The American Ten Years' War, 1855-1865

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE STRUGGLE RENEWED. (1857-8.) The peace which Geary brought to Kansas in 1856, is destined to turn out delusive. Invasion from Missouri has indeed shown itself unsuccessful so often, that it is given up, at least on its large scale; but another method has been excogitated at Washington, which is to renew the old struggle by applying fresh instruments of torture to the people of Kansas that they be compelled to adopt slavery. This is essentially a return to the beginning of the contest in 1855, all of which has to be fought over again. There was at first a cessation of political excitement in the North after the election, as it was generally thought that Buchanan would give to Kansas self-government, which of course meant that she would be a Free-State. And such was doubtless Buchanan's early purpose. But when he was fairly launched on the sea of (137) Washington pro-slavery influence, he began to change. Moreover that dualism in the Democratic platform starts to opening wider and wider, and he has to take sides. He, weak in himself, is borne forward by the stronger current of his party. In his inauguration address, the President alludes to a judicial decision soon to be given, A h it'll would settle the whole territorial question upon the principle of popular sovereignty. Thus Buchanan knew beforehand of the Dred Scott decision, and of its interpretation of popular sovereignty. Did he have any hand in bringing about that decision? Seward and Lincoln thought so; but in view of his character the probability is that he simply accepted the scheme which the Southerners had forged in their own inner circle. And now we come to the great new move of the slave-power to destroy the Republican party and to keep their domination against the ever- increasing ...