power of the government to undertake a general system of internal improvements, or to assume the debts of states incurred for such purpose, and opposed the protective policy in the tariff. Upon the slavery question it resolved, "That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several states; and that such states are the sole and proper judges of everything pertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts by Abolitionists, or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanence of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions." This was an exact copy of one of the resolutions in the Democratic platform of 1840.

The timid and non-committal policy of the Whigs was as distasteful to the pronounced Anti-Slavery men of that party, as the declaration of the Democratic Convention was to the Anti-Slavery men in its ranks. The former were ironically named the "Conscience Whigs," while both classes were sometimes called the "Come Outers.” In Massachusetts the feeling took the form of a Whig revolt, led by Henry Wilson and E. Rockwood Hoar. In New York, the Whigs were mainly kept in line through the activity and political genius of William H. Seward. In that State it was the dissatisfied Democrats who made the trouble. The Free Soil element of the party, with Silas Wright and Martin Van Buren at its head, made numerous demonstrations, among them being a great meeting held in the City Hall Park, New York, directly after the return of the delegates from the Baltimore Convention. At this meeting the cowardice of Northern senators who had voted with the South, was denounced.

At the Baltimore Convention two sets of delegates had been admitted to seats, one representing the Hunkers, or pro-slavery faction, and the other the Barn-burners, or Free Soil element. The latter now issued an address, calling for an Independent Democratic Convention, which was held at Utica, June 22d, and nominated Martin Van Buren for President. At a larger convention, held at Buffalo August 9, other states were represented, Mr. Van Buren's nomination was confirmed, and Charles Francis Adams was nominated for VicePresident. A platform was adopted which was strongly anti-slavery

in all phases of the subject which were then before the people. The sixteenth resolution declared: "We inscribe on our banner, 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,' and under it we will fight on and fight forever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." From this declaration the organization received the name of "Free Soil Party." The same elements had, in 1840 and 1844, been called the Liberty Party.

In the election which followed the Taylor and Fillmore electors received 1,360,601 votes, the Cass and Butler electors 1,220,544, and Van Buren and Adams 291,263. In the Electoral College the Whigs had 163 votes, and the Democrats 127. The vote in Michigan was: Cass Electors, 30,677; Taylor, 23,930, and Van Buren, 10,393. Though the administration was Whig, Congress was Democratic in both houses during the whole term. In the Thirty-first Congress, 1849 to 1851, the Senate stood: Democrats, 35; Whigs, 25; Free Soil, 2. The House was: Democrats, 116; Whigs, 111. In the Thirty-second Congress, 1851 to 1853, the Democrats were stronger yet, having 36 in the Senate, to 23 Whigs and 3 Free Soilers, and in the House 140, to 88 Whigs and 5 Free Soilers.

President Taylor, though a Louisiana slave-holder, proved to be more hostile to the aggressions of slavery than did his successor, President Fillmore, a resident of a Northern free State. The Southerners had counted upon a large addition to the area of slave territory from the acquisition from Mexico, which included what afterwards became the State of California, and the Territory of New Mexico. In the ordinary course of events their hopes would have been realized, but the discovery of gold in California put a different face upon their prospects. It called to that section thousands of hardy, enterprising and resolute men, a very large proportion of whom were from the North. The very conditions of their occupation made free and selfsupporting labor necessary, and a system of slavery impossible. The territory was organized as a State with an Anti-Slavery Constitution, and President Taylor, in a special message, recommended its admission. Attempts were made to cut off from the State the territory south of the Missouri Compromise line of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, but these were unsuccessful, and the State was admitted early in 1850. Two days later a bill passed organizing New Mexico as a territory, without any restriction as to slavery, and one for organizing Utah as a Territory soon followed.

The death of President Taylor called to the Executive chair a

timid and pliant instrument of Southern aggression, for President Fillmore not only signed all the so-called Compromise Measures of 1850, which a Democratic Congress passed, but exerted a mild influence in their favor. Of these measures, the one most obnoxious to Northern people, and the one which gave the most occasion for strife and ill-feeling afterwards, was the Fugitive Slave Law.

The Constitution, in Article IV., Section 2, Clause 3, provided that "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." Although the word slave is not mentioned in this article, as it is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, there was no question of its application to that class of labor. This provision had never been carried out, with any great degree of rigor, but the Fugitive Slave Law provided the officers and machinery for securing the rendition of fugitives by very harsh methods, and enlisted the United States Marshals and United States Courts in that work. It brought the evils of slavery home to the Northern people, who, in many of the states, refused to comply with its requirements. Not only the "Conscience Whigs," but men of all parties refused to be enlisted as "slave-catchers."

Religious feeling was aroused against it, especially in the Congregational, Baptist and Methodist churches of New England. Their Thanksgiving sermons often modified the expression of thanks by apprehension of evil to the country because it tolerated the sin of slavery, and many fast day sermons, though preached from Scripture texts, were keyed to the sentiment of Jefferson's utterance when, speaking of the wrongs and cruelties of slavery, he said: "I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just."

Here are some of the texts from which these sermons were thundered forth: "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him." "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant." "I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages." "Yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them." "Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free?" And here is one from Deuter onomy, that was especially appropriate to the Fugitive Slave Law: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped

from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place where he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him.”

In the earliest stages of the agitation this feeling among the churches was slow in finding expression, but it continually gained momentum. When, at a somewhat later period than this, a petition was sent to Congress from 3,015 Congregational ministers in New England, asking for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, every anti-slavery member of Congress felt his backbone stiffen and his courage rise. And when, later still, meetings were called in the North for the purpose of raising money to buy rifles for the Free State settlers in Kansas, it was in the churches, instead of in public halls, that many of them were held.

It was largely, also, through the members of these churches, and in this period, that the modern form of the doctrines of the "Higher Law" and of passive resistance were evolved. The great mass of the men who resisted the Fugitive Slave Law were, in almost everything else, law-abiding citizens, but no power on earth could make them aid in enforcing that iniquitous act, because it was in violation of Scriptural injunction, and of that higher law of justice and of universal brotherhood, which God had implanted in their souls. At the same time there were many of them who, if caught aiding and abetting the escape of a fugitive, would not make forcible resistance, but would take fine or imprisonment with the equanimity of saints, and the courage of martyrs. As the contest proceeded the atmosphere in the churches of the North became more and more one of hostility to slavery. Into that atmosphere many of the Whig leaders never came, or they would not have consented to the compromises. The depth of feeling against slavery and of devotion to the Union that was behind these demonstrations, the Southerners did not appreciate, or they would not have forced the slavery issue as they did during the next four years, nor have brought on the war, as they did, six years after that.

Aside from the Fugitive Slave Law, the so-called Compromise Measures of 1850 included the settlement of the Texas boundary and the payment to that State of $10,000,000 indemnity, for the loss of territory to which it had laid claims; the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; the admission of California as a State, and the organization of New Mexico and Utah as territories. The

attempts to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and to forbid the bringing of slaves into the District, failed.

Although the Pro-Slavery leaders, as it appears now, had already formed the purpose to secure further legislation in their interest, they chose, for the time, to have it considered that the Compromise Measures were a final settlement of all questions relating to slavery. The Whigs were not in position to take any other ground. Both parties, therefore, approached the campaign of 1852 with professions of the purpose to avoid further agitation.

The Democratic Convention was held first, at Baltimore, June 1st to 4th. It reiterated the declaration on the slavery question adopted in 1840, and again in 1848, and already quoted in this chapter, and supplemented it with resolutions, as follows:

"That the foregoing proposition covers, and is intended to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress; and, therefore, the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this National platform, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts known as the Compromise Measures, settled by the last Congress, the Act for Reclaiming Fugitives from Service or Labor included; which act, being designed to carry out an express provision of the Constitution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, nor so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency.

"That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made."

Aside from this the platform was long, covering nearly all the National questions then before the people. The Convention nominated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, for President, and William R. King, of Alabama, for Vice-President.

The Whig Convention was held in the same city a fortnight later, and nominated another military hero, Winfield Scott, of New Jersey, for President, and William A. Graham, of North Carolina, for VicePresident. It is noticeable that from 1832 to 1856 inclusive, both the Whig and Democratic parties, in each campaign, put one Northern man and one Southern man on each ticket, and both factions of the disrupted Democracy did the same thing in 1860. The platform adopted by the Whigs in 1852 contained this utterance on the slavery question.

"The series of Acts of the Thirty-second Congress, the Act known as the Fugitive Slave Law included, are received and acquiesced in by