Houston vindicated their right to speak and did battle for them with a warmth and zeal which specially commended him to Northern sympathy.

All these facts combined--his romantic history, his unflinching steadiness of purpose, his unswerving devotion to the Union--would have made him an irresistibly strong candidate had he been presented.

But the very sources of his strength were the sources of his weakness.

He was a necessity to the South, a necessity to his party; and against the combined force of all the ambitious men who sought the place, he was nominated.

The Democracy saw at once that a new and dangerous opponent was in the field,--an opponent that stood upon principle and shunned expediency, that brought to its standard a great host of young men, and that won to its service a very large…

It accepted the issue as presented by the men of the South, and it offered no compromise.

In fine, the Republicans declared in plain terms that slavery should by positive law of the nation be excluded from the Territories.

The Democratic doctrine of the North and the Democratic doctrine of the South were, therefore, in logic and in fact, irreconcilably hostile.

By the one, slavery could never enter a Territory unless the inhabitants thereof desired and approved it.

By the other slavery had a foot-hold in the Territories under the Constitution of the United States, and could not be dislodged or disturbed by the inhabitants of a Territory even though ninety-nine out of every hundred were opposed to it.

From such contradictory constructions in the same party, conflicts were certain to arise.

The condition of affairs in Kansas imparted to his supporters a desperate energy, based on principle and roused to anger.

Votes by tens of thousands declared that they did not desire a Union which was held together by the forbearance or permission of any man or body of men, and they welcomed a test of any character that should determine the supremacy of the…

The Republicans, far from being discouraged, felt and acted as men who had won the battle.

Indeed, the moral triumph was theirs, and they believed that the actual victory at the polls was only postponed.

The Democrats were mortified and astounded by the large popular vote against them.

Freedom or slavery in the Territories was to be fought to the end, without flinching, and without compromise.

In 1857 a party distinctly and unequivocally pledged to resist the extension of slavery into free territory had control of eleven free States and was hotly contesting the possession of the others.

The distinct and avowed marshalling of a solid North against a solid South had begun, and the result of the Presidential election of 1856 settled nothing except that a mightier struggle was in the future.

The Court declared that the Act of Congress prohibiting slavery in the Territories north of 36 deg. 30' was unconstitutional and void.

But in fact the decision of the Court had only rendered the contest more intense and more bitter.

It was received throughout the North with scorn and indignation.

Instead, therefore, of strengthening the Democratic party, the whole effect of the Dred Scott decision was to develop a more determined type of anti-slavery agitation.

His opinion became, therefore, of inestimable value to the cause of freedom.

The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.