barrassed in Pennsylvania. With a tariff of their own making,
with a President of their own choice, with both branches of Congress
and every department of the government under their control, a
serious disaster had come upon the country. The promises of
Democratic leaders had failed, their predictions had been falsified,
and as a consequence their strength was shattered. The Republicans
of Pennsylvania, seeing their advantage, pressed it by renewed and
urgent demands for a protective tariff. On the other issues of
the party they had been hopelessly beaten, but the moment the
hostility to slave-labor in the Territories became identified with
protected labor in Pennsylvania, the party was inspired with new
hopes, received indeed a new life.

It was this condition of public opinion in Pennsylvania which made
the recognition of the protective system so essential in the Chicago
platform of 1860. It was to that recognition that Mr. Lincoln in
the end owed his election. The memorable victory of Andrew G.
Curtin, when he was chosen governor by a majority of thirty-two
thousand, was largely due to his able and persuasive presentation
of the tariff question, and to his effective appeals to the laboring-
men in the coal and iron sections of the State. But for this issue
there was in fact no reason why Curtin should have been stronger
in 1860 than Wilmot was in 1857. Indeed, but for that issue he
must have been weaker. The agitation over the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise had somewhat subsided with the lapse of years: the free-
State victory in Kansas was acknowledged and that angry issue
removed; while the Dred Scott decision, failing to arouse popular
resentment at the time it was pronounced, could hardly be effective
for an aggressive canvass three years later. If Governor Curtin
could have presented no other issue to the voters of Pennsylvania,
he would undoubtedly have shared the fate which Wilmot met when he
had these anti-slavery questions as his only platform. Governor
Curtin gave a far greater proportion of his time to the discussion
of the tariff and financial issues than to all others combined,
and he carried Pennsylvania because a majority of her voters believed
that the Democratic party tended to free-trade, and that the
Republican party would espouse and maintain the cause of protection.

PENNSYLVANIA'S INFLUENCE IN 1860.

Had the Republicans failed to carry Pe