friends of the Union that such a candidate exists in Millard Fillmore.

"That, without adopting or referring to the peculiar doctrines of the party which has already selected Mr. Fillmore as a candidate, we look to him as a well-tried and faithful friend of the Constitution and the Union, eminent alike for his wisdom and firmness; for his justice and moderation in our foreign relations; for his calm and pacific temperament, so well becoming the head of a great nation; for his devotion to the Constitution in its true spirit; his inflexibility in executing the laws; but, beyond all these attributes, in possessing the one transcendent merit of being a representative of neither of the two sectional parties now struggling for political supremacy.

That, in the present exigency of political affairs, we are not called upon to discuss the subordinate questions of administration in the exercising of the constitutional powers of the government. It is enough to know that civil war is raging, and that the Union is imperilled; and we proclaim the conviction that the restoration of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency will furnish the best if not the only means of restoring peace."

Having stated the platforms of this epochal period, a glance at the candidates will not be amiss. Frémont, the Republican nominee, like Pierce, was a comparatively young man. The gallant pathfinder was a man of dashing energy, well qualified to sound a call to the heterogeneous elements of anti-slavery that should send them scurrying to the camp of the new party and a common cause. Frémont had espoused Benton's talented daughter, and thus had been brought into alliance with border State sentiment and interest. Fillmore, the American candidate, gathered to himself the remnant of the conservatives who were still under the influence of the antiquated notion of moral compromise. The Republican organization can best be described by the epithets which were hurled at it by its foes. These were not few nor were they choice, but they were picturesquely

appropriate. Among those most frequently heard were: "Sectional," "Geographical," "Freedom shriekers,” “Nigger worshippers,” and “Black Republicans." Although the Republican party was through force of its greatest issue geographical, that party, as its platform shows, was not restricted to the advocacy of a single issue. Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, had in the April prior to his nomination, resigned from the court of London and returned to America. The fact of his long absence from the country and lack of identification with the divisive issues made him an available candidate. To this consideration must be added the undoubted facts of his reputation for sobriety, sagacity, wisdom, and his wide experience in public life. These, then, were the men who fought the notable campaign of 1856.

The August State elections of 1856 gave generally an increased Democratic preponderance over the American party in Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas. Iowa, Vermont, and Maine were pronouncedly Republican. The October State elections, however, were of a different order of result. The Republicans prevailed in Ohio, but Pennsylvania and Indiana went Democratic, this too despite the fact that the Republicans and Americans fused in the Keystone State. In November, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois were all found in the Democratic columns, but the rest of the free States swung to Frémont. The same was true of New York. The New York Tribune, commenting upon the failure of the Republicans in their first national contest, remarked: "We have lost a battle, the Bunker Hill of the new struggle for freedom has passed; the Saratoga and Yorktown are yet to be achieved." The failure of the Republicans to elect their candidates was lost sight of in the unprecedented strength which that party was shown to have developed. The Americans were overwhelmingly defeated, their candidates carrying but a single State-Maryland.

The canvass in the South had not been vigorous, as the contest was only between Buchanan and Fillmore, the

former attracting to himself the slaveholding following. In the North the Republican campaign rivalled that of 1840 in enthusiasm. Lacking the "hard cider" and "Tippecanoe" slogans of that campaign, it generated a more significant and less superficial enthusiasm from the moral issues involved. The total popular vote cast for Buchanan was one million eight hundred and thirty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty-nine, and for Frémont one million three hundred and forty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-four. Fillmore received but eight hundred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and thirty-four. Of the electoral votes, Buchanan received one hundred and seventy-four, Frémont one hundred and fourteen, and Fillmore eight.

CHAPTER XIII

THE KANSAS CRUSADE

THE repeal of the Missouri Compromise not only awoke Northern indignation, but determined that section to fight slavery in the Territory of Kansas which the slave interests purposed to capture as a consequence of that legislation. The people in western Missouri were strongly pro-slavery, and, believing that the Kansas-Nebraska Act implied that Kansas was to be given over to slavery, many families immigrated into Kansas and staked out homesteads. The pioneer spirit impelled a large emigration to Kansas from a number of the Western States, particularly Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. In July, 1854, a stream of emigrants was directed toward Kansas by the Emigrant Aid Company of New England, of which Eli Thayer was the moving spirit. This company had as its avowed purpose the making of Kansas a free State. The founder of that society describes the circumstances under which he was led to gather about him a company of kindred spirits for his unique crusade. His words give insight into the depth of feeling which he shared in common with thousands of other Northern opponents of slavery extension. "During the winter of 1854," he says, "I was, for the second time, a representative from Worcester in the legislature of Massachusetts. I had felt to some degree the general alarm in anticipation of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, but not the depression and despondency that so affected others who regarded the cause of liberty as hopelessly lost. As the winter wore