esire a settlement before the election. And Sumner's
speech on the "Crime of Kansas" was a challenge to war. He compared
Douglas to "the noisome squat and nameless animal whose tongue switched
a perpetual stench," and Senator Butler, of South Carolina, a leader of
the highest character, was a man who could not open his mouth but to
lie.

The war of the sections was now renewed in the most bitter form, as was
shown when Preston Brooks, a kinsman of Butler, assaulted Sumner a day
or two after the speech, resigned his seat in the House as
Representative from South Carolina, and was immediately reelected.
Sumner retired from the Senate, a hero in all New England, and
Massachusetts ostentatiously refused to fill the vacant seat during the
next three years, thus constantly reminding her people of Sumner's
vituperation and the South Carolina assault.

When the Democrats met in their national convention in Cincinnati in
June, the struggle in Kansas still went on, and the excitement of the
Sumner-Brooks affair had not subsided. All elements of the South were
represented, and the American party showed no signs of being able to
carry a single Southern State. The convention accepted Douglas's popular
sovereignty as its platform, but nominated Buchanan as its candidate. He
was "available" because he had been out of the country for four years
and had said nothing on the Kansas quarrel. John C. Breckinridge, of
Kentucky, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency in the hope of winning
Tennessee and Kentucky, which had not voted for a Democratic candidate
since Jackson.

The Republicans used the "Crime of Kansas" as politicians always use
such opportunities, and they made an appeal to the Revolutionary
tradition by calling their convention on the anniversary of the battle
of Bunker Hill, June 17. They had not a _bona fide_ delegation from any
Southern State. But the Declaration of Independence, overlooked by both
parties for many years, was made a part of the platform. The Pacific
railway was indorsed and internal improvements at federal expense were
again recommended to the country. John C. Fremont, son-in-law of Benton
and an explorer of national fame, was nominated for the Presidency. The
campaign had already been waging since the introduction of the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It now became intense. Douglas gave Buchanan his
loyal support, and the great Southern planters united with New York
merchants and New England conservatives to make