ublic opinion against slavery. It led to redoubled
efforts to help runaway slaves through the Northern states to Canada. A
regular system was established. This was called the "Underground
Railway." In short, instead of bringing about "a union of hearts," the
Compromise of 1850 increased the ill feeling between the people of the
two sections of the country.

[Sidenote: "Uncle Tom's Cabin."]

[Sidenote: Effects of this book.]

348. "Uncle Tom's Cabin."--It was at this time that Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In this story she set forth the
pleasant side of slavery--the light-heartedness and kind-heartedness of
the negroes. In it she also set forth the unpleasant side of
slavery--the whipping of human beings, the selling of human beings, the
hunting of human beings. Of course, there never was such a slave as
Uncle Tom. The story is simply a wonderful picture of slavery as it
appeared to a brilliant woman of the North. Hundreds of thousands of
copies of this book were sold in the South as well as in the North.
Plays founded on the book were acted on the stage. Southern people when
reading "Uncle Tom" thought little of the unpleasant things in it: they
liked the pleasant things in it. Northern people laughed at the pretty
pictures of plantation life: they were moved to tears by the tales of
cruelty. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the Fugitive Slave Law convinced the
people of the North that bounds must be set to the extension of slavery.

CHAPTER 34

THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS

[Sidenote: Campaign of 1852.]

[Sidenote: Pierce elected President.]

349. Pierce elected President, 1852.--It was now Campaign time for
a new election. The Whigs had been successful with two old soldiers, so
they thought they would try again with another soldier and nominated
General Winfield Scott, the conqueror of Mexico. The Democrats also
nominated a soldier, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who had been in
northern Mexico with Taylor. The Democrats and Whigs both said that they
would stand by the Compromise of 1850. But many voters thought that
there would be less danger of excitement with a Democrat in the White
House and voted for Pierce for that reason. They soon found that they
were terribly mistaken in their belief.

[Sidenote: The Nebraska bill, 1854. _Source-Book, 284-287._]

[Sidenote: Douglas asserts Compromise of 1820 to be repealed.]

350. Douglas's Nebraska Bill.--President Pierce began his term of
o