the slave-holders, opening to slavery a region of country larger than the original thirteen States of the Union.

Just what motives animated Douglas to violate his pledges never will be known. Not many people thought him to have been sincere in his declarations, but believed he was influenced by an ardent desire to be President, and attempted to secure the prize by doing what the slave-holders wanted done. He saw nothing immoral or wrong in holding slaves. Many other men in the Northern States did not regard slavery as unchristian or sinful. It might or it might not be beneficial to a community. If the people of a Territory wanted slavery as one of their institutions, Douglas was willing they should have it.

In their estimate of the morality of the act which violated a solemn compact in order to secure the extension of slavery, Douglas, Davis, and Pierce did not stop to consider that for national wrong-doing there had been no abrogation of the eternal law an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It did not occur to them that divine Providence might have some part to enact in carrying out the plan. The booming of the cannon on Capitol Hill was heard in every city and town throughout the Northern States. It was seen that the first movement of the slaveholders would be to gain possession of Kansas, and there was therefore a determination to secure that Territory to freedom. The Free State men contemplated the establishing of towns, schools, colleges, churches, happy homes of free men and women, who should enjoy their civil and political rights under a Constitution guaranteeing freedom. The Slave Party determined to doom the beautiful region to the barbarism of slavery. The struggle began, the slave-holders of Missouri taking possession of the lands nearest the territorial line in advance of any settlers from the Free States. A society was formed in Massachusetts to aid emigrants. It was a national society, and Abraham Lincoln was one of the Executive Committee; but there is no evidence that he was actively engaged in promoting the settlement of the Territory. The first party of settlers from Massachusetts reached Kansas, and laid out the town of Lawrence, naming it in honor of Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, the president of the society. The poet Whittier wrote a

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

song which the emigrants sang as they rolled onward to their future homes:

"We cross the prairies, as of old

The Pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free.

"We go to rear a wall of men
On Freedom's Southern line,
And plant beside the cotton-tree
The rugged Northern pine.

"We go to plant her common-schools
On distant prairie swells,

And give the Sabbath of the wilds
The music of her bells."

When the time came to hold the first election, several thousand ruffians from Missouri, under the lead of Senator Atchison, armed with rifles, invaded the Territory, and elected officers favorable to slavery. A newspaper in Leavenworth announced the result with triumphant lines:

"ALL HAIL! PRO-SLAVERY PARTY VICTORIOUS! COME ON, SOUTHERN MEN! BRING YOUR SLAVES! ABOLITIONISM REBUKED!"

The Pro-slavery Party seized William Phillips, a Free State settler, shaved his head, stripped off his clothes, daubed him with tar, ripped open a bed and rolled him in the feathers, rode him on a rail, and sold him at a mock auction. They put Rev. Mr. Butler on a raft and set him adrift on the Missouri River. The Legislature elected by the Missourians voted that the laws of their State should be the laws of Kansas. An act was passed prohibiting the printing of anything against slavery. Any one found with a book or newspaper containing an article against slavery was to be imprisoned not less than two years, and wear a chain and ball attached to his ankle. The Governor, Wilson Shannon, appointed by President Pierce, was using his power to make it a Slave State. He ordered the militia to aid the marshal in driving out the Free State settlers. Rifles and revolvers were purchased for those who favored freedom. The Missourians kept a sharp watch on the steamboats going up the Missouri, and they were sent by team through Iowa. A pro-slavery grand-jury indicted two newspapers for printing articles against slavery. A deputy marshal of the United States,

with 800 men and four cannon, entered Lawrence, destroyed the printing-presses, set Mr. Eldridge's hotel on fire, and pillaged the houses of the citizens. Some of the Free State men, burning for revenge, killed five of the ruffians. The Missourians, under Captain Pate, seized a son

of John Brown, marched him rapidly across the prairie in a burning sun, and treated him with such inhumanity that he became insane. Brown, with twenty-seven men, came upon the Missourians, took twentytwo of them prisoners, and captured their horses and supplies. Another company of ruffians hacked another of Brown's sons to pieces with their knives, threw his mangled body across a horse, took it to his own door, and tumbled it to the ground at the feet of his young wife.

Civil war had begun. Men were shot by lurking assassins; houses were deserted; the smoke of burning dwellings darkened the sky; women and children were fleeing from their homes to escape from the inhuman wretches who were desolating the land that they might secure it forever to slavery. It seems probable that Douglas, when he said he doubtless would be burned in effigy, did not look forward to any such outbreak as that which suddenly flamed up on the plains of Kansas. He saw only the bauble of the Presidency of the nation-not murdered men. On the day of his arrival in Chicago, after the adjournment of Congress, many of the flags flying above the vessels in the harbor were displayed at half-mast, and at sunset the church-bells tolled as at a funeral service. The feeling against him was deep and intense.

JOHN BROWN.

Men who had been his friends did not call upon him. But he put a bold face upon the matter, and began an address vindicating his course. No cheer welcomed him as he mounted the platform. For a while the people listened in sullen silence, and then asked questions which made him angry. He shook his fists in their faces, and the noise became so great that he could not finish his speech. He visited his old home in Springfield.

A great crowd filled the Hall of Representatives in the State-house. Abraham Lincoln was present, a silent listener to what Douglas had to offer. For six years he had taken no part in political affairs, but the violation of a sacred compact by Douglas and President Pierce in the

interest of the slave-holders had aroused his righteous indignation. He informed his friends that he should make a speech in reply.

1854.

Every seat, every inch of space is occupied, when Abraham Lincoln rises to speak. People are curious to hear what he will say, for Douglas is one of the able men of the country. He has practised law, Oct. 1, been elected judge and Senator. He has shown himself strong enough to secure the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and his friends have named him "The Little Giant." He has respect for Abraham Lincoln, because, like himself, he has fought with adversity and won success. He knows Lincoln is an able lawyer, that he has been member of Congress; but his measure of success has been small in comparison with his own. Possibly Douglas feels a sense of superiority as he takes a seat in the hall to hear Lincoln's argument. He has encountered in debate Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts; William H. Seward, of New York; Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri. He is fresh from the arena, where he has won a great victory. He has listened to all the arguments that the champions of freedom could marshal in opposition to the repeal. The literature of the question is at his tongue's end. Lincoln has heard none of the speeches. He may have read portions of the arguments of Senators and members of Congress, but has been attending to his own affairs through the months. He has only a night to put his thoughts in order. After a cheerful welcome a hush falls upon the great audience. He has only a scrap of paper before him. His friends and Douglas are amazed at his marvellous presentation of facts, and his statement of political principles enforced with thrilling eloquence. Douglas rises to interrupt him, but is courteously waved to his seat. Memory recalls the scene in the slave-market in New Orleans, and he vividly pictures it. Douglas would reproduce such scenes all over the fair domain once consecrated to freedom. But the Territory is doomed to slavery by what has been done if the Missourians succeed in driving. out the settlers from the Free States. These burning words fall from Lincoln's lips:

This declared indifference--but I must think covert zeal-for the spread of slavery I can but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; is at war with the vital principles of civic liberty; contrary to the Declaration of Independence; and maintains that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. . . . If the negro is a man, is it not the destruction of self-government to say that he shall not govern himself? When a white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and another man, that is more than self