61

cratic candidate." The result was close and, although another Democratic victory, it showed a wonderful increase in the strength of the opposition and was a source of great encouragement to the cause there and elsewhere. There was in every state a bustling activity on the part of the opposition which busied itself with organizing for the control of the local contests. Alabama alone had no opposition ticket in the field. In Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina, important gains were made. The Democratic majority in the Tennessee legislature was cut down to a mere handful and the opposition gained four members of Congress; in Kentucky, two congressional seats were recovered from the Democracy; while the North Carolina opposition added three members of Congress to its representation, thus securing one-half of the delegation. Throughout the South generally the opposition made material gains in its voting strength.

The reorganizers in Virginia, under the influence of A. H. H. Stuart, prepared to follow up the gains which they had made. A call was issued by the state central committee for a state convention "preliminary to a National Convention intended to be held hereafter, with the view of collecting, and harmonizing, and organizing the conservative Union sentiments of the country". This was, of course, the chief aim of the movementto build up a national party which should succeed to the strong position and influence of the old Whig organization. Several persons were prominently mentioned as fit candidates for the presidential nomination of such

National Intelligencer, Feb. 9, 14, 23, 1859; cf. N. Sargent to A. H. H. Stuart, Feb. 18, 1859, Stuart MSS.

1 Richmond Whig, July 15, in National Intelligencer, July 19, 1859. 63 National Intelligencer, Aug. 26, 27, 30, 1859.

a movement. Virginia had her favorite son, John M. Botts, a leader of vigor and generous in his allowances for differences of opinion on the slavery question. Besides him, Bell of Tennessee, Crittenden of Kentucky, and Edward Bates of Missouri were considered in this connection. The first two were leaders of long established and national reputations; Bates had for a time special claims to consideration. Coming from a state where slavery existed he was moderately opposed to an extension of that institution; indeed, his views on this subject closely resembled those of Henry Clay. He was, therefore, often classified as a moderate Republican. He believed in a broad opposition movement which should include the good men of all parties, even Republicans." He was the favorite of all the opposition elements in his state, and was supported by many outside who felt that if he was nominated by the conservative opposition, it would rob the rabid Republicans of their strength and most probably compel that party to endorse his nomination."

Thus far the reawakening of the opposition had been regarded primarily as an anti-Democratic movement, aiming to expel the Democrats from the control of the federal and state governments. Indeed, even the opposition press of the lower South had become favorable to some sort of cooperation with the "Constitutional Republicans" of the North. A leading object of the southern opposition was to secure an abandonment of the slavery issue in national politics; it claimed that the slavery controversy had by this time reached a

es Bates to Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, etc., id., Aug. 31, 1859.

N. Sargent to A. H. H. Stuart, Feb. 18, Nov. 17, 1859, Stuart MSS.

proper termination." It was pointed out that the Republican party in the North was in the habit of using the slavery question for effect there just as the Democrats did in the South, that the Republicans were not as fanatically devoted to the anti-slavery cause as was supposed. Many believed that there were thousands of conservatives in the Republican party of the North who could properly be drawn into a conservative national opposition organization."

66

But suddenly, as a result of John Brown's raid upon Harper's Ferry in October, 1859, the sectional agitation broke loose again and to the Republican party was assigned a large share of the blame for the unfortunate incident. The southern Democrats made full use of the occasion to depict the dangerous situation in which their section was placed, and, although the conservative leaders tried to allay the excitement, many of the rank and file and even some of the leaders refused to be calmed. Instead, they increased their hatred of the Republican party and of the North. That famous émeute removed all basis for the union of the whole opposition of both sections on a single presidential candidate.

When Congress met in December, the organization of

65 National Intelligencer, Sept. 6, Oct. 8; Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 24; Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, May 26, 1859.

06 Savannah Republican, April 18; Mobile Advertiser, May 11, 1859. 67 The Savannah Republican, April 29, after explaining the object of the opposition, declared that there were in the Republican party many true and patriotic men who have been seduced into error by the excitement of the times, or have gone into it involuntarily as the only mode of effective opposition to a party whose whole history has proved it inimical to the best interests of the country". Cf. id., Jan. 29, May 4, July 26, 1859.

68 Cf. National Intelligencer, Dec. 5-8; Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 5; Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, Dec. 17, 24, 1859; etc.

the House was delayed by the lack of a majority on the part of any of the political groups into which it was divided. During the contest, the foundations for a new Union party were laid under the leadership of Senator Crittenden. The new organization was to occupy the middle ground between the Democratic and Republican parties, opposing the anti-slavery passions of the one and the anti-Union tendencies of the other." A meeting of the southern opposition members of Congress and of other conservative leaders was held on the nineteenth of December and arrangements were made to confer with the central committees of the Whig and the American organizations." Within five days the call for a National Union convention was sanctioned by the combined forces which made up the conservative opposition.

The contest over the speakership resulted, after a struggle of two months, in the election of Pennington of New Jersey, an old-line Whig, who had just become a moderate Republican, but who was not the regular candidate of that party. Henry W. Davis of Maryland contributed his vote to Pennington's election, and, although his course met with some criticism, it was fully endorsed in at least one meeting of his constituents, who prefaced their resolutions by the phrase "southern slaveholders as we are "." Indeed, sentiment on the subject of Pennington's election furnishes clear evidence of the conservatism of the southern opposition and of the ultraism of the southern Democratic fireeaters."

Crittenden to S. S. Nicholas, Jan. 29, 1860, Crittenden MSS. 70 National Intelligencer, Dec. 23, 24, 26, 1859.

" Id., Feb. 25, 1860.

12 Id., Feb. 2, 3, 9, 11; etc.

The national organization of the new Constitutional Union party was soon completed and a call was sent out for the meeting of a national convention in May at Baltimore. A union of the entire opposition, North and South, was still talked about " but daily grew more and more improbable. The Democratic split at Charleston seemed favorable to the Constitutional Union cause," and the organizers and leaders of the movement were hopeful, though at no time especially optimistic or confident of success.

The national convention was held at Baltimore on the ninth of May. Instead of adopting a regular platform, it merely declared, in the words of Clay, for the "Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws". John Bell of Tennessee and Edward Everett of Massachusetts were nominated as the party's candidates for president and vice-president. Both old-line Whigs of long experience in public affairs and of known conservatism, they were fit representatives of the Union sentiment of both sections.

The nomination of Lincoln by the Republicans probably checked the current, in the South as well as in the North, that was flowing into the Constitutional Union party, for many had anticipated the selection of Seward, the "arch-agitator "." But the nomination of Bell and Everett was received and endorsed with considerable enthusiasm and an active campaign was con

73 See F. P. Blair to Crittenden, Feb. 16, 1860; Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, II, 186, cf. 190.

74 National Intelligencer, May 9, 1860.

75 B. F. Perry of South Carolina, in a letter to the editors of the National Intelligencer, dated Aug. 13, declared that "Mr. Fillmore became President of the United States with a worse record than Lincoln on the slavery question". In issue of Aug. 23, 1860.