and cabinet appointments bursting and sprouting out in a wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands.

"On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out."

In this session of Congress Douglas introduced a bill for the organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which became the absorbing topic of thought and conversation all over the land, the one issue which overshadowed all others.

The Kansas-Nebraska bill, as it was called, contemplated the organization of these Territories into States, without insisting upon the prohibition of slavery, which the Missouri compromise had established. Indeed, it was a virtual nullification of that compromise. The measure took the country by surprise. It had not been demanded by the South, nor expected by the North, but each entered heart and soul into the controversy.

Douglas was untiring in his efforts to procure the passage of the bill, and was seconded by others, who, if inferior to him in ability, were equal in enthusiasm, and the bill finally passed the Senate by a small majority, despite the efforts of those grand apostles of freedom, Sumner, Chase and Seward, who were arrayed against it. The struggle in the House was prolonged, but the bill was finally successful, and became a law. Thus at a single blow the whole statutory opposition to the spread of slavery was swept away, and there was nothing to hinder the introduction of the institution into any territory over which the American flag floated. Especially since,

in the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court had decided slavery to be constitutional. For the moment the slave-power seemed to be absolutely triumphant, but its very success was a potent element in its overthrow.

As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska bill," squattersovereignty" was proclaimed in the disputed territory. This term, which was widely used, contained the essence of the new policy promulgated by Douglas as the central principle of his party. It was in effect that each State was sovereign, within its own limits, and had the power to adopt or exclude slavery as it desired. Hence each State was to decide upon its status, in regard to the institution, by ballot. The new doctrine was tersely summed up by Lincoln in a speech at Springfield as follows: "That if any one man choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object." The argument used by Douglas was incorporated in the bill in the following language:

"It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only. to the Constitution of the United States."

The subsequent agitation in Kansas, resulting in bloodshed and mob-violence, and the final admission of the Territories as free States, are familiar to every school-boy, and need not to be repeated here.

Lincoln viewed the proceedings with deep interest and no little apprehension. Although he deprecated the necessity of agitation, he saw clearly that the whole question had come to a square issue, and that

it must be firmly met, and he felt that the time for action had come. Many enthusiastic Abolitionists were starting for Kansas, and he was invited to make one of an armed band to go there and fight for freedom, but he refused to go, and earnestly counselled them to abstain from all violence, and to obey the laws of the country, showing that it was better to bear oppression from rulers than to enter into a rebellion against the government.

The passage of the bill proved the death-knell of the Whig party, indeed it introduced the utmost confusion into political councils on every side, and for a time it was impossible to analyze the situation. Many Democrats were dissatisfied with the policy of the party, and joined with the Whigs, Abolitionists, Freesoilers and miscellaneous elements to form a new party, which was in the future to be known as the Republican party.

Lincoln, without hesitation, joined his fortunes with the new movement, and became its recognized leader in Illinois. This party, which was soon to become the dominant power in American politics, numbered many strong and influential men in its ranks, and, although of conflicting political opinions previously, they now united upon the single issue of hostility to the extension of slavery and its prohibition in all Territories.

A convention of all those who were in sympathy with these principles was called to meet in Bloomington, May 29, 1856, and the Republican party was formally organized in the State. A national convention was called to meet in Philadelphia in June, which nominated a national ticket, at the head of which

was placed the illustrious name of John C. Fremont. Lincoln's prominence in political circles was so great that he received one hundred and ten votes for the

position of Vice-President. The party became wholly committed to the opposition to the spread of slavery, and, for the first time in the history of the country, the slave-holders found themselves squarely opposed by a great and compactly organized political party. The fact that the working forces of the new party must be drawn necessarily from the free States, and that the opposition must come mainly from the slave States, not only increased sectional antagonism, but led to a disruption of the Democratic party, each section following radical or conservative leaders. Although this division did not take place in the campaign of '56, it so weakened the Democratic party in the next presidential campaign that the election of a Republican President followed.

The campaign of '56 was one of the most animated and closely contested political campaigns since the formation of the government up to that time. However, the time was not ripe. Indiana and Pennsylvania, two doubtful States, were carried by the Democrats by narrow majorities, and Buchanan was elected. Lincoln, up to this time, had not been outspoken in regard to slavery. He had always looked upon it with horror and detestation. The horrors of the slave-mart, the barbarous cruelty of plantation life in many of its phases, and the utter disregard of human rights, shown on every side, had been inexpressibly shocking to him, yet he had never taken a prominent stand against it, and had looked with suspicion upon the Abolitionists and their bold efforts to

overthrow it. He stated clearly and tersely his attitude upon the subject in a speech in reply to one of Judge Douglas in Chicago, July 10, 1858, as follows:

"I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist-I have been an old-line Whig-I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska bill began. I have always believed that everybody was against it, and that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. The great mass of the nation have rested in the ultimate belief that slavery was in the course of extinction."

If he had held his peace hitherto, on the great topic, he was to do so no more. From this time on no heart was more earnest nor tongue more eloquent in behalf of the down-trodden millions than his. With him it was an ever-present evil, becoming more and more appalling as time went on, and more and more did he become impressed with the magnitude and imminence of the struggle, and the stupendous catastrophe threatened by it.

He was always ready to assist fugitive slaves, and more than once put himself to great inconvenience and some personal danger by reason of his sympathy for the suffering slave fleeing from bondage.

One afternoon an old negro woman came into his office, and told the story of her trouble. It appears that she and her offspring were born slaves in Kentucky, and that her owner had brought the whole family into Illinois, and given them their freedom. Her son had gone down the Mississippi as a waiter or deck-hand on a steamboat. Arriving at New Orleans, he had imprudently gone ashore, and had been