452 
Indiana University 
While Indiana and Illinois Republicans were being fused 
into harmonious working unity, their Michigan neighbors 
were beset with problems of internal dissent and having diffi- 
culty in holding their own. Hard times in the state, increas- 
ing expenditures under a Republican legislature, and lack 
of enough offices to satisfy Whigs, Free Soilers, and ex-Demo- 
crats, with resulting jealousy, all tended to weaken the party. 
In the state election of 1858, the Republicans elected Moses 
Wisner governor but lost over 6,000 votes from their majority 
of 1856. In Wisconsin the Republicans were embarrassed by 
the rumor of Governor Bashford’s acceptance of $50,000 from 
the Milwaukee and La Crosse Railroad, and his name was 
withdrawn from before the Republican convention and A. W. 
Randall nominated instead. Randall was elected by a very 
narrow margin, his vote being over 20,000 short of Fremont’s 
vote of 1856. In 1858 the Lecompton question and the Demo- 
cratic split were overshadowed by scandals in the state govern- 
ment. The legislature in 1858 uncovered a condition of ex- 
tensive corruption, one of the most wholesale in the history 
of state government. The majority of the legislature, the 
Governor, at least one judge of the supreme court, and many 
of the leading newspapers of the state had been involved in 
the bribery scheme of the Milwaukee and La Crosse Railroad. 
This amazing affair attracted national attention. The Re- 
publicans took the stand that they had fearlessly investigated 
corruption and thrown out their tainted members while the 
Democrats had shielded their culprits and were now trying 
to confer offices and honors upon them. The congressional 
elections of 1858 returned 2 Republicans and 1 Democratic 
Congressman. Randall was renominated in 1859, and the 
election of that year put all branches of the state government 
into Republican hands for the first time. In the Ohio election 
there was no American party ticket in the field, and the Re- 
publicans elected William Dennison with a majority which 
again approached that of 1854. 
From 1858 to 1860, the leaders of the rival parties were 
perfecting their plans for the coming struggle. Douglas had 
read the public mind of the Northwest better than his 
opponents and was stronger in 1859 than in 1858. Men of 
property and those of Whig instincts as well as many of the 
churches began to weigh the dangers of radicalism. Douglas 
took the Illinois organization with him, and in Indiana the 
