Slavery and four years of war

by Joseph Warren Keifer

(98) Ibid., p. 392.

(99) Mason's Report, p. 57.

(100) Hist. of U. S. (Rhodes), vol. ii., p. 403; New York Tribune, Oct. 19th.

XXI PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, 1856-1860

The political campaign of 1856 has thus far been passed by, as it more appropriately belongs to a history of the political movements leading up to secession.

Between the two great parties—Republican and Democratic—the most important issue was the slavery question.

The Republican party, born of the slavery agitation, in its platform (1856) denied

"The authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States.

"Declared that the Constitution confers on Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism—Polygamy and Slavery."

On the other hand, the Democratic party in 1856, fresh from the contest in Congress over the Nebraska Bill and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, denied the right of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories, and declared it