sfully? He knew that there was a hard fight
before him, but with the courage of a great political strategist,
and proudly confident in his hold upon the main body of his party, he
prepared for both the attacks and the defections that were inevitable.

Defections, indeed, began at once. Even before the bill had been passed,
the "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" was printed in a New York
paper, with the signatures of members of Congress representing both the
extreme anti-slavery wing of the Democrats and the organized Free-Soil
party. The most famous of these names were those of Chase and Sumner,
both of whom had been sent to the Senate by a coalition of Free-Soilers
and Democrats. With them was the veteran abolitionist, Giddings of
Ohio. The "Appeal" denounced Douglas as an "unscrupulous politician"
and sounded both the warcries of the Northern masses by accusing him of
being engaged in "an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied
region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own
States."

The events of the spring and summer of 1854 may all be grouped under
two heads--the formation of an anti-Nebraska party, and the quick rush
of sectional patriotism to seize the territory laid open by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. The instantaneous refusal of the Northerners to
confine their settlement to Nebraska, and their prompt invasion of
Kansas; the similar invasion from the South; the support of both
movements by societies organized for that purpose; the war in Kansas
all the details of this thrilling story have been told elsewhere.* The
political story alone concerns us here.

*See Jesse Macy, "The Anti-Slavery Crusade". (In "The
Chronicles of America".)

When the fight began there were four parties in the field: the
Democrats, the Whigs, the Free-Soilers, and the Know-Nothings.

The Free-Soil party, hitherto a small organization, had sought to make
slavery the main issue in politics. Its watchword was "Free soil, free
speech, free labor, and free men." It is needless to add that it was
instantaneous in its opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The Whigs at the moment enjoyed the greatest prestige, owing to the
association with them of such distinguished leaders as Webster and Clay.
In 1854, however, as a party they were dying, and the very condition
that had made success possible for the Democrats made it impossible for
the Whigs, because the latter stood for positive ideas, and aimed