CHAPTER XL.
THE IRON AGE.
The resolute and determined purpose of the Southerners
to make the institution of slavery national,
and the equally powerful growing public sentiment at
the North to make freedom universal, showed plainly
that the nation was fast approaching a crisis on this
absorbing question. In Congress, men were compelled
to take either the one or the other side, and the
debates became more fiery, as the subject progressed.
John P. Hale led in the Senate, while Joshua R. Giddings was the acknowledged leader in the House of Representatives in behalf of freedom. On the part of slavery, the leadership in the Senate lay between Foot of Mississippi, and McDuffie of South Carolina; while Henry A. Wise, followed by a ravenous pack watched over the interest of the "peculiar institution" in the House.
The early adoption of the famous "Gag Law," whereby all petitions on the subject of slavery were to be "tabled" without discussion, instead of helping the Southern cause, brought its abettors into contempt.
