ons,
be fatal to the institution of slavery. West Virginia did become a free
State at the first opportunity. Counties in western North Carolina claim
to have furnished a larger proportion of their men to the Union army
than any other counties in the country. Had the plan for peaceable
emancipation projected by abolitionists been permitted to take its
course, the uplands of South Carolina would have been pitted against
the lowlands, and Senator Tillman would have appeared as a rampant
abolitionist. There might have been violence, but it would have been
confined to limited areas in the separate States. Had the crisis been
postponed, there surely would have been a revival of abolitionism within
the Southern States. Slavery in Missouri was already approaching a
crisis. Southern leaders had long foreseen that the State would abolish
slavery if a free State should be established on the western boundary.
This was actually taking place. Kansas was filling up with free-state
settlers and, by the act of its own citizens, a few years later did
abolish slavery.

Republicans naturally made use of Helper's book for party purposes. A
cheap abridged edition was brought out. Several Republican leaders were
induced to sign their names to a paper commending the publication. Among
these was John Sherman of Ohio, who in the organization of the newly
elected House of Representatives in 1859 was the leading candidate of
the Republicans for the speakership. During the contest the fact that
his name was on this paper was made public, and Southern leaders were
furious. Extracts were read to prove that the book was incendiary.
Millson of Virginia said that "one who consciously, deliberately, and of
purpose lends his name and influence to the propagation of such writings
is not only not fit to be speaker, but he is not-fit to live." It is one
of the ironies of the situation that the passage selected to prove the
incendiary character of the book is almost a literal quotation from the
debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1832.

CHAPTER X. "BLEEDING KANSAS"

Both the leading political parties were, in the campaign of 1852, fully
committed to the acceptance of the so-called Compromise of 1850 as a
final settlement of the slavery question; both were committed to the
support of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Free-soil party, with John P.
Hale as its candidate, did make a vigorous attack upon the Fugitive
Slave Act, and opposed all compromises respe