over the land, and the extremists on both sides were able to prosecute their unpatriotic work to great advantage. While the excitement was at its height the Presidential campaign opened in the Spring of 1860. The slavery question was the chief issue in this struggle. The convention of the Democratic party met at Charleston, in April, but being unable to effect an organi EDWARD EVERETT. minority of that party. The new convention was joined by a number of delegates from the Northern and Western States. The convention, after the withdrawal of these delegates, nominated for the Presidency Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and for the Vice-Presidency Herschell V. Johnson, of Georgia. It then proceeded to adopt the platform put forward by the entire party four years before at Cincinnati, upon the The "Seceders' Convention," as it was commonly called, also adopted the Cincinnati platform, and pledged themselves to non-interference by Congress with slavery in the Territories or the District of Columbia. This party held to the doctrine that the constitution recognized slavery as existing in the Territories, and sanctioned and protected it there, zation adjourned to Baltimore, and reassem- and that neither Congress nor the peobled in that city in June. The extreme south-ple of the Territories could frame any law ern delegates were resolved that the convention should be committed to the protection of slavery in the Territories by Congress, and failing to control it withdrew from it in a body, and organized a separate convention, which they declared represented the Democratic party, but which, in reality, as the vote subsequently proved, represented but a against slavery until the admission of such Territories into the Union as States. The regular convention held that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery in the Territories, to legislate either for or against it; that the regulation of that question belonged entirely to the people of the respective Territories acting through their Legislatures. Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. This doctrine was popularly known as "Squat- | Tennessee, and for the Vice-Presidency ter Sovereignty," and was credited to Mr. Douglas. The "Seceders' Convention" put forward as its candidate for the Presidency John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and for the Vice-Presidency Joseph Lane, of Oregon. Republican Nominations. The Republican party took issue with both wings of the Democratic party. Its convention was held at Chicago, Illinois, and its candidates were, for President Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and for Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. The platform of principles adopted by the Chicago Convention declared that "the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions. .. That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. . . . . . That the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States and the union of the States must and shall be preserved." The platform also declared that the rights of the States should be maintained inviolate, "especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively." It asserted" that the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom," and denied the right or "authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States." A fourth party, known as the "Constitutional Union Party," proclaimed as its platform the following vague sentence: "The constitution of the country, the union of the States and the enforcement of the laws." The convention of this party met at Baltimore, and nominated for the Presidency John Bell, of The contest between these parties was bitter beyond all precedent. When the election took place in November, the result was as follows: Popular vote for Lincoln. Bell, 1,866,452 Douglas, 1,375,157 The electoral vote stood as follows: For Lincoln, 180; for Breckenridge, 72; fø Bell, 39; for Douglas, 12. Election of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was thus elected by a plurality of the popular vote, which secured for him the electoral votes of eighteen States. These States were entirely north of the sectional line, and he received not a single electoral vote from a Southern State. The States, which cast their electoral votes for Breckenridge, Bell and Douglas, were entirely slaveholding. The division thus made was alarming. It was the first time in the history of the Republic that a President had been elected by the votes of a single section of the Union. The state in which the Presidential election left the country, was alarming. The excitement was higher than it had been before the struggle at the polls. The Gulf States had declared at an early period of the political campaign that they would withdraw from the Union in the event of the election of a Republican President. The people of the South generally regarded the result of the election as an evidence of the determination of the Northern States to use the power of the fed-' eral government to destroy the institution of slavery. The disunion leaders exerted themselves to deepen this conviction, and to arouse the fears of the South. On the other hand, the Republican leaders | country's history as he had never been took little pains to allay the excitement by needed before; but, alas! statesmanship of declaring their intentions to execute faith- any kind was painfully wanting. fully the constitution and laws of the Union. Their declarations of fidelity to the Union were abundant, and were generally accompanied by equally plain assertions of their As soon as the election of Mr. Lincoln was definitely ascertained, the legislature of South Carolina summoned a sovereign convention of the people of that State, which BRIDGE CROSSING THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER AT HARRISBURG. determination to oppose by force the withdrawal of the Southern States-declarations which were ill-suited to calm the fears of the South, or to encourage the party in that section, which desired a perpetuation of the Union. A statesman of the Henry Clay school was needed at this crisis of our met on the seventeenth of December, 1860 This convention adopted an ordinance of secession on the twentieth of December, and declared the State no longer a member of the Union. The reasons assigned for this action were thus stated by the convention: "An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the general government have ceased to effect the objects of the constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. Strong Affirmations. "In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from the service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State government complied with the stipulations made in the constitution. Thus the constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by these non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation. "We affirm that these ends for which this government was instituted have been defeated, and the government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of nonslaveholding States. Those States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted the open establishment among them of societies whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloigne the property of citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain have been incited by emissaries, books, and pictures to servile insurrection. "For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common government. Observing the forms of the constitution, a sectional party has found within that article establishing the executive department the means of subverting the constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. Charges Against Certain States. "He is to be intrusted with the administration of the common government because he has declared that that 'government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. "This sectional combination for the subversion of the constitution has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its peace and safety. "On the fourth of March next this party will take possession of the government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory; that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States. "The guarantees of the constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protection, and the federal government will become their enemy." These reasons were substantially the same as those avowed by the other Southern States in support of their action, and therefore we - have quoted them at length. The example of South Carolina was followed by the other States of the far South, which summoned conventions and adopted ordinances of secession. Mississippi withdrew from the Union on the ninth of January, 1861; Florida on the tenth of January; Alabama on the eleventh of January; Georgia on the nineteenth of January; Louisiana on the twenty-sixth of January, and Texas on the first of February. The forts, arsenals and other public property of the United States within the limits of these States were seized by the authorities of the States in which they were situated, and were held by their troops, with the exception of Forts Moultrie and Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and Fort Pickens, at Pensacola. Critical State of Affairs. Fort Moultrie was occupied by Major Robert Anderson, of the United States army, with a garrison of eighty men. Becoming alarmed at the rapid concentration of troops in Charleston, Major Anderson evacuated. the fort on the night of December 25, 1860, and threw himself with his command into Fort Sumter, which was built in the bay at some distance from either shore. The State troops at once occupied Fort Moultrie, and began to erect batteries of heavy guns at different points along the harbor for the reduction of Fort Sumter. Fort Pickens was held by a garrison under Lieutenant Slemmer. The State of Florida occupied the navy yard at Pensacola and the other forts in that harbor with her troops. The property of the general government seized by the seceded States amounted to over twenty millions of dollars in value. The position of the general government was one of great difficulty. The President was called upon either to recognize the lawfulness of the acts of the seceded States, and thus to join in the work of dissolving the Union, or to maintain the authority of the federal government, and compel the submission of the Southern States to the constitution and laws of the land. The government was almost powerless to enforce its authority. The army, but sixteen thousand strong, was stationed upon the remote frontier, and the available vessels of the navy were nearly all absent on foreign service. Many of the most prominent federal officials, including several of the cabinet ministers, were in open sympathy with the seceded States. The President's position was unquestionably embarrassing, but he made no use of the means at his command. General Scott, the veteran commander of the army, believed that prompt action on the part of the general government would confine the evil to the six cotton States, and urged the President to act with vigor. Mr. Buchanan was sorely perplexed, and seemed chiefly anxious to postpone all definite action until the inauguration of his successor. He was in favor of conceding everything but separate independence to the South, failing to perceive that the leaders of the secession movement would accept nothing but separation; and by his timidity lost the advantages which the government would have gained by a bold, firm course. Attempt to Aid Major Anderson. As Major Anderson was short of supplies and needed reinforcements, the steamship "Star of the West" was despatched by the government to Charleston with provisions and a detachment of two hundred and fifty men to his assistance. She reached Charleston on the ninth of January, 1861, and |