ing a majority of the territorial officers from the slaveholding States. A. H. Reeder was appointed governor by President Pierce. He endeavored to execute the laws faithfully, and ordered an election for members of a territorial legislature, to be held on the 30th of March, 1855. On that day large numbers of armed Missourians crossed the border, and, taking possession of the polling-places in Kansas, succeeded in returning a Pro-slavery legislature.

Six districts at once forwarded protests to the governor against the elections, showing beyond all reasonable doubt that they had been controlled by citizens of Missouri. The governor, who was anxious to do justice to all parties, ordered a new election in these districts, each of which, with the exception of Lecompton, returned a Free Soil delegate. The new delegates, however, were refused their seats upon the assembling of the legislature, and the successful candidates at the original election were admitted.

The governor had summoned the legislature to meet at Pawnee City, on the Kansas river, a town nearly one hundred miles distant from the border, and supposed to be far enough away to be free from intimidation by the Missourians; but the legislature, immediately upon assembling, adjourned to Shawnee Mission, on the Missouri border. The resolution. for this purpose was vetoed by the governor, but was passed over his veto and was at once carried into effect. Upon reassembling at Shawnee Mission the legislature proceeded to adopt the laws of Missouri as the laws of Kansas, and to frame a series of statutes designedly cruel and oppressive. These laws were vetoed by Governor Reeder, who was removed by the president. Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, was then appointed governor of Kansas.

In the meantime the Free Soil settlers had increased so rapidly that they at length largely outnumbered the Pro-slavery settlers. They now felt themselves strong enough to resist the outrages of the Missourians, and accordingly, on the 5th of September, 1855, held a convention, in which they distinctly repudiated the government that had been forced upon them by men who were not residents of the Territory. They announced their intention not to take part in the election of a delegate to Congress, which the territorial authorities had ordered to be held on the 1st of October, and called upon the actual residents of the Territory to send delegates to a convention to meet at Topeka on the 19th of September. This convention organized an executive committee for the Territory, and ordered an election to be held for the purpose of choosing a delegate to Congress. Governor Reeder was nominated and elected to Congress. On the 23d of October the convention adopted a Free State

constitution, and forwarded it to Congress with a petition for the admission of Kansas into the Union as a State.

The struggle for the possession of the Territory now passed out of the area of politics. As we have said, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise opened the way for, and was the direct cause of, the conflict between the Free and Pro-slavery settlers of Kansas. The outrages of the Pro-slavery men had forced the Free-Soilers into an attitude of direct and uncompromising resistance; and after the action of the latter, at Topeka, the struggle which had hitherto been comparatively bloodless changed its character and became an open and sanguinary war between the two parties. In this struggle the Pro-slavery men were the aggressors. Bands of young men, armed and regularly organized into companies and regiments, came into the Territory from South Carolina, Georgia and the extreme Southern States, with the avowed design of making Kansas a slaveholding State at all hazards. On the morning of May 21st, 1856, under the pretext of aiding the United States marshal to serve certain processes upon citizens of Lawrence, they captured that town, sacked it, burned several houses and inflicted a loss upon it amounting to $150,000. From this time the war went on in a series of desultory but bloody encounters, some of which assumed the proportions of battles.

In the summer of 1856 Governor Shannon was removed, and John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, was appointed in his place. He exerted himself honestly to restore peace and execute the laws, and ordered "all bodies of men combined, armed and equipped with munitions of war, without authority of the government, instantly to disband and quit the Territory." In obedience to this order the Free Soil companies nearly all disbanded, but the Pro-slavery party paid scarcely any attention to it. They concentrated a force of two thousand men and advanced upon Lawrence to attack it. Governor Geary at once placed himself at the head of the United States dragoons stationed in the Territory, and by a rapid march threw himself with these troops between the town of Lawrence and the hostile force, and prevented another conflict.

Matters had reached this stage when the presidential campaign opened in 1856. The struggle in the Territories had greatly weakened the Democratic party, and had given rise to a new party which called itself Republican, and which was based upon an avowed hostility to the extension of slavery. A third party, called the American, or Know Nothing, also took part in the campaign, and was based upon the doctrine that the political offices of the country should be held only by persons of American birth. The Democratic party nominated James

Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for the presidency, and John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for the vice-presidency. The Republican nominee for the presidency was John C. Fremont, of California; for the vicepresidency William L. Dayton, of New Jersey. The American party supported Millard Fillmore, of New York, for the presidency, and Andrew J. Donelson, of Tennessee, for the vice-presidency. The Whig party had been broken to pieces by its defeat in 1852, and had now entirely disappeared.

The canvass was unusually excited. Slavery was the principal question in dispute. Party ties had little influence upon men. The sentiment of the nation at large had been outraged by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and thousands of Democrats, desiring to rebuke their party for its course in bringing about this repeal, united with the Republican party, which declared as its leading principle that it was "both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and slavery."

The elections resulted in the triumph of James Buchanan, the candidate of the Democratic party. Mr. Buchanan received 174 electoral votes to 114 cast for Fremont. Though a majority of the American people sustained the action of the Democratic party, the significant fact remained that 1,341,264 of the voters of the country had recorded their condemnation of it by casting their votes for Fremont and Dayton.

CHAPTER XL.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN.

Inauguration of Mr. Buchanan-The Mormon Rebellion-The Financial Crisis of 1857— Laying of the Atlantic Telegraphic Cable-Minnesota admitted into the Union-The San Juan Affair-Admission of Oregon into the Union-The Kansas question-The Lecompton Constitution—Its defeat―The Wyandotte Constitution—Admission of Kansas into the Union-The John Brown Raid-Prompt action of the Government-Brown and his Companions surrendered to the State of Virginia—Their Trial and Execution— Presidential Campaign of 1860-Rupture of the Democratic party-Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States-Secession of South Carolina-Reasons for this Act-Secession of the other Cotton States-Major Anderson occupies Fort SumterTrying position of the General Government-Course of Mr. Buchanan-The "Star of the West" fired upon by the South Carolina Batteries-Organization of the Confederate States of America-Jefferson Davis elected President of the Southern Republic-The Peace Congress-Its Failure.

During the had resided

AMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington on the 4th of March, 1857. He was in his sixty-sixth year, and was a statesman of great accomplishments and ripe experience. He was born in Pennsylvania, in 1791, and was by profession a lawyer. He had served his State in Congress as a representative and a senator, had been minister to Russia under President Jackson, and had been a member of the cabinet of President Polk as secretary of state. four years previous to his election to the presidency he abroad as the minister of the United States to Great Britain, and in that capacity had greatly added to his reputation as a statesman. He avowed the object of his administration to be "to destroy any sectional party, whether North or South, and to restore, if possible, that national fraternal feeling between the different States that had existed during the early days of the republic." The intense sectional feeling which the discussion of the slavery question had aroused had alarmed patriotic men in all parts of the Union, and it was earnestly hoped that Mr. Buchanan's administration would be able to effect a peaceful settlement of the quarrel. Mr. Buchanan selected his cabinet from the leading men of the Democratic party, and placed at its head as secretary of state Lewis Cass, of Michigan.

We have in a previous portion of this work noticed the rise and growth of the Mormon sect, and their settlement in the region of the Great Salt lake, then a part of the Mexican republic. They were not at all pleased with their transfer to the United States by the cession of the territory occupied by them by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. Their object in emigrating to Utah had been to place themselves beyond the limits of the United States, where they could enjoy without molestation their religious practices, and especially the gross and immoral institution of polygamy, to which they were attached as the foundation of their faith. They were not disturbed by the Mexican government, which was indeed scarcely aware of their existence, and thus unnoticed devoted their energies to building up the country they had occupied. Their missionaries were sent into the various countries of Europe, and converts

JAMES BUCHANAN.

were made with extraordinary success and rapidity. They built up a thriving town on the borders of the great lake, to which they gave the name of Salt Lake City, and founded other towns in various parts of the Territory. By the year 1850 the population of the Territory had increased to 11,380. Being on the highway to California, the greater part of the overland traffic and travel to the Pacific passed through Salt Lake City, and was a source of considerable profit to the Mormons.

In 1850 the Territory of Utah was organized, and Brigham Young, who had succeeded Joe Smith as the prophet or leader of the Mormons, was appointed by President Fillmore governor of the Territory. His appointment was renewed by President Pierce, and the Mormons were left during these two administrations to manage their affairs very much in their own way. Relying upon the immense distance which separated them from the States, they paid but little regard to the authority of the United States, and finally ventured openly to resist the officers of the general government, and expelled the federal judge from the Territory. President Buchanan thereupon removed Brigham Young from his office of governor, and appointed a Mr. Cumming his successor. The Mormons having declared that the new governor should not enter the Territory, General Harney was ordered to accompany him with a large body of troops and compel the submission of the people of Utah to the authority of the federal government.