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question assumed a character more vital than ever before in the history of the country. The term "Popular Sovereignty," or, as it was more generally known, "Squatter Sovereignty," was now on every lip, and so craftily had Douglas defended the idea, that it must be confessed that for some time in certain minds it gained in favor, but the great speeches of Sumner, Seward, Chase, and Wade were echoed throughout the North, and soon began to carry conviction in every State.

Several attempts had been made in the early history of the Republic to organize a political party which should have as its fundamental principle opposition to the foreign element. Aimed first at the increasing immigration, its efforts were afterwards directed at the foreign population which had already obtained a foothold and a vote. The movement had been spasmodic and of little importance previous to 1835, when it was revived in New York City, but, like all previous efforts, ended in failure. In 1852 and 1853, however, there developed an organization bound to assume most formidable proportions, and to have great influence for a time upon our national affairs. It took the form of a secret, oath-bound fraternity, with the original name of The Sons of '76, or The Order of the StarSpangled Banner. Membership in the Order was governed by degrees, and its real name and object were not revealed to members until they had taken the higher degrees, consequently, when asked regarding their organization, the answer was invariably, "I don't know," from which they became known as "Know-Nothings." The first and most ostensible object of the Order seems to have been directed against the Roman Catholic Church, and the largely increased number of immigrants which flocked to the country just preceding 1850, who upon being naturalized took a large share of the offices. The watchword of the new Order was that "Americans must rule America," and its favorite countersign was the traditional order of Washington, "Put none but Americans on guard to-night." Nominations for office were made by secret conventions of delegates, or else the Order endorsed selections of the best men from both the Whig and Democratic tickets. The party soon became known as the American party, by which name it

VOL. 1.-10.

was designated about equally with the term Know-Nothings. Its growth was large and rapid. The subject of Slavery was at first carefully avoided, or, if considered at all, the custom was supported as being an American institution. The disintegration of the Whig party after the election of 1852, and the unsuccessful attempts of the Free-Soil party to crystallize into any considerable numbers, as well as the division in the Democratic party, all tended to give an impetus to the new organization. It was intended by the leaders of the American party that they should exclude, by their votes, not only Catholics, but all foreigners from gaining office, whether municipal, county, State, or national. It was intended also to make an effort to change naturalization laws, and that foreigners should not be allowed to vote until after they had resided in this country twenty-one years, although some were willing to limit the time to fifteen years.

The motives of the new party might to some extent be endorsed, although their methods must certainly be condemned. They were contrary to the spirit and letter of the Constitution, and to many of the laws of the land. It was required that every member should take an oath that he was a native of the United States, that neither he nor his wife nor his parents were Roman Catholics, and that he would never vote for any man unless he was a Protestant and an American-born citizen.

During the year 1854 the party attained its highest efficiency, shaping the nominations and deciding the elections in the Middle States, some Western States, a part of the New England States, particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and even in the South. In November of the same year a national delegation of the councils of the American party met at Cincinnati. Intelligence and character were prominent in the gathering, though it included but few men of national and public renown.

Kenneth Raynor of North Carolina, who had been a Whig member of Congress, was a leading spirit of the convention, and proposed the third, or Union, degree, which was adopted. Mr. Raynor had been a slaveholder and a firm advocate of the

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rights of the slaveholding States, but was a staunch Union man and had hoped that the American party might be instrumental in checking the disunion sentiment at the South. Upon being authorized, Mr. Raynor conferred the third, or Union, degree upon all the delegates present. The ceremony was made most impressive, and the recipients of the degree were received into the brotherhood of the Order of the American Union.

Its membership was soon after estimated at between a million and a quarter and a million and a half. While as yet the party was not united upon the Slavery question, yet a preponderance became the exponents of anti-Slavery, and, in different States, had joined in passing resolutions condemning the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. They had elected to the Senate of the United States Wilson of Massachusetts, Harlan of Iowa, Seward of New York, Hale of New Hampshire, Bell of Tennessee, Trumbull of Illinois, and many Representatives to the Lower House. It was, however, apparent before no great length of time had elapsed, that the American party, even with its wonderful growth and wide influence, could not survive with such un-American policies and un-American methods. Its very name was a misnomer, and its methods were at variance with every idea of justice and fair play. Its early death came as will be noted in subsequent pages.

CHAPTER V.

THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY-LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS FUGITIVE SLAVES-SENTIMENT CRYSTALLIZING

A

THROUGHOUT THE NORTH.

GREAT debt must be acknowledged to Frederick Law Olmstead by every student of the condition, workings, and influence of Slavery during the decade from 1850 to 1860. From his actual experiences of personal contact with both slaves and masters, Mr. Olmstead in his several journeys reaped a fund of information which he dispassionately related in a manner both impartial and unprejudiced. First in all literature on the subject of Slavery, said George William Curtis, are, "in spirit and comprehension, the masterly, careful, copious, and patient works of Mr. Olmstead." Mr. Curtis also commended the book written by Frances Anne Kemble, entitled Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 183839, as follows: "This book is a permanent and most valuable chapter in our history; for it is the first ample, lucid, faithful, detailed account from the actual headquarters of a slave plantation in this country." Books innumerable have been written on the Slavery question, containing both fact and fiction. The literature manufactured by the Abolitionists for the twenty years preceding the war has never been preserved to any great extent, and perhaps it is just as well. No doubt it was for the most part honestly written, but the writers were too prejudiced and too earnest for an impartial historian to give much weight to their statements.

Perhaps there is to-day no abler exposition of Slavery in all its various phases for the reader who wishes to confine him

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self to a brief and concise yet comprehensive view of the subject, than that contained in Vol. I. of Rhodes's admirable History of the United States, considerable of which is taken. with due credit from the works of Olmstead. Mr. Rhodes calls attention, first, to the physical condition of the slave, showing that the cost of his food was from about two to five cents a day; that his clothes were of the cheapest and most scant material, and that his cabin was for the most part foul and wretched. The hours of labor were practically from sunrise to sunset, or even longer, which in summer-time meant from fifteen to eighteen hours. The treatment of the slave by the master and owner was far different from that accorded by the overseer. It was the overseer's business to make the slave as profitable to his master as possible, and floggings were the rule rather than the exception. Even the killing of a slave was not infrequent, though not a very profitable transaction. Slaves were never allowed to give testimony; and cruelty, even to murder, could be committed, without fear, by any overseer so disposed. But worse than the ordinary conditions of the system as seen on the plantation were the attendant circumstances of traffic. The constantly increasing demand for slaves in the Southwest, after the prohibition of importations in 1808, gave to the border States an opportunity to sell their surplus stock, and the result was almost daily private and auction sales from Richmond to Savannah and New Orleans.

As previously noted, Washington, the capital, was one of the principal marts, and even after the slave trade was abolished there, it was simply transferred across the river to Alexandria. It was those scenes at the auction-block that most prejudiced the onlookers against the institution. It was here that Abraham Lincoln gained his first impressions of the evil. In May, 1831, when twenty-two years of age, Lincoln went to New Orleans, where he remained a month. While there, he daily saw the traffic in slaves, and the following, as related by Mr. Herndon, though in the opinion of Miss Tarbell it may not be an exact statement, is no doubt very near the truth:

In New Orleans for the first time Lincoln beheld the true horrors