XXXVI. -ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CONTINUED) : HIS ELEC- TION; HIS PREPARATION AND HIS PROMISES, 379 XXXVII. —ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CONTINUED) : THE DIPLO- MATIST; THE MILITARY STRATEGIST; THE MASTER OF ENGLISH PROSE; THE STATESMAN ; PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. CHAPTER I. THE EARLIEST FREE SOIL ORGANIZATION-THE ORIGIN OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. IT is April, 1848. The Mexican War is ended. Shall the territory which we made the war to acquire -vast enough in itself for a republic-remain free, or shall it be surrendered to the domination of the slave power? This had been the burning question. We had hoped it was settled by the Wilmot Proviso, which declared that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, should ever exist there. We were now to learn that, touching the peculiar institution, nothing was to be regarded as settled, unless it was settled in the Southern way. The slave power had secured control of the Democratic party. In the name of that party it had hinted at a programme which involved the abrogation of the Wilmot Proviso, and between its lines could be read faint indications of measures which did not mature until six years later. Of these, "Squatter Sovereignty" was the most obvious. This doctrine declared that the people ought to settle the status of a State as between freedom and slavery, after it was admitted into the Federal Union. But "Squatter Sovereignty" involved the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which declared that slavery should not exist north of latitude 36° 30'; for how could the people decide in favor of slavery if it were already excluded by an irrepealable law? There were also occasional suggestions from the South of a stringent law for the capture and return of fugitives from slavery, and of the principles established afterward in the Dred Scott case, as additional planks in the Democratic platform. It was not a favorable time for the slave power to assert new claims, especially in Vermont. While the Liberty party had never attained great numerical strength there, and its leaders were generally regarded as dangerous extremists, there were many good Democrats as well as Whigs who could not but respect such men as William Lloyd Garrison, James G. Birney, and Gerritt Smith, however much they might differ from them as to the means by which their purposes were to be accomplished. Their dif ferences were of degree rather than principle. The New Englanders generally would have said: "Let slavery be content with its present possessions-we will not concern ourselves with it where it has been established by law. But freedom is the natural right and normal condition of the human race. Not one square inch of territory, now free, shall ever be darkened by the pall of slavery with our consent, nor without overcoming all the lawful resistance we can interpose." The Abolitionists, however, insisted that slavery had no rights and that it ought to be everywhere abolished. In fact, slavery itself was cordially detested by the people of the Green Mountains. They inherited their love of freedom from their ancestors. Like Abraham Lincoln in his younger days, the thought of slavery made them uncomfortable. There had been a very warm spot in their hearts for the hunted fugitive ever since Revolutionary days, when Capt. Ebenezer Allen, "conscientious that it is not right in the sight of God to keep slaves," gave to Dinah Mattis and her infant, slaves captured from the enemy, their deed of emancipation; and Judge Harrington decided against the title of the slave-master, because he could not show a deed from the original proprietor— Almighty God! From the day when the name of the State was first adopted, no slave had been taken away from Vermont against his will. The fugitive who set foot upon her soil was from that moment safe if he was not free. Her North and South roads were underground railroads, and there were few houses upon them where the escaped slave was not provided with rest, food, and clothing, and assisted on his way. There were Democrats who would send their teams to carry the fugitives northward, while they themselves walked to a convention to shout for Douglas, and resolve that slavery must not be interfered with in the States where it existed by law. Just about this time the Democratic party of the North gave way, and intimated its willingness to make the concessions which the Southern wing of the party began openly to demand. Chief among these was the rejection of the Wilmot Proviso, and acceptance of the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty." The proximity of Missouri and Arkansas would enable their temporary emigrants to decide that slavery should be lawful in Kansas and Nebraska; and the |