completely prevailed, then not only would American forests, mines, soil, invention, and industry, have rendered our country, now and for ever, independent of all other nations, except for what climate forbids; but then, also, no menial hand would ever have guided a plough, and no footstep of a slave would ever have been tracked on the soil of all that vast part of our national domain that stretches away from the banks of the Mississippi to the far western ocean.

"This was the policy of James Tallmadge. It was worthy of New York, in whose name it was promulgated. It would have been noble, even to have altogether failed in establishing it. He was successful, however, in part, though only through unwise delays and unnecessary compromises, which he strenuously opposed, and which, therefore, have not impaired his just fame. And so in the end, he more nearly than any other citizen of our time, realized the description of the happiest man in the world, given to the frivolous Croesus by the great Athenian : 'He saw his offspring, and they all survived him. At the close of an honorable and prosperous life, on the field of civic victory, he was rewarded with the honors of a public funeral by the state that he had enriched, adorned, and enlarged.'"

UPON the accession of Mr. Pierce to the presidency, high expectations were formed of great and beneficent legislative action by the first Congress under his administration, which met on the first Monday in December, 1853. Among the measures which, it was anticipated, would come up for consideration were the modification of the tariff, so as to enlarge the field of national industry- the construction of a railroad between the Atlantic states and the Pacific ocean the substitution of a system of gratuitous allotments of land, in limited quantities, to actual settlers, instead of the policy of sales of the public domain-the improvement and reform of the army and navy-the regulation of the commercial marine in regard to immigrant passengers the endowment of the states with portions of the public land, as a provision for the care of the insane within their limits-the establishment of steam-mails upon the Pacific ocean-and the opening of political and commercial relations with Japan.

Mr. Seward addressed himself to the accomplishment of these important objects with his accustomed diligence and zeal. Early in the session he introduced a bill for the construction of a railroad to the Pacific, and another for the establishment of steam-mails between San Francisco, the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and China. The times seemed favorable for such legislation. The public treasury was overflowing. The slavery agitation had died away both in Congress and throughout the country. This calm, how

ever, was doomed to a sudden interruption. The prospect of such extended beneficent legislation was destroyed by the introduction of a measure, which at once supplanted all other subjects in Congress, and in the political interest of the people. This was the novel and astounding proposal of Mr. Douglas of Illinois, in relation to the Kansas and Nebraska territories. The country saw with regret and mortification, the homestead bill transformed into one of mere graduation of the prices of the public lands. The bills for the improvement of the army and navy, and the bill for regulating the transportation of immigrants were dropped, before coming to maturity. The bill for a grant of lands to the states in aid of the insane, was defeated in the senate for want of a constitutional majority, after having been vetoed by the president. The bill for establishing the Pacific railroad was lost for want of time to debate it; and the bill for opening steam communication with the East, after passing the senate failed for want of consideration in the house. The administration had a majority of nearly two to one in both branches of Congress. The opponents of introducing slavery into the free territories, were in a decided minority in the house, while they constituted less than one fifth of the senate.

The measure, already alluded to, which produced this sudden derangement in Congress, was a provision in the bill for the organization of a territory in Nebraska, declaring that the states which might, at any future time, be formed in the new territory, should leave the question of slavery to be decided by the inhabitants, on the adoption of their constitution. This provision, as explained by the bill itself, was the application to Nebraska of the policy established in regard to Utah and New Mexico by the compromise of 1850. It was evident that the Missouri compromise of 1820 was thus virtually repealed. By that arrangement, it was provided that slavery should be excluded from the whole unorganized portion of the public

ABROGATION OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.

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domain, acquired from France, and lying north of the parallel of 36° 30' north latitude. The territory of Nebraska was comprised within these limits.

Mr. Dixon, a senator from Kentucky, however, desirous to bring the supporters of prohibition, to a still more decided test, moved an amendment to the bill, expressly annulling the portion of the Missouri compromise, which related to the subject. After some deliberation, Mr. Douglas accepted the amendment, and modified his plan, so far as to introduce a new bill for the organization of Nebraska and Kansas, within the same limits, instead of the territory of Nebraska alone, according to the original programme. The administration lost no time in adopting this policy as their own. It was at first proposed to hasten the passage of the bill through both houses so rapidly, as to prevent any remonstrance on the part of the people. But the opponents of the measure, including Mr. Seward, Mr. Everett, Mr. Chase, Mr. Sumner, Mr. Truman Smith, Mr. Wade, Mr. Bell, Mr. Houston, and Mr. Fessenden, presented such an earnest and effective resistance, that the attention of the country was aroused, and an indignant protest called forth from the people of the free states. The bill, however, passed the senate by a majority of more than two to one, and after a protracted struggle was carried through the house, in an amended form by a vote of 113 to 100.

On its return to the senate, it was met by Messrs. Seward, Sumner, and Chase, with a continued and powerful opposition. But it was all to no effect. The bill finally passed that body, and amid the firing of cannon and the shouts of its friends, it was sent to the president for his signature, at three o'clock in the morning of May 26, 1854. The approval of the president was promptly given, and the odious measure became the law of the land. Thus was abrogated the celebrated Missouri compromise—a law enacted thirty years before with all the solemnity of a com

pact between the free and slave states-and a territory opened to slavery as large as the original thirteen states, and nearly equal in extent to all the existing free states. The act was consummated by the co-operation of the North. Originating with a senator from a free state—it was passed by a Congress containing in each branch a majority of members from the free states, and was sanctioned by the approval of a free state president.

The friends of this legislation attempted to defend it on the pretence that it was not an original act, but only declaratory of the true intent and significance of the compromise measures of 1850. For his resistance to those measures, Mr. Seward had been vehemently denounced. But at the very commencement of the Nebraska struggle, the friends of freedom at the North turned their eyes toward him, as its devoted champion. He was beset with appeals from all sides to awaken the country to the atrocity of the proposed transaction. In no quarter were these appeals more urgent than in the city of New York, where his opposition to the compromise of 1850 had been most severely condemned. With his usual sagacity and confidence in the popular impulse, and faithful to his innate sense of personal dignity, he kept aloof from these overtures, and was content with the zealous discharge of his senatorial duties on the floor of Congress. The following characteristic letter illustrates the coolness and decision of his bearing at this time: :

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WASHINGTON, Saturday, January 28, 1854. 'GENTLEMEN: The invitation to a meeting to be held in the city of New York, to protest against any repeal or violation of the Missouri Compromise, with which you have honored me, has been received. My constant attendance here is required by the interest which the city of New York and the state of New York have in the great projects of a railroad to San Francisco, and the extension of our commerce to the islands and continents divided from us by the Pacific ocean, which are now being