JOHN BROWN. 853 LVI. This singular, conscientious, determined man, who CHAP. under no circumstances ever swerved from what he thought was right, was a native of Connecticut, and de- 1859. scended from Peter Brown, a humble Pilgrim on the Mayflower. Religiously trained, he became a churchmember at the age of sixteen; thoughtful for his years, at twelve he found himself an instinctive hater of slavery from seeing his friend, a colored boy about his own age, grossly abused without redress. This hatred of the system was never modified, but grew intenser with his years. At the time of which we speak he was a resident of New York State. When he learned of the efforts to force the system of bondage on the territory of Kansas he hastened thither, where he already had four sons, and three others who soon after followed their father. There in his peculiar way he became a leader among the Free State men in their conflicts with their enemies from across the boundary line of the territory and Missouri. In one of these battles beside him lay a son just killed, while the father in one hand held the pulse of another mortally wounded, and in the other grasped a rifle. Some time before another son had been murdered. With only twenty-one men he seized the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in northern Virginia. He may have supposed the slaves would avail themselves of an opportunity to fight for their freedom, but none joined him. They always looked for some outside' influence to secure their emancipation. John Brown is represented as being kind and sympathetic, and his heart was moved as he contemplated the system of bondage under which the slaves. moaned. He thought himself in the line of duty, and while we may respect his motives we cannot his prudence. The explanation may be that he brooded so long over the wrongs suffered by the slaves that he became 1 Hist., p. 902. Oct. 16. CHAP. partially crazed on the subject, and overlooked the insuLVI. perable difficulties in carrying out his plan for their 1859. emancipation. In the conflict which ensued with the State authorities, who were aided by United States marines, he was wounded and captured, after a severe strug gle, in which thirteen of his party were killed-two of them his sons-six were made prisoners, and two escaped. During his trial he lay on his couch in the court-room. He met death in a calm and heroic manner. This was the only instance in which an Abolitionist, as such, attempted to secure the freedom of the slaves by means of violence. Three days after the execution of Brown, Congress assembled, and during its session was laid before it a constitution voted upon and approved by the people of 1860, Kansas. A bill admitting the State passed the House, but failed in the Senate. June 7. 1853. 1860. A treaty having been made with Japan that government sent, in the summer of 1860, a number of officials to bring it when ratified to the United States. This imposing embassy consisted in all of seventy-one persons of various ranks. They were received and treated as the guests of the Nation, and in consequence of this treaty important commercial relations have since existed between the United States and that empire. Minnesota was admitted into the Union, and allowed to have two representatives until the next apportionment of members among the several States. A change was made in the laws in relation to the issue of patents, by which "all patents hereafter granted shall remain in force seventeen years from date of issue, and all extensions of such patents are hereby prohibited." The Eighth Census of the United States sums up as follows: Entire population, 31,443,790; of whom 3,953,529 are slaves. PARTY PLATFORMS. 855 LVI. 1860. The question of the extension of slavery into the Ter- CHAP ritories, was by no means decided in the presidential contest of 1856. During the subsequent four years the discussion of the subject still continued in Congress and among the people. In proportion as they read and judged for themselves, did party spirit lose its despotic influences, and the change in public sentiment, especially in the non-slaveholding States, was unprecedented. Many thousands of intelligent voters, who once acquiesced in the policy of the extension of the system, would no longer lend their sanction to measures the tendency of which they now better understood. In view of subsequent events, a more than usual interest will ever belong to the exposition of principles as set forth in what are termed "platforms" of the parties in nominating their respective candidates for the office of President in 1860. The Democratic party, at a convention held in Charleston, South Carolina, became divided into two hostile sections the Breckinridge and Douglas-thus designated from their prominent leaders. One section-the Breckinridge—reaffirmed, with explanatory resolutions, the principles adopted by the entire party four years before at its convention held in Cincinnati. They proclaimed the 1856. "non-interference of Congress with slavery in the Territories or in the District of Columbia," and "The admission of new States with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect." The other section-Douglas-also adopted the Cincinnati platform, and likewise affirmed "That as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution of the United States over the institution of slavery within the Territories," "That the party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme LVI. 1860. CHAP. Court of the United States on the questions of Constitutional law." These resolutions are significant. That court had recently given an opinion known as the Dred Scott Decision, which was now assumed to sanction the 1849. doctrine, first announced by John C. Calhoun, that the Constitution recognized slavery, and sanctioned and protected it in the Territories.' On the contrary, the Republican party denied that this special decision of the court had a legitimate bearing on the subject, it being a side issue, and therefore null and void; and now, since other means had failed in Kansas, used only to introduce covertly the system of human bondage into the Territories. The latter party, at their convention held in Chicago, announced that "the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our Republican Institutions." "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;" and "That the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States and the union of the States, must and shall be preserved;" also the rights of the States should be maintained inviolate, "especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively." "That the normal condition of all the Territory of the United States is that of FREEDOM," and they denied "the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States." Still another party, heretofore mainly known as American, now adopted the designation of "Constitutional Union," and proclaimed as their platform, “The Constitution of the country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws." |