Five supported the Chief Justice on the main points as to the status of the African race and the validity of the Missouri Compromise.Judge Nelson registered a protest against the entrance of the Court into the political arena.Curtis and McLean wrote elaborate dissenting opinions.Not only did the decision have no tendency to allay party debate, but it added greatly to the acrimony of the discussion.Republicans accepted the dissenting opinions of Curtis and McLean as a complete refutation of the arguments of the Chief Justice; and the Court itself, through division among its members, became a partizan institution.The arguments of the justices thus present a complete summary of the views of the proslavery and anti-slavery parties, and the opposing opinions stand as permanent evidence of the impossibility of reconciling slavery and freedom in the same government.
It was through the masterful leadership of Stephen A.Douglas that the Lecompton Constitution was defeated.In 1858 an election was to be held in Illinois to determine whether or not Douglas should be reelected to the United States Senate.The Buchanan Administration was using its utmost influence to insure Douglas's defeat.Many eastern Republicans believed that in this emergency Illinois Republicans should support Douglas, or at least that they should do nothing to diminish his chances for reelection;but Illinois Republicans decided otherwise and nominated Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the senatorship.Then followed the memorable Lincoln-Douglas debates.
This is not the place for any extended account of the famous duel between the rival leaders, but a few facts must be stated.
Lincoln had slowly come to the perception that a large portion of the people abhorred slavery, and that the weak point in the armor of Douglas was to be found in the fact that he did not recognize this growing moral sense.Douglas had never been a defender of slavery on ethical grounds, nor had he expressed any distinct aversion to the system.In support of his policy of popular sovereignty his favorite dictum had been, "I do not care whether slavery is voted up or voted down."This apparent moral obtuseness furnished to Lincoln his great opportunity, for his opponent was apparently without a conscience in respect to the great question of the day.Lincoln, on the contrary, had reached the conclusion not only that slavery was wrong, but that the relation between slavery and freedom was such that they could not be harmonized within the same government.In the debates he again put forth his famous utterance, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," with the explanation that in course of time either this country would become all slave territory or slavery would be restricted and placed in a position which would involve its final extinction.In other words, Lincoln's position was similar to that of the conservative abolitionists.As we know, Birney had given expression to a similar conviction of the impossibility of maintaining both liberty and slavery in this country, but Lincoln spoke at a time when the whole country had been aroused upon the great question;when it was still uncertain whether slavery would not be forced upon the people of Kansas; when the highest court in the land had rendered a decision which was apparently intended to legalize slavery in all Territories; and when the alarming question had been raised whether the next step would not be legalization in all the States.
Lincoln was a long-headed politician, as well as a man of sincere moral judgments.He was defining issues for the campaign of 1860and was putting Douglas on record so that it would be impossible for him, as the candidate of his party, to become President.
Douglas had many an uncomfortable hour as Lincoln exposed his vain efforts to reconcile his popular sovereignty doctrine with the Dred Scott decision.As Lincoln expected, Douglas won the senatorship, but he lost the greater prize.
The crusade against slavery was nearing its final stage.Under the leadership of such men as Sumner, Seward, and Lincoln, a political party was being formed whose policies were based upon the assumption that slavery is both a moral and a political evil.
Even at this stage the party had assumed such proportions that it was likely to carry the ensuing presidential election.Davis and Yancey, the chief defenders of slavery, were at the same time reaching a definite conclusion as to what should follow the election of a Republican President.And that conclusion involved nothing less than the fate of the Union.
