The election of Franklin Pierce in 1852, against gen. Scott, was a triumph of the democratic, states' rights, and southern party. Jefferson Davis, a senator from Missis sippi, a sou-in-law of gen. Taylor, and who had served under him in Mexico, was appointed secretary of war. New elements were added to the sectional controversies which agitated the country by the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill of senator Douglass, which left the people of every terri tory, on becoming a state, free to adopt or exclude the institution of slavery. The struggles of Kansas, approaching a civil war between the free-soil and pro-slavery par ties in that rapidly growing territory, resulted in the exclusion of slavery. A brutal assault upon Mr. Sumner, senator from Massachusetts, by a southerner, named Preston Brooks, in consequence of a violent speech on southern men and institutions, increased the excitement of both sections. The formation of an anti-foreign and no-popery party, called the " know-nothing" party, acting chiefly through secret societies, was a singular but not very important episode in American politics, though it may have influenced the succeeding election.
. In 185% the republicans, composed of the northern, free-soil, and abolition parties, nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency, while the democratic and states' rights party nominated James Buchanan. Ex-president Fillmore received the know-nothing nomination. The popular vote was—for Buchanan, 1,838,169: Fremont, 1,341,264; Fillmore, 874,534. Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated Mar. 4, 1857, with John C. Breck enridge, afterward a general of the confederate army, as vice-president. A difficulty with the Mormons, which caused the president to send a military force to Utah, was settled without bloodshed. The efforts of the government to execute the fugitive slave law kept up an irritated feeling. There were savage fights between the northern and southern parties in Kansas. and on the western borders of Missouri. Resolute and well armed settlers were sent out by New England emigration societies. In Oct., 1859, John Brown, known in Kansas as " Ossawattamie Brown," who, with his sons, had been engaged in the struggles in Kansas, planned and led an expedition for freeing the negroes in Virginia. He made his attempt at Harper's Ferry, on the Potomac, where, after a vain attempt to induce the negroes to join him, he and his small party took possession of one of the government workshops, where he was taken prisoner a party of United States soldiers, and handed over to the authorities of Virginia, tried and executed, Dec. 2. His body was taken to his home in New York for burial, and he was regarded by the aboli tion party as a martyr.
In 1860 the democratic party, which, except at short intervals, had controlled the federal government from the election of Jefferson in 1800, became hopelessly divided. The southern delegates withdrew from the convention at Charleston, and two democratic candidates were nominated, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky; while the republicans, or united wing or abolition party, nominated Abra ham Lincoln of Illinois; and the native or American party nominated John Bell of Ten nessee. The republican convention adopted a moderate and even conservative "plat form" of principles, denounced the John Brown raid, and put forward as a principle, "the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively." Still, the country was sectionally divided, and all who had labored to limit and destroy the southern institution of slavery were acting with the republican party.
At the election of Nov., 1860, Mr. Lincoln received every northern vote in the elec toral college, excepting the three of New Jersey, which were given to Mr. Douglas, 180 votes; while Mr. Breckenridge received the 72 electoral votes of the south. The north and south were arrayed against each other, and the south was beaten.. Of the popular vote, Mr. Lincoln received 1,357,610; Mr. Douglas, 1,365,976; Mr. Breckenridge, 847, 951; Mr. Bell, 590,631. Thus, while Mr. Lincoln gained an overwhelming majority of the electoral votes given by each state, the combined democratic votes exceeded his by 356,317, and the whole popular vote against him exceeded his own by 946,948. A small majority, or even plurality, in the northern states was sufficient to elect him.
The south lost no time in acting upon what her statesmen had declared would be the signal of their withdrawal from the union. On Nov. 10, as soon as the result was known, the legislature of South Carolina ordered a state convention, which assembled Dec. 17, and on the 20th unanimously declared that " the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States, is hereby dis solved ;" giving as a reason that 14 of these states had for years refused to fulfill their constitutional obligations. The example of South Carolina was followed by Mississippi, Jan. 8, 1861; Florida, 10th; Alabama, 11th; Georgia, 19th; which were followed by Louisiana and Texas; and in 1861, by North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkan sas. Kentucky and Missouri w le divided, and had representatives in the governments and armies of both sections.