party," or "Know-Nothings," arose at this time as an oathbound secret organization, opposing the election of any but native Americans to office, and held the balance of power in the House. Kansas was invaded by Border Ruffians" from Missouri, in the interest of slavery, but Northern abolitionists met them with permanent colonies of settlers; rival governments and constitutions were established, and civil war virtually raged. The President sided with the pro-slavery legislation and declared the free state government in rebellion. During the excitement Senator Sumner was assaulted and nearly killed by Representative Brooks of South Carolina. The tariff of 1857 further reduced duties.

How did the next election result?

The Republicans had now become a distinct party, advocating broad construction and internal improvements, especially a railway to the Pacific, and denouncing any extension of slavery. They nominated Gen. Fremont. The Know-Nothings and the remnant of the Whigs nominated Fillmore. The Democrats, on a strict constructionist and "Squatter Sovereignty" platform, nominated and elected James Buchanan fifteenth President (185761) with John C. Breckenridge as Vice-President. The famous Dred Scott decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, was promulgated two days after his inauguration; it declared that a slave was no citizen but a "thing," that the compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional, and that a slave-owner could settle with his property in any territory. The South, in view of the admission of new free States, sought to renew its political power by favoring the purchase of Cuba, "fillibustering" in Central America to gain territory for new slave states, and even the renewal of the slave trade, which had been prohibited by the Constitution from 1808. This administration was a

turmoil on the verge of war, and the raid of John Brown into Virginia, to incite a slave revolt, with his execution, in 1859, added fuel to the flames.

THE CIVIL WAR.

How did the war begin?

The Democratic Convention split in two, the "Popular Sovereignty" men nominating Douglas, and the proslavery men, Breckenridge. The Constitutional Union party, the remnant of the Know-Nothings, with an evasive Union" platform, nominated John Bell. The Republicans, on an outspoken platform declaring that freedom was the normal condition of the territories, which Congress was bound to preserve, elected Abraham Lincoln sixteenth President (1861-65,) with Hannibal Hamlin as VicePresident. South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession, Dec. 20, 1860, and six other States at once joined her. The President declared that he saw no way of compelling a State's obedience to United States laws. The proposed Crittenden Compromise, that the United States should pay for rescued slaves, and a Peace Congress at Washington, came to nothing. In February, 1861, the seceding States formed, at Montgomery, Ala., the Confederate States of America, adopting the U. S. Constitution with changes recognizing slavery and forbidding protective tariffs, and electing Jefferson Davis President and Alex. H. Stephens Vice-President. Fort Sumter was attacked and surrendered April 14, 1861. What followed?

The North determined to preserve the Union at any cost, in which cause the Republicans had the help of the War Democrats, leaving the "Copperheads" or proSouthern Democrats in a small minority. All questions of strict construction were put aside; and war powers

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were held to be unlimited. The Morrill protective tariff bill, and acts to authorize loans and treasury notes had been passed by the adjourning Congress. In the thirtyninth Congress only the Northern and Border States were represented, and an extra session voted to consider only war measures." Southern ports were declared closed, 500,000 volunteers were called for, and private property, including slaves, employed against the United States, was confiscated. Subsequently a homestead law was passed, duties were raised, internal revenue and an income tax levied, the “greenback" system of Secretary Chase authorized, the national banking act passed, a draft for the army provided, leading to the draft riots in New York in 1863, and the writ of habeas corpus suspended. Gen. Butler had declared slaves "contraband of war," and now, justified by political necessity, President Lincoln issued, Jan. 1, 1863, his Proclamation of Emancipation. After four years of ups and downs, during which there were over 2,800,000 enlistments, and we had at times "a million in the field," the war ended by the surrender of Gen. Lee to Gen. Grant at Appomattox, 1865. Meanwhile President Lincoln had been re-elected, on a Republican platform of "unconditional surrender," with Andrew Johnson as Vice-President, against the candidate of the Democracy, Gen. McClellan, and the opposition of the extreme "Radical Men," who nominated Gen. Fremont.

RECONSTRUCTION.

What was the course of reconstruction?

The new problem was how to make the seceded States again a part of the Union. Before this was solved, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson became seventeenth President (1865-69). Congress held

that the Southern States should be treated as territories under military governors, until guaranties were given as to the freed slaves, while the President's strict constructionist policy of reconstruction held that only individuals could be punished, and that the States were in the Union. Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau bill, the civil rights bill, and submitted the Fourteenth Amendment, all safeguards for the negroes. The differences between Congress and the President resulted in several bills to limit his power, especially the tenure-of-office act, in a tour of the President, "swinging round the circle," in which he declared that this was no Congress," and finally in his impeachment by Congress, which failed when tried by the Senate, for lack of one vote to make the constitutional two thirds.

Who succeeded Johnson ?

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was elected eighteenth president (1869-1877), with Schuyler Colfax as Vice-President, on a Republican platform endorsing the provision of Congress that the States should be re-admitted only as they accepted the XIV Amendment. His Democratic opponent was Horatio Seymour. The XV Amendment, guaranteeing the suffrage to the negroes, was passed by Congress in 1869. By July, 1870, all the States had been re-admitted, but in several the governments were put in control of the negroes and corrupt white immigrants called carpet-baggers," and United States' aid was asked for and received, as in Arkansas and Louisiana, to support these governments. In 1872 Gen. Grant was re-elected, with Henry Wilson as Vice-President, over Horace Greeley, the "Liberal Republican" candidate, accepted by the Democrats, who died before the electoral votes were cast. Among other events of Gen. Grant's administration were his attempt to purchase San Domingo, the trial of the

'Whiskey Ring," implicating high officials, the futile establishment of the first Civil Service Commission under the Jenckes bill, the treaty of Washington, involving the payment by England of losses by the Alabama, and the Centennial Exhibition, 1876.

THE LATER PARTY PERIOD.

Who was the next President?

R. B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, became nineteenth President (1877-81), with William A. Wheeler, as Vice-President, against Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate. The Greenback" party also nominated Peter Cooper. The popular majority was for the Democratic candidate, and in the electoral college the choice was uncertain. Under the "returning boards" system of the re-admitted States, rival electors claimed to be elected with in Florida and Louisiana, each side charged the other fraud and violence, and there was no provision in the Constitution to meet the case. Civil dissension was averted by agreement on an Electoral Commission of judges, senators, and representatives, which, by a majority of one on a strictly party vote, awarded the votes to the Hayes electors. There was much dissatisfaction with this extra-constitutional method and its result. President Hayes withdrew the remaining U. S. troops from the Southern States. The chief events were the resumption of specie payments (1879), the silver coinage act, the taking of the tenth census (1880), and the President's message regarding an inter-oceanic canal as "virtually a part of the coast line of the United States."

Who succeeded President Hayes ?

Gen. James A. Garfield was elected President (1881), being nominated by the Republican Convention after a failure to put forward Gen. Grant for a third term, with