ch Democratic faction, were elected to
the Court of Appeals by 13,000 majority, showing that a united
Democratic party would have swept the State as it did in 1852.

The Whigs accepted their success as Sheridan said the English received
the peace of Amiens--as "one of which everybody was glad and nobody
was proud." Of the 240,000 Whigs who voted in 1852, less than 170,000
supported the ticket in 1853. Some of this shrinkage was doubtless due
to the natural falling off in an "off year" and to an unusually stormy
election day; but there were evidences of open revolt and studied
apathy which emphasised the want of harmony and the necessity for
fixed principles.

CHAPTER XV

A BREAKING-UP OF PARTY TIES

1854

While the Hards and Softs quarrelled, and the Whigs showed weakness
because of a want of harmony and the lack of principles, a great
contest was being waged at Washington. In December, 1853, Stephen A.
Douglas, from his place in the United States Senate, introduced the
famous Nebraska bill affirming that the Clay compromise of 1850 had
repealed the Missouri compromise of 1820. This sounded the trumpet of
battle. The struggle of slavery and freedom was now to be fought to a
finish. The discussion in Congress began in January, 1854, and ended
on May 30. When it commenced the slavery question seemed settled; when
it closed the country was in a ferment. Anti-slavery Whigs found
companionship with Free-soil Democrats; the titles of "Nebraska" and
"Anti-Nebraska" distinguished men's politics; conventions of
Democrats, Whigs, and Free-soilers met to resist "the iniquity;" and
on July 6 the Republican party, under whose banner the great fight was
to be finished, found a birthplace at Jackson, Michigan.

Rufus King's part in the historic struggle of the Missouri Compromise
was played by William H. Seward in the great contest over its repeal.
He was the leader of the anti-slavery Whigs of the country, just as
his distinguished predecessor had been the leader of the anti-slavery
forces in 1820. He marshalled the opposition, and, when he finally
took the floor on the 17th of February, he made a legal argument as
close, logical, and carefully considered as if addressed to the
Supreme Court of the United States. He developed the history of
slavery and its successive compromises; he answered every argument in
favour of the bill; he appealed to its supporters to admit that they
never dreamed of its abrogating the compr