Territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained.

RESOLVED, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.

RESOLVED, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty; and contains ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty and property of every citizen, the dearest Constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their Territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended Legislative, Judicial, and Executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed, as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office; the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated; they have been deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of law; that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, robberies and arsons have been instigated or encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction and procurement of the present National Administration, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union and humanity, we arraign the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the country and before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.

RESOLVED, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her Territory.

RESOLVED, That the highwayman's plea that "might makes right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction.

RESOLVED, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

RESOLVED, That appropriations of Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors of a National character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

RESOLVED, That we invite the affiliation and co-operation of the men of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the principles herein declared; and believing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all proscriptive legislation affecting their security.

An American, or Know Nothing, Convention, held in Philadelphia, February 22d to 25th, 1856, had nominated for President, Millard Fillmore, of New York, and for Vice-President, Andrew Jackson Donnelson, of Tennessee, on a platform which gave emphasis to its peculiar views in reference to naturalization and citizenship, and gave a sweeping criticism to the existing Administration. A Whig Convention, held at Baltimore, September 17th and 18th, ratified the nominations of Fillmore and Donnelson, on a rather non-committal platform, in favor of the Constitution and the Union.

The Democratic Convention met at Cincinnati on the 2d of June, John E. Ward, of Georgia, presiding. On the first ballot its votes for Presidential candidates were: James Buchanan, 135; Franklin Pierce, 122; Stephen A. Douglas, 33; Lewis Cass, 5. Buchanan and Douglas gained quite steadily, while Pierce lost, and on the sixteenth ballot Buchanan had 168 votes and Douglas 121. This gave Buchanan such a decided lead that on the next ballot he was nominated with practical unanimity. He had been in the field for the Presidential nomination ever since 1844, and his time had now come. Being absent from the country as Minister to England, during most of Pierce's Administration, he had nothing to do with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and this added to his availability as a candidate.

On the first ballot for Vice-President, John A. Quitman, of Mississippi, received the largest vote, the rest being widely scattered. On the second, his name was withdrawn, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was unanimously nominated. The platform was inordinately long, covering a great variety of subjects. The utterances most significant on the slavery question were as follows: "That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several states, and that such states are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with the questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous conse quences; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

"That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, and therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this National platform, will abide by and adhere to the faithful execution of the Acts known as the Compromise Measures, settled by the Congress of 1850; the Act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor included, which Act, being designed to carry out an expressed provision of the Constitution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed or so changed as to impair its efficiency."

These views of the slavery question are reiterated in various forms in the platform. The campaign that followed was a very active and spirited one. Fremont was the ideal candidate for a young and vigorous party. His career had been adventurous and of great service to the country. As early as his 27th year he had explored the South Pass to the Rocky Mountains, and the great Salt Lakes. Still later he explored the Alta California, Sierra Nevada, and the valleys of the San Joaquin, and had earned the title of the "Pathfinder," by doing more than any one else to open a means of communication between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast. At the age of thirty-six he had come back to Washington as the first Senator from the new State of California.

His life had also a touch of romance. When a young Lieutenant in the Army he had eloped with Jessie Benton, the charming daughter of the Senator from Missouri, and in some phases of the campaign, the name of Jessie Benton was received with almost as great popularity as that of Fremont himself.

The campaign medal took a greater part in this canvass than it had ever done before. One of the medals was a head and bust of Fremont, with his name above, and "Jessie's Choice" beneath. Another represented a party surveying a mountain, on the top of which was the White House, and underneath, "Honor to whom Honor is Due!" Another had a fine portrait of Fremont on the obverse and on the reverse a wreath enclosing these inscriptions: "The Rocky Mountains Echo Back Fremont;" "The People's Choice for 1856;" "Constitutional Freedom." Beneath the wreath was a scroll with "Free" in the middle, and "Men" and "Soil" at either end.

The Buchanan medals were few in number, but one of them was especially handsome, showing on the obverse a buck leaping over a cannon, with the words, "and Breckinridge," underneath. The Know Nothings had three medals, one containing a portrait of Millard Fillmore, one an American Flag with three rents, and the inscription: "Our Flag Trampled Upon," and one with the motto, “Beware of Foreign Influence."

The torch-light parade and out-door mass meetings figured largely in this campaign, but much of bitterness also entered into it. Just before the Republican Convention at Philadelphia, Senator Sumner was stricken down in his seat in the Senate by Preston S. Brooks, a Representative from South Carolina. Sumner had been speaking for two days against the designs of the South in behalf of slavery, a

speech that was widely circulated during the campaign, with the title of "The Crime Against Kansas." He had been especially bitter against the State of South Carolina, and Arthur P. Butler, one of its Senators. Preston S. Brooks, a member from South Carolina, and a nephew of Butler's, went over from the House the next day to avenge his uncle and his State. The Senate had adjourned, but Sumner was at his desk absorbed in letter writing. "I have read your speech twice over carefully," said Brooks, coming up behind Sumner. "It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine!" With that he began beating Mr. Sumner's head and shoulders with a bludgeon. Sumner was beaten to the floor, and it was many months before he recovered from the effects of the blows. The Senate made a complaint to the House, and in anticipation of expulsion, Brooks resigned. He was not only reelected, but was treated as a hero in South Carolina. Some of his admirers presented him with a cane, inscribed: "Use knock-down arguments" and others gave him a cane bearing the

CHARLES SUMNER.

inscription: "Hit him again."

In the North this act added to the deep indignation which was felt at the violent and murderous methods of the slave-holders. Anson Burlingame, then a member of the House, from Massachusetts, denounced the assault in the House and was challenged by Brooks. He accepted the challenge, named rifles as the weapons, and the Clifton House, Canada, as the place of meeting. But as the Massachusetts Representative was a dead shot with the rifle, Brooks objected to the meeting place, and the duel never came off. Representative Potter, a