adily with Seward
and Sumner and Fessenden and Wade against the political associations
of a lifetime. It meant, to the far-seeing, more than a temporary
estrangement, and it foretold results in the political field more
important than any which had been developed since the foundation
of the Republican party.

The resistance to the Lecompton Bill in the House was unconquerable.
The Administration could not, with all its power and patronage,
enforce its passage. Anxious to avert the mortification of an
absolute and unqualified defeat, the supporters of the scheme
changed their ground, and offered a new measure, moved by Mr.
William H. English of Indiana, submitting the entire constitution
to a vote of the people. If adopted, the constitution carried with
it a generous land grant to the new State. If rejected, the
alternative was not only the withdrawal of the land grant, but
indefinite postponement of the whole question of admission. It
was simply a bribe, cunningly and unscrupulously contrived, to
induce the people of Kansas to accept a pro-slavery constitution.
It was not so outrageous as it would have been to force the
constitution upon the people without allowing them to vote upon it
at all, and it gave a shadow of excuse to certain Democrats, who
did not wish to separate from their party, for returning to the
ranks. The bill was at last forced through the House by 112 votes
to 103. Twelve Democrats, to their honor be it said, refused to
yield. Douglas held all his political associates from Illinois,
while the President failed to consolidate the Democrats from
Pennsylvania. John Hickman and Henry Chapman honorably and
tenaciously held their ground to the last against every phase of
the outrage. In New York, John B. Haskin and Horace F. Clarke
refused to yield, though great efforts were made to induce them to
support the administration. The Senate promptly concurred in the
English proposition.

LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION REJECTED.

But Kansas would not sell her birthright for a mess of pottage.
She had fought too long for freedom to be bribed to the support of
slavery. She had at last a free vote, and rejected the Lecompton
Constitution, land grant and all, by a majority of more than ten
thousand. The struggle was over. The pro-slavery men were defeated.
The North was victorious. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise
had not brought profit or honor to those who