentiment in favor of freedom.

The passage of the Nebraska Bill brought spontaneous combustion-a kindling of the fires of freedom throughout the Northern States, resulting in the formation of the Republican Party.

At Ostend, a seaport of Belgium, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Minister of the United States to England, Pierre Soulé, of New Orleans,

1854.

Minister to Spain, and Mr. Mason, of Virginia, Minister to France, Oct. 9, had a conference as to the best way for the United States to gain possession of Cuba. The slave-holders wanted to obtain that island for the purpose of extending the area of slavery and strengthening their political power. They sent a letter to President Pierce suggesting that the United States should offer Spain $120,000,000, and if Spain would not sell, the United States ought to take the island by force. The thought that the United States would be acting the part of a highway robber did not deter them from putting forth the proposition. But President Pierce discovered that Spain, England, and other European

countries might have something to say about such a transaction; besides, such an outburst of indignation was heard from the people of the Northern States that no attempt was made to carry out the plan. The boldness and wickedness of the scheme aroused the people. There must be united action, or slavery would be the controlling political force.

Delegates from the several Northern States met in convention at Philadelphia and formed the Republican Party. They selected John Charles Fremont as their candidate for the Presidency. The June 17, Democratic Party met in Cincinnati and nominated James Buchanan, who had signed the letter in regard to seizing Cuba. Stephen A. Douglas confidently expected to be nominated. He had

1856.

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rendered great service to the slave-holders, but they had no intention of rewarding him for what he had done.

Abraham Lincoln travelled through Illinois making speeches for the Republican Party, Douglas for the Democrats. They often spoke in the same town. Very graceful the tribute which Lincoln paid to Douglas:

"Twenty years ago Mr. Douglas and I first became acquainted. We were both young-he a trifle younger than I. Even then we were ambitious-I, perhaps, quite as much as he. With me the race has been a failure-a flat failure. With him it has been one of splendid success. His name fills the nation, and is not unknown in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow."

Little does he know, as he utters the words, of the elevation towards which divine Providence is leading him. He has been thinking of the millions of his fellow-men in slavery. He never has forgotten the scene in the slave-market in New Orleans. He believes that somehow Providence is to bring about the extinction of slavery. He said to a friend, "Sometimes when I am speaking I feel that the time is soon coming when the sun shall shine and the rain fall on no man who shall go forth to unrequited toil. . . . How it will come about, when it will come, I cannot tell; but that time will surely come!" (')

Mr. Buchanan was elected. His inaugural address was carefully written, and he was ready to take his seat. We do not know who informed him that the Supreme Court, the highest judicial tribunal May 1, of the nation, was prepared to make a decision in a case affecting

1857.

the rights of slave-holders under the Constitution; but Mr. Buchanan thought it best to insert another sentence in his address. It was the expression of a hope that the decision would forever settle a very vexatious question. Two days passed, and Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, Chief-justice, startled the people by what he had to say concerning two slaves. Dred Scott and his wife Harriet were owned by Dr. Emerson, of St. Louis. He was a surgeon in the army. He took them to Rock Island, in Iowa, Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and then to St. Louis. Having been taken voluntarily by him into a Free Territory, the slaves claimed they were entitled to their liberty under the common law of the country. Of the nine judges composing the court, five were from the Slave States. Seven of the judges agreed that the Constitution recognized slaves as property and nothing more. They were not and

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could not be citizens. Not being citizens, they could not bring a suit in any court of the United States. The claim of Dred and Harriet Scott must be settled by the court of Missouri. The Constitution recognized slaves as property, and that property must be protected. It was decided that the Compromise of 1820 and that of 1850 were unconstitutional.

By this decision a slave had no civil rights. He was a thing onlyno more than a horse, cow, or pig. The logic of the decision carried slavery not only into the Territories, but into the Free States. It upset

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