rest in the conflict between slavery and freedom, and the
fearless stand of Preston King of St. Lawrence in supporting the
Wilmot Proviso, excluding "slavery and involuntary servitude" from the
territory obtained from Mexico, had added fuel to the flame. King was
a Radical from principle and from prejudice. For four successive years
he had been in the Assembly, hostile to canals and opposed to all
improvements. In his bitterness he denounced the Whig party as the old
Federalist party under another name. He was now, at the age of forty,
serving his second term in Congress. But, obstinate and uncompromising
as was his Democracy, the aggressive spirit and encroaching designs of
slavery had so deeply disturbed him that he refused to go with his
party in its avowed purpose of extending slavery into free or newly
acquired territory.

To the Hunkers, this new departure seemed to offer an opportunity of
weakening the Radicals by forcing them into opposition to the Polk
administration; and a resolution, approving the course of the New York
congressmen who had supported the annexation of Texas, appeared in the
Senate soon after its organisation. Very naturally, politicians were
afraid of it; and the debate, which quickly degenerated into bitter
personalities, indicated that the Free-soil sentiment, soon to inspire
the new Republican party, had not only taken root among the Radicals,
but that rivalries between the two factions rested on differences of
principle far deeper than canal improvement. "If you study the papers
at all," wrote William H. Seward, "you will see that the Barnburners
of this State have carried the war into Africa, and the extraordinary
spectacle is exhibited of Democrats making up an issue of slavery at
Washington. The consequences of this movement cannot be fully
apprehended. It brings on the great question sooner and more directly
than we have even hoped. All questions of revenue, currency, and
economy sink before it. The hour for the discussion of emancipation is
nearer at hand, by many years, than has been supposed."[354]

[Footnote 354: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 33.]

CHAPTER IX

THE FOURTH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

1846

The constitutional convention, called by the Legislature of 1845,
received popular sanction at the fall elections; and, in April, 1846,
one hundred and twenty-eight delegates were chosen. The convention
assembled on the first day of June, and terminat