720. The
clause beginning "And if the Constitution recognizes" is taken from
its own paragraph and put in the middle of the following paragraph.]

[Footnote 799: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2152. This statement was
confirmed by Reverdy Johnson, who was one of the lawyers that argued
the case. See the speech of Reverdy Johnson, June 7, 1860.]

[Footnote 800: Rhodes, History of the United States, II., p. 374.]

[Footnote 801: Washington _Constitution_, September 10, 1859. The
article was afterward published in a collection of his essays and
speeches.]

[Footnote 802: Flint, Douglas, p. 181.]

[Footnote 803: One of the most interesting commentaries on Black's
argument is his defense of the people of Utah, many years later,
against the Anti-Polygamy Laws, when he used Douglas's argument
without the slightest qualms. See Essays and Speeches, pp. 603, 604,
609.]

[Footnote 804: Flint, Douglas, pp. 172-181 gives extracts from these
pamphlets.]

[Footnote 805: Rhodes History of United States, II, p. 381.]

[Footnote 806: _Ibid._, p. 382.]

[Footnote 807: New York _Times_, September 9, 1859.]

[Footnote 808: _Ibid._, September 9, 1859.]

[Footnote 809: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp.
374-379.]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860

Deeds of violence are the inevitable precursors of an approaching war.
They are so many expressions of that estrangement which is at the root
of all sectional conflicts. The raid of John Brown upon Harper's
Ferry, like his earlier lawless acts in Kansas, was less the crime of
an individual than the manifestation of a deep social unrest.
Occurring on the eve of a momentous presidential election, it threw
doubts upon the finality of any appeal to the ballot. The antagonism
between North and South was such as to make an appeal to arms seem a
probable last resort. The political question of the year 1860 was
whether the law-abiding habit of the American people and the
traditional mode of effecting changes in governmental policy, would be
strong enough to withstand the primitive instinct to decide the
question of right by an appeal to might. To actors in the drama the
question assumed this simple, concrete form: could the national
Democratic party maintain its integrity and achieve another victory
over parties which were distinctly sectional?

The passions aroused by the Harper's Ferry episode had no time to cool
before Congress met. They were again inflamed by