X IL ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN ( 1857-61 ) . Cobinet.—Seerciary of State, Lewis Cass. Michigan, March 6, 1857: J. S. Black, Pennsylvania. December 17. 1860. Secretary of the Treasnry, Ilowell Cobb, Georgia, March 6. 1857; Philip F. Thomas, Maryland, December 12. I860; ,lohn A. Dix, New York, .Tanuary 11, 1861. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, Virginia, March 6, 1857: Joseph Holt, Kentucky, ,Janu ary 18, 1861. Secretory of the lacy, Isaac Toucey, Connecticut, March 6. 1857. kleeretary of the In terior, Jacob Thompson, Mississippi. :March 6, 1857. Attornry-Grneral, .T. S. Black, Pennsyl vania, March 6, 1857: E. SI. Stanton, Pennsyl vania, December 20, 1860. Postmaster-General, Aaron V. Brown, Tennessee. March 6, 1857; Joseph Holt, Kentucky, March 14, 1S50; Horatio King. Maine, February 12, 1861.
Two days after Buchanan's. inauguration, the Supreme Court rendered its decision in the fa MOOS Dred Scott Case (q.v.), in which the ma jority of the justices held that Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in any Territory, and that slaves themselves were mere property whose secure possession in any Territory of the Union was guaranteed by the Constitution.
Events now succeeded one another with excit ing rapidity. The sympathizers with the South had made various attempts to extend the area of slavery by the acquisition of Cuba. In 1854 the American ministers to England, France. and Spain mgt at the Belgian town of Ostend and there i,sued the so-called Ostend ,Manifesto (q.v.) to the effect that certain eontingen cies the safety of the United States would de mand the annexation of Cuba. Another attempt to acquire slave territory was through filibuster ing the most famous of which were that of Lopez to Cuba in 1S51 and that of William Walker (q.v.) from 1855 to 1858 to Central America. Even the reopening of the African
slave trade began to be discussed.
In December,1857, the pro-slavery party in Kan sas held a convention at Leeompton and proceeded to impose slavery upon the future State by sub mitting to the voters the alternative of voting for the Constitution with slavery or the Constitution without slavery, the instrument itself, however, affirming the right to the ownership of slaves at the time within the Territory. The anti-slavery party. whose 'Topeka Constitution' had previous ly been disallowed by the Federal Government, generally abstained from voting. with the result that the Constitution with slavery was adopted. ( See LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION.) A new Terri torial Legislature with an anti-slavery majority ordered a new election, at which the Constitu tion was to be accepted or rejected. It was re jected (January, 1858). The National Congress passed a bill resubmitting the Lecompton Consti tution to the vote of the people, its adoption to be followed by the immediate admission of Kan sas as a State. They rejected it, and thus Kan sas remained a Territory. In 1859 a new con vention adopted another Constitution. known as the Wyandotte Constitution, prohibiting slavery, and this, being submitted to the people, was adopt ed by them. Kansas, however, was not admitted as a State until 1861. The controversy in Con gress over the admission of Kansas under the Le compton Constitution proved an event of mo mentous importance as leading tip to the division of the Democratic Party in the Presidential cam paign of 1860. Minnesota was admitted in Slay, 1858, and Oregon in February, 1859. In 1858 a marked impression was caused by the of Helper's Crisis. (See