Negroes held meetings and begged the people of the North to have the law repealed. In Boston a slave named Shadrach was taken from the officers by a mob and sent to Canada. The "Jerry rescue," in Syracuse, attracted widespread attention. In other places excitement was aroused by the capture of fugitives. In the border free states there was great activity among a class of men known as "negro hunters," who searched for the runaway slave in order to get the reward offered for his capture. Although very few "rescues" were attempted in these states, the work of the "Underground Railroad" increased, and its branches spread in many directions. The number of slaves who tried to escape rapidly increased, especially in the border slave states. A RESCUE MOB 404. The "Underground Railroad." The "Underground Railroad" was a name applied to those routes along which slaves were accustomed to find help in reaching Canada or some safe place in the North. Travel from one "station" to another was carried on with the utmost secrecy, for every man who lifted his hand to help the fugitive was breaking the law, and was liable to be sent to prison. This was a strange condition of things-hundreds of good people violating the laws of the United States in order to keep from violating their consciences! The Southerners, firmly believing slavery to be right, felt that the anti-slavery men were doing them great harm in encouraging and helping negroes to escape. 405. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). Harriet Beecher Stowe was deeply moved by the return of so many negro fugitives under the new law, and wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin to make plain to the North what slavery was as she understood it. The book laid hold on the minds and hearts of the people as no anti-slavery orator had ever done. Everybody who could buy or borrow it read Uncle Tom's Cabin. Thousands of copies were sold immediately. Rufus Choate said: "That book will make two millions of abolitionists." The slave holders declared that it pictured only the worst side of slavery and thus gave false impressions. Mrs. Stowe was severely criticised, and William Lloyd Garrison wrote to her: "All the defenders of slavery have let me alone and are abusing you." 406. Why the Whigs Were Defeated in 1852. Both the old parties came out strongly in their platforms in favor of the compromise of 1850. The Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott, and the Democrats, Franklin Pierce of New by H. Ritchie from a Hampshire. Twenty-seven states Emmett Collection of the daguerreotype, now in the were carried by Pierce and but four New York Public Library by Scott. Not since the days of Monroe had there been such a victory. How can it be explained? FRANKLIN PIERCE From an engraving made The two greatest Whig statesmen, Clay and Webster, died during this campaign. There were no more Whigs like them. The people were tired of the question of slavery and felt that the compromise would be safer in Pierce's hands than in Scott's. Besides, many Democrats who had followed Van Buren in 1848 were now welcomed back to their old party. The result was that Hale, the Free Soil candidate, received but half as many votes as were cast by that party in 1848. Men began to speak of a second "era of good feeling," and President Pierce, in his inaugural, pledged his efforts to preserve harmony. 407. DRIFTING RAPIDLY APART The Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854). Although the people wanted to rest from discussions about slavery, they were suddenly aroused from the growing quiet by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The Compromise of 1850 had left the question of slavery in New Mexico and Utah to be settled by the people of those territories. Why not apply this plan of "popular sovereignty" to the territory north of 36° 30', between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains? Senator Stephen A. Douglas answered this question by bringing in a bill making this region into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, in which the people were to settle the question of slavery for themselves. compromise line of 1820 would thus be abolished. The Fierce debates followed in Congress, and a storm of indignation broke out all over the North. The antislavery men declared that if this old compromise could be swept away, nothing would be sacred enough to stand between slavery and free territory. Public meetings denounced Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska act, and even many Democratic papers opposed it, but all in vain. (See map facing page 322.) 408. The Race for Kansas. No sooner was the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed than a race for the possession of Kansas began. Slaveholders from near-by states were the first to rush into the territory. But Eli Thayer of Massachusetts organized a company, "The Emigrant Aid Society," for the purpose of sending anti-slavery men to. Kansas. He knew that the North had more emigrants to send than the South, and that in the end they could make Kansas a free state. In the summer of 1854 the first emigrants started on their long journey. All along the route people gathered to see the strange company, whose numbers increased on the way. The pro-slavery men had already settled Atchison. The free-state men located at Lawrence. Before the year closed each party had settled several places, the pro-slavery men along the Missouri River and the free-state men south of the Kansas River. The excitement in Kansas constantly increased, and each party resolved to win. By the aid of voters from border states the pro-slavery men elected their delegate to Congress, and, in 1855, elected nearly all the members |