e elected. The
weight of the combined opposition, directed against Leavenworth,
caused his defeat by less than fifteen hundred, showing that
Republicans were gradually absorbing all the anti-slavery elements.

Upon what theory the American party nominated an eclectic ticket did
not appear, although the belief obtained that it hoped to cloud
Seward's presidential prospects by creating the impression that the
Senator was unable, without assistance, to carry his own State on the
eve of a great national contest. But whatever the reason, the result
deeply humiliated the party, since its voting strength, reduced to
less than 21,000, proved insufficient to do more than expose the
weakness. This was the last appearance of the American party. It had
endeavoured to extend its life and increase its influence; but after
its refusal to interdict slavery in the territories it rapidly melted
away. Henry Wilson, senator and Vice President, declared that he would
give ten years of his life if he could blot out his membership in the
Know-Nothing party, since it associated him throughout his long and
attractive public career with proscriptive principles of which he was
ashamed.

In the midst of the campaign the country was startled by John Brown's
raid at Harper's Ferry. For two years Brown had lived an uneventful
life in New York on land in the Adirondack region given him by Gerrit
Smith. In 1851, he moved to Ohio, and from thence to Kansas, where he
became known as John Brown of Osawatomie. He had been a consistent
enemy of slavery, working the underground railroad and sympathising
with every scheme for the rescue of slaves; but once in Kansas, he
readily learned the use of a Sharpe's rifle. In revenge for the
destruction of Lawrence, he deliberately massacred the pro-slavery
settlers living along Pottawatomie creek. "Without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sins," was a favourite text. His
activity made him a national character. The President offered $250 for
his arrest and the governor of Missouri added $3000 more. In 1858, he
returned East, collected money to aid an insurrection among the slaves
of Virginia, and on October 17, 1859, with eighteen men, began his
quixotic campaign by cutting telegraph wires, stopping trains, and
seizing the national armory at Harper's Ferry. At one time he had
taken sixty prisoners.

The affair was soon over, but not until the entire band was killed or
captured. Brown, severely hurt,