entire people.

One significant effect of the passage of the bill was the immediate
disruption of the Whig party. As a great national organization
--of which Clay and Webster had been eminent leaders, and Harrison
and Taylor successful candidates for the Presidency--it now passes
into history. Upon its ruins, the Republican party at once came
into being. Under the leadership of Fremont as its candidate, and
opposition by Congressional intervention to slavery extension as
its chief issue, it was a formidable antagonist to the Democratic party,
in the Presidential contest of 1856. Mr. Buchanan had defeated
Douglas in the nominating convention of his party that year.
His absence from the country as Minister to England, during the
exciting events just mentioned, it was thought would make him a
safer candidate than his chief competitor, Douglas. He had been
in no manner identified with the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, or the stormy
events which immediately followed its passage. In his letter of
acceptance, however, Mr. Buchanan had given his unqualified approval
of his party platform, which recognized and adopted "the principle
contained in the organic law establishing the Territories of Nebraska
and Kansas as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the
slavery question." Upon the principle here declared, issue was
joined by his political opponents, and the battle fought to the
bitter end.

Although Douglas had met personal defeat in his aspiration to
the Presidency, the principle of non-intervention by Congress in
the affairs of the Territories, for which he had so earnestly
contended, had been triumphant both in the convention of the party,
and at the polls. This principle, in its application to Kansas,
was soon to be put to the test. From its organization, that
Territory had been a continuous scene of disorder, often of violence.
In rapid succession three Governors appointed by the President had
resigned and departed the Territory, each confessing his inability
to maintain public order. The struggle for mastery between the
Free State advocates and their adversaries arrested the attention of
the entire country. It vividly recalled the bloody forays read of
in the old chronicles of hostile clans upon the Scottish border.

The parting of the ways between Senator Douglas and President
Buchanan was now reached. The latter had received the cordial
support of Douglas in the election which elevated him to the
Pres