Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/329

CHAPTER IV.

THE NEW ANTI-NATIONAL MOVEMENT.

SECTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1856—AGGRESSIVE ASSAULT ON THE UNION BY THE FREMONT PARTY-ITS STRENGTH ALARMS THE SOUTH—"ALL NEW ENGLAND SOLID"—SOUTHERN VOTE GIVEN TO NATIONAL NORTHERN MEN—BUCHANAN ELECTED BY ONLY NINETEEN STATES—THE ELECTION ENDORSED THE COMPROMISE OF 1850—KANSAS AGITATION RENEWED BY THE SECTIONALISTS—DEMOCRATIC LEADERS DIVIDE THE PARTY—LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS—THE UNION IMPERILED FOR PARTY SUCCESS—THE CRISIS IMPENDING—DISUNION BECOMING EVIDENT—JOHN BROWN’S RAID A RESULT OF METHODIC MADNESS—PULPIT, PRESS AND PLATFORM STIR UP PASSIONS—HELPER’S IMPENDING CRISIS REINFORCES UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.

THE controversy over the Settlement of 1850 which had begun with limited popularity, persisted through the defeats of five years, until now, under the political conditions of parties North and with the opportunity furnished by the Kansas question, it suddenly enlarged into such proportions as to create among its leaders the sanguine hope of political success through a party under a new and attractive name taken from the early days of the republic.

The exciting debates in Congress on questions relating to geographical supremacy, the eager discussions among the people, the election of Congressmen opposed to the administration, the increasing control of State governments in the North, encouraged a combination powerful enough to confront aggressively the national party, whose leaders then controlled the government. The grounds

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