THE DOUGLAS PLATFORM AND CANVASS. 323 and be protected in, the use of such property | Scott decision as binding law, and its in said Territory. And Congress is bound to render such protection wherever necessary, whether with or without the coöperation of the Territorial Legislature. We have seen how thoroughly this last doctrine is refuted by Col. Benton in his strictures on the Dred Scott decision. If it were sound, any blackleg might, with impunity, defy the laws of any Territory forbidding the sale of lottery tickets or other implements of gambling. Or the Indian trader might say to the United States Agent: "Sir, I know you have a law authorizing and directing you to destroy every drop of liquor you find offered or kept for sale on an Indian reservation; but my liquor is property, according to the laws of my State, and you cannot touch it. I have a Constitutional right to take my property into any Territory, and there do with it as I please—so, Hands off!" He who does not know that this is not law, nor compatible with the most vital functions of government, can hardly have considered the matter patiently or thoughtfully. The Douglas platform was practically eviscerated by the ready acceptance at Baltimore of Gov. Wickliffe's resolve making the dicta of the Supreme Court absolute and unquestionable with regard to Slavery in the Territories. The Dred Scott decision was aimed directly at 'Squatter Sovereignty:' the case, after being once disposed of on an entirely different point, was restored to life expressly to cover this ground. Ambiguous as was the Cincinnati platform, the upholder of 'Popular Sovereignty' in the Territories, who, at the same time, regards the Dred authors as entitled to make further and kindred decrees controlling his vote and action with regard to the extension of Slavery, maintains positions so inconsistent and contradictory as to divest him of all moral power in the premises-all freedom of effective action. The canvass was opened with great spirit and vigor by Mr. Douglas in person; he speaking in nearly every Free, and in many if not most of the Slave States, in the course of the Summer and Autumn. A ready and able debater, he necessarily attracted large crowds to his meetings, and infused something of his own fiery impetuosity and tireless energy into the breasts of his supporters. But the odds were soon seen to be too great; since the partisans of Breckinridge, not content with their manifest preponderance in all the Slave States, insisted on organizing in and dividing the Democratic strength of the Free States as well. Nay, more: in several of those States -Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, and Oregonthe leaders of the Democracy in previous contests were mainly found ranged on the side of Breckinridge; while, in nearly or quite every Free State, enough adherents of the Southern platform were found to organize a party and nominate a Breckinridge ticket, rendering the choice of the Douglas Electors in most Free States hardly possible. The Democrats, as we have seen, had divided on a question of principle-one deemed, on either side, of overwhelming consequence. Pathetic entreaties and fervid appeals had been lavished at Charleston on futile at- | Nothings," tended to confuse and be tempts to bring them to an agreement, that the party first and the Union next might be saved from imminent dissolution. Personal aspirations, doubtless, had their weight; but the South could have taken any candidate-perhaps even Douglas himself if he were standing squarely, openly, on the Avery or Breckinridge platform; and so, probably, could the Northern delegates have consented to support Breckinridge or Howell Cobb on the Payne-Samuels or Douglas platform. Never was an issue more broadly made or clearly defined as one of conflicting, incompatible assumptions. And nowhere in the Slave States did the Breckinridge men consent to any compromise, partnership, coälition, or arrangement, with the partisans of Douglas, though aware that their antagonism would probably give several important States to the BellEverett ticket. But the Douglasites of the Free States, on their part, evinced a general readiness to waive their prestige of regularity, and support Electoral tickets made up from the ranks of each anti-Republican party. Thus, in New York, the "Fusion" anti-Lincoln ticket was made up of ten supporters of Bell and Everett, seven of Breckinridge and Lane, and the residue friends of Douglas. No doubt, there was an understanding among the managers that, if all these could elect Mr. Douglas, their votes should be cast solid for him; but the contingency thus contemplated was at best a remote one, while the fact that those who had the prestige of Democratic regularity consented to bargain and combine with bolters and "Know wilder those who "always vote the regular ticket," and were accustomed to regard a Democratic bolter with more repugnance than a life-long adversary. The portents, from the outset, were decidedly unfavorable to Mr. Douglas's election. And, from the shape thus given to the canvass, his chances could not fail to suffer. The basis of each antiLincoln coälition could, of course, be nothing else than hostility to the Republican idea of excluding Slavery from the territories. Now, the position directly and thoroughly antagonistic to this was that of the Breckinridge party, which denied the right to exclude, and proclaimed the right of each slaveholder to carry Slavery into any territory. The position of Mr. Douglas was a mean between these extremes; and, in an earnest, arduous struggle, the prevailing tendency steadily is away from the mean, and toward a positive and decided position on one side or the other. The great mercantile influence in the seaboard cities had one controlling aim in its political efforts to conciliate and satisfy the South, so as to keep her loyal to the Union. But Douglasism, or "Squatter Sovereignty," did not satisfy the Southin fact, since the failure to establish Slavery in Kansas, was regarded with special loathing by many Southrons, as an indirect and meaner sort of Wilmot Proviso. Wherever a coalition was effected, the canvass was thenceforth prosecuted on a basis which was a mumbling compromise between the Bell and the Breckinridge platforms, but which was usually reticent with regard to "Popular Sovereignty." THE BELL-EVERETT PARTY IN 1860. But the salient feature of the canvass was the hearty accord of the coalesced parties North of the Potomac, in attributing to the Republican platform and to Mr. Lincoln apprehended consequences that were, by the South, attributed to Douglas and "Squatter Sovereignty." The Democratic National Convention and party had been broken up, not because of any suspicion of Republicanism affecting either faction, but because the South would not abide the doctrine of Mr. Douglas, with regard to Slavery in the Territories. Yet here were his supporters appealing to the people from every stump to vote the coalition ticket, in order to conciliate the South, and save the country from the pangs of dissolution! It was not easy to realize that the Pughs, Paynes, Richardsons, Churches, etc., who had so determinedly bearded the South at Charleston and at Baltimore, defying threats of disruption and disunion, were the very men who now exhorted the People to vote the coalition Electoral tickets, in order to dispel the very dangers which they had persistently invoked, by supporting the Payne-Samuels platform, and nominating Douglas for President. It is more difficult to treat calmly the conduct of the "American," "American," "Conservative," "Union," or BellEverett party of the South; or, more accurately, to reconcile its chosen attitude and professions in the canvass with the course taken by thousands of its members immediately on the announcement of the result, with the ultimate concurrence of many more, including even the eminent and hitherto moderate and loyal Tennessean whom it had deliberately presented as an embodiment of its prin 325 ciples by nominating him for the Presidency. That party was mainly composed of admiring disciples of Clay and Webster, who had sternly resisted Nullification on grounds of principle, and had united in the enthusiastic acclaim which had hailed Webster as the triumphant champion of our Nationality, the "great expounder of the Constitution," in his forensic struggle with Hayne. It had proudly pointed to such men as William Gaston, of North Carolina, Sergeant S. Prentiss, of Mississippi, Edward Bates, of Missouri, George W. Summers, of Virginia, John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and James L. Petigru, of South Carolina, as the exponents of its principles, the jewels of its crown. It had nominated and supported Bell and Everett on a platform which meaningly proclaimed fidelity to "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws," as its distinctive ground. To say that it meant by this to stand by the Union until some other party should, in its judgment, violate the Constitution, is to set the human understanding at defiance. It either meant to cling to the Constitution and Union at all hazards and under all circumstances, and to insist that the laws should be enforced throughout the country, or it was guilty of seeking votes under false pretenses. Unlike the Douglas Democracy, it was a distinct, wellestablished party, which had a definitive existence, and at least a semblance of organization in every Slave State but South Carolina. It had polled a majority of the Southern vote for Harrison in 1840, for Taylor in 1848, had just polled nearly forty per cent. of that vote for Bell, and licans. They had begun by carrying New Hampshire by 4,443-a satisfactory majority; but were next beaten in Rhode Island-an independent ticket, headed by William Sprague for Governor, carrying the State over theirs, by 1,460 majority. In Connecticut, Gov. Buckingham had been re might boast its full share of the property, and more than its share of the intelligence and respectability, of the South. This party had but to be courageously faithful to its cardinal principle and to its abiding convictions to avert the storm of civil war. Had its leaders, its orators, its presses, spoken out promptly, decidedly, un-elected by barely 541 majority, in nearconditionally, for the Union at all hazards, and for settling our differences in Congress, in the Courts, and at the ballot-box, it would have prevented the effusion of rivers of precious blood. It was perfectly aware that the Republicans and their President elect were powerless, even if disposed, to do the South any wrong; that the result of the elections already held had secured" an anti-Republican majority in either branch of the ensuing Congress; that the Supreme Court was decidedly and, for a considerable period, unchangeably on the same side. In the worst conceivable event of the elections yet to come, no bill could pass respecting the Territories, or anything else, which the "Conservatives" should see fit unitedly to oppose. And yet, South Carolina had scarcely indicated unmistakably her purpose, when many Bell-Unionists of Georgia, Ala--it was manifest that only a miracle bama, and other Southern States, began to clamor and shout for Secession. They seemed so absorbingly intent on getting, for once, on the stronger side, that they forgot the controlling fact that the side on which God is has always at last the majority. The early State Elections of 1860 had not been favorable to the Repub " New York had chosen 10; Pennsylvania 7; New Jersey 3; Ohio 8; Indiana 4; Illinois 5; and Missouri 6 anti-Republicans to the House; ly 80,000 votes-the heaviest poll ever had there at a State Election. It was evident that harmony at Charleston would have rendered the election of a Democratic President morally certain. But, after the disruption there, things were bravely altered. Maine, early in September, elected a Republican Governor by 18,091 majority; Vermont directly followed, with a Republican majority of 22,370; but when Pennsylvania and Indiana, early in October, declared unmistakably for Lincoln-the former choosing Andrew G. Curtin her Governor by 32,164 majority over Henry D. Foster, who had the hearty support of all three opposing parties; while Indiana chose Gen. Henry S. Lane by 9,757 over T. A. Hendricks, his only competitor, with seven out of eleven Representatives in Congress, and a Republican Legislature could prevent the success of Lincoln and Hamlin the next month. Yet the mercantile fears of convulsion and civil war, as results of Mr. Lincoln's election, were so vivid and earnest that the contest at the North was still prosecuted by his combined adversaries with the energy of desperation. New York, especially, was the arena of a struggle as intense, as rendering it morally certain that, but for Secession, Mr Lincoln would have had to face an Opposition Congress from the start. GOV. SEWARD CLOSING THE CANVASS OF 1860. 327 vehement, and energetic, as had ever been known. Her drawn battle of the year before, and the perfect accord in this contest of the anti-Re-man heart appealed to, Fear,-fear that, if low the music of the clanging bells; and, strange to say, they will all bring you into one common chamber. When you get there, you will hear only this emotion of the huyou elect a President of the United States according to the Constitution and the laws to-morrow, you will wake up next day, and find that you have no country for him to preside over! Is not that a strange motive for an American patriot to appeal to? And, in that same hall, amid the jargon of three discordant members of the Fusion' party, you will hear one argument; and that argument is, that, so sure as you are so perverse as to cast your vote singly, lawfully, honestly, as you ought to do, for one candidate publican parties, gave grounds for hope, if not confidence, that she might now be carried against Lincoln, especially as the City was expected to give a far larger majority for "Fusion" than she had ever yet given for any man or party. Abundance of money for every purpose doubtless contributed to the ani- for the Presidency, instead of scattering it mation of the struggle on this side, among three candidates, so that no Presiwhile painful apprehensions of South-dent may be elected, this Union shall come down over your heads, involving you and ern revolt, in case Lincoln should be us in a common ruin! elected, rendered the "merchant princes," whose wealth was largely, if not wholly, locked up in the shape of Southern indebtedness, ready to bleed freely for even a hope of preventing a result they so dreaded as fatal to their business, their prosperity, and their affluence. Gov. Seward—who had made a political tour through the North-West during the Autumn, wherein his speeches in behalf of the Republican cause and candidates were of a remarkably high order, alike in originality, dignity, and perspicuity-closed the canvass, the night before Election, in an address to his townsmen at Auburn, which concluded with these truthful and memorable words: "Now here is the trinity in unity and unity in trinity of the political church, just now come to us by the light of a new revelation, and christened Fusion.' And this 'Fusion' party, what is the motive to which it appeals? You may go with me into the streets to-night, and follow the 'Little Giants,' who go with their torchlights, and their flaunting banners of 'Popular Sovereignty;' or you may go with the smaller and more select and modest band, who go for Breckinridge and Slavery; or you may fol "Fellow-citizens, it is time, high time, that we know whether this is a Constitu tional government under which we live. It is high time that we know, since the Union is threatened, who are its friends, and who are its enemies. The Republican party, who propose, in the old, appointed, constitutional way, to choose a President, are every man of them loyal to the Union. The disloyalists, wherever they may be, are those who are opposed to the Republican party, and dent. I know that our good and esteemed attempt to prevent the election of a Presineighbors (Heaven knows I have cause to respect, and esteem, and honor, and love them, as I do; for such neighbors as even my Democratic neighbors, no other man ever had)-I know that they do not avow, nor do they mean to support, or think they are supporting, disunionists. But I tell them, that he who proposes to lay hold of the pillars of the Union, and bring it down into ruin, is a disunionist; and that every man who quotes him, and uses his threats and his menaces as an argument against our exercise of our duty, is an abettor, unconscious though he may be, of disunion; and that, when to-morrow's sun shall have set, and the next morning's sun shall have risen on the American people, rejoicing in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, those men who to-day sympathize with, uphold, support, and excuse the disunionists, will have to make a sudden choice, and choose whether, in the language of the Senator from Georgia, they will go for treason, and so make it respectable, or whether they will go with us for Freedom, for the Constitution, and for eternal Union." |
