roceeded to pass laws
upholding and fortifying slavery. It declared it a felony, punishable
by two years' imprisonment, to write or maintain that persons have not
the right to hold slaves in the territory; it disqualified all
anti-slavery men from sitting as jurors; it made one's presence in the
territory sufficient qualification to vote; and it punished with death
any one who assisted in the escape of fugitive slaves. When Reeder
vetoed these acts the Legislature passed them over his head and
demanded the Governor's removal. To add to the popular feeling,
already deeply inflamed, President Pierce met this demand with
affirmative action.

In the midst of this political excitement, the Hards met in convention
at Syracuse on August 23, 1855. That party had been sorely punished in
the preceding election; but it had in no way changed its attitude
toward opponents. It refused to invite the Softs to participate; it
denounced the national administration, and it condemned the
Know-Nothings. Daniel E. Sickles, then thirty-four years old, who was
destined to play a conspicuous part when the country was in
difficulty and the Government in danger, sought to broaden and
liberalise its work; but the convention sullenly outvoted him. It
approved the Nebraska Act, refused to listen to appeals in behalf of
freedom in Kansas, and rebuked all efforts to restore the Missouri
Compromise. Only upon the liquor question did it modify its former
declarations. The Hards had started off in 1854 in favour of
prohibition. But during the campaign, Bronson changed his position,
or, as Greeley put it, "he first inclined to water, then to rum and
water, and finally he came out all rum." To keep in accord with their
leader's latest change, the delegates now declared the prohibitory law
unconstitutional and demanded its repeal. This law, passed on April 9,
1855, and entitled "An Act for the prevention of intemperance,
pauperism, and crime," permitted the sale of liquors for mechanical,
chemical, and medicinal uses; but prohibited the traffic for other
purposes. Its regulations, providing for search, prosecutions, and the
destruction of forfeited liquors, were the very strongest, and its
enforcement gave rise to much litigation. Among other things it denied
trial by jury. In May, 1856, the Court of Appeals declared it
unconstitutional. But while it lasted it gave the politicians much
concern. The Democrats disapproved and other parties avoided it.

On