still more deeply moved by events in the free states themselves, under the very eyes of their people, whenever the fugitive slave law was put into execution; and this they determined to resist. Every state in New England, and some of the Western States, from 1850 onwards, passed acts which were known as Personal Liberty laws, and by which, generally, the state officers were forbidden to aid in the arrest or imprisonment of a fugitive slave.

Commer

cial crisis.

Another shadow crossed the country in the commercial crisis of 1857. Like that of twenty years before, it was the result of speculation carried beyond all bounds of prudence, not to say honesty. Specie payments were again suspended, and all material interests suffered.

Mormons.

The territory of Utah, organized under the Compromise of 1850, had been occupied only by Mormon settlers. On the appointment of a governor, and other territorial officers, (1857,) the Mormons refused obedience, but yielded on the approach of a large body of troops, (1858.)

Mont

Meanwhile the gulf between freedom and slavery gomery was growing greater. At a commercial convention conven- of slaveholding states, in Montgomery, Alabama, tion. (May, 1858,) nothing excited more interest than the

report of a committee in favor of re-opening the African slave trade. The south needed more slaveholders; to have them she must have more slaves. She was losing Kansas and the national territories because she could not occupy them; her slave population being needed at home, there was none to spare for emigration. It did not suit slaveholders to lower the value of their property in slaves by importation, and the majority voted to lay the report on the table.

Lincoln's

Seward's

Almost at the same time, (June,) a speech was and made at Springfield, Illinois, by Abraham Lincoln, predic- as the republican candidate for a seat in the United tions. States Senate. His position was the more striking because his competitor, Douglas, was identified with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and its bitter consequences. "I believe," said Lincoln, at the outset, "this government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free." His friends entreated him to suppress the prediction, but he would not, and in after years declared that it was one of his wisest actions. A few months later, (October,) Mr. Seward made another prediction, at Rochester, N. Y. "It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free-labor nation.

John

Early in the same year, one of the Kansas freeBrown's state leaders, John Brown, told his friends in New raids. England that he had been intending for twenty years to make a descent among slaveholders for the purpose of liberating their slaves. At the end of the year, (December, 1858,) he made his first attempt on the borders of Missouri, and, as he said, "without the snapping of a gun on either side," took eleven slaves, whom he conducted to Canada. Although this act was disapproved even by his neighbors in Kansas, who had suffered so much from Missouri slaveholders, Brown was encouraged to repeat it in another quarter and on a larger scale. "Twenty men in the Alleghanies," he had stated, "could break slavery in pieces in two years;" and he now had twentyone, whom he led towards the Alleghanies, seizing Harper's Ferry and its arsenal on the way, (October 16, 1859.) "I never,” he said afterwards, "did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite slaves to

rebellion or to make insurrection." His design, he insisted, was to free the slaves." He held the arsenal for thirtythree hours, when, almost all his followers being killed, wounded, or scattered, and the troops, United States marines, and Virginia militia, gathering in overwhelming force, he surrendered. He was imprisoned, tried, and executed, (December.) A few years before, and such an act as his would have been all but universally condemned. Now, through the free states, it was, to a great degree, excused, and to some degree admired.

New

The nation made a fresh purchase of territory states, in 1853, when the Mesilla Valley, or southern Arizona, containing about thirty thousand square miles, was bought of Mexico for ten million dollars. Minnesota was admitted a state in 1858, Oregon in 1859, and Kansas, without a slave, in January, 1861. But before the admission of Kausas to the Union, the Union had been broken.

Lincoln

elected president.

CHAPTER XI.

SECESSION.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was nominated by the republican party, and, after a most stirring canvass, was elected, over three competitors, to the presidency, (November 6, 1860.) His election signified the restoration of the executive branch of the government to the side. of freedom.

South

to secede.

As such, it roused the other side to desperate Carolina action. The legislature of South Carolina, meetprepares ing, the day before the election, to cast the electoral vote of that state, received a message from the governor recommending the immediate call of a convention to adopt the only alternative within reach, and take the state out of the Union. Speeches in and out of the legislature expressed the same opinion, and when the news of Lincoln's election arrived, (November 7,) it was hailed with rejoicing, as opening the way to secession, not only in South Carolina, but in all other southern states. Five days later, (November 12,) the legislature called a convention to meet in the middle of December.

Warning in

The legislature of Georgia assembled the day. but one after the election, (November 8.) Many of Georgia. its members were impatient to follow the lead of South Carolina; but others hesitated, some refused. The majority were able to carry a bill appropriating a million to arm the state, (November 13,) and everything appeared to (409)

35

be in train for secession. At this point, Alexander H. Stephens, who had long represented Georgia in Congress, came before the legislature to warn them against proceeding farther. "In my judgment," he said, "the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to the presidency, is sufficient cause for any state to separate from the Union. The president can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against Mr. Lincoln. In the Senate he will also be powerless. . Why, then, I say, should we disrupt the bonds of this Union when his hands are tied? Let the fanatics of the north break the Constitution if such is their fell purpose; not the south, let not us, be the ones to commit the aggression." Yet, against his own warning, and as if to render it ineffectual, Mr. Stephens proposed a convention, and four days after (November 18) a bill calling such a body was passed.

Presi

but let

Other states were doing, or preparing to do, likedent's wise, and the whole country was conscious of peril message. close at hand, when Congress met, and received the annual message of the president, (December 3.) Few, if any, could have expected help from it; few, therefore, were disappointed. Mr. Buchanan argued that the election which had just occurred was no sufficient cause for the movements in South Carolina and elsewhere. But they might be regarded as justified by the personal liberty laws, and could certainly be accounted for by the agitation against slavery in which many of the people had long allowed themselves to share. As for the means to meet the existing danger, the president thought that Congress had no power to coerce a state, that is, to prevent its secession or compel its return to the Union. But Congress could adopt some amendments of the Constitution,