if Fremont is elected, adherence to the Union is treason to liberty. I tell you now that the Southern man who will submit to his election is a traitor and a coward."

Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia, in an address to the people of his State, declared: "The South can not, without degradation, submit to the election of a Black Republican President. To tell me that we should submit to a Black Republican, under circumstances like these, is to tell me that Virginia and the fifteen slave States are already subjugated and degraded. We will not submit."

The Charleston Mercury, the recognized organ of the South Carolina Democracy, announced:

Upon the policy of dissolving the Union, of separating the South from her Northern enemies, and establishing a Southern Confederacy, parties, presses, politicians and people are a unit. There is not a single public man in her limits, not one of her present representatives or senators in Congress who is not pledged to the lips in favor of disunion. Indeed, we well remember that one of the most prominent leaders of the cooperation party, when taunted with submission, rebuked the thought by saying, "that in opposing secession he only took a step backward to strike a blow more deadly against the Union."

The Washington correspondent of the New Orleans Delta, a journal high in the confidence of the Pierce administration,

wrote:

It is already arranged, in the event of Fremont's election, or a failure to elect by the people, [meaning slave-holders] to all the legislatures of Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia to concert measures to withdraw from the Union before Fremont can get possession of the army and navy and the pursestrings of government. Governor Wise is actively at work already in the matter. The South can rely on the President in the emergency contemplated.

Said the Richmond Enquirer:

If Fremont is elected the Union will not last an hour after Mr. Pierce's term expires.

If Fremont is elected it will be the duty of the South to dissolve the Union and form a Southern Confederacy.

Let the South present a compact and undivided front. Let her, if possible, detach Pennsylvania and Southern Ohio,

Southern Indiana and Southern Illinois from the North, and make the highlands between the Ohio and the lakes the dividing line. Let the South treat with California; and, if necessary, ally herself with Russia, with Cuba and Brazil.

What a campaign it was! How the prodigions energy of Greeley, through the broad columas of the Tribune, woke every patriotic impulse and roused every energy! How Garrison, Sumner, Codding, Beecher,King, Smith, Phillips, Stowe, Giddings, Lane, Wilson, Hale, Stevens, Fred Douglass, Colfax and scores of others passed up and down among the people, shouting liberty in every community and proclaiming freedom from every house-top!

Nevertheless the threats of the South had their effect. Thousands of voters in the North feared that the election of a Republican President would indeed be the signal for disunion, and Fremont was defeated. He had against him the influence of the federal officials North and South, the United States Supreme and the various federal courts, the vast enginery of the slave-power, the administration and the proslaveryites of the North. He received, however, the eight votes of Maine, five votes of New Hampshire, thirteen votes of Massachusetts, four votes of Rhode Island, six votes of Connecticut, five votes of Vermont, thirty-five votes of New York, twenty-three votes of Ohio, six votes of Michigan, four votes of Iowa and five votes of Wisconsin-114 in all, against 173 for Buchanan and eight (Maryland) for Jno. C. Breckinridge.

The Northern States that voted for Buchanan were New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and California. The remainder of his support came from the slave States.

CHAPTER XX.

CONVENTION OF 1860.

The Nation Intensely Excited—Several Candidates for the Presidency -Convention meets in Chicago on May 16-Curiosities of the Day -The Monster Bowie-knife-Potter Describes his Difficulty with Pryor-Lists of Committees-Permanent Officers-Greeley's Slavery Resolution--Giddings offers an Amendment-Leaves the Convention-Geo. Wm. Curtis Triumphs-Seward's Supporters-A Noisy Night-Presentation of Candidates-Terriffic DemonstrationsTaking the Ballot-A Moment of Suspense-Lincoln Nominated -A Scene of Excitement-Candidates for the Vice-PresidencyHannibal Hamlin Nominated-Chicago after the ConventionRails from the Sangamon Bottoms-An Extraordinary Campaign— Sentiments and Utterances of the South-Lincoln Elected-Equal Rejoicing North and South.

If possible, the people of the North were more thoroughly aroused and fearful over the threats and aggressions of the slave power, as the time for another Presidential campaign drew near, than they had been in 1856. The thongs that bound the Union together were stretched to their utmost tension. That the South had resolved upon dismemberment, was the clearest thing before the public. They were only waiting for the North to take some step, adopt some line of policy, that, not being satisfactory, could be seized upon as an excuse for sundering those bonds without ruth or hesitation, and setting up an independent slave empire after their own heart.

Therefore was the South a slumbering volcano, a powder magazine which would be exploded by any misstep or deviation on the part of the North from the straight and narrow