majority against the Douglas Democracy of two on joint ballot.

A United States Senator, to succeed Gen. Shields on the 4th of March, 1855, was to be chosen by this Legislature. For the first time in the history of Illinois, the election of an Opposition Senator was within the reach of possibility. Mr. Lincoln was the first choice of the great mass of the Opposi tion for this position. From his prominence, for a long time, in the old Whig party, it was but natural that a portion of the members having Democratic antecedents who had come into the new organization, should hesitate to give Mr. Lincoln their votes. This was especially true of the three Senators above named as holding over, they having been elected as regular Democrats. Under this state of things, it was manifest, after a few ballots, that, with the close vote in joint convention the election of a Democrat, not to be certainly relied on as an opponent of the Douglas policy, and at best uncommitted in regard to the new party organization, might be the result of adhering to Mr. Lincoln. He, accordingly, with the self-sacrificing disposition which had always characterized him, promptly appealed to his Whig friends to go over in a solid body to Mr. Trumbull, a man of Democratic antecedents, who could command the full vote of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats. By these earnest and disinterested efforts, the difficult task was accomplished, great as was the sacrifice of personal feeling which it cost the devoted friends of Mr. Lincoln. On the part of himself and them, it involved the exercise of a degree of self-denial and magnanimity, as rare as it was noble. It demonstrated their honest attachment to the great cause for which old party lines had been abandoned, and their sincere purpose of thoroughly ignoring all differences founded on mere partizan prejudice. It cemented the union of these Anti-Nebraska elements, and consolidated the new organization into a permanent party.

The joint convention for electing a United States Senator met on the 8th day of February, 1855. On the first ballot, James Shields, then Senator, who had been induced by

Douglas, against his own better judgment, to vote for the Kansas-Nebraska bill, received 41 votes, and three other Democrats had one vote each. Abraham Lincoln had 45 votes, Lyman Trumbull 5, Mr. Koerner 2, and there were three other scattering votes. On the seventh ballot, the Democratic vote was concentrated upon Gov. Matteson, with two exceptions, and he received also the votes of two AntiNebraska Democrats, making 44 in all. On the tenth ballot, Mr. Trumbull was elected, in the way just explained, receiving 51 votes and Mr. Matteson 47. Every Whig vote but one was given to Mr. Trumbull.

Among the speeches delivered by Mr. Lincoln in this memorable campaign, which gave the Republicans an able Senator from Illinois, and which effectuall accomplished the overthrow of the Democracy in that State, perhaps the ablest and most characteristic was the one delivered at Peoria, important portions of which were quoted by him in the canvass with Douglas, four years later.

CHAPTER X.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN 1856 AND '57.

The Republican Party Organized.—Their Platform adopted at Bloomington. The Canvass of 1856.-Mr. Lincoln Sustains Fremont and Dayton. His Active Labors on the Stump.-Col. Bissell Elected Governor of Illinois. Mr. Buchanan Inaugurated.-His Kansas Policy.-Mr. Douglas Committed to it in June, 1857.-John Calhoun His Special Friend. The Springfield Speech of Douglas.--Mr. Lincoln's Reply.

MR. LINCOLN took an active part in the formation of the Republican party as such. The State convention of that organization which met at Bloomington, on the 29th of May, 1856, sent delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of that year, held for the nomination of Presidential candidates. The resolutions of the Bloomington Convention, in place of which Mr. Douglas produced an entirely different series on the stump, in 1858, are subjoined in full:

WHEREAS, The present Administration has prostituted its powers, and devoted all its energies to the propagation of slavery, and to its extension into Territories heretofore dedicated to freedom, against the known wishes of the people of such Territories, to the suppression of the freedom of speech, and of the press; and to the revival of the odious doctrine of constructive treason, which has always been the resort of tyrants, and their most powerful engine of injustice and oppression; and whereas, we are convinced that an effort is making to subvert the principles, and ultimately to change the form of our Government, and which it becomes all patriots, all who love their country, and the cause of human freedom, to resist; therefore

Resolved, That foregoing all former differences of opinion upon other questions, we pledge ourselves to unite in opposition to the present Administration, and to the party which upholds and supports it, and to use all honorable and Constitutional

means to wrest the government from the unworthy hands which now control it, and to bring it back in its administration the principles and practices of Washington, Jefferson and Their great and good compatriots of the Revolution.

Resolved, That we hold, in accordance with the opinions and practices of all the great statesmen of all parties, for the first sixty years of the administration of the Government, that, under the Constitution, Congress possesses full power to prohibit slavery in the Territories; and that while we will maintain all Constitutional rights of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the principles of freedom as expressed in our Declaration of Independence, and our National Constitution, and the purity and perpetuity of our Government require that that power should be exerted, to prevent the extension of slavery into Territories heretofore free.

Resolved, That the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was unwise, unjust and injurious; in open and aggravated violation of the plighted faith of the States, and that the attempt of the present Administration to force slavery into Kansas against the known wishes of the legal voters of that Territory, is an arbitrary and tyrannous violation of the rights of the people to govern themselves, and that we will strive by all Constitutional means, to secure to Kansas and Nebraska the legal guaranty against slavery, of which they were deprived, at the cost of the violation of the plighted faith of the nation.

Resolved, That we are devoted to the Union, and will, to the last extremity, defend it against the efforts now being made by the Disunionists of this Administration to compass its dissolution; and that we will support the Constitution of the United States in all its provisions, regarding it as the sacred bond of our Union, and the only safeguard for the preservation of the rights of ourselves and our posterity.

Resolved, That we are in favor of the immediate admission of Kansas as a member of this Confederacy, under the Constitution adopted by the people of said Territory.

Resolved, That the spirit of our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees the liberty of conscience as well as political freedom, and that we will proscribe no one by legislation or otherwise, on account of religious opinions, or in consequence of place of birth.

Resolved, That in Lyman Trumbull, our distinguished Senator, the people of Illinois have an able and consistent exponent of their principles, and that his course in the Senate meets with our unqualified approbation.

With this creed, and the Philadelphia platform, subsequently adopted, the Republicans of Illinois went into the canvass of 1856. Mr. Lincoln labored earnestly during the campaign, sustaining the nominations of FREMONT and DAYTON. In the State canvass, Col. Wm. H. Bissel received the united support of the Opposition for Governor, and was elected by a decisive majority. On the Presidential candidates, there being, unfortunately, two tickets in the field, the divided Opposition were unsuccessful, although Fremont, in spite of the heavy Fillmore vote ran so closely upon Buchanan that the result was for a time in doubt, and only the nearly solid vote of "Egypt" decided the result in favor of the latter. The untiring exertions of Mr. Lincoln on the stump, in enlightening the people as to the real issues involved, did much toward securing this remarkable vote.

Mr. Buchanan came into power in March, 1857, and the hopes which had been entertained of a material change, under his administration, of the unjust and execrable policy hitherto pursued toward Kansas, were speedily dissipated. After some little show of resistance at first, he was soon found acting in accordance with the dictates of the extreme pro-slavery interest. A deep scheme was concocted, into the secrets of which even the Governor and Secretary of that Territory were not admitted, for forcing Kansas into the Union as a slave State. This plot began to be suspected, and its existence more and more confirmed by the course of events, not long after Mr. Buchanan's inauguration. The thin vail of "bogus Popular Sovereignty," with which Douglas had tried to hide the naked deformity of the act under which Kansas and Nebraska were organized, was to be rent asunder. People were beginning to look with curiosity for the next evasion or artful afterthought by which he would attempt to escape the force of a public sentiment which was already rapidly bearing him down, before this more complete exposure became inevitable. This interest in his course was the more lively, for the reason that his Senatorial term had nearly expired, and that, without some remarkable change of affars, or some ingenious device, the curse he