HISTORY 



173 



In the Democratic National convention of 1848, 

 Lewis Cass was nominated for president, and 

 William O. Butler for vice-president. By the 

 Whig convention Zachary Taylor and Afillard 

 Fillmore were nominated. The question of 

 slavery had a powerful influence on the political 

 combinations of this period. In 1846, during 

 \ican War, a bill being before Congress 

 authorizing the president to use $2,000,000 in 

 negotiating a peace, David Wilmot, a Demo- 

 cratic representative from Pennsylvania, moved 

 to add thereto a proviso prohibiting slavery in 

 any territory acquired from Mexico. This pro- 

 viso was adopted in the House, nearly all the 

 members from the free States voting for it, but 

 failed in the Senate from want of time. Several 

 delegates seceded from both the Whig and Dem- 

 ocratic conventions of 1848, on the failure of 

 those bodies to pronounce in favor of the prin- 

 ciple of the proviso. These, with the Liberty 

 party, formed in 1840, organized a free-soil or 

 free Democratic party, and Martin Van Buren 

 was nominated for president and Charles Francis 

 Adams for vice-president. Van Buren and 

 Adams received at the election, in November, a 

 popular vote of 291,263, but secured no electoral 

 vote. Taylor and Fillmore were elected. The 

 application in 1850 of California for admission 

 as a State roused the slavery controversy, and 

 the difficulty was complicated by the application 

 of New Mexico for admission, and by a claim 

 brought forward by Texas to a western line of 

 boundary which would include a large portion 

 of New Mexico. Finally, a compromise was pro- 

 posed by Henry Clay in the Senate as a nnal 

 settlement of the whole Question of slavery, and 

 after a long discussion the result aimed at was 

 attained by separate acts, which provided for: 



(1) the admission of California as a free State; 



(2) Territorial Governments for New Mexico and 

 Utah without excluding slavery, but leaving its 

 inclusion or admission to the local population; 



(3) the settlement of the Texas boundary ques- 

 tion; (4) the abolition of the slave trade in the 

 District of Columbia; (5) the enactment of a 

 stringent law for the arrest and return of fugitive 

 slaves. President Taylor died July 9, 1850, and 

 was succeeded by the vice-president, Millar <1 

 Fillmore. The whole weight of his admini>t ra- 

 tion was given to the support of the compromise 

 measures. The Democratic National Conven- 

 tion of 1852 nominated for president Franklin 

 Pierce of New Hampshire, who was known to 

 hold opinions satisfactory to the South on the 

 subject of slavery, and William H. King of Ala- 

 bama for vice-president. The Whig National 

 < '"MY. -nt ion nominated for president General 

 Winfie.ld Scott, and for vice-president William 



dwm of North Carolina. The National 



I'.M of the Free-soil party nominated 



John P. Hale for president, and George W. Julian 



president. Pierce and King were elected. 



The passage in \*.~>\ of ;i bill for tin- or^ani/.a- 



t ones of Kansas and Nebraska, 



by which the Missouri Compromise Act of 1820 



was repealed, roused great excitement and in- 



ion in the free States. The struggle in 



Kansas between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery 



(see Kansas) and the assault by Brooks 



on s i miner (see Sumner, Charles) added to the 



feeling. Preparatory to the presidential canvass 

 of 1856 the Republican party was formed, which 

 absorbed the entire Free-soil party, the greater 

 part of the Whig party, and considerable ac 

 sions from the Democratic. That portion of the 

 Whig party opposed to anti-slavery measures 



I was merged, especially at the South, in an organ- 

 ization called the American party, from its oppo- 

 sition to foreign influence, and particularly to 



, Roman Catholic influence, in our political affairs, 

 but popularly known as the "Know-Nothing 

 Party " from the secrecy of its organization and 

 the reticence of its members. This party nomi- 

 nated Millard Fillmore for president, and An- 

 drew J. Donelson of Tennessee for vice-president. 

 The Democratic National Convention nominated 

 James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for president, 

 and John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for vice- 

 president. The Republican National Conven- 

 tion nominated John C. Fremont of California 



for president, and William L. Dayton of New 

 Jersey for vice-president. Buchanan and Breck- 

 enridge were elected. The chief interest of Mr. 

 Buchanan's administration centered around the 

 slavery controversy. A constitution for Kansas 

 framed at Lecompton in 1857 was laid before 

 Congress in the session of 1857-58, and its dis- 

 cussion resulted in a schism in the Democratic 

 party, and eventually in its division into two 

 bodies, one of which looked upon Stephen A. 

 Douglas as its leader, while the other supported 

 Breckenridge for the presidency. The Demo- 

 cratic National Convention met at Charleston, 

 April 23, 1860, and a controversy on the subject 

 of slavery immediately arose. A non-committal 



; platform having been adopted, most of the 

 Southern delegates withdrew and adopted a plat- 



j form of their own, denying the right of Congress 



; to interfere with, and asserting its duty to pro- 



I tect, slavery in the Territories. The convention 

 adjourned May 3d, reassembled in Baltimore 

 June 18th, and nominated Stephen A. Douglas 

 of Illinois for president, and Benjamin Fitzpat- 

 rick of Alabama for vice-president. The latter 



i afterward declined, and Herschel V. Johnson of 



j Georgia was substituted. A convention called 

 by the seceding delegates convened at Baltimore 

 on June 23d, and nominated John C. Brecken- 



j ridge for president, and Joseph Lane of t >i- 

 for vice-president. The "Constitutional I'nion " 

 party, composed mainly of the American party. 

 nominated for president John Bell of Tennessee, 

 and for vice-i>rr-i<irnt K<lward Everett of Massa- 

 chusetts. Tne Republican National Convention 

 assembled at Chicago on May ltth. an.l nomi- 

 nated for president Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. 

 and for vice-president Hannibal Hamlin of 

 Maine. In the election, November (ith. Mr. 

 Lincoln received the electoral votes of all the 

 free States (except three in New Jersey), 180. 

 and was elected. Mr. Hell received the votes of 

 Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 39; Mr. 

 Douglas the 9 votes of Missouri and :t from New 

 Jersey; and the remaining Southern States cast 

 their" 7 '2 doctoral votes for Hreckenn-i: 

 convention was at once called in South Carolina, 

 an.l on December LMMh unanimously adopted an 

 ordinance of secession from the Inion. Before 

 .i May, 1861. -l % States had glased 

 ordinances of secession (South Carolina, Missis- 



