Mr. CAMPBELL "I tell you, gentlemen, I shall resist this measure to the bitter end with all my power."

SPEAKER-"The House will come to order. The sergeantat-arms will preserve order." (Members still crowding around Mr. Campbell.) "The chair calls on lovers of order to preserve order in the hall."

The sergeant-at-arms, with the Mace of the House, proceeded to compel members to resume their seats and preserve order.

SPEAKER-"Those who are disorderly and acting in contempt of the House"-(tries of "down from the desks.") Order was now partially restored.

This scene finally wound up by Mr. Richardson's moving to adjourn, which motion was carried amid great applause from the anti-Nebraska side. And at twenty-seven minutes to 12 o'clock Friday evening, May 12th, the House adjourned, having been in continuous session thirty-five hours and thirty-five minutes. It is to be hoped that such a session and such scenes will never again be witnessed. This was

the first square stand up fight in the Halls of Congress, between the slave power and dough-faces on one side, and the independent representatives of a free people on the other, in which the latter triumphed.

Yet the struggle did not end here, but was destined still to go on with great bitterness.

Mr. Richardson, having failed to put his bill through under the previous question, came into the House on the following Monday, with a modified proposition, looking to closing debate after four days' discussion. That was finally adopted after a parliamentary struggle of six hours. This was a most turbulent session, and was characterized by many violent scenes.

Under the rules of the House, after general debate on a bill has been closed in committee, it is open to amendment and to what is called the "five minutes debate." Any member can offer an amendment, and speak five minutes in support of it, and then any other member, who can get the floor, can speak five minutes in reply; and it is specially provided that no bill can be reported to the House as

It

long as any member may wish to offer an amendment. was immediately seen by the friends of the bill, that under this rule, the discussion might be continued indefinitely and never brought to a vote. Then the keen intellect and shrewd parliamentary tactics of Stephens were again brought into requsition. He dug up an old rule of the House, and gave it a new and plausible construction; it was to strike out the enacting clause of the bill in committee, and report it to the House, which would disagree to the action of the committee; that is, the committee would cut the head off the bill, then send it into the House, when the head would be voted on again. The only resource was, not to vote in committee,and thus prevent the bill getting out of the committee into the House by the want of a quorum. But the Nebraska men were equal to the occasion. They had for chairman of the Committee of the Whole, the notorious Dr. Olds, of Ohio, one of the most unscrupulous men in the House, ever ready. to do the bidding of the slaveholders. The motion was for the committee to rise and report the bill to the House; and on that motion only 103 members voted, it taking 119 for a quorum. The vote, therefore, amounted to nothing. But what was the astonishment to hear Olds declare the motion carried, and see him stalk hastily down from the Speaker's chair amid loud and vociferous cries of "no quorum! no quorum!" But that did not deter him from making a false ́ report to the Speaker. And when the question of order was raised before the Speaker, that no quorum had voted in committee to report the bill to the House, he coolly replied "that the Speaker could not take cognizance of what was done in committee."

And then commenced the long and desperate struggle over the final passage of the bill. The friends of the measure had comforted themselves with a resolute and unswerving majority; but yet, under the rules of the House, formed, not only to protect the majority, but the minority as well, action could be indefinitely delayed. To secure the passage of the bill, at this time, the rules of the House were trampled under foot, parliamentary law was disregarded, and the rights of the minority were contemned. Still they resisted and

struggled on, but to no purpose. At 11 o'clock on the night of the 22d of May, 1854, after a session of eleven hours, the bill finally passed by a vote of 113 to 100. The announcement was received with mingled applause and hisses, on the floor, and in the galleries. On Capital Hill,

outside, salvos of artillery announced the triumph of the slave power in Congress, over the cause of justice, honor and freedom; but the boom of the cannon awakened echoes in every valley and on every hill side in the free North.

The details of this struggle must ever be regarded with great interest by the student of history. It has been given in detail to show the manner in which the slave power controlled Congress. The friends of the measure triumphed through the power of Executive patronage and the dead weight of majorities; but no party ever paid such a price for success. There never was a more skillful and gallant parlia mentary fight made, than that made by the opponents of the bill.

Among the Southern men, who took part in this Nebraska fight, in the House, and who went into the rebellion, the most prominent is Alexander H. Stephens, late rebel VicePresident. To say that he is a remarkable man, is to say only what is known to all persons who know anything of his history. He sprung from the depths of poverty, and was educated by charity. Of a frail and feeble constitution, his mind was always too vigorous and active for his weak body. He was never married, and lived at home a life of isolation and solitude, devoting himself to the pursuits of politics and literature. Under the ordinary height, he was of a very slender form, and considerably stoop-shouldered. His weight was less than 100 pounds. His complexion was very sallow. His arms were of a disproportionate length, and his fingers long and skinny. He had the blackest and keenest eyes; his hair was long, and black, and came down on his forehead like a school-boy's. His voice was boyish and squeaking, but he was one of the most interesting and eloquent of speakers, and he never addressed the House without commanding universal attention. His speech before the Georgia Legislature against secession, and in reply to Toombs, was

an effort of masterly ability, eloquence and power; and reading it now, in the light of the events that have followed, it is wonderful to see how his prophecies have become history. He was a man of kindly heart and irreproachable private character, all rowdyism and violence being utterly repugnant to his nature. He went into the rebellion most reluctantly; and in order to propitiate a large class of men, of the same opinion, he was put on the ticket for rebel VicePresident. Yet he must be regarded as one of the most guilty of the rebels. He was a man of high character and great and deserved influence over the public mind. He saw and proclaimed the wickedness of secession, and, in finally giving to this monstrous crime the weight of his great name, he sinned against light and knowledge.

John C. Breckenridge, a member of the old, aristocratic Breckenridge family, of Kentucky, was in this Congress. He was then thirty years old, and had commenced life as a lawyer, in Burlington, Iowa, then a territory. He did not, however, remain there long, but returned to Kentucky, and in 1852, ran as the democratic candidate for Congress in the Lexington District. Young, dashing, popular and eloquent, he rallied round him the young men of all parties, and after a most violent and animated contest, he was elected.

The history of this struggle has been given in more detail, because of its vast bearing on the slaveholders' rebellion, and as illustrative of the violence and outrage, denunciation and insolence of the slave power in Congress.

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise shocked the moral sense of the free States, and it was regarded not only as a humiliation, but a gross violation of faith. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, repealing it, thoroughly aroused the people of the North, and it was realized, by the thoughtful, that the final struggle between freedom and slavery approached. The impetuous, arogant Senators from the slave States, were warned, that with the repeal of this time-honored compromise, the days of mutual concession and forbearance would end, and that the grapple between the two opposing systems would come face to face.

This repeal of a solemn compact, which had been respected for more than thirty years, removed the barrier to the extension of slavery over a territory, equal in extent to the entire thirteen original States. The leaders of the slaveholders determined, immediately to occupy and control it. The people of the free States, defeated and betrayed at Washington, resolved to prevent it. Douglas, and a large portion of the democratic party, defended their action on the subject, by taking the position, that the people of each territory should determine for themselves, whether they would exclude or protect slavery: This doctrine, known as "popular sovereignty" and "squatter sovereignty," became one of the watch-words of the party. Each section determined to settle and colonize Kansas, with a view of controlling its status as a free or slave State. This territory lay directly west of Missouri, and the direct route to it was across the borders and up the great river of that State. Conscious of these advantages, Western Missouri, under the lead of Gen. Atchison, a Senator, and late Vice-President, organized secret societies called "Blue Lodges," and, by force, endeavored to seize and hold Kansas. Their organized bands marched into the territory, made their claims, and, taking with them their negroes, declared that slavery already existed there, and that "no protection should be furnished to abolitionists.' By this, they meant that all abolitionists should be subject to mob or "Lynch law." In New England, the Northwest and elsewhere in the free States, "emigrant aid societies" were organized, with a view to settle Kansas with free labor. Farmers were furnished with mills, farming implements, domestic animals, seed, and dwelling houses. School houses and churches were also supplied to the emigrant. The property. and effects of the emigrant, so furnished, soon began to be seized by the slave party, on its passage up the Missouri river. Settlers from the free States were scized and maltreated, their property destroyed or plundered, and they forcibly turned back. But possessing New England pluck and persistence, they turned aside, and, with horses and ox teams, made the long, weary, overland journey to the disputed territory, through the free State of Iowa. It was a struggle as to