A History of the United States

by Charles Kendall Adams; William P. Trent

431. Other Speeches of Lincoln and Douglas.—In 1859, Douglas spoke and wrote much, in order to define his position on the relations of the Federal power and the power of the individual states. In all his utterances he often referred to the positions held by Lincoln, and, especially in the South, he tried to recover what he had lost in the discussion of what was known as the “Freeport Doctrine.” Lincoln delivered, at Columbus and Cincinnati, speeches which pointed out with merciless logic the impossibility of Douglas’s contention. These speeches tersely reproduced the arguments he had used in Illinois, and in print they had an enormous circulation. Lincoln’s prominence, moreover, was greatly increased by a masterly speech on February 27, 1860, at the Cooper Institute, in New York City. Taking as his subject, “The Crisis,” he analyzed the situation, and presented it with a logical force and clearness which placed the speech in the highest rank of argumentative orations. This speech, and those he immediately afterward made in New England, caused Lincoln to be better known throughout the East; he was already very popular in the West.

JOHN BROWN AND PUBLIC OPINION.

John Brown.

432. John Brown’s Raid.—In the later months of 1859 the country in all its parts was greatly moved by a fanatical attempt to induce the slaves of Virginia to revolt and insist upon freedom. John Brown,[^[193]] who, as we have seen, played a conspicuous part in the Kansas difficulties, held the views of the abolitionists with all the stern severity of a seventeenth century Puritan. He believed that slavery was the “sum of all abominations,” and that he must devote himself to its overthrow. In July, 1859, he rented two houses on the Maryland side of the Potomac, about four miles from Harper’s Ferry. Here arms were collected, and on the 16th of October Brown mustered eighteen men, five of whom were negroes, for his intended attack. They cut the telegraph wires, and seized the watchman on the bridge; then, crossing to the Virginia side, Brown and two followers broke into the United States armory, and, binding the watchman, remained on guard. Before midnight he was master of Harper’s Ferry. But the inevitable result followed. The negroes refused to revolt, and soon the raiders were surrounded by an overwhelming force. They fought desperately, and did not surrender until, of the nineteen, ten had been killed. Four escaped and five were taken prisoners. Brown himself, after receiving several wounds in the head and body, was cut down and captured. Notwithstanding his wounds, he was brought to trial eight days after his arrest and, after a fair examination, was condemned to be hanged on the 2d of December. He died in the unwavering belief that he had contributed to a great cause. Almost the whole nation was thrown into an uproar. Republicans generally disavowed and condemned the act, but the people of the South had their fears multiplied.

433. Resolutions of Jefferson Davis.—On February 2, 1860, Jefferson Davis, who had already come to be recognized as the ablest leader of the Southern Democrats, submitted to the Senate a series of resolutions designed to formulate the Southern party doctrine. The most significant and important of these resolutions was the fourth, which declared that “neither Congress, nor a Territorial Legislature, whether by direct legislation or by legislation of an indirect and unfriendly character, possesses power to annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave property into the common territories, and there hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition remains.” This resolution was no doubt intended not only to formulate a doctrine for the guidance of the South, but also to inflict a fatal stab upon Douglas, for the Illinois Senator had taken the ground, in the “Freeport Doctrine,” that notwithstanding the Dred Scott Decision, the people of a territory could make slavery impossible by what he called “unfriendly legislation.”

434. Movements of Public Opinion in the South.—While these discussions were going on in the North, public opinion was also taking form in the South. In various conventions, notably the one held at Nashville in 1850, much had been done to foster disunion sentiments. Secession seemed on the point of immediate accomplishment, and would very probably have taken place, but for the opposition of some of the leading Whigs of the South and the adoption of the Compromise of 1850. Although the crisis in that year was tided over, the South did not cease to proclaim that if ever a President should be elected by a sectional vote secession would inevitably follow. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, and some of the other leading Whigs attempted to oppose the movement as impolitic and unlikely to succeed, but they were swept away by an irresistible tide of public opinion, led by the more strenuous of the politicians. This movement increased in violence from 1850 to 1860. The fact that the reopening of the foreign slave trade was boldly advocated in various trade conventions, shows plainly how far the extreme pro-slavery men were willing to go.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.

Salmon P. Chase.