he best hope for a restoration in the
future to the pristine purity and fraternity of the Union, rests on the
opinions and character of the men who are to succeed this generation:
that they maybe suited to that blessed work, one, whose public course is
ended, invokes them to draw their creed from the fountains of our
political history, rather than from the lower stream, polluted as it has
been by self-seeking place-hunters and by sectional strife.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

Introduction

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

African Servitude.--A Retrospect.--Early Legislation with Regard to the
Slave-Trade.--The Southern States foremost in prohibiting it.--A Common
Error corrected.--The Ethical Question never at Issue in Sectional
Controversies.--The Acquisition of Louisiana.--The Missouri
Compromise.--The Balance of Power.--Note.--The Indiana Case.

CHAPTER II.

The Session of 1849-'50.--The Compromise Measures.--Virtual Abrogation
of the Missouri Compromise.--The Admission of California.--The Fugitive
Slave Law.--Death of Mr. Calhoun.--Anecdote of Mr. Clay.

CHAPTER III.

Reelection to the Senate.--Political Controversies in
Mississippi.--Action of the Democratic State Convention.--Defeat of the
State-Rights Party.--Withdrawal of General Quitman and Nomination of the
Author as Candidate for the Office of Governor.--The Canvass and its
Result.--Retirement to Private Life.

CHAPTER IV.

The Author enters the Cabinet.--Administration of the War
Department.--Surveys for a Pacific Railway.--Extension of the
Capitol.--New Regiments organized.--Colonel Samuel Cooper,
Adjutant-General.--A Bit of Civil-Service Reform.--Reelection to the
Senate.--Continuity of the Pierce Cabinet.--Character of Franklin
Pierce.

CHAPTER V.

The Territorial Question.--An Incident at the White House.--The Kansas
and Nebraska Bill.--The Missouri Compromise abrogated in 1850, not in
1854.--Origin of "Squatter Sovereignty."--Sectional Rivalry and its
Consequences.--The Emigrant Aid Societies.--"The Bible and Sharpe's
Rifles."--False Pretensions as to Principle.--The Strife in Kansas.--A
Retrospect.--The Original Equilibrium of Power and its Overthrow.--
Usurpations of the Federal Government.--The Protective Tariff.--
Origin and Progress of Abolitionism.--Who were the Friends of
the Union?--An Illustration of Political Morality.

CHAPTER VI.

Agitation continued.--Political Parties: their Origin, Changes, and
Modifications.--S