Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... HE introduction of a Senate bill, in Congress, early in the session, providing a territorial form of government for Nebraska, with a stipulation that any State or States to be formed therefrom should decide, each for itself, whether slavery should or should not exist, together with an amendment expressly repealing the Missouri Compromise, began one of the most momentous contests in the history of American legislation. As a result a new political party was formed, a Civil War followed within a decade, and a Solid South became a feature of the political life of the Nation. Probably all of these things were destined to happen in the process of eliminating slavery from the United States, but the Nebraska bill was the culminating feature of a long series of events which united the North in its determination that slavery should go not one step farther. The Nebraska bill passed the Senate on March 3, 1854, by a vote of 37 to 14, Senator Foot voting against the passage. Senator Phelps did not vote, as his right to a seat was in doubt. The anger of the North flamed up and spread with the fierceness of a prairie fire. As an illustration of public sentiment in Vermont, the Montpelier Watchman bitterly denounced the act in an editorial, entitled "The Deed of Darkness," which declared that the Southern Whigs who voted for the bill "have probably put an end to the Whig party of the South. Henceforth we owe them no allegiance and we mean never knowingly to give them our confidence or support." When the bill appeared in the House, Mr. Meacham of Vermont opposed it. "The people," said he, "are absolutely struck dumb by the audacity of the proposition. If this bill passes there will be raised in the North a more bitter and prolonged anti-slavery...