the so-called “Lecompton bill,” submitting this constitution to the people under certain conditions, after a parliamentary struggle of extraordinary intensity and duration, was passed by congress by the votes of the democratic majority, led in the house by Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, and in the senate by Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, John M. Mason of Virginia, and John Slidell of Louisiana. The president lent all his influence to the measure, on the ground that it would pacify the country, and would not prevent Kansas from becoming a free state if the people desired to exclude slavery. This contest resulted in a schism in the democratic party, and eventually in its division into two bodies, one of which looked upon Mr. Douglas as its leader, while the other supported for the presidency John O. Breckinridge of Kentucky. An attempt to free slaves by force of arms, made at Harper's Ferry in October, 1859, by John Brown of Kansas, for which he was hanged by the authorities of Virginia, Dec. 2, created a profound sensation throughout the country. (See Brown, John, vol. iii., p. 338.) In January, 1861, after the withdrawal of southern members of congress, Kansas was admitted into the Union under a constitution framed at Wyandotte in 1859.—The democratic national convention met at Charleston, April 23, 1860, and a controversy on the subject of slavery immediately arose. On the 30th a platform was adopted by a vote of 165 to 138, the essential portion of which was as follows: “Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers and duties of congress, under the constitution of the United States, over the institution of slavery within the territories; resolved, that the democratic party will abide by the decisions of the supreme court of the United States on the questions of constitutional law.” Most of the southern delegates thereupon withdrew, and on May 3 the convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore on June 18, after recommending that the vacant seats be filled prior to that date. The seceding delegates met, adopted a platform, and adjourned after calling a convention to assemble at Richmond on June 11. The portion of their platform relating to slavery was as follows: “That the government of a territory organized by an act of congress is provisional and temporary; and, during its existence, all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the territory, without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or impaired by congressional or territorial legislation. That it is the duty of the federal government, in all its departments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the territories, and wherever else its constitutional authority extends. That when the settlers in a territory having an adequate population form a state constitution, the right of sovereignty commences, and, being consummated by admission into the Union, they stand on an equal footing with the people of other states; and the state thus organized ought to be admitted into the federal Union, whether its constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of slavery.” The regular convention assembled in Baltimore pursuant to adjournment, and nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for president and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama for vice president, though a further withdrawal of delegates took place. Mr. Fitzpatrick subsequently declined, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was substituted by the national committee. The convention called by the seceding delegates met first at Richmond, but adjourned, and convened finally at Baltimore on June 23, when it adopted the Charleston platform and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for president and Joseph Lane of Oregon for vice president. The “Constitutional Union” party, composed mainly of the American party, held its national convention at Baltimore May 9, and nominated for president John Bell of Tennessee, and for vice president Edward Everett of Massachusetts. This party declared that it recognized “no political principle other than the constitution of the country, the union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws.” The republican national convention assembled at Chicago on May 16, and nominated for president Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, and for vice president Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. The portion of the platform adopted by the convention relating to slavery was as follows: “That the maintenance of the principle promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the federal constitution, ‘that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,’ is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions; and that the federal constitution, the rights of the states, and the union of the states, must and shall be preserved. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. That the new dogma that the constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial pre-
