ic doctrine
of the South were, therefore, in logic and in fact, irreconcilably
hostile. By the one, slavery could never enter a Territory unless
the inhabitants thereof desired and approved it. By the other
slavery had a foot-hold in the Territories under the Constitution
of the United States, and could not be dislodged or disturbed by
the inhabitants of a Territory even though ninety-nine out of every
hundred were opposed to it. In the Territorial Legislatures laws
might be passed to protect slavery but not to exclude it. From
such contradictory constructions in the same party, conflicts were
certain to arise.

MR. BUCHANAN ELECTED PRESIDENT.

The Democrats of the North sought, not unsuccessfully, to avoid
the slavery question altogether. They urged other considerations
upon popular attention. Mr. Buchanan was presented as a National
candidate, supported by troops of friends in every State of the
Union. Fremont was denounced as a sectional candidate, whose
election by Northern votes on an anti-slavery platform would dissolve
the Union. This incessant cry exerted a wide influence in the
North and was especially powerful in commercial circles. But in
spite of it, Fremont gained rapidly in the free States. The
condition of affairs in Kansas imparted to his supporters a desperate
energy, based on principle and roused to anger. An elaborate and
exciting speech on the "Crime against Kansas," by Senator Sumner,
was followed by an assault from Preston S. Brooks, a member of the
House from South Carolina, which seriously injured Mr. Sumner, and
sensibly increased the exasperation of the North. When a resolution
of the House to expel Brooks was under consideration, he boasted
that "a blow struck by him then would be followed by a revolution."
This but added fuel to a Northern flame already burning to white-
heat. Votes by tens of thousands declared that they did not desire
a Union which was held together by the forbearance or permission
of any man or body of men, and they welcomed a test of any character
that should determine the supremacy of the Constitution and the
strength of the government.

The canvass grew in animation and earnestness to the end, the
Republicans gaining strength before the people of the North every
day. But Buchanan's election was not a surprise. Indeed, it had
been generally expected. He received the electoral votes of every
Southern State e