The Formative Period
delegates" and issued its call "addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration, to extension of slavery into free territory; in favor of admitting Kansas as a free state, of restoring the action of the Federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson." It demanded the maintenance of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution and the preservation of the rights of the states and of the Union of the states. It took strong ground against the extension of slavery into the free territories against the terrorism and oppression which had been applied to Kansas in an effort to impose slavery upon that would-be state and demanded the admission of Kansas to the Union as a free state. It denounced the notorious "Ostend manifesto" as a "highwayman's plea." Its only references to other political or economic issues were a demand for federal aid for the building of the Pacific Railroad and for the river and harbor improvements needed by commerce.
The campaign which followed was marked with tremendous enthusiasm and excitement throughout the North and with general apathy in the South. The Democrats had nominated James Buchanan and the remnant of the Whigs had accepted the "Know Nothing" nomination of Fillmore. In the South the contest was confined to these two candidates with a practical certainty that Buchanan would run far in the lead. All through the North, from east to west, however, the tripartite contest was waged with a vigor and intensity which had never been seen before, not even in the
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