The Controversy in the Senate.

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recreant to our duty, be unworthy to our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our own neighboring shores, seriously to endanger, or actually to consume, the fair fabric of our Union.

We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending toward such a catastrophe. We, however, hope for the best, though we ought certainly to be prepared for the worst.

Of the Ostend Manifesto and its authors, Rhodes says.

It is perhaps unjust to attach to the administration of Pierce the discredit of the Ostend manifesto, for the policy therein set forth was disavowed by the Secretary of State in the name of the President. Yet as the Democratic party indirectly approved it by the nomination for President of the man who was first to sign it, it settled down in the popular mind as one of the measures of the Pierce administration. Any good in the Democratic conduct of the govern ment from 1853 to 1857 has been almost wholly obliterated by the Kansas-Nebraska bill and the Ostend manifesto. The domestic policy was characterized by an utter disregard of plighted faith; the avowed foreign policy was marked by the lack of justice as understood by all civilized nations of the world.

During the spring of 1856 the debate in the Senate over the Kansas-Nebraska situation became most animated, and at times very bitter. The following Senators could now all be classified as Republicans, and as against admitting Kansas except as a free State: Hamlin and Fessenden of Maine, Hale and Bell of New Hampshire, Collamer and Foot of Vermont, Sumner and Wilson of Massachusetts, Foster of Connecticut, Seward and Fish of New York, Wade of Ohio, Durkee and Dodge of Wisconsin, Trumbull of Illinois, and Harlan of Iowa. All of these Republicans were scholars as well as statesmen, and their opinions not only carried great influence in the Upper House of Congress but throughout the nation.

Mr. Sumner had been biding his time to deliver an address before the Senate which should at least equal, if not surpass, any that had been delivered by his compeers. Finally the

opportunity came on the 19th and 20th of May, and the speech delivered on those days was afterwards known as Sumner's "Crime against Kansas" speech. The speech was bitter in the extreme, and much of it might better have been left unsaid. Had all personalities been left out, it is quite probable that the address would have been simply numbered with the many strong speeches made in the Senate during those months. But, among other personal allusions, Mr. Sumner addressed himself personally to Senator Butler of South Carolina.

Not satisfied with his attack of the first day, he took up the subject again on the second day, and to use inelegant but most expressive words, he simply "rubbed it in." The attack had been unprovoked. In his speech Senator Butler had made no reference to Mr. Sumner. The Senator from South Carolina was not present during the delivery of Mr. Sumner's speech; but several Senators who listened to it, at its conclusion at once addressed the Senate in condemnation of its delivery. Senator Cass and Senator Douglas were very severe in their denunciation, and even such men as Wade and other friends of Sumner thought that he had gone beyond the bounds of propriety, if not parliamentary usage, and yet Sumner had not been called to order in a single instance during the delivery of his speech.

Two days after, on May 22d, after a session of the Senate had closed and Sumner was sitting in his seat in the Senate Chamber writing letters, Preston Brooks, a Representative from South Carolina, and a relative of Senator Butler, entered the Senate Chamber, and, going up to Mr. Sumner said: "I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." Thereupon, he lifted his cane and with a most forceful blow hit Sumner on the head. So powerful was the assault that Sumner, although a man over six feet in height and of unusual build, was unable to make any defence, and Brooks continued beating him repeatedly. He did not cease his assault until he was seized by the arm, when Sumner, fainting and bleeding, reeled to the floor. It was said that the assault was sufficient in its force to have killed a man of medium build and weight.

Brooks's Attack on Sumner.

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Sumner was forced to abandon his Senatorial work, and for nearly four years was striving to recover from the blows dealt by Brooks on that eventful day. It was not until December, 1859, that he was able to resume his work in the Senate, and he never again resumed his normal strength and vigor. During his illness, part of which time had been spent abroad, he had been re-elected to the Senate by the Massachusetts Legislature by an almost unanimous vote, receiving every vote of the Senate and 333 out of 345 in the House.

It is enough to say of the result of the assault throughout the country, that Brooks, while universally denounced and condemned for his action in the North, was made a hero of throughout the South. While indignation meetings were held in hundreds of cities and towns north of Mason and Dixon's line, in the States below, Preston Brooks was receiving gifts from the people, particularly canes and whips as emblematic of their endorsement of his use of such a weapon upon the defenceless champion of the Northern cause. For months he became almost an idol.

The day following the affair, many members armed themselves before going into the Senate and House, as exciting scenes were anticipated. In the Senate Mr. Wilson stated the case, and Mr. Seward made a motion for the appointment of a committee to investigate the affair. While this was agreed to, and a committee was appointed, not a single Republican was given a place upon it. It being decided that the Senate could not act in the matter, and that Brooks could only be punished in the House of Representatives, a committee was appointed by the House to consider the affair, a majority of which reported in favor of the expulsion of Brooks. On a resolution to this effect, the vote was 121 to 95, which, not being two thirds, was insufficient to expel. Brooks thereupon made a speech and resigned his seat, but he was immediately re-elected by his district, only six votes being against him. He died in the following January, filled with regret over the occurrence, and regretting still more that he had been made the subject of gifts and admiration by those whom he now called the "representatives of bullies."

Growing out of the affair was the challenging of Senator Wilson to a duel by Mr. Brooks, because Mr. Wilson had pronounced the assault "brutal, murderous, and cowardly." Mr. Wilson declined the challenge, but armed himself for defence in case he should be attacked. Among others who had defended or rather applauded the course taken by Mr. Brooks were Jefferson Davis and Mr. Buchanan, the latter soon to be nominated for the Presidency by the Democratic party.

The incident of the assault upon Senator Sumner must be recorded as a circumstance, and as showing the feeling which was growing more and more intense, particularly at the South, as against what was termed the interference of the North. The assault upon Mr. Sumner in the United States Senate was being repeated day after day in distant Kansas, where ruffians from Missouri and from the slaveholding States of the South were making bloody warfare upon the settlers from the North, who were peaceably settled in the new Territory and giving themselves up wholly to tilling the soil and building up both an agricultural and commercial State.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION-FREMONT AND DAYTON-CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION of 1856.

N the city of Washington, on the 19th of June, 1855, an association was formed, and issued the following:

IN

DECLARATION, PLATFORM, AND CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Whereas, by the repeal of the eighth section of the act for the admission of Missouri into the Union, the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska have been opened to the introduction of slavery, and all the compromises, real or imaginary, upon that subject, are thus violated and annulled, and deep dishonor inflicted upon the age in which we live:

Now, therefore, in co-operation with all those throughout the land who oppose this and other similar measures, which we deem to be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, and which are designed to extend and perpetuate slavery, we do associate ourselves together, under the name and title of The Republican Association of Washington, D. C.

And we adopt the following as our political Platform, to wit: First. That Congress possesses no power over the institution of slavery in the several States; but that, outside of State jurisdiction, the constitution power of the Federal Government should be exerted to secure life, liberty, and happiness to all men, and therefore,

Second. There should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, in any of the Territories of the United States.

Third. The people are the rightful source of all political power; and all officers should, as far as practicable, be chosen by direct vote of the people.