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Plaquemines Parish fraud,” by which Mr. Clay was cheated out of the electoral vote of Louisiana. In the election of 1840, that parish cast 250 Democratic votes, in 1842 but 179, in 1843 but 310, while in 1844 it returned 1,007 Democratic votes-a gain of 697 over the highest previous vote, almost exactly the Democratic majority in the state.

Mr. Polk received 1,337,243, Mr. Clay 1,299,062, and Mr. Birney 62,300 popular votes, South Carolina electing by legislature.

The convention of the "Free-Soil party" met at Buffalo, August 9, 1848, and contained representatives from seventeen states with a membership of nearly 300 delegates. Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts was made its permanent president and Martin Van Buren of New York was nominated for President, receiving 159 votes to 129 for John P. Hale of New Hampshire, Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio receiving 23, and Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts 13 votes. Charles Francis Adams was then nominated for Vice-President by acclamation.

The convention adopted strong resolutions, in which it "planted itself upon the national platform of freedom, in opposition to the sectional platform of slavery." It demanded cheap postage, retrenchment of expenses and patronage of the federal government, the election of civil officers in the government service so far as practicable, advocated river and harbor improvements, free grant to actual settlers of the public domain, reduction of the public debt, a revenue tariff, and inscribed on their banner, "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men."

The canvass was short and spirited. The early elections were favorable to the Whigs. Thirty states participated in the election Florida having been admitted March 3, 1845; Texas, December 29, 1845; Iowa, December 28, 1846, and Wisconsin, May 29, 1848. For the first time all the electors (save in Massachusetts) were appointed, under the act of 1845, on one day, and in all the states save Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a plurality vote was sufficient.

The popular and electoral votes were as follows: Popular-Zachary Taylor, 1,360,099; Lewis Cass, 1,220,544; Martin Van Buren, 291,263. Electoral-Taylor, 163; Cass, 127.

The "Free-Soil Democrats" held their convention at Pittsburgh on August 11, 1852. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts was chosen

president, and Frederick Douglass of New York, secretary. John P. Hale of New Hampshire was nominated for President, and George W. Julian of Indiana, for Vice-President, without serious contest.

Samuel Lewis, chairman of the national committee, in calling the convention to order, stated that the call was intended to include all friends of freedom under whatever name they were known. He alluded to the fact that Gerrit Smith, Fred. Douglass, and Lewis Tappen of New York; Dr. Lemoyne of Pennsylvania; Joshua R. Giddings and Rufus Spalding of Ohio; Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut and other distinguished men were present, with several delegates from the slave states.

After a short contest, a platform-substantially that of the FreeSoil party of 1848-was adopted, which somewhat dampened the ardor of the extreme "abolition element." As a result, the canvass lacked zeal and spirit, and, the autumn election being favorable to the Democrats, the result in November was a crushing defeat of the Whig party in both popular and electoral votes.

Thirty-one states voted in this election-California having been admitted September 9, 1850. The apportionment under the census of 1850 (act of May 23, 1850), changed the number of electoral votes in several states. The popular and electoral votes were cast follows: Franklin Pierce (Democrat) carried the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina (by legislature), Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and California, receiving 254 electoral votes. Winfield Scott (Whig) carried the states of Vermont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky, receiving 42 electoral' votes.

Mr. Pierce received 1,601,274, General Scott 1,386,580, and Mr. Hale 155,825 popular votes.

The dissolution of the Whig party-which, after the campaign of 1852, was in a moribund condition—was seen by its leaders to be inevitable.

In that election it carried but four states-Vermont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky (the two latter by slender majorities)— even with so gallant a soldier as Winfield Scott as its candidate. The "Ostend manifesto" (so called), being a dispatch from James Buchanan, John Y. Mason and Pierre Soule, our ministers to England, France and Spain, respectively, which recommended the immediate purchase of Cuba, and threatened Spain with its forcible seizure in the event of the refusal of Spain to sell it; the Dred

Scott decision and the assault on Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber by Preston Brooks, a Representative from South Carolina, all contributed greatly towards increasing the alarm in the Northern states at the purposes and spirit of the slave power, and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854, had the effect of an immediate crystallization of all the anti-slavery elements, which included the anti-slavery Whigs, the Free-soilers and anti-Nebraska Democrats.

In the disintegration of the Whig party, which followed the election of 1852, many of its members in the New England and Middle states went into the "Order of United Americans," or Native American party, hoping to change the issue from slavery to "Native Americanism," and for a few years that party had extraordinary success in state elections and sent several Representatives to Congress. That organization was bitterly fought by Horace Greeley, who predicted at the time it was at the height of its power, that it would run its career rapidly, and vanish as suddenly as it appeared. It may last through the next presidential canvass, but hardly longer than that. * * It would seem as devoid of the elements of existence and persistence as an anti-cholera or an anti-potato rot party would be."

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Their national convention was held at Philadelphia on February 22, 1856, although a "National Council" of the party had met three days before and adopted a platform. The convention consisted of 227 delegates from 27 states-Maine, Vermont, Georgia, and South Carolina not being represented. A bitter feeling was developed by the action of the National Council in adopting a platform, and, after a long and acrimonious debate, a resolution declaring that the Council had no authority to prescribe a platform of principles for the convention, and that no candidates for President and Vice-President who were not in favor of interdicting slavery in the territory north of 36° 30' by Congressional action should be nominated, was laid on the table by yeas 141 to nays 59. This vote was followed by the withdrawal of most of the delegates from New England and Ohio, and many from the states of Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania. Millard Fillmore of New York was then nominated for President, and Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee, Vice-President.

The "seceding delegates" met and nominated John C. Fremont of California for President, and ex-Governor William F. Johnston of Pennsylvania for Vice-President.

Practically the Whig party went to pieces as the result of the

election of 1852. It was kept alive in localities-mainly in the South-its membership being divided between the Native American and Anti-Administration parties, and a convention of delegates from what was then called the "great Whig wreck," met in Baltimore on September 17 and endorsed the nominations of Fillmore and Donelson, but repudiated the Native American platform.

The necessity for the organization of a new party to resist the encroachments of slavery was felt throughout the North through the following year, and culminated after the Kansas-Nebraska bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 23, 1854. Meetings were held throughout the North and West to take measures for the organization of a new party, based on the single idea or principle of "non-extension of slavery into the territories." The leading spirits in these meetings were usually recognized anti-slavery leaders, but nothing came from them save scattering local victories in 1853.

Although it has been the subject of dispute, it is now generally conceded that the present Republican party had its birth "under the oaks" at Jackson, Mich., where a state convention was held on July 6, 1854, and that the title was first suggested by Horace Greeley in a letter to a delegate to that convention. The letter was shown to Senator Jacob M. Howard, Austin Blair (Michigan's "War Governor "), and others, and, the suggestion meeting with favor, was formally adopted in the resolutions of the convention, and shortly afterwards was adopted by conventions in the states of Maine, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

A strenuous effort was made by many of the old Whig local leaders-the late Senator Zachariah Chandler being very active in this respect to keep the Whig party alive, and in Pennsylvania and the New England states, as well as in the entire South, a Whig ticket was put in the field. "The success of the Republicans in all the states," says Mr. Smalley, "where they ran straight tickets of their own, gave a great impetus to the further extension of the party." Its first national triumph was won in November, 1854, in securing control of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-fourth congress, which convened December 3, 1855, when, after an ineffectual struggle of two months to elect a Speaker, it was agreed that a "plurality vote" should elect, and on February 2, 1856, Nathaniel P. Banks, Jr., of Massachusetts, was chosen on the 133d ballot. The "Kansas troubles" (so called) took much of the time of this congress, the

House passing the army appropriation with a proviso forbidding the use of the army to enforce the acts of the pro-slavery Kansas legislature. The Senate rejected the proviso and the bill failed. President Pierce called an extra session immediately, and the army bill without the proviso, became a law, the House receding therefrom. During this congress, grants of public lands were made in various Southern and Western states to aid in the construction of new railroads, and the tariff act of 1857, which reduced duties on imports to a rate lower than those of any tariff since that of 1816, were the only measures of importance which became laws.

In 1855 the Republicans throughout the North strengthened their organizations and in many states were successful. The Whig party exhibited vitality in but four states; Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Ohio, while in the South it was completely merged in the Know-Nothing or American organization. The "Kansas troubles" (so called) which occupied most of the time of the Thirty-fourth Congress, steadily weakened the Whig, in the proportion that it strengthened the Republican party. The latter was, however, without a national organization, and a few of the leaders in the movement for its formation accordingly called a national convention for the purpose of effecting an organization.

The call for this convention was issued from Washington, D. C., on January 17, 1856, and is as follows, viz :

To the Republicans of the United States:

In accordance with what appears to be the general desire of the Republican party, and at the suggestion of a large portion of the Republican press, the undersigned, chairmen of the State Republican Committees of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, hereby invite the Republicans of the Union to meet in informal convention at Pittsburg, on the 22d of February, 1856, for the purpose of perfecting the National Organization and providing for a National Delegate Convention of the Republican party, at some subsequent day, to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, to be supported at the election in November, 1856.

Signed Alfred P. Stone of Ohio; J. Z. Goodrich of Mass.; David Wilmot of Penna.; Lawrence L. Brainerd of Vt., and William A. White of Wis. Other signatures were subsequently appended.

The convention was composed of Abolitionists, Anti-Administration Democrats, Free Soilers, Native Americans and Whigs, and came near breaking up without accomplishing any practical result. Through the efforts of Lewis Clephane of Washington, D. C., Francis P. Blair was elected a delegate from Maryland, and made president of the convention without objection, and his ability, tact and discretion prevented a complete fiasco. An executive committee was appointed which was authorized to call a convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President, which committee met in Washington on March 27, 1856. After the