per and pulpit:

"I, JOHN BROWN, AM NOW QUITE CERTAIN THAT THE CRIMES OF THIS GUILTY LAND
WILL NEVER BE PURGED AWAY BUT WITH BLOOD."

If the hour for bloodshed had come they demanded that the South prepare
without further words. And they believed that the hour had come. They
heard the tread of swarming hosts. They were eager to meet them.

Reason was flung to the winds. Passion ruled. Compromise was a thing
beyond discussion. Douglas was a Northern man and they would have none
of him. He was hooted and catcalled until he was compelled to withdraw
from the Convention.

The radical South named their own candidate for President. He couldn't
be elected. No matter. War was inevitable.

Let it come.

The Northern Democratic Convention named Douglas for President. He
couldn't be elected. No matter. War was inevitable. Let it come.

In dumb amazement at the tragedy approaching--the tragedy of a divided
Union and a bloody civil war--the Union men of the party nominated a
third ticket, Bell of Tennessee and Everett of Massachusetts. They
couldn't be elected. No matter. War was inevitable. It had to come. They
would stand by their principles and go down with them.

When the new Republican party met at Chicago they were sobered by the
responsibility suddenly thrust upon them of naming the next President of
the United States. Fremont, a mere figurehead as their candidate, had
polled a million votes in the campaign before. With three Democratic
tickets in the field, success was sure.

They wrote a conservative platform and named for their candidate Abraham
Lincoln, the one man in their party who had denounced John Brown's
deeds, the man who had declared in his debates with Douglas that he did
not believe in making negroes voters or jurors, that he did not believe
in the equality of the races, that he did not believe that two such
races could ever live together in a Democracy on terms of political or
social equality.

Their candidate was the gentlest, broadest, sanest man within their
ranks. Unless the nation had already gone mad they felt that in his
triumph they would be safe from the Red Menace which stalked through
their crowded hall. Their radical leaders were furious. But they were
compelled to submit and fight for his election. The life of their party
depended on it. Their own life was bound up in their party.

There was really but one issue before the nation--peace or war. The new
party, both in its candidate and