personage of its history, and the second personage in the history of the Republic.

The nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago in May, 1860, was not accomplished without a severe contest, nor without doubts and misgivings on the part of many members of the convention. Mr. Seward was the recognized leader of the party, and he was supported by the State of New York. The State of Ohio presented Mr. Chase, who in standing and influence was second only to Mr. Seward. The votes of Pennsylvania were given for General Cameron, and thus the three leading Republican States were divided.

After several ballots, the nomination of Mr. Lincoln was made. The result was received with enthusiasm in the Northwestern States, with feelings of disappointment in New York, but with hope and confidence elsewhere. By the month of September all disappointments had been allayed, and the party was not, united merely, it was compacted as firmly as was ever any military organization. It was sustained by its principles and rendered enthusiastic by the certainty of success.

The declarations made at Chicago were aggressive, and in many particulars the platform of 1860 was a contrast to, rather than a growth from, that of 1856. It asserted that the normal condition of all the territory of the United States was that of freedom; it denounced the outrages in Kansas, and demanded its immediate admission into the Union with her Constitution as a free State; it branded the re-opening of the African slave-trade as a crime, and in expressing the abhorrence of the Republican party to all schemes of disunion, the Democratic party was arraigned for its silence in the presence of threats of secession made by its own members. The doctrine of encouragement to domestic industry was announced, the sale of the public lands was condemned, the coming measure of securing homesteads for the landless was approved, and a pledge of protection was given to all citizens, whether native or naturalized, and whether at home or abroad.

The party was again pledged to the construction of a railway to the Pacific Ocean, and to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country.

In the primary declaration, the platform asserted the necessity for the existence of the Republican party, coupled with the assurance of its permanency.

It was assumed in the platform that the Republican party was soon

to enter upon the work of administering the Government. It pledged itself to economy, to the Union, to the rights of the States, and to unending hostility to every form of human servitude.

The aggregate popular vote exceeded four million six hundred and eighty thousand, and of the total one million eight hundred and sixtysix thousand votes were given for Mr. Lincoln, and of the three hundred and three electoral votes, he received one hundred and eighty. The Democratic party was divided. Mr. Breckinridge, the candidate of the South, received eight hundred and forty-seven thousand votes and seventy-two votes in the Electoral College, while Mr. Douglas received only twelve electoral votes, although his popular vote reached a million three hundred and seventy-five thousand. John Bell received thirty-nine electoral votes on a popular vote of less than six hundred thousand. The popular vote for Mr. Lincoln was nearly a half-million less than a majority; but his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, was also a minority President.

Eleven States voted for Mr. Breckinridge, and of these, all, except Delaware and Maryland, became members of the Confederacy. The States of Virginia and Tennessee, that had voted for Mr. Bell, supplied the places in the Confederacy made vacant by the absence of Maryland and Delaware. The result showed that the Democratic party, as represented by Mr. Breckinridge, was in fact a secession party as well. The division of the Democratic party decided the election in favor of Mr. Lincoln.

Had that party supported Mr. Douglas in good faith, his election would have been secured, probably; but the South would have been left without excuse, if it had persisted in the scheme of secession. Therefore it came to pass that the Democratic party was disorganized by its own leaders, as a step preliminary to the election of Mr. Lincoln and the secession of the States of the South.

The election of Mr. Lincoln was made the pretext for disunion, but the leaders must have known that he would be powerless to do any act or thing contrary to their Constitutional rights while the members of Congress from the South retained their seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. They had, however, only a choice of ways. It was not possible to hold seats in the Congress of the United States and at the same time to organize a hostile government. If Jefferson Davis was to become the President of the Confederacy, it was necessary for him to surrender his seat in the Senate of the

United States.

A like necessity attended the leading men by whom

he was supported.

It was also the necessity of their situation that the new government should be organized during the administration of Mr. Buchanan. It is not necessary to assume any private understanding between the President and the leaders of secession. His message of December, 1860, contained declarations which justified Mr. Davis and his associates in assuming that Mr. Buchanan would not interfere with the organization of the new government. Of Mr. Lincoln, and of the administration that he might form, nothing could then be known.

Mr. Buchanan denied' the right of secession as a Constitutional right, but he also denied to the Government of the United States all power under the Constitution to prevent secession by force. As a consequence the Union could exist only by the concurring and continuing consent of each and every State. Hence it was competent in fact, if not in law, for a majority of the voters in the smallest State, as Delaware, for example, to declare the Union at an end. Thus it came to pass that the Constitutional opinions of the President harmonized with the purposes of the secessionists. They took the responsibility of seceding from the Union, and the President took the responsibility of announcing that the general Government had no power under the Constitution to interfere with their undertaking.

Denying the right of the National Government to preserve its existence by force, the opinions of the President upon the abstract Constitutional question of the right of secession were of no practical value whatever.

Upon the admission of Mr. Buchanan, the Union ceased to exist on the 17th day of December, 1860, when the State of South Carolina adopted the ordinance of secession. It followed from Mr. Buchanan's position that the war, and all the incidents and consequences of the war, were unconstitutional.

The weakness of his position was shown by the impotence of the conclusions to which he was driven. Having surrendered all right of jurisdiction over the territory and people of South Carolina, he yet attempted to assert a right of property in the custom-houses and forts that had been constructed by the United States, although he could not visit those custom-houses and forts except as an act of war. Upon his theory of the Government, Mr. Buchanan was President from the 17th of December, 1860, to the 4th of March, 1851, of a part only of the country that had elected him to office.

Thus, by the aggressive acts of one wing of the Democratic party, and the non-action of the representatives of the whole party, the Union ceased to exist. One wing of the party said the Union had no right to exist. The other wing of the party said the Union had no Constitutional right to maintain its existence by force. Standing in the presence of the facts that existed the 22d day of February, 1861, and with a knowledge of the opinions entertained by Mr. Buchanan, the conclusion is outside of the realm of controversy that if he had had two years more of official life, the Confederacy would have been established firmly and recognized by the leading nations of the world. The Union was dismembered and surrendered by the Democratic party.

The Union was re-established by the Republican party.

CHAPTER V.

THE INAUGURATION OF MR. LINCOLN, AND THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY QUESTIONS THEN FORCED UPON THE COUNTRY.

R. BUCHANAN'S denial of the constitutional right of seces

MR was an impotent abstraction in presence of his declara

tion that the national government had not a constitutional right to preserve its existence by force. The position of Mr. Buchanan was more favorable to the South than any other that he could have chosen. The only peril of the South was war on the part of the national gov

ernment.

Under the administration of Mr. Buchanan there could be no war. His assertion of the right of property in the custom-houses, forts, and arsenals, implied the use of force for their recovery and possession, but jurisdiction over the remaining territory of a State was still to be exercised by the State. With that jurisdiction conceded, of what use to the national government would have been the possession of custom-houses, arsenals, and forts? In a short period of time they would have been surrendered to the State authorities.

The effect of his position was to unite the South by relieving the timid and conservative elements of all fear of war. He thus made it possible for the advocates of immediate secession to say that the only thing needed was the courage to act, as the act would be accepted as an accomplished fact.

If Mr. Buchanan had asserted the right of secession, his influence with the democratic party of the North would have been greatly diminished if not destroyed utterly; but his qualified position was sustained apparently by all of the democratic voters in the Free States who had not supported Mr. Douglas. Mr. Buchanan's policy consolidated the South and divided the North.