secure justice to the citizens of
Kansas would in all probability have led to his removal, but the
march of events withdrew the question involved from the people of
Kansas to the halls of Congress. The policy of the administration
was driving a wedge into the Democratic party. The bill for the
admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution passed the
Senate by a vote of 33 yeas to 25 nays, four northern Democrats
and two southern Americans voting with the Republicans against it.

In the House of Representatives, composed of 128 Democrats, 92
Republicans and 14 Americans, the bill was defeated by the adoption
of an amendment which provided that the Lecompton constitution
should be submitted to a vote of the people of Kansas, but this
amendment was disagreed to by the Senate, and the disagreement was
referred to a committee of conference. The result was the adoption
of a substitute known as the English bill. This bill, though
faulty, and partisan, provided for the admission of Kansas under
the Lecompton constitution, but provided also for a submission of
the English bill to a vote of the people of Kansas. On the 2nd of
August a vote was taken in Kansas, and 11,300, out of a total vote
of 13,088, were cast against the English proposition. Thus the
Lecompton constitution and the English bill were defeated, the
exclusion of slavery made absolute, and the State of Kansas admitted
into the Union as a free state, under a constitution approved by
the people, but not until January 29, 1861.

This memorable result was the turning point of the slavery controversy.
The people of the south hastened preparations for a dissolution of
the Union and a civil war. The Confederate congress, meeting four
days later, on February 9, elected Jefferson Davis as its president,
he having resigned as United States Senator, January 21, 1861,
eight days before Kansas was admitted to the Union.

I have given much space to this Kansas controversy, for I wish to
impress upon the readers of this volume that the war was not caused
by agitation for the abolition of slavery, but by aggressive measures
for the extension of slavery over free territory. A large and
influential class of southern men were born politicians, and were
mainly slaveholders. They had, from the beginning of the government,
a large influence, and held more public offices of chief importance
than their northern associates. They were constantly complaining
of opinions