enate. An amendment in the House returned it to the people with the
promise, if accepted, of a large grant of government land; but the
electors spurned the bribe--the free-state men, at a third election
held on August 2, 1858, rejecting the constitution by 11,000 out of
13,000 votes.

This ended the Lecompton episode, but it was destined to leave a
breach in the ranks of the Democrats big with consequences. Stephen
A. Douglas was now the best known and most popular man in the North,
and his popular sovereignty doctrine, as applied to the Lecompton
Constitution, seemed so certain of settling the slavery question in
the interest of freedom that leading Republicans of New York, notably
Henry J. Raymond and Horace Greeley, not only favoured the return of
Douglas to the Senate unopposed by their own party, but seriously
considered the union of Douglas Democrats and Republicans. It was even
suggested that Douglas become the Republican candidate for President.
This would head off Seward and please Greeley, whose predilection for
an "available" candidate was only equalled by his growing distrust of
the New York Senator. The unanimous nomination of Abraham Lincoln for
United States senator and his great debate with Douglas, disclosing
the incompatibility between Douglasism and Republicanism, abruptly
ended this plan; but the plausible assumption that the inhabitants of
a territory had a natural right to establish, as well as prohibit,
slavery had made such a profound impression upon Northern Democrats
that they did not hesitate to approve the Douglas doctrine regardless
of its unpopularity in the South.

In the summer of 1858, candidates for governor were nominated in New
York. The Republican convention, convened at Syracuse on the 8th of
September, like its predecessor in 1856, was divided into Weed and
anti-Weed delegates. The latter, composed of Know-Nothings, Radicals
of Democratic antecedents, and remnants of the prohibition party,
wanted Timothy Jenkins for governor. Jenkins was a very skilful
political organiser. He had served Oneida County as district attorney
and for six years in Congress, and he now had the united support of
many men who, although without special influence, made a very
formidable showing. But Weed was not looking in that direction. His
earliest choice was Simeon Draper of New York City, whom he had thrust
aside two years before, and when sudden financial embarrassment
rendered Draper unavailable, he