1848.] Presidential Campaign. 159 state laws which could not be repealed or modified by the federal government;" but they maintained that Congress had "no more power to make a slave than to make a king, to establish slavery than to establish a monarchy,” and that the existence of slavery ought to be specifically forbidden in the Territories. Other resolutions declared for principles, such as internal improvements, which sounded much more Whig than Democratic. The Liberty, or Abolitionist, party had held its third convention the preceding November, and had nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire; but upon the nomination of Van Buren by the "Barnburners," Mr. Hale withdrew. The Free Soil party absorbed the Liberty party, henceforth they are practically one and the same, and the more radical programme of abolition is replaced by the more practicable programme of the exclusion of slavery from the Territories. The final contest is taking shape. The split in the Democratic party in New York was decisive of the result of the presidential election. Outside of New York the Free-Soil vote drew strength The election. away from the Whigs rather than from the Democrats: it was New York that decided the choice. The Democratic vote being divided between Cass and Van Buren, her thirty-six electoral votes went to Taylor and Fillmore; and thirty-six was exactly the Whig majority in the electoral college, where the vote stood 163 for Taylor, 127 for Cass. The popular vote was very close, neither candidate having a majority, because of the 291,263 votes cast for Van Buren. In the slowly changing Senate there was still to be a large Democratic majority, but in the House nine Free-Soilers were to hold the balance of power. The disintegration of parties was presaged by the vote of the South in the election. Six southern States (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana) had voted for Taylor, a southerner and slave-holder, rather than go with the Democrats for Cass and a declaration of principles from which their own doctrine of non-interference with slavery in the Territories had been pointedly excluded. dispute. The new feelings and purposes aroused by the campaign and election showed themselves at once, in the Territorial short session of Congress, during the closing months of Polk's term of office. The House now instructed a committee to prepare measures for the organization of New Mexico and California, upon the principle of the exclusion of slavery, and a bill for California was framed and passed. But the Senate would have nothing to do with it, and the session closed without action upon the issue now so rapidly coming to a head. 1840-1848.] Political and Economic Changes. 161 CHAPTER VII. THE TERRITORIES OPENED TO SLAVERY 81. Political and Economic Changes (1840-1850). The Dorr THERE were many symptoms of the coming in of new events and forces. The so-called Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island marked the imperative force of the agencies that were operative throughout the counRebellion. try in the direction of a broad, democratic structure of government. The constitution of Rhode Island very narrowly restricted the suffrage, excluding from the elective franchise quite two-thirds of the men of voting age in the State, and the state authorities stubbornly resisted all liberal change. In the winter of 1841-1842, accordingly, revolutionary methods of reform were resorted to by the popular party, under the leadership of one Thomas W. Dorr. And though revolution was prevented, the reforms demanded were forced upon the party of order. The same period witnessed serious troubles of another kind in New York. There the heirs of certain of the Rent troubles old Dutch patroons, who held title to large in New York. portions of several of the counties lying along the Hudson River, still insisted upon the payment of rents in kind. They were at last obliged to consent to the extinguishment of their rights by sale, because of the absolute refusal of the tenants to pay for anything but a fee-simple. The affair as a whole was as significant of economic tendencies as the Dorr Rebellion of the tendencies of politics. Manhood suffrage and freehold titles were to be the permanent bases of our social system. Discovery of gold. Almost simultaneously with the conclusion of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, gold was discovered in California, and before the census of September, 1850, more than eighty thousand settlers had gone thither in search of treasure. California had a great population and was ready to become a State before the politicians had gotten ready to organize her as a Territory. Invention and expan sion. Meantime change and development were proceeding, everywhere but in the South, with increasing rapidity and momentum. In 1844 Morse's electric telegraph was put into successful operation between Baltimore and Washington, just in season to keep the Democratic members of Congress apprised of what their party convention was doing in Baltimore. During the decade 1840-1850 more than six thousand miles of railway were built, an increase of more than two hundred per cent over the preceding decade; and now, with the assistance of the electric telegraph, systems of communication could be both safely extended and readily diversified. The population of the country increased during the period from seventeen to twenty-three millions, and the steady advance of settlement is shown by the admission of three States besides Texas. Florida entered the Union March 3, 1845, Iowa December 28, 1846, Wisconsin May 29, 1848, - two free States offsetting two slave States. 82. Immigration (1845-1850). Now at length, moreover, immigration was beginning to tell decisively upon the composition of the population. 1845-1850.] Causes of : Until the year 1842 the total number of immigrants in any one year had never reached one hundred thousand, and in 1844 it had fallen to seventy-eight immigration. thousand. But in 1845 a notable increase began the number of immigrants exceeded 114,000; in 1846 it was more than 154,000; and in 1847 it was 234,968. Almost the whole decade was a period of disquietude and crisis in Europe. 1846 and 1847 were the years of the terrible famine in Ireland, and much of the immigration of the time came from that unhappy country. 1848 brought a season of universal political disturbance throughout Europe; and by 1849, the number of immigrants had risen to 297,024. But the causes which brought foreigners in vast numbers to our shores proved not to be temporary. The huge stream of immigrants continued to flow in steady volume until checked by war. And it had its deep significance as a preparation for the war which was at hand. These new comers swelled the national, not the sectional, forces of our politics; they avoided the South, where labor was in servitude, for they were laborers; they crowded into the northern cities, or pressed on into the great agricultural region of the Northwest, hastening that development and creating those resources which were to be the really decisive elements in the coming struggle between the slave section and the free section. Distribution. The infusion of so large a foreign element, moreover, quickened the universal movement and re-settlement of the population which the railways were contributing to make easy and rapid, and added stimulation to the spirit Movement of of enterprise in new undertakings which the population. prevalent prosperity was everywhere encouraging. It tended, too, to deepen that habit of change, of experiment, of radical policies and bold proposals, which was bringing the people into a frame of mind to welcome |