450 
Indiana University 
but the ties of statehood, commerce, and sentiment were 
strongest to the north, and the Ohio Valley, when pulled be- 
tween political allegiance on the one side and economic and 
governmental ties on the other, went with the latter, protest- 
ing the while. 
Following the Democratic victory of 1856, the right for 
slavery to expand into the territories received its sanction 
in the Dred Scott decision. The effect of the decision in 
the Northwest was immediate and profound. While the Re- 
publican outcry against it was spontaneous, the Democrats 
received the decision in silence and uncertainty. It was left 
to the agile Douglas to find a way out. 
The struggle for dominance on the part of the Republican 
party between 1857 and 1860 centered in Indiana, the last 
and most reliable Democratic stronghold in the North,^^^ and 
Illinois, where fought the two great leaders of the opposing 
parties. Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan were already won 
by Republicans and, in spite of local issues and influences 
which produced temporary setbacks and disappointments, to 
be depended upon.^^^ 
The break of the Douglas Democrats with the administra- 
tion over the Lecompton constitution produced notable results 
in all 5 states, but especially bitter was the struggle in 
Indiana and Illinois where enough administration follow- 
ing remained to put up a fight. All 8 Democratic Congress- 
men from Indiana voted for the Lecompton constitution, but 
the majority of the Democrats of the state were followers of 
Douglas. Under the leadership of Senator Jessie D. 
Bright,^^® the state Democratic convention in 1858 excluded 
the Douglas Democrats. In spite of internal division, the 
Pennsylvania and Indiana were the only northern states in 1856 that gave 
Buchanan clear majorities. Pennsylvania later went over to the new party before 
Indiana. 
Republicans succeeded in electing Chase governor of Ohio in 1857 by the very 
small plurality of 1,503 votes, whereas the plurality in 1855 had been 15,751. 
All the leading Democratic papers of the state, 30 in number, excepting only the 
Indianapolis State Sentinel, condemned the Lecompton fraud in no uncertain terms. 
Logansport (Ind.) Democratic Pharos, April 28, 1858. For partial list see Zimmerman, 
“The Republican Party in Indiana, 1854-1860”, in Indiana Magazine of History, XIII, 
354. 
A trick election by the legislature in February, 1857, had sent Jessie D. Bright 
and G, W. Fitch to United States Senate. The special session of 1858 later elected 
Henry S. Lane, Republican, and William M. McCarty, Anti-Lecompton Democrat, to the 
seats occupied by the two proslavery men, but they were refused admission by the 
United States Senate. 
