1856.

Assault on Charles Sumner

387

prompt measures to avenge it. By noon on Monday a force of militia-men surrounded the little town, to prevent the escape of those whom, as yet, they were not strong enough to capture. Before night fifteen hundred men were assembled. All that night Brown held his conquest. Nearly all his men were wounded or slain. His two sons were shot dead. Brown, standing beside their bodies, calmly exhorted his men to be firm, and sell their lives as dearly as possible. On Tuesday morning the soldiers forced an entrance, and Brown, with a sabre-cut in his head, and two bayonet-stabs in his body, was a prisoner. He was tried and condemned to die. Throughout his imprisonment, and even amid the horrors of the closing scene, his habitual serenity was undisturbed.

To the enraged slave-owners John Brown was a detestable rebel. To the abolitionists he was a martyr. To the historian he is a true, earnest, but most ill-judging man. His actions were unwise, unwarrantable; but his aims were noble, his self-devotion was heroic.

The divided feeling between the North and South increased in bitterness. The halls of Congress rang with antislavery and proslavery speeches, each of which added fuel to the fire of discord that had long been kindled.

In the senate chamber one day a distinguished senator, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, was bending over his desk busied in writing. He was the most eminent champion of the antislavery cause, and his power as an orator gave him high rank as a political leader. While this senator was occupied with his writing, there walked up to him two men whom South Carolina deemed not unworthy to frame laws for a great people. One of them, a member of the House of Representatives, whose name was Brooks, carried a cane. With this weapon he struck many blows

upon the head of the senator, till his victim fell bleeding and senseless to the floor. For this outrage a trifling fine was imposed on Brooks. His constituents eagerly paid the amount. Brooks resigned his seat. He was immediately reelected, and many handsome canes were bestowed upon him.

Franklin Pierce had succeeded Mr. Fillmore as President. Under Mr. Fillmore's administration the Fugitive Slave Bill had been passed. Under the administration of Mr. Pierce the Missouri Compromise had been repealed. Mr. Pierce was succeeded by Mr. Buchanan. Under his administration the troubles in Kansas had occurred, and the agitations on the question of slavery became violent and dangerous.

The presidential election of 1860 was a battle of arguments and principles. Never had an election taken place under circumstances so exciting. The North was thoroughly aroused on the slave question. The time for compromises was felt to have passed. It was a death-grapple between the two powers. Peaceful arrangement was hopeless. Each party had to put forth its strength and conquer or be crushed.

The enemies of slavery announced it as their design to prevent slavery from extending to the Territories. They had no power to interfere in States where the system already existed. But the Territories, they said, belong to the Union. The proper condition of the Union is freedom. The slave States are merely exceptional. It is contrary to the Constitution to carry this irregularity where it does not already exist.

The Territories, said the South, belong to the Union. All citizens of the Union are free to go there with their property. Slaves are property. Slavery may therefore be established in the Territories if slave-owners choose to settle there.

1860.

Election of Abraham Lincoln.

391

On this issue battle was joined. The Northern party nominated Abraham Lincoln as their candidate. The Southerners, with their friends in the North of whom there were many divided their votes among three candidates. They were defeated, and Abraham Lincoln became President.