Weed, on December 7. "You must abandon your position. It will prove
distasteful to the majority of those whom you have hitherto led. You
and Seward should be among the foremost to brandish the lance and
shout for joy."[612] To this the famous editor, giving a succinct view
of his policy, replied with his usual directness. "I have not dreamed
of anything inconsistent with Republican duty. We owe our existence as
a party to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. But for the ever
blind spirit of slavery, Buchanan would have taken away our ammunition
and spiked our guns. The continued blindness of Democracy and the
continued madness of slavery enabled us to elect Lincoln. That success
ends our mission so far as Kansas and the encroachments of slavery
into free territory are concerned. We have no territory that invites
slavery for any other than political objects, and with the power of
territorial organisation in the hands of Lincoln, there is no
political temptation in all the territory belonging to us. The fight
is over. Practically, the issues of the late campaign are obsolete. If
the Republican members of Congress stand still, we shall have a
divided North and a united South. If they move promptly, there will be
a divided South and a united North."[613]

[Footnote 612: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
309.]

[Footnote 613: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
309.]

It is not, perhaps, surprising that Weed found so much to say in
favour of his proposition, since the same compromise and the same
arguments were made use of a few weeks later by no less a person than
the venerable John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the Nestor of the United
States Senate. Crittenden was ten years older than Weed, and, like
him, was actuated by sincere patriotism. Although his compromise
contained six proposed amendments to the Constitution, it was believed
that all differences between the sections could easily be adjusted
after the acceptance of the first article, which recognised slavery as
existing south of latitude 36 deg. 30', and pledged it protection "as
property by all the departments of the territorial government during
its continuance." The article also provided that States should be
admitted from territory either north or south of that line, with or
without slavery, as their constitutions might declare.[614] This part
of the compromise was not new to Congress or to the country. It had
bee