BROWN MADE A MARTYR, UNWISELY.

263

testing the condition of the popular mind in regard to Brown and his attempted achievements, and I do now conscientiously aver that, in the whole course of my journeyings, I did not meet with one single man, one single woman, or one single child who appeared to have the least respect or sympathy for John Brown.

The actings of this fierce and bloody monster must, I suppose though, be now recognized as one of a series of events predestined to occur from the foundation of the world, as part and portion of an "irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces;" and we must be content to look back upon the same as matters which belong not to the ordinary concerns of earth, chargeable either to discretion and virtue, or to the want of these attributes, but to the mysterious ordinations of Divinity, entitled to challenge our unqualified respect and homage. The storm of sectional hostility began by this time to rage most furiously all over the land; for

"Every mountain now had found a voice,
And Jura answered from her misty shroud
Back to the joyous Alps who called to her aloud!"

CHAPTER XIV.

Other Causes of sectional Excitement at this Period.-The Helper Book, and its unfortunate Discussion in Congress. -Resolutions forced through the Senate, mainly though the Agency of Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, having in View the double Object of destroying Mr. Douglas, and dragging the Democratic Party into an unnational and aggressive Attitude.-Movements of William L. Yancey in the Year 1859, and early in the Year 1860, having in View the breaking up of the Federal Union in the event of a Republican President being elected.-Efforts in the South to bring about the Election of Mr. Lincoln, in order to obtain the desired Object.-Democratic Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore reviewed.—Leading Incidents of the Presidential Canvass of 1860 and its Results.-Sketch of William L. Yancey.

WE now nearly approach the momentous presidential election of 1860, upon the result of which so much of the weal or woe of the republic was fated to depend. The session of Congress immediately preceding that contest was more than ordinarily marked with excitement. The fierce discussion of the merits of a foolish fanatical book (issued a short time before by an obscure and ignorant person in North Carolina) in the House of Representatives, so unwisely and unprofitably brought on at the instance of Mr. Clarke, of Missouri, and the debate upon the Brown conspiracy, allusions to which have already been made, were but preliminary to still more fervid controversies in the Democratic Presidential Convention, and before the people in their primary capacity. Several movements besides, having no great importance but as

'ATTEMPTS TO CRUSH DOUGLAS.

265

they throw more or less light upon the course of after events, will be now alluded to. In the Territory of New Mexico, where no reasonable being ever yet supposed that the system of African slavery, if it ever should be forcibly carried there, could long have a healthful and vigorous existence, by reason of the unpropitious character both of the soil and climate of that region, as Mr. Webster, before his decease, had so clearly demonstrated, legislative enactments, manifestly prompted from Washington City, and which could only be productive of increased sectional rancor, had been some months before. adopted, protective of slaveholding rights in said territory. With a view of making the pro-slavery party in the Senate triumphant over Mr. Douglas and non-intervention, certain resolutions were dispatchfully forced through that body, the principal of which were as follows:

"Resolved, That neither Congress nor a territorial Leg-islature, whether by direct legislation or 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.

"Resolved, That if experience should at any time prove that the judicial and executive authority do not possess means to insure adequate protection to constitutional rights in a territory, and if the territorial government should fail or refuse to provide the necessary remedies for that purpose, it will be the duty of Congress to supply such deficiency.

Resolved, That the inhabitants of a territory of the

M

United States, when they rightfully form a Constitution to be admitted as a state into the Union, may then for the first time, like the people of a state when forming a new Constitution, decide for themselves whether slavery, as a domestic institution, shall be maintained or prohibited within their jurisdiction; and they shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."

These resolutions, with others, had been pressed to adoption mainly by the exertions of Mr. Jefferson Davis; and Mr. Douglas having been regularly voted in senatorial Democratic caucus to be no longer worthy of being recognized as a Democratic senator—a resolution for this purpose having been introduced by Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana (avowedly at the instance of Mr. Buchanan)—the scene of contention was shifted to Charleston, South Carolina, in which city it had been agreed that the next National Democratic Convention should assemble. Before the session of this body commenced, several other occurrences had taken place, which are necessary now to be noticed.

In the month of January, 1860, Mr. William L. Yancey, of Alabama, had delivered a speech, which had, as a printed pamphlet, been widely circulated, in which he had said:

"To obtain the aid of the Democracy in this contest, it is necessary to make a contest in its Charleston Convention. In that body, Douglas's adherents will press his doctrine to a decision. If the state-rights men keep out of that Convention, that decision must inevitably be against the South, and that either in direct favor of the

WILLIAM L. YANCEY, THE ORACLE OF SECESSION. 267

Douglas doctrine, or by the indorsement of the Cincinnati platform, under which Douglas claims shelter for his principles. The state-rights men should present in that Convention their demand for a decision, and they will obtain an indorsement of their demands or a denial of these demands. If indorsed, we shall have greater hope of triumph within the Union. If denied, in my opinion, the state-rights wing should secede from the Convention, and appeal to the whole people of the South, without distinction of parties, and organize another Convention upon the basis of their principles, and go into the election with a candidate nominated by it as a grand constitutional party. But in the presidential contest a Black Republican may be elected. If this dire event should happen, in my opinion, the only hope of safety for the South is a withdrawal from the Union before he shall be inaugurated-before the sword and the treasury of the Federal government shall be placed in the keeping of that party. I would suggest that the several state Legislatures should by law require the governor, when it shall be made manifest that the Black Republican candidate for the presi dency shall receive a majority of the electoral vote, to call a Convention of the people of the state to assemble in time to provide for their safety before the 4th of March, 1860. If, however, a Black Republican should not be elected, then, in pursuance of the policy of making this contest within the Union, we should initiate measures in Congress which should lead to a repeal of all the unconstitutional acts against slavery. If we should fail to obtain so just a system of legislation, then the South should seek her independence out of the Union." (Applause.)