The Sifted Grain aiid the Grain Sifters 209 The election returns of 1848 tell the story. They are still elo- quent. The heart of the movement of that year lay in Massa- chusetts and Vermont. In those two states, taken together, the party of the future polled, in 1848, a little over 28 per cent, of the aggregate vote cast. In Wisconsin it polled close upon 27 per cent. ; and this 27 per cent, in Wisconsin is to be compared with i 5 per cent, in Michigan, 12 per cent, in Illinois, less than 11 percent. in Ohio, and not 4 per cent, in the adjoining state of Iowa. In the three neighboring states of Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, taken to- gether, the new movement gathered into itself 1 2 per cent, of the total voting constituency, while in Wisconsin it counted, as I have said, over 26 per cent. Thus, in 1848, Wisconsin was the Ver- mont of the West ; sending to Congress as one of its three repre- sentatives Charles Durkee, a son of Vermont, the first distinctively anti-slavery man from the Northwest. Wisconsin remained the Vermont of the West. From its very origin not the smallest doubt attached to its attitude. It emphasized it in words when in 1 849 it instructed one of its senators at Washington "to immediately resign his seat " because he had " outraged the feelings of the people " by dalliance with the demands of the slave power ; it emphasized it by action when five years later its highest judicial tribunal did not hesi- tate to declare the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 "unconstitutional and void." At the momentous election of i860, Wisconsin threw 56 per cent, of its vote in favor of the ticket bearing the name of Abraham Lincoln ; nor did the convictions of the state weaken under the test of war. In 1864, when Wisconsin had sent into the field over 90,000 enlisted men to maintain the Union, and to make effective the most extreme doctrine of war powers under the Consti- tution, — even then, in the fourth year of severest stress, Wisconsin again threw 55 per cent, of its popular vote for the re-election of Lincoln. A year later the struggle ended. Throughout the ordeal Wisconsin never faltered. Of the record made by Wisconsin in the Civil War, I am not here to speak. That field has been sufficiently covered, and covered by those far better qualified than I to work in it. I will only say, in often quoted words, that none then died more freely or in greater glory than those Wisconsin sent into the field, though then many died, and there was much glory. When figures so speak, comment weakens. Look at the record : — Fifty-seven regiments and thirteen batteries in the field ; a death-roll exceeding 12,000; a Wisconsin regiment (2d) first in that roll of honor which tells off the regiments of the Union which suffered most, and two other Wisconsin regi- ments (7th and 26th), together, fifth ; while a brigade made up three-
