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blows, and there was always danger that arms would be drawn, and used. Plenty of members carried two revolvers apiece.

John Sherman of Ohio, Republican candidate for speaker, had been so unfortunate as to have his name used in an indorsement of a book entitled The Impending Crisis, by Helper, a poor white of North Carolina. This was a telling argument against slavery, and was proscribed by all the southern members of Congress. The mere fact that Sherman's name had been used in connection with it defeated him in the speakership contest. Another Republican, Pennington of New Jersey, was finally elected.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860

The John Brown raid and the struggle in Congress came as a most unfortunate prelude to the presidential campaign of 1860. At a time when the Democratic Party had already begun to divide on the slavery issue, this new wave of bitterness threatened to wreck the organization beyond hope. Alarmed by Douglas's "Freeport doctrine," and fearing more antislavery raids, the South began to insist upon positive congressional action in behalf of slavery. In the Senate, Jefferson Davis, who had become the spokesman for his section, presented the southern demands. The election of a Republican president, he said, would mean the end of the Union. As for slavery, Congress must guard it. If a territorial legislature failed to provide adequate protection for the system, Congress must do so. Furthermore, people in a territory could not, so Davis said, pass upon the question of slavery until they drew up their state constitution. In the resolutions setting forth these views Davis showed that the South had completely repudiated popular sovereignty.

On April 23, the Democratic national convention met at Charleston, South Carolina. From the very beginning the most obvious feature was the antagonism between the southern and western delegates. Even though the South had abandoned popular sovereignty, and the administration had proscribed Douglas, the Northwest had done neither. He had become a hero there, and his supporters were determined to have him, on his own platform. Southern members considered Douglas as bad as a Republican. The committee on resolutions had to choose between Douglas's popular sovereignty, and Davis's congressional protection for slavery, and they chose the latter. But the Douglas men insisted upon presenting a minority report.

The southern platform announced that no territorial legislature had the power to abolish slavery, or to deny the right of property in slaves; it also declared that Congress was bound to furnish adequate protection to slave interests in the territories, if it could be secured in no other way. The minority report pledged the party to uphold the Dred Scott Decision.

After a bitter debate between delegates from both groups, the convention adopted the minority, or Douglas platform. That was the signal for the break. The chairman of the Alabama delegation announced that it would withdraw from the convention. Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas promptly followed; Georgia took the same action before the next morning. Under those conditions nominations were impossible, so after ten days the convention adjourned, to meet at Baltimore in June. The bolting delegations arranged to meet at Richmond.

That the disruption of the Democratic Party meant secession and war was apparent to the members of the convention who kept their heads. According to Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, "The secession movement was instigated by nothing but bad passions." And later, he said "Men will be cutting one another's throats in a little while. In less than twelve months we shall be in a war."

On May 7 a group of former Whigs and Know-Nothings, older politicians who looked with genuine horror upon the approach of war, met at Baltimore; calling themselves "the Constitutional Union Party," they adopted for their platform the Constitution, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws.

Just one week later, the Republicans met in Chicago. The wrecking of the Democratic Party at Charleston was an almost certain guarantee of victory, and on that account the excitement was intense. Spectators by the thousand crowded the city and jammed the meeting place. From the very first day it was evident that the main issue was a contest between Seward and Lincoln for the nomination. Seward wanted the nomination, and because of his record as a political strategist and manipulator he had the support of the machine politicians. But Seward was known as an extreme radical, and not all the Republican party by any means was out and out abolitionist. Furthermore, Seward was too intimate for the good of his reputation with business men and promoters of doubtful honesty, although he was honest himself.

Before the nominations were made the platform had to be drawn. This document called for the continuance of the Union, and for the upholding of the rights of the states. It denounced the John Brown raid "as among the gravest of crimes." With reference to slavery, it repudiated the radical southern doctrine that Congress must protect slavery in the territories, and reasserted its own cardinal belief that there must be no further extension of slavery. The first two days had been occupied in organization and platform making, and nominations were left over for the following morning. That night Seward's nomination seemed certain, but his opponents were far from giving up hope. On the contrary, they spent the night in plying the trade of political engineers, in bargaining for delegates. Two states in particular had to be won: Indiana and Pennsylvania. David Davis of Illinois, later a justice of the Supreme Court, then acting as Lincoln's manager, promised a Cabinet position to Caleb Smith, of the Indiana delegation, in the event of Lincoln's election. Indiana voted for Lincoln. The Pennsylvania delegates were bound to vote for Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania on the first ballot. Cameron was the Republican boss of his state, in complete control of politics there. He had no chance of the nomination, and the managers were all angling for his delegation after the first ballot. Again David Davis came forward with another offer of a Cabinet job, this time for Cameron himself. After complimenting Cameron, practically the whole Pennsylvania delegation swung to Lincoln on the second ballot. According to Rhodes, Lincoln had no knowledge of these agreements, and he had given specific orders that he be left unhampered. It is, however, an interesting coincidence that Cameron got the War Department and Smith the Interior Department. Lincoln received the nomination after three ballots had been taken.

After the Republicans had completed their work, the Democrats, or part of them, came together at Baltimore. Douglas received the nomination of the northern wing while Breckenridge of Kentucky was selected by the secessionist group. Every ballot cast for him was a vote for southern independence. With four candidates, two of whom were Democratic, Lincoln's prospects were bright. In the election, the popular vote stood as follows: Lincoln, 1,866,452, Douglas 1,376,781, Breckenridge 849,781, Bell 588,879. The electoral vote gave Lincoln 180, Breckenridge 72, Douglas 12, Bell 39. These figures bring out some very interesting facts. The total popular

vote of the three candidates opposed to secession was 3,832,288, almost three million more than the secessionist candidate received, and over eighty per cent of the total. Four states which ultimately seceded cast anti-Breckenridge votes ranging from about 2,500 in Georgia to over 18,500 in Virginia. Also, in all the states which joined the Confederacy, with the exception of South Carolina, the combined anti-Breckenridge vote was heavier than the secessionist vote. In South Carolina there was no popular vote in the presidential election. In the country at large the sentiment was overwhelmingly against secession, and somewhat against it in the slave states as a whole. It should be remembered that Lincoln's popular vote was only about forty per cent of the total, so he was elected as a minority President. Again, Breckenridge and Douglas together, the two Democratic candidates, had nearly 100,000 more votes than Lincoln. Finally, in Congress, if the southern states had not seceded, there would have been an anti-administration majority of eight in the Senate, and twenty-one in the House.

The election returns make the fact perfectly obvious that Lincoln's victory was due to the schism in the Democratic Party, and that he could command a majority neither in Congress nor in the country at large. That is, under ordinary conditions the Republican Party, while more of a sectional organization than the Whigs, would probably occupy about the same position with reference to the Democrats. It was a threat, which might become effective under abnormal conditions, but not otherwise. Had the southern leaders taken the trouble to analyze the vote, they might have seen little reason to fear the inauguration of Lincoln; from the point of view of the present day, they would have found it far more profitable to attempt to reunite the Democratic Party than to disrupt the Union.

CHAPTER XLIII

SECESSION AND WAR

South Carolinians in 1860 followed the course of politics with lively concern. The leaders in the state had often declared that the election of Lincoln would be an intolerable grievance, and would lead to the disruption of the Union. Every one seemed to be keyed up to an unusually high pitch of excitement, and this tension increased rapidly as the election approached. The legislature was in session, to choose presidential electors, and to take whatever action the circumstances seemed to demand. There is no doubt that in South Carolina a majority of voters favored secession. On receipt of the news of Lincoln's election, the legislature passed a bill providing for a constitutional convention, to meet on December 17.

THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA

When the members of this body came together, it was a foregone conclusion that the state would secede. On December 20, the convention adopted, unanimously, an ordinance of secession. 'We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain . . . that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States under the name of "The United States of America' is hereby dissolved." Four days later the convention adopted a Declaration of Causes, modeled upon the Declaration of Independence. This asserted that the federal Constitution had been adopted as an experiment, that it had worked constantly to the detriment of South Carolina, and that the character of the government had gradually changed from a federal organization to a consolidated democracy. Finally, it announced that the election of a president by a purely sectional party had rendered it unsafe for South Carolina to remain longer in the Union.

As a result of these proceedings South Carolina resumed her status as an independent, sovereign state, organized an independent government, and adopted a state flag. Before the end of the winter conventions in the six other cotton states had taken similar action, that

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