the slave trade, relieving the government of the need of maintaining a very expensive squadron on the coast of Af rica, and vastly increasing our commercial advantages. The bill provided that $30,000,000 be placed in the president's hands, so as to enable him to take immediate action in case negotiations with Spain for the purchase of the island were successful; the entire price to be paid it was estimated would not exceed $125,000,000. The bill was warmly discussed, and various amendments and substitutes were proposed; but a test vote being had to lay the bill on the table, it was lost by a vote of 30 to 18. Mr. Slidell then withdrew the bill, intimating his intention to bring it forward again at the next Congress. On the last day of the session, the president appealed to Congress to preserve the public credit by providing for the deficit in the treasury, respecting which nothing as yet had been done. Just at the last moment, an issue of $20,000,000 treasury notes was authorized; the two houses having, however, 1859. fallen into a dispute about their respective rights and powers, the appropriation necessary for the expenses of the post-office department was lost. On the 4th of March the Thirtyfifth Congress came to its end, with the principal business before it, at its last session, quite unsettled. During the succeeding months political questions began to assume grave im *The postmaster-general, Mr. A. V. Brown, died on the 8th of March. The president appointed, as his successor, Mr. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky. Mr. H. being a man of decided energy and ability determined to go forward and do the best he could under the existing embarrassments of his position. portance. The republican party, which was opposed, toto cœlo, to the further extension of slavery, and was striving to bring about its gradual but certain extinction by confining it to the states where it already existed, was active and energetic in its movements. The dem ocrats, who counted on southern help to maintain their supremacy in national affairs, were in a difficult position, be ing, on the one hand, many of them conscientiously opposed to slavery, and on the other, anxious to compromise matters on this perplexing subject so as to act in concert with the southern portion of the party. At the south, however, there was little if any disguise as to the actual state of public sentiment. The re-opening of the slave trade, although that trade is declared by law to be piracy, was openly and boldly advocated. The grand jury of Savannah, while compelled by their oaths to find bills against persons engaged in the slave trade, expressed themselves as being humiliated and degraded in so doing, and scouted "the sickly senti ment of pretended philanthropy and diseased mental aberration of higher law' fanatics." The "Southern Commercial Convention," held at Vicksburg, in May, passed a resolution, by a vote of 47 to 16, that "all laws, state or federal, prohibiting the African slave trade, ought to be abolished." * 1859. * It is only proper, however, to state, that Mr. Foote, formerly senator from Mississippi, strongly opposed this resolution, and showed that ten southern states had laws directly prohibiting the slave trade. Mr. Wise, also, in Virginia, and Sam. Houston, of Texas, who was afterwards elected to be governor, expressed themselves with the greatest earnestness against the reopening of this horrible trade. CH. X.] SOUTHERN POLITICAL VIEWS. Mr. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, on retiring from Congress, issued an address, comparatively moderate in tone, but agreeing in substance with the more radical views of his constituents, especially in urging the need of "increasing the number of the African stock," in order to compete with the north in colonizing the territories. Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, in a Fourth of July Address, took the most ultra ground on the subject of state rights. He declared with unusual candour, that the south must control the government, or must fall, and he urged this as the one issue for the next presidential election. "Our first great duty is," he said, "to place the south above and beyond the power of the north. First make our property safe under our own control, before we decide as to measures for its increase or extension. After our safety is accomplished, it will be time enough for the south to determine on measures most expedient to promote her agricultural interests or advance her general prosperity. If our rights are victorious in the next presidential election, we may consider it as a kind augury of a more auspicious future. If they are overthrown, let this be the last contest between the north and the south, and the long, weary night of our dishonor and humiliation be dispersed at last by the glorious dayspring of a SOUTHERN CON FEDERACY." Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, in the autumn, delivered an address before the democratic convention, mainly on the subject of slavery and the slave trade. He denounced the law * Senator Douglas, being asked, in the summer, if 547 of 1820, which declares the trade to be piracy, and held that nothing 1859. could "justify the government in branding as infamous the source from which the chief part of the laboring population of the south is derived." He also held, that "the normal condi tion of servitude" was essential for the good of the black race; that slavery ought to be protected by law in the territories; that Cuba should be secured as being important for the interests of a Southern Confederacy; and that the Union should be dissolved if the republicans elected their candidate on the platform of Mr. Seward's Rochester speech.* Such sentiments and views were unblushingly set forth by men who, at a later date, became prominent in the ways of treason and rebellion; and they indicated, more or less distinctly, the deeply-laid plan and purpose of the southern slave-holding leaders. It was his friends might use his name as a candidate for the be held at Charleston, spoke out quite plainly. Avowpresidency in the National Democratic Convention to ing himself to be thoroughly devoted to the "timehonored principles" of the party, he declined entirely to be a partaker in any attempt to "interpolate into the creed of the party such new issues as the revival of the African slave trade, or a Congressional slave code of the United States either establishes or prohibits for the territories, or the doctrine that the Constitution slavery in the territories beyond the power of the people legally to control it as other property." *It was in this speech, delivered in the autumn of 1858, that Mr. Seward set forth his views as to the "irre pressible conflict" between free labor and slave labor in the territories, and argued that one or the other must inevitably yield; they could not possibly exist together. "The two systems (slave and free labor) are continually coming into contact, and collision results. ing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation." It is an irrepressible conflict between oppos. a plan and purpose which, originating neighborhood, and two of the party in pride and self-conceit, they meant, at having been captured, the rest were any sacrifice of truth, honor and loyal- gradually driven within the arsenal ty, even if rivers of blood flowed from grounds. A few shots were fired their acts, to carry out to its fullest during the day on both sides, and the completion. mayor of the town was killed. Brown and his party finally entrenched themselves in the engine house, where they struggled to the last; but late in the night a body of United States marines, under Colonel Lee, invested the engine house, and early on the 18th, succeeded in battering down the door and captur ing the insurgents. Brown was se verely wounded, and thirteen of his companions had been killed; of the citizens and soldiers seven were killed and a number wounded. The grand jury of Jefferson County, being in ses sion, indicted Brown and all those with him on the charge of inciting the slaves to insurrection, as well as of treason The bitterness and keenness of southern feeling on the subject of slavery and its issues, were greatly increased by a strange, wild attempt on the part of a man named John Brown, a native of New York, to produce a rising of the slaves in Virginia. Brown, it appears from his history, had become excited beyond all control on the slavery question, and having been a sharer in the difficulties and violent contentions in Kansas, he seemed to think himself called upon to devote his life and energies to the freeing of the slaves. Several of his sons and a small body of others (twenty-two in all, seventeen white, five black) joined him; arms and murder. The trial took place on and ammunition were collected; and on the night of October 16th, he made a descent upon Harper's Ferry, 1859. a town of about five thousand inhabitants, and containing the United States arsenal with 100,000 stand of arms. The buildings being unguarded, were seized upon; prominent citizens were arrested; and the workmen connected with the armory, on going to their business in the morning, were also captured. About thirty prisoners were thus made. The alarm spread rapidly, and the exaggerated reports were speedily circulated of the extent of the force, the objects had in view, the rising of the slaves, etc. About noon, on the 17th, some military prominent men with this wild expedi companies began to arrive from the tion. But little, however, was effected the 26th of October, lasted three days, and resulted in Brown's conviction. He was sentenced to be hung on the 2d of December; his companions were tried subsequently and condemned to the same fate. Brown justified his acts in all respects; avowed that his only object was to help the slaves to their freedom, not to incite revolt or commit murder; and was executed at the time appointed. Persistent efforts were made, by agitators of various sorts, to use this John Brown affair to the injury of all those at the north who were opposed to sla very; and insinuations and charges were circulated as to the connection of CH. X.] OPENING OF THE THIRTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. 549 Mr. Clark, of Missouri, that no member who had recommended or endorsed Helper's "Impending Crisis at the by such a course. Whatever might be thought of Brown's motives, there was no man who believed in the supremacy of law and order but what repudiated South," was fit to be speaker. Mr. all such modes of obtaining freedom for the blacks; and the conviction was universally entertained, that, however severe the punishment, it was only such as acts like those of Brown must ever expect to meet with.* Sherman, of Ohio, was the republican candidate, and, on various occasions, lacked only three or four votes of an election. Mr. Bocock, of Virginia, was the democratic nominee; but neither he, nor any other who was tried, sucThe elections for Congress in the ceeded in obtaining a majority. Thus several states made it evident, that the the struggle was kept up for two republicans would fall short of a ma- months; when, finally, Mr. Sherman jority in the House by some half dozen votes, leaving the balance of power in the hands of opposition members from the south. The effect of this upon the organization of the House was marked, and by no means creditable to that body. 1859. On the 5th of December, the members of the Thirty-sixth Congress assembled in Washington. The Senate began its labors by appointing a committee to inquire into the attack on Harper's Ferry, and report upon the facts. In the House, two hundred and thirty out of two hundred and thirtyseven members were present; and the contest for the speakership immediately began. Day after day, a ballot was taken, and innumerable speeches were made on slavery in all its possible connections, based upon a resolution of * Mr. Seward, in his speech in the Senate (March, 1860), took occasion to say: "While generous and charitable natures will probably concede that John Brown and his associates acted on earnest though fatally erroneous convictions, yet all good citizens will nevertheless agree, that this attempt to execute an unlawful purpose in Virginia by invasion, involving civil war, was an act of sedition and treason, and criminal to just the extent it affected the public peace, and withdrew his name, and on the fortyfourth ballot, taken on the 1st of Febru ary, 1860, Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey, was elected speaker of the House. 859. The president, finding that the House was engaged in an apparently interminable contest, resolved not to await the result. Accordingly, on the 27th of December, he sent his message to Congress, with the usual reports of the heads of departments. In regard to "the recent sad and bloody occurrences at Harper's Ferry," Mr. Buchanan looked upon them as "deriving their chief importance from the apprehension that they are but symptoms of an incurable disease in the public mind, which may break out in still more dangerous outrages, and terminate, at last, in an open war by the north to abolish slavery at the south." Speaking of himself as "an old public functionary," he besought his countrymen to cultivate forbearance and good will towards each other, as in the days past, and he deprecated the dangers which seemed to threaten on every hand. But, he said: was destructive to human happiness and human life." "I indulge in no such gloomy forebod ings. On the contrary, I firmly believe tion; and the opportunity was not that the events at Harper's Ferry, by lost. Nearly all the prominent memcausing the people to pause and reflect bers of the Senate delivered elaborate upon the possible peril to their cher- harangues on the exciting topics of the ished institutions, will be the means, day; and the line of separation, as under Providence, of allaying the ex- well as the course of the struggle be isting excitement and preventing further tween the contending parties, became outbreaks of a similar character. They more and more distinctly will resolve that the Constitution and marked. Mr. Seward, and the Union shall not be endangered by rash counsels, knowing that should 'the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken at the fountain,' human power could never reunite the scattered and hostile fragments." Congratulations were offered on the decision of the Supreme Court, that slavery was now protected in the territories; the African slave trade was discussed, against which, he said, the laws would be enforced; the foreign relations of the country were in their usual state ;* Mexican affairs, however, were spoken of at large, as being in a peculiarly vexatious condition, and it was urged, that the United States ought to interfere for redress of grievances. The purchase of Cuba, the Pacific Railroad, increase of revenues, etc., were also presented as needing speedy attention. This being the first, or long session of Congress, there was abundant room for speech-making and political agita * Some difficulty having occurred during the year in regard to the northwest boundary line, according to the treaty of 1846, between the United States and Great Britain, and both Americans and Englishmen claiming the Island of San Juan, between Vancouver's Island and Washington territory, as belonging to their respective countries, a serious collision was apprehended. The government dispatched Gen. Scott, in September, 1859, to the Pacifie coast, to look after the interests of the United States. Happily, this matter was settled without much difficulty. แ 1860. other republicans, advocated the views and policy of the opponents of slavery and its increase; and it was made. clearly evident that, if the republicans prevailed in the coming presidential contest, southern supremacy in national affairs, and further extension of slavery, were at an end forever. Mr. Jef ferson Davis offered a series of resolutions, strongly urging the extreme staterights views, as they are called, and the inviolability and excellence of the institution of slavery. Other Senators from the south, not only controverted the opinions and arguments of the republicans, but gave utterance to bitter denunciations and fierce threatenings of dissolution of the Union, in the event of their being in the minority at the ballot-box. Mr. Douglas argued with his usual energy in behalf of his favorite doctrine of popular sovereign ty; he took issue with Mr. Seward as to the latter's view of "capital" and "labor" (i. e. slave and free) States,' and was particularly severe upon the *This view of Mr. Seward's was set forth in an elaborate speech (Feb. 29th, 1860), on presenting the memorial of the legislature of Kansas, praying for admission into the Union. We may mention here, that the House, on the 17th of April, passed a bill to admit Kansas under the Wyandot constitution; but the bill was not acted on in the Senate. Kansas was finally, after her many trials and struggles, admitted into the Union, January 28th, 1861. |