action against the aggressive policy of the slave power. Were these simple questions submitted to-day to the people of the United States:-Are you in favor of the extension of slavery? Are you in favor of such extension by the aid or connivance of the Federal government? And could they be permitted to record their votes in response, without embarrassment, without constraint of any kind, nineteen-twentieths of the people of the free States, and perhaps more than half of the people of the slave States, would return a decided negative to both. "Let us have faith in the people. Let us believe, that at heart they are hostile to the extension of slavery, desirous that the Territories of the Union be consecrated to free labor and free institutions; and that they require only enlightenment as to the most effectual means of securing this end to convert their cherished sentiment into a fixed principle of action.

"The times are pregnant with warning. That a disunion party exists in the South no longer admits of a doubt. It accepts the election of Mr. Buchanan as affording time and means to consolidate its strength and mature its plans, which comprehend not only the enslavement of Kansas, and the recognition of slavery in all territory of the United States, but the conversion of the lower half of California into a slave State, the organization of a new slavery territory in the Gadsden Purchase, the future annexation of Nicaragua and subjugation of Central America, and the acquisition of Cuba; and, as the free States are not expected to submit to all this, ultimate dismemberment of the Union, and the formation of a great slaveholding confederacy, with foreign alliances with Brazil and Russia. It may assume at first a moderate tone, to prevent the sudden alienation of its Northern allies; it may delay the development of its plot, as it did under the Pierce administration; but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came at last, and so will come upon the country inevitably the final acts of the dark conspiracy. When that hour shall come, then will the honest Democrats of the free States be driven into our ranks, and the men of the slave States who prefer the republic of Washington, Adams and Jefferson-a republic of law, order and liberty-to an oligarchy of slaveholders and slavery propagandists, governed by Wise, Atchison, Soulé, and Walker, founded in fraud and violence and seeking aggrandizement by the spoliation of nations, will bid Godspeed to the labors of the Republican party to preserve liberty and the Union, one and inseparable, perpetual and all powerful.

"WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 27, 1856."

II.

Congress and the Slavery Question-Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia-Democratic Attempts to avoid the Subject-The Whig Party's Decline and Fall -Its last Platform-The American Party and its Objects-Laws against Naturalization of Foreigners-History of the Dred Scott Case-Effect of the Dred Scott Decision on the Whig Party-Platform of the American Party-Attempts at fusion of the Fremont and Fillmore Forces Speech of Hon. Kenneth Raynor-Joshua R. Giddings.

HE question of the abolition of slavery had been before the Senate and House of Representatives as far back as 1836. Petitions and memorials had been presented resulting in protracted discussions. The following year a Vermont Representative presented two petitions asking for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. The excitement was intense, and the friends of the memorials contrived to have a decision held over till the following day. The decision was one that for four years effectually killed all such petitions, for a resolution was passed that all petitions praying for the abolition of slavery should be tabled. Coming along to 1840, we find the House getting so tired of these tactics that they passed an amendment to the Rules providing "That no petition, memorial or resolution, or other paper, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory, or the slave trade between the States or Territories of the United States in which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in any way whatever."

The tide began to turn towards the close of 1844, when the amendment was rescinded on motion of J. Quincy Adams. An ineffectual attempt was later made to again put it in force, and in 1850 the efforts of the Abolitionists culminated in a law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, although in

the early part of the year both the House and the Senate had refused to receive two petitions presented by citizens of Pennsylvania and Delaware which characterized slavery as contrary to Divine law; as out of harmony with republican principles; that it was antagonistic to the good of the country at large, and more particularly to the Union.

The career of the Whig party wound up with the nomination of Winfield Scott for President in 1852. The principal plank in their platform was for a tariff to be levied only on imports, and not to be raised by direct taxation, thus protecting American industries. The Abolition party simply stood out for what their title implied: the abolition of slavery. They were also called Independent Democrats. But the former is the name by which they were best known. Neither party succeeded in beating the Democratic nominee, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who polled a popular vote in excess by nearly sixty thousand of the combined vote given to the Whig and Abolition parties, and by an excess of 212 electoral votes.

The earliest existence of political parties in this country goes back to the establishment of the Federal government, when the Federalists and DemocraticRepublicans (or Democrats, as they were more briefly called) came into being. The Federalists represented the native Americans, while the Democrats numbered among their ranks the naturalized foreigners. It was made up of natives of England, Ireland and Scotland. For years the bone of contention naturally was the laws relating to aliens. In 1790 a law was passed requiring only two years' residence to entitle an alien to citizenship. Later on the time was extended to five years. In 1798 the Federalists took advantage of the feeling against France then running so high and had the requisite time extended to fourteen years. 1802, under Jefferson's Democratic administration, the time was reduced to five years. The Democratic party consequently grew, and principally in New York City, where so many foreigners landed, never getting any further.

The Federalists roused themselves to a keen sense of the situation, for every day saw them crowded out. Then was originated and organized the party later known as "Know-Nothings." Sometimes up and sometimes down it led a career full of vicissitudes. It started in 1805 as the Native American party, but suffered a heavy blow in its failure to elect its nominee for mayor of New York City in 1837. In 1844 it came to light again, and to some effect, for it elected its candidate for mayor. Success encouraged New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and they wheeled into line. There were serious riots in Philadelphia, the opposing parties

being on the one hand the Democrats, in combination with the Irish and Roman Catholic elements, and the new party's adherents on the other. The Whigs felt

LEVI P. MORTON OF NEW YORK, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

tempted to join issues with the Natives; but it only hurt them, for the vote was split up and the regular Democrats slipped in. From 1845 onward the party lost its hold, and a few years later almost entirely disappeared.

The agitation of the public mind in 1852 on the slavery question brought forward the Nativists again, though in a different form. The Hon. A. H. H. Stuart of Virginia in writing of them said: "The vital principle of the American party is Americanism, developing itself in a deep-rooted attachment to our own countryits Constitution, its union and its laws; to American men, and American measures, and American interests; or, in other words, a fervent patriotism, which, rejecting the transcendental philanthropy of Abolitionists, and that kindred batch of wild enthusiasts who would seek to embroil us with foreign countries in righting the wrongs of Ireland, or Hungary, or Cuba, would guard with vestal vigilance American institutions and American interests against the baneful effects of foreign influence."

The party concealed its power and extent under the shield of a secret society provided with meeting-rooms, signs, tokens, passwords, and grips. There were several degrees in which to be initiated, and it was only on reaching a higher degree after the member had been weighed in the balance and not found wanting that he was instructed in the real name and objects of the order which he had joined. Members being interrogated as to the order answered, "I don't know." They became recognized as a party, and the name "Know-Nothing" naturally suggested itself, and so they were dubbed. Its raison d'etre was the crusade against the unrestricted immigration and the naturalization of the immigrants; the rapidly spreading influence and power of the Roman Catholic Church; and the liberal awarding of offices to naturalized foreigners. "Americans must rule America," was their keynote, and George Washington's memorable order, "Put none but Americans on guard to-night," was adopted as their watchword. The society grew and prospered. It became a factor whose silent influence was felt in every election. There was no fuss, no noise. Machines were powerless, and for a time they held the balance of power.

In 1854, when the newly-organized Republican party came into existence, there was a split in the Whig party, caused by the slavery question in connection with the formation of Kansas and Nebraska into Territories. Attempts being made to make slavery illegal in the two Territories, it was resolved in the Senate that: "It is the true intent and meaning (of the laws in force) not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."

About this time occurred the celebrated Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a