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REPUBLICAN PARTY ORGANIZED.

sioned one Colonel Geary to proceed to that bloody theater, and, if possible, complete the conquest.

Meanwhile, also, notwithstanding this dark and dreadful array of crimes against Kansas, the people of the territory, hopeful, nevertheless, of ultimate protection, and with a fortitude which has no parallel in history, continued, by their chosen representatives, steadily knocking at the door of the Capital for admission into the Union. They found the same slave power which murdered their neighbors, demolished their dwellings, and desolated their towns, on the floors of both Houses of Congress, also, and there, too, with bludgeons, and firelocks, and other implements of death. And with them it brutally assaulted editorial advocates of freedom in the public streets, slew unoffending servants at the public hotels, and struck down upon the floor of the Senate one of their most distinguished advocates-the Honorable Charles Sumner.

Those open, violent and alarming demonstrations, necessarily aroused the people of the North, and led to the organization of the Republican party, composed of men of antislavery sentiments from all the former political organizations. That party organized in the autumn 1855, and in 1856 put John C. Fremont in nomination for the Presidency. His Democratic competitor was James Buchanan. The contest was violent and bitter, and resulted in the election of Mr. Buchanan. At one time, the indications favored the election of Fremont, and in view of that contingency, movements were made in South Carolina, Virginia, and other Southern States, to effect their secession, in case of his election.

President Buchanan was inaugurated March 4th, 1857. Four members of his cabinet, Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, Mr. Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, were allied in sympathy and feeling with the South, and ready to do its biddings. The composition of this Cabinet,

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read in the light of subsequent events, was clearly made for a purpose-to aid in the then contemplated work of secession -to make full preparations for it. The plan was, no doubt, fully settled in the secret councils of the southern leaders, to secede. They must prepare the minds of their friends for it, both in the South and the North. For this purpose, a secret Association was organized, denominated "The Knights of the Golden Circle," whose principal purpose was to support and defend slavery. It had its degrees, and none but those who attained its honors, were permitted to know its full designs; and not until complete assurance was obtained, that they could be fully trusted with its real purposes. Such associations were widely organized throughout the South, and in many of the Northern and Western States. Among the initiated, and active promoters of its designs, were Cabinet officers, and others holding important positions in the civil, military, and naval service.

The composition of Buchanan's Cabinet, favored the schemes of the conspirators, and enabled them to mature their plans secretly, and yet most efficiently.

Arms were among the most indispensable wants of the South, in case of secession, and the War Secretary, under the pretence of distributing to the States their proper quota of the Government arms, industriously shipped to the South, immense quantities of muskets, ordnance, and military stores, and loyal officers were dispatched to distant posts. The Head of the Naval department sent the principal vessels of our Navy to distant and inaccessible stations, and the Secretary of the Treasury aided the conspirators with the money and credit of the Government.

While those Government officials were thus weakening the Government, and strengthening the hands of its enemies, politicians were skillfully enacting their part of the programme, -were artfully framing the pretext for secession.

The hour of triumph for the people of Kansas, however, came. They were admitted into the Union with their own free Constitution. The star which she added to our national banner, has floated over scores of battles with that foe, from which she had suffered so much and so long. Her own sons have borne conspicuous parts on many bloody fields, and may they long enjoy the blessings of liberty, for which they have so long and so manfully contended. The war in Kansas, was but the first chapter of that bloodier war for the Union, and to whose ensanguined pages the reader will soon turn.

Amongst the memorable men, whom the events in Kansas brought into conspicuous notice, was John Brown. He was among the earlier emigrants to that territory, from New York. He was an earnest and zealous opponent of slavery, and opposed its extension into Kansas, and its existence in the country, as a religious duty. Brave, enterprising, and earnest, he was the especial object of hatred of the slavery propagandists, whom he resisted sternly, and "Ossawattamie" became famous, as the theatre of his daring exploits. His possessions were plundered, frequent attempts were made to burn his buildings, and to murder himself and family. One of his sons was cruelly slain, and those repeated outrages upon himself, his family, and the people of Kansas, raised his hatred of slavery to a pitch of frenzy, which could only be allayed by bold assaults upon the institution of slavery itself. He conceived the bold design of organizing an expedition to free the slaves of Virginia. He kept his plans a profound secret. He solicited funds from various parties in the North, some of whom responded, under the belief that the funds were to be employed in support of freedom in Kansas, but which were used in the purchase of arms and the manufacture of pikesthe latter for the use of the slaves, whom he and his few followers were to liberate and set free. He designed not to incite insurrection, but to run off slaves, and the arms and

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pikes were designed for use, only in case of resistance to his main design. He hired premises in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, which became the rendezvous of himself and a small party, comprising seventeen white men and a few negroes. On the 16th of October, 1859, they made an attack upon the Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and succeeded in capturing it without bloodshed. Several prominent citizens were arrested and held as hostages, and Brown issued a proclamation, addressed to the slaves, inviting them to rally and assert their freedom. This he evidently thought they would do, but in that he was disappointed.

This lawless and unjustifiable assault upon the people of Virginia, created, for a short time, intense excitement and alarm. How far the plot had extended, and to what tragic scenes it might lead, suddenly and very justly, haunted the imaginations of the people of the invaded State. The then Governor of the State, Henry A. Wise, called out a large militia force, and issued violent and exciting proclamations. The force called out by the Governor, rapidly concentrated in the vicinity of the Arsenal, and the President dispatched thither a body of marines. The latter attacked the Arsenal, wounded Brown, and killed and wounded several of his party, when he and those who could not escape, surrendered. The leader, and seven of his captured followers, were handed over to the authorities of Virginia, were tried and convicted of treason, and sentenced to be executed. Assiduous and influential efforts were made, for the pardon of the misguided men, but the Governor firmly resisted all appeals, and the criminals expiated their offences on the gallows. The evident sincerity of the leader of this raid, his courage and Roman firmness, in the severe trial through which he finally passed, won for him many admirers, even among his enemies, and posterity, while condemning the rash and deeply criminal act, will award to him the virtues of courage and constancy, and of suffering heroically for his misguided convictions.

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PREPARATION FOR REVOLT.

The advocates of slavery extension, and of its permanent domination in the Government, were thus foiled in their desperate, and, as events have proved, their final effort to hold control of the united Government. Henceforth their plans and energies were to be directed to its overthrow, and to the erection upon its ruins of a Southern Confederacy. That had long been a favorite measure with the extremists of the South. They had held it as a rod of terror, with which to lash the North into a compliance with their wishes.

Had they succeeded in foisting slavery into Kansas, it would, almost inevitably, have been also established in the Indian Territory and New Mexico, and their purpose would then have been accomplished without revolution. They would have secured permanent political control of the Government, present and prospective. But losing the field in Kansas, with it was also lost that coveted political control.

It is true, that had they exerted their full political power in the canvass for President in 1860, they might have held, for a limited period, such control of the Government, as would have prevented any legislation especially unfriendly to them; but they gave up all hope of realizing their extravagant expectations, and nothing less would satisfy them. They saw the hand writing upon the wall-the inevitable effect of the rapidly increasing population and progress of the North and West, upon their relative powers in the Government, and that very soon their old prestige and former dominance would be gone. Every year the actual disparity between the free and slave section would become greater; and, as they could no longer bend the Government to their special interests, the sooner they separated from it, and assumed the sole guardianship of their peculiar institution, they deemed the easier and the better.

Their purposes were soon fixed, and all their future efforts directed to their adroit accomplishment. A pretext was