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. decided that the Compromise of 1820 and that of 1850 were unconstitutional. It was 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 Mr. Douglas's theory that the people of a Territory alone had the right to say whether they would or would not have slavery. Only two of the judges-Mr. McLean, of Ohio, and Mr. Curtis, of Massachusetts-dissented from this opinion, which made slavery instead of freedom the basis upon which the nation had been established. If President Buchanan thought this decision would settle a vexatious question, he little comprehended the spirit of the people. Nothing can be made permanent that is not established in righteousness. No people with the spirit of freedom in their blood will ever see their great charter of liberty utterly subverted. The Supreme Court, instead of being regarded with reverence, became an object of contempt. The commonsense of the people led them to say the judges had made an unwarranted decision in the interests of slavery. The struggle for the possession of Kansas was going on. The Free State candidate for Congress had a majority of more than 4000 votes. The coveted prize was slipping away from the slave-holders, who determined to reverse the majority by stuffing the ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes. They selected 600 names from an old Directory of the City of Cincinnati, and registered them as the names of settlers in one of the counties. The Free State settlers elected a legislature, which met at Topeka and framed a constitution. The slave-holders met at Lecompton and adopted a constitution recognizing slavery. Both of these documents were forwarded to Washington. We have seen Abraham Lincoln in 1832 splitting rails on the bank of the Sangamon when informed that John Calhoun had appointed him surveyor of land. A quarter of a century had gone by, and John Calhoun was surveyor of public lands in Kansas. He was president of the Lecompton convention, and was wielding his influence to make Kansas a Slave State by changing the election returns. He had a list of 379 names in a precinct where only forty-three votes were cast. To keep them out of the hands of a committee of Congress he secreted them in a candle-box under a wood-pile. For that act he was called "Candle-box Calhoun." In Washington the slave-holders were persuading President Buchanan to recommend the admission of Kansas as a State with a constitution recognizing slavery. Stephen A. Douglas called upon the President. He was angry, for his theory of the rights of the people in a Territory to say whether they will or will not have slavery had been overturned by the decision of the Supreme Court. "I must recommend the acceptance of the Lecompton constitution," said Mr. Buchanan. "I shall feel it my duty to oppose its acceptance." "Allow me to remind you, Senator Douglas, that no Democrat ever yet differed from an Administration of his own party without being himself crushed. I refer you to the fate of Tallmadge and Rives under the administration of President Jackson." "Mr. President, allow me to remind you that General Jackson is dead." Mr. Douglas bows and leaves the White House. He keeps his word. He knows the slave power never will forgive him, but he also knows that unless he opposes the slave-holders in their attempts to force a hateful constitution upon the people of Kansas, he will endanger his own re-election to the Senate. On the banks of the little river Marias-des-Cygnes (Marsh of the Swans), three miles from Missouri, settlers from the Free States were 1858. ploughing their fields. They never had taken part in any trouMay 19, bles between other people and the Missouri ruffians, but they did not want slaves in Kansas, and had voted to make it a Free State. Lawless men in Missouri were ever ready to shoot settlers from the Free States. Charles Hamilton, with a gang of twenty-seven, seized eleven of the men who had taken farms in the valley of Marias-desCygnes. "Make ready! Take aim! Fire!" the word of command. The rifles and revolvers flashed, and all but one were killed or wounded. The murderers fired once more, riddling the bodies with bullets, and then rode back to Missouri to gloat over the morning's work. It was their way of upsetting the popular sovereignty of Senator Douglas -their way of interpreting the meaning of the Constitution- their method of carrying slavery into Kansas. The people of the Northern States were horrified when they heard of the cold-blooded massacre, and the peaceful Quaker poet, John G. Whittier, far away on the banks of the Merrimac, in Massachusetts, wrote these lines: "A blush as of roses, Where roses never grew; Great drops on the bunch-grass, A taint in the sweet air For wild bees to shun; A stain that shall never Bleach out with the sun." Into Missouri with a company of men marched John Brown, not to |