and fifes, came to Washington to pay their respects to
the President, who received them with lavish hospitality. They
visited Mount Vernon under escort of a detachment of volunteer
officers, and were escorted by the venerable G. W. P. Custis around
the old home of his illustrious relative. At a ball given in the
evening the "old man eloquent" wore the epaulettes originally
fastened on his shoulders by him who was "first in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." The sword given
him by General Washington Mr. Custis had presented to his son-in-
law, Captain Robert E. Lee, of the Engineer Corps, during the
Mexican campaign.

[Facsimile]
John Tyler
JOHN TYLER was born in Charles County, Virginia, March 29th, 1790;
was a Representative in Congress from Virginia, December 17th,
1816, to March 3d, 1821; was United States Senator from Virginia,
December 3d, 1827, to February 28th, 1836; was elected Vice-President
on the Harrison ticket in 1840; became President, after the death
of President Harrison, April 4th, 1841; was a delegate to the Peace
Convention of 1861, and its President; was a delegate to the
Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, which assembled at
Richmond in July, 1861; was elected a Representative from Virginia
in the first Confederate Congress, but died at Richmond, Virginia,
before taking his seat, January 17th, 1862.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the enactment of the
Fugitive Slave Law re-opened the flood-gates of sectional controversy.
The Native American organization was used at the North by the
leading Abolitionists for the disintegration of the Whigs, and they
founded a new political party, with freedom inscribed upon its
banners. The Free-Soil Democrats who had rebelled against Southern
rule, with the Liberty Whigs, and those who were more openly arrayed
against slavery, united, and were victorious at the Congressional
elections in the Northern States in the autumn of 1854. "The moral
idea became a practical force," and the "Irrepressible Conflict"
was commenced. "As Republicans," said Charles Sumner, "we go forth
to encounter the oligarchs of slavery."

The great contest was opened by a struggle in the House of
Representatives over the Speakership. Nathaniel Prentiss Banks,
a Democrat, who had joined the Know-Nothings, was the Northern
candidate, although Horace Greeley, with Thurlo