1859

John Brown's Raid.

253

Buchanan's Administration.

1. As the time for the presidential election approached, three candidates were put in nomination. A party, known as the American party, their leading principle being opposition to "foreign in- The fluence," and their 18th national motto, "Americans

66

election.

should rule America," presented ex-President Fillmore. A new party, the outgrowth of the Free Soil" movement, composed principally of Whigs and Democrats who were opposed to the extension of slavery into free territory, nominated John C. Fremont," the Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains," who had rendered important service in the conquest of California during the Mexican war. The Democratic party, holding that Congress ought not to interfere with the extension of slavery "wherever it found its way by the people's choice," nominated James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, and succeeded in electing him. The inauguration took place on the 4th of March, 1857.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

2. The slavery question continued to be the prominent topic of discussion; and John Brown's Raid, which occurred in the fall of 1859, still further increased the bitterness of feeling then existing between the two sections of the coun try. "Old John Brown," as he was often called, "had early conceived a fanatical hatred against зlavery, and it became the master passion of his life. It John Brown's was his day-dream that he should become the raid. Moses of the African race." After the passage of the KansasNebraska Bill (1854), his four elder sons went from Ohio to

Kansas for the purpose of aiding in making the latter a free State. They went unarmed, but coming into conflict with the pro-slavery men from Missouri, wrote to their father to forward them some rifles. Instead, however, of sending the rifles, he carried them himself, and with such boldness and determination did he oppose the designs of those who wished to make Kansas a slave State, that he was both hated and feared by them. Near the town of O-sa-wat'-o-mie, with less than twenty men he made an obstinate and successful defense against an attack of five hundred Missourians, and finally effected a retreat in safety. "This encounter gave him a sort of national reputation, and the sobriquet of 'Ossawatomie Brown' clung to him until his death.”

3. Leaving Kansas, he and twenty-one associates seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, for the purpose of making it a rendezvous, his object being to liberate slaves (1859). But he greatly miscalculated as to the encouragement he would receive from the slaves and the resistance he would meet from the authorities, and the movement ended in total failure. Those engaged in it were overpowered by Virginia troops assisted by the national forces; thirteen of their number were killed, two escaped, and the rest, including Brown, were tried, and, under the laws of Virginia, were executed.'

4. The eighth census report showed a population in the United States of thirty-one and a half millions, of whom four millions were slaves. "This great population was assisted in its toils by six millions of horses and two millions of of the country working oxen. It owned eight millions of cows, in 1860. fifteen millions of other cattle, twenty-two mil

Condition

1 The famous "Dred Scott Decision," increased the hostile feeling at the North against the slave power. Dred Scott and his wife were slaves, who had been carried by their master into Illinois, but were afterwards taken into Missouri. They claimed that having been carried into free territory by their master, they had been made free; but Chief-Justice Taney decided that slave masters could, under the Constitution of the United States, take their slaves into any State without any forfeiture of their property in them, just as they could take their horses or cattle. This decision, it was asserted by the Republicans, changed slavery from a local to a national institution; and they resisted it accordingly.

1860

Secession.

255

lions of sheep, and thirty-three millions of hogs. The products of the soil were enormous. The cotton crop of that year was close upon one million tons. The grain crop was twelve hundred millions of bushels-figures so large as to pass beyond our comprehension. Tobacco had more than doubled since 1850, until now America actually yielded a supply of five hundred millions of pounds. The textile manufactures reached the annual value of two hundred millions of dollars. There were five thousand miles of canals, and thirty thousand of railroads. Provision had been made for the education of the children by erecting one hundred and thirteen thousand schools and colleges, and employing one hundred and fifty thousand teachers. The educational institutions enjoyed revenues amounting to nearly thirty-five millions of dollars; and the daily history of the world was supplied by four thou sand newspapers, which circulated annually one thousand millions of copies."

Secession.

5. As Buchanan's term of office drew towards its close, no less than four candidates were nominated to succeed him.' Of these, Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Republicans, was successful, although the Southern leaders had threatened that, if he should be elected, the States of the South would secede, that is, would withdraw from the Union, as they claimed the right to do. When, therefore, it became known that Lincoln, the candidate of the party opposed to the further extension of slavery, would be the next President, the secession movement began. Public meetings were held in South Carolina; and, on the 20th of December, 1860, an ordinance was passed by a State convention, held in Charleston, which formally declared that the "Union now subsist

The extreme pro-slavery party nominated John C. Breckenridge, who had been Vice-President under Buchanan; the “ Squatter Sovereignty" party nominated Stephen A. Douglas. These two candidates divided the Democratic party. The American party, now known as the Constitutional Union," nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, with the simple party platform, “The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws."

ing between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." 6. Six days afterward, Major Anderson, of the national army, commanding at Fort Moultrie, withdrew the garrison of eighty men from that

of greater security. This being regarded by the South Carolinians as a hostile

act, they at once

seized the custom-house at Charleston, as well as other property belonging to the general government, and commenced operations to drive Anderson from his new position. (See map, p. 143.)

7. Six other States-Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas-following the lead of South Carolina, passed secession ordinances in the early part of 1861. In February a Congress of delegates from all these States, except Texas, met at Montgome

The

Southern ry, and formed a governConfederac ment called The Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected by the Congress President of the Confederacy, and, Texas being then represented, was duly inaugurated. 8. A steamer, sent from New York with supplies and reinforcements for Fort Sumter, arrived off Charleston, but being fired upon by the batteries which had been erected by the Confederates, was compelled to put back.

Secession deeds.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

1861

Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas.

257

Thus South Carolina commenced the war by firing at the American flag; and "the frantic tumult spread along every river and over every mountain in the slave States from Chesapeake bay to the Mexican frontier." Forts, arsenals, navy-yards, and other property of the nation, were seized by State authority for the Confederacy. Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Fort Sumter, and the forts at the southern extremity of Florida, were all that remained to the general government within the limits of the seceded States. General Dix, Secretary of the National Treasury, ordered two revenue cutters, stationed at New Orleans, to be taken to New York, New Orleans being at the time in virtual possession of the secessionists; but the captain of one of the cutters refusing to obey, he sent a tele gram to the lieutenant, ordering the arrest of the captain and closing with the command, "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot."

9. Three States were admitted to the Union during the administration of Buchanan. Minnesota, admitted in 1858, though of recent settlement, had long been the seat of traffic with the Indians. Catholic missionaries had also estab

66

The eastern por

New States.

lished stations at an early date. tion of the State, that east of the Mississippi, was originaliy a part of the Northwest Territory; the other portion, embracing more than two thirds of the area of the State, was originally a part of the Louisiana Purchase." Oregon, admitted in 1859, was first occupied in 1811, when a fur-trading post was established by John Jacob Astor, a wealthy merchant of New York, at the mouth of the Columbia river, and called Astoria. The river had been entered, for the first time, twenty years before, by the ship Columbia, Captain Gray, from Boston. The report made by Gray led President Jefferson to send the expedition, conducted by Lewis & Clarke, which, ascending the Missouri river and descending the head branches of the Columbia and the Columbia itself, reached the Pacific ocean (see page 196). Kansas, after six years of angry agitation, was quietly admitted into the Union in 1861.