resolution that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory except for crime." The "Wilmot proviso" became for the time being the rallying cry of the free party of the North. It was carried by the House and failed in the Senate, and, as was usual in those years, the South secured all that it wanted, and the new territory was open to slavery.

Wilmot was supported by his Legislature at home in the House by a vote of ninety-six to nothing and in the Senate by twenty-four to three. In these larger questions affecting freedom and slavery Pennsylvanians of all parties were unequivocally on the side of the North.*

There was great competition between the parties to secure the acceptance of their nominations by the popular general of the war, Zachary Taylor, as candidate for the Presidency. He had not voted for thirty years, and desired to go into office by popular rather than partisan choice. Cameron, whose political foresight appreciated his availability, wanted him for the Democrats. He was a Southern man and a slave-holder, and experience showed that such could be trusted. But the Whigs offered more, and nominated the general without a platform, to the mortification of the old burden-bearers of the party, Clay and Webster. Taylor was a plain, modest, but capable man, and proved a good candidate. He was supposed to combine in a curious way the prestige of military renown and opposition to the policy which brought on the war; to stand for Whig ideas in general, but to be non-committal on the Wilmot proviso and other special issues. Pennsylvania gave him her vote.

By 1850 Pennsylvania had in secure control her great, but now manageable, debt. Her credit was good. Her increase of population since 1840 showed the greatest percentage of any State in the Union, and she had over two

* The reputation which Wilmot gained was partly accidental. It had been agreed that whoever of a certain number of Northern Democrats should gain the recognition of the Speaker should offer the resolution, which had been prepared by Brinckerhoff, of Ohio. Wilmot first secured the floor.

million three hundred thousand people within her borders. In the indispensable articles-wheat, iron, and coal-her production exceeded any other State.

Politically she was naturally Democratic, though by a small majority, and the Whig party, by taking advantage of a popular candidate or disputes among its adversaries, could occasionally secure a victory. There had been much to be ashamed of in the decade just closing, corruption of voters and legislators, farcical investigations in which the fees of witnesses were a prominent feature, squandering of public lands and public improvements, weak city administration, small-minded but shrewd public men, who kept better men out of office; but the great source of difficulty, the public lines of transportation, was now in better condition, and there seemed to be an honest desire to uncover the errors of the past, and to live a healthier political life. The cause of freedom to which she was overwhelmingly committed was purifying her morals and giving higher impulses to her people. This cause was to be the engrossing feature of the coming decade.

The city of Philadelphia now largely regained the literary supremacy of the first decade of the century. George R. Graham, in 1841, united two periodicals of small circulation, and created Graham's Magazine. With one of them came Edgar Allan Poe as editor. James Russell Lowell was for a short time associated with the editorial labors. Much of Poe's best work appeared in its columns. Longfellow wrote for it "Spanish Student," "Nuremberg," "The Arsenal at Springfield," and a number of other small poems. Hawthorne was a contributor; so were Whipple, Phoebe and Alice Carey, Simms, Willis, and indeed all the important American literary men of its time except Irving. Charles J. Peterson, Rufus W. Griswold, James Fenimore Cooper, Edwin P. Whipple, Bayard Taylor, and Charles G. Leland were at various times associated with the editorial management. The subscription list, encouraged by the brilliancy of the corps of contributors, ran up to thirty-five thousand, an unprecedented figure for those days. Graham

was the first publisher to pay fair prices to American authors, and to this and his judgment in recognizing talent, his success is largely due. In 1859 Graham's Magazine became the American Monthly.

Bayard Taylor was born in Chester County, in 1825. His first poem was printed in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia in 1841. In 1844 he went abroad under contract to write letters for certain papers. Those to the New York

Tribune were afterwards printed in book form under the title of "Views Afoot." He was a great traveller and an untiring writer as correspondent, poet, and novelist. Some of his novels relate to the life surrounding his home in Kennett Square, among the Quaker families, from one of which he sprang. His great literary work was his translation of "Faust." He was made Secretary of the Legation at St. Petersburg by President Lincoln, in 1861, and Minister to Berlin by President Hayes, in 1877.

T. Buchanan Read was also born in Chester County. When a boy he ran away from his home and trade, went to Ohio, and was successively cigar-maker, actor, and portrait painter. He settled in Philadelphia in 1846. During the remainder of his life he painted portraits with considerable success, and wrote a number of patriotic poems, of which "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies," dealing with revolutionary characters, and "Sheridan's Ride" are perhaps the most noted.