UNITED
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UNITED
applied them to Kansas. The free state men repu-
diated this legislal ui<% held a convention atTopcka.and
made a free state eonstitufion, which they submitted
to popuhir vote. I'ro-slavery men refrained from
voting hut the free state |)Cople ratified the proposed
constitution. Later they elected a governor and a
legishiture. When that body assembled, senators
were elected, and Congress was asked to admit
Kansas into the Union.
The old leaders of the Whig party. Clay and Web- ster, were dead, but that organization lost not only leaders but thousands of voters in the free states. As early as 1S41 a state convention in Louisiana founded the Native American or Knownothing party. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and its execution led to a breaking up of the old poUtical parties. As early as 1854 there was formed a new organization established on anti-slavery principles. The new party, named Republican, was joined by FVee-soilers, Whigs, and anti-Nebraska Democrats. The first National Nom- inating Convention of this party (I85G), its candi- dates, and some of its principles have been noticed in the sketch of political parties. In that election the Democratic nominees, Buchanan and Breckinridge, were chosen. Whigs and Knownothings then dis- appeared from national politics. In his inaugural address President Buchanan referred to a forthcoming decision of the L'nited States Supreme Court, which would set at rest the slavery agitation. This was in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. The question in this cclclirated case was whether a slave became free if taken by his master to, and permitted to reside in, a free state. The opinion of the majority decided (1) that Dred Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could not sue in the United States courts. His residence in Minnesota had not made him free; (2) that Congress could not exclude from the territories slave )iroperty any more than other sort of property, (3) the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was null and void. The dissenting opinion of Justice Ciu'tis in this case was destined to become the legal basis of the Thirteenth Amendment.
The effect of this decision was to spUt the Demo- cratic party in the North and to attract great numbers of anti-slavery men to the new Republican organiza- tion. In Kansas the struggle between free-state and slave-state men continued, the administration giving its support to the latter. To this era belong the cele- brated joint debates between Senator Douglas and Abraham Lincoln for the United States senatorship for the State of Illinois. The legislature which was to elect a successor to Senator Douglas was itself to be chosen in 18.58. One candidate wa.s an advocate of B<iuatter sovereignty, the other wa.s opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories. Before the people of seven towns in their state the rival leaders <iiscussed their respective platforms. Though Lin- coln was defeated for the United States Senate, his n iiiarkable speeches made him a national character and won for him the Republican nomination in the great contest for the presidency in 1860. In that era John Brown, who hated slaverj- and who had opposed it in Kan.sas, set tied on the Maryland side of the Poto- mac River not far from Harper's Ferry with about twenty followers. In October, 1859, they seized the United States armoury at that town and freed a number of slaves in its vicinity. The negroes did not ri.se a-s Brown had expected; his force was soon over- powered by United States troops; Brown himself was captured, tried for treason against the State of Vir- ginia, and convicted of promoting a servile insurrec- tion. In December, 1859, he was hanged. In some localities of the North there was sympathy for his fate, but other communities looked on with indiffer- ence.
To many people in America the administration of President Buchanan appeared to be perfectly tran-
quil. Nevertheless, there were at work unseen but
powerful forces. As we have seen, as early as 1832
there was talk of disunion; after 1850 the'notioii of
secession became familiar. In 1860 the excuse for this
step was the election of .Vhraham Lincohi, the catidi-
date of the Rei)ublican party, who was regarded by
the South as a .sectional eandidate, now a sectional
president-elect. The party to which Lincoln beldiiged
was a minority one. Indeed, there were cast against
him almost a million more votes than wer<' east for
him. In the Presidential contest of 1860 Breckin-
ridge and Lane expected the support of the Southern
States; Douglas was the choice of th<> Northern Dem-
ocrats. The Constitutional Unionists nominated
Bell and Everett. It was this split in the Democrat ic
party that made possible, in November, IstiO,
the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal
HamUn.
The Legislature of South Carolina, which had assembled for the purpose of appointing electors of president and vice-president, called a convention, which met at Charleston on 20 Dec, 1860. and ])assed an ordinance of secession. According to t lie Southern theory, this act severed the relations of that state with the Union. Other states followed her example, and in Feb., 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, organ- ized the Confederate States of America. A provi- sional constitution was adopted, and agents were sent into other Southern States to persuade them to join the slave-holding confederacy. At different dates until May, 1861, other commonwealths cast their fortunes with the new government. In all, the seceding states numbered eleven. The President of the Southern Confederacy was Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, was chosen vice-president. The constitution differed but shghtly from the Constitution of the United States. Its preamble stated that the Confederate States acted in their sovereign and independent capacity.
Ciril ^Ytlr. — While the people of the South were organizing a government. President Buchanan did nothing to preserve the Union. In his view the states had no right to secede, but, if they did so, there was no authority conferred by the Constitution of the United States to prevent such action. On 4 March, 1861, Lincoln took the oath of office as president and delivered a very temperate address, in the course of which he stated that he had no purpose to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it existed, and he believed that he had no lawful right to do so. Nevertheless, he had formed a resolution to enforce the laws and to protect the proj)erty of the United States. It was in his endeavour to carry out this policy that the great Civil War began. In their eagerness to extend their authority over the entire South the Confederate officials decided to seize Fort Sumter, whidi was the property of the United States. On 12 April, 1S61, a considerable army under (General Beauregard began its siege. The little garrison under Major .\nderson was compelled to surrender. The first important battle between the sections took place at Bull Run, Virginia, 21 July, 1861, when the same Confederate general defeated the Union army under C.eneral McDowell. For the conflict thus inaugurated the South, which had long been preparing, was much better e(|uii)ped th.an was the North. After lo<iking into the law and consulting the precedents, President Lincoln in a proclamation called forth the militia of the .several states.
The policy adopted in Washington was to divide the Confederate States along the line of the Missis- sippi, to blockade their ports and to takethcir capital, which had been removed to Richmond after the secession of Virginia. The Confederates won another battle, at Ball's Bluff, in Oct., 1861. Meanwhile a large army was being brought together at Washing- ton. This w\as placed under the command of General
