most stupendous facts in the history of the world. It was a test of Republican government. The wisest thinkers and closest observers of political science in Europe confidently predicted the failure of the American attempt at self-government, and when the nation was to pass into the fires of civil war, they pointed to it as the fulfilment of their prediction. The contention of the Southern States appealed to many people in Europe as just. The exposition of the causes of the war indicated that the dispute, aside from the slavery question, was a mere difference of opinion upon the Constitution. To many this difference was too slight to justify a war to decide it. In the midst of the country many leading men wished the issue to be peaceful dissolution. Some believed the slave States could govern themselves better, and that the nation would be better off without them. Much pressure was exerted to induce Mr. Lincoln to avoid the horrors of war by allowing the States to go in peace on the ground that there was no constitutional authority to suppress an insurrectionary State. To all such representations Mr. Lincoln had but one answer. His oath could not be respected by allowing disaffected States to dissolve the Union. He believed the preservation of the Union as it was before the war was fraught with countless blessings, and that its dissolution would be the nightmare of the nation. To no other man did dissolution appear in such appalling form. To the perpetuity of the government of the people, by the people, and for the people" he gave his all. No constitutional scruples deterred him in the furtherance of this cause. 66 Abraham Lincoln's fitness for the head of the nation. Lincoln was admirably fitted by nature to guide the nation. in its conflict. His rare talents commanded the respect of the highest, and his kind heart won the support of the lowest. His remarkable reach in matters of statecraft was an increasing surprise to the people of two continents. His masterful manner of conciliation in which he brought seemingly irrecon cilable elements together, without loss to them of either dignity or stability, was one of the results of his enduring qualities of mind. His magnanimity enabled him to receive the severest criticism unruffled, if the criticism were backed by reasons, and thank the critic for it. His balance of mind enabled him to plead for the emancipation of the negro, but to stay the necessary decree until the public mind had reached the proper stage of moral conviction. His penetrating genius enabled him to deal with the multiplied complications entailed by civil war, in such a manner as to win respect from those who differed from him. His candor was the connecting link between him and the people at large. Although he was without the glamour of battle scars and was in the public eye but for a short time, no man since Jackson could boast of such a personal following. His abiding faith in the people was one of his cardinal qualities of strength. Abraham Lincoln will be remembered as the Emancipator, and rightly so. But when measured by the standard of great works, he will be remembered as the great War President, under whom the nation successfully emerged from Civil War, the result of which decided against the right of Secession. In the light of history, the Preserver of the Union is perhaps the proudest title that could be borne by an American. CHAPTER XVII EFFECT OF CIVIL WAR ON POLITICAL PARTIES Effect of the war. The partizan contest of 1861 revealed great confusion in party organization. The all-absorbing slavery question destroyed old party affiliations, and speedily tended to mere sectional strife. The fears of Washington that party strife might degenerate into sectional jealousies were about to be realized. The old Whig party, although Hamiltonian in theory, always drew support equally from all parts of the country. The Whig, a national party. In 1832, in its first presidential campaign, it carried five States: Kentucky and Maryland from the slave section, and Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island from the free section. In 1836 it carried ten States equally divided between the sections: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ohio and Indiana in the North, and Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia in the South. When Harrison was elected in 1840 he received the votes of eleven States from the North, and seven States from the South. In 1844, when Clay was defeated by Polk, the Whig party carried eleven States: five from the South and six from the North. In 1848, when General Taylor was elected, he carried fifteen States: eight from the South and seven from the North. In 1852 General Scott, the Whig candidate, carried but four States: Kentucky and Tennessee from the South, and Massachusetts and New Hampshire from the North. From the first campaign of the old Whig party in 1832 to its last in 1852 (it never carried a State after the latter date) it drew its strength from all sections. The new Republican party, responding to the call of the moral sense of the nation against the extension of slavery, took on at once a sectional character. In view of the issue involved this tendency was inevitable. Upon this basis Douglas made his valiant fight against Lincoln in 1858. He strenuously declaimed against the dangers which Washington feared. Slavery distinctly sectional. The new party rapidly absorbed the anti-slavery sentiment of the country, which resulted in the unification of the elements opposed to the further spread of slavery. This condition naturally made an issue between the slave and the free States. It foreshadowed that later condition deplored by all good citizens, the "solid South" against the "united North." The dominant element in the slave States was Democratic, which claimed the right of constitutional protection to slavery. There were also numerous Whigs in the slave States whose economic views differed from those of their Democratic neighbors but whose local pride and interest caused them to unite with the dominant element in the fight. There were also in those States many American party men whose origin was a revolt against certain tendencies of the Democratic party, but who, on the sensitive question of slavery, overcame their traditional opposition and joined the Democratic forces in the slave States. In the North there was a like confusion. There were a few Whigs and Americans who refused to unite with the dominant antislavery organization, but they were comparatively few. Sectionalism of 1856. In the presidential campaign of 1856 the first evidence of sectionalism became manifest. The Democratic party carried eighteen States, including every slave State except Maryland. That State was carried by the American in combination with the Whig party. The Democratic party also carried five Northern States: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and California. It received a popular vote of 1,838,169, of which 621,879 came from the slave States. The same States gave Fillmore, the American candidate, 479,892 votes. The same States gave to Fremont, the Republican candidate, only 1,194 votes. He received not a single vote from any one of the eleven States which afterward joined the Southern Confederacy. On the other hand Fremont carried eleven States, all from the North. He received a popular vote of 1,341,264, all of which, except the 1,194 votes before mentioned as coming from the slave States, came from the free States. The vote shows that the North and South cast about the same number of votes for Fillmore, who represented the conservative element opposed to the agitation of the slavery question. But upon the main issue the South went solid for its interests, while the North divided between Buchanan and Fremont, giving the latter 120,000 more votes than the former. In 1860. In 1860 the conservative element fell short about 300,000 votes in the popular count, but it carried three Southern States: Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The division in the Democratic party, dividing the vote between two candidates, represented a sectional division. The North gave Breckinridge 274,122 votes, while the South gave to Douglas 163,375 votes. The South gave Breckinridge 573,831 votes, while the North gave Douglas 1,211,782 votes. On the other hand the South gave Lincoln 26,440 votes, of which 17,028 came from Missouri, while the North gave him 1,840,012. In 1864. In the presidential contest of 1864, in the midst of the war, only twenty-five States participated. The eleven seceding States took no part. Lincoln carried all the States participating except three: Kentucky, Delaware and New Jersey. In 1868, under the Reconstruction régime, all the States participated except Virginia, Georgia and Louisiana, which had not then accepted the conditions of Reconstruction laid down by Congress. Grant carried all the States but eight, including Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, South |