stalwart six-footer from Wisconsin, also received a challenge from Lawrence M. Keitt, who was accessory to Brooks' assault on Sumner. Potter accepted and named bowie knives as the weapons, and two paces the distance. But Keitt objected to the weapons as barbarous, and this duel never took place. The willingness, however, of these Northern men to fight from the front, and with weapons that were effective, had the effect of checking the insolence of Southern Members of Congress. This outrage upon Sumner and the incidents following afforded such clear demonstration of the Southern temper as to add many votes to the Republican ticket. The various incidents in connection with the settlement of Kansas also added to the feeling on the part of the North, while on the other side, Fremont was denounced as a sectional candidate, and the Southerners resorted to the old threat to dissolve the Union if he was elected by Northern votes on an AntiSlavery platform. One noticeable thing in the campaign was the extent to which young men were brought into the Republican service. The older Anti-Slavery men, Seward, Chase and Hale, were not especially active in the canvass, but the following, who were comparatively new to public life, were often mentioned as speakers in the great meetings held in the cities and at the county mass meetings: N. P. Banks and John Sherman, who were then in their second terms in Congress; Eli Thayer, who originated the Emigrant Aid Societies; Roscoe Conkling, Thaddeus Stevens, John A. Bingham, Galusha A. Grow, James G. Blaine, Andrew G. Curtin, Austin Blair, Schuyler Colfax and Oliver P. Morton. Up to the time of the October elections, which came then in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Iowa, the Republicans were confident of success. In the October election in Pennsylvania, the State was counted for the Democrats by about 2,000 plurality, although it was subsequently proved beyond doubt that more than this number of Democratic votes were obtained on fraudulent naturalization papers. But the loss of Pennsylvania and Indiana discouraged the Republicans, and the current began to set against them. In the November election the Republicans carried all the Free States except five, but these five were on narrow margins. The Democrats had only 925 plurality in Pennsylvania, and 1,809 in Indiana, while New Jersey and California were lost to the Republicans in consequence of the American vote. The popular vote was 1,838,169 for Buchanan, 1,341,264 for Fremont, and 874,534 for Fillmore. The electoral vote was 174 for Buchanan and Breckinridge, 114 for Fremont and Dayton, and 8 for Fillmore and Donnelson. During the Adminstration, thus chosen, the political complexion of Congress was as follows: Thirty-fifth Congress. Senate Democrats, 39; Republicans, 20; Americans, 5. Thirty-sixth Congress. Senate Democrats, 38; Republicans, 26; Americans, 2. The moral effect of the election made it almost a Republican victory, for if a new party could at its first general election, carry New York by 80,000 plurality, and all of New England and the Northwest by large majorities, while the Democrats carried Indiana and Pennsylvania by such narrow margins, it was easy to see that the battle for "Free Soil, Free Speech and Free Men," would speedily be won. In Michigan the campaign rivaled that of 1840 in excitement. General Cass recognized the fact that his political future was at stake, and made desperate efforts to regain the State to the Democracy. He made many speeches himself and brought into the State some of the most noted Democratic orators in the country. Immense mass meetings were held at Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Centerville and other places. John Van Buren, of New York, was then counted a prince among campaign orators, and he and General Cass together stumped Southern Michigan. The following distinguished speakers also took part in the campaign: Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, then President of the Senate; Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York; John C. Breckinridge and Colonel Preston, of Kentucky; Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, with G. V. N. Lothrop, Charles E. Stuart, Robert McClelland, John Van Arman and Flavius J. Littlejohn, of Michigan. The Republicans rivaled the Democrats in the number and magnitude of their meetings. Abraham Lincoln was one of their speakers, although they depended mainly upon the brilliant array of home talent which the party in Michigan offered. As the campaign neared its end it became evident that the Michigan Democracy was in its death throes. The vote of the State was as follows: Fremont, 71,762; Buchanan, 52,139, and Fillmore, 1,660. The Republicans elected all four Congressmen, as follows: William A. Howard, Dewitt C. Leach, David S. Walbridge and Henry Waldron. The Presidential electors were Fernando C. Beaman, Oliver Johnson, Harmon Chamberlin, W. H. Withey, Chauncey H. Millen and Thomas J. Drake. But its most important achievement in this election was the choice of a Legislature which elected Zachariah Chandler to succeed Lewis Cass in the United States Senate. Mr. Chandler was for more than twenty years thereafter the most conspicuous figure in Michigan history and politics. It was during the next four years also that Michigan Republicans commenced the election of those four illus trious Jurists, Campbell, Christiancy, Cooley and Graves, who, for many years, gave wide fame to the Michigan Supreme Court. At this election Kinsley S. Bingham was re-elected Governor, by a vote of 71,402, against 54,085 for Alpheus Felch, Democrat. VI. PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. A Fresh Shock to the North-The Dred Scott Decision-Its Effect Was to Nationalize Slavery-The Decision Known to the President in Advance-The Colored People Not Citizens Nor Possessed of Rights Which the White Men Were Bound to Respect-The Black Men Not Thought of Except as Property-The John Brown Raid and Its Effect Upon the South-Character and Career of Brown-The Great Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas-Last Successful Opposition to Internal Improvements-A Prophetic Utterance. The Administration of President Buchanan did not do anything to allay the excitement in the North. His influence in Kansas affairs was steadily exerted in favor of the Pro-Slavery claims, and of fraudulent elections and disorders. At the very opening of his administration the North received a still greater shock in a Supreme Court decision, the intent of which was to carry slavery into all the territories. Dred Scott, a negro, was, in 1834, held as a slave in Missouri by Dr. Emerson, an army surgeon. In that year Dr. Emerson was transferred to Rock Island, Ill., which was a Free State, and took his slave with him. Two years later he was sent to Fort Snelling, in what is now Minnesota, which was also free territory. He there bought a black woman, who was afterwards married to Dred Scott. Two children were born to this slave couple, Eliza, on a Mississippi steamboat, North of the Missouri line, and Lizzie, at Jefferson Barracks, in Missouri. The entire family was afterwards sold to John A. H. Sanford, of the City of New York. Dred Scott brought suit for his freedom on the claim that his master, by taking him into a Free State, had lost the right to his services. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County rendered judgment in his favor. This was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. It was heard in May, 1854. It was understood that a decision would be rendered early in 1856, but on account of the pending Presidential election, judgment was deferred until the next session of the Court. It is now quite generally believed that if the decision had been rendered before the Presidential election, it would have reversed the result of that contest, and that the political wisdom of a partisan court dictated the withholding of the decision. The opinions in the case had not been made public when Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated. But a paragraph in his inaugural address indicates that he had been privately informed of their scope. In that address he said: "What a happy conception was it for Congress to apply the simple rule that the will of the majority shall govern in the settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the territories. Congress is neither 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. As a natural consequence Congress has already prescribed that when the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission. A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when the people of a Territory will decide this question for themselves. This is happily a matter of but little practical importance. Besides it is a judicial question which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit." The decision came a few days later, rendered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, six of the other Judges concurring in the main opinion, though dissenting on some other points. Judge Taney commenced by denying to Dred Scott, or to any person whose ancestors were imported into this country, any right to sue in a Court of the United States. He said: "The question before us is whether the class of persons, described in the plea in abatement, compose a portion of this people and are constituent members of this sovereignty. We think they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word citizens in the Constitution, and can therefore claim. none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary they |