recks of
Whiggism began immediately, and while the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was
still being hotly debated in Congress, it was not until 1860 that it was
completed.

In the meantime various incidents had shown that the sectional
patriotism of the North, the fury of the abolitionists, and the positive
temper in politics, were all drawing closer together. Each of these
tendencies can be briefly illustrated. For example, the rush to Kansas
had begun, and the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society was preparing to
assist settlers who were going west. In May, there occurred at Boston
one of the most conspicuous attempts to rescue a fugitive slave, in
which a mob led by Thomas Wentworth Higginson attacked the guards of
Anthony Burns, a captured fugitive, killed one of them, but failed to
get the slave, who was carried to a revenue cutter between lines of
soldiers and returned to slavery. Among numerous details of the hour the
burning of Douglas in effigy is perhaps worth passing notice. In duly
the anti-Nebraska men of Michigan held a convention, at which they
organized as a political party and nominated a state ticket. Of their
nominees, two had hitherto ranked themselves as Free-Soilers, three as
anti-slavery Democrats, and five as Whigs. For the name of their party
they chose "Republican," and as the foundation of their platform the
resolution "That, postponing and suspending all differences with
regard to political economy or administrative policy," they would "act
cordially and faithfully in unison," opposing the extension of slavery,
and would "cooperate and be known as 'Republicans' until the contest be
terminated."

The history of the next two years is, in its main outlines, the story
of the war in Kansas and of the spread of this new party throughout the
North. It was only by degrees, however, that the Republicans absorbed
the various groups of anti-Nebraska men. What happened at this time in
Illinois may be taken as typical, and it is particularly noteworthy
as revealing the first real appearance of Abraham Lincoln in American
history.

Though in 1854 he was not yet a national figure, Lincoln was locally
accredited with keen political insight, and was, regarded in Illinois as
a strong lawyer. The story is told of him that, while he was attending
court on the circuit, he heard the news of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in
a tavern and sat up most of the night talking about it. Next morning
he used a phrase destined to become fam