2.  That the Federal government must protect slavery “on the high seas, in the territories, and wherever else its constitutional authority extends.”

Both majority and minority agreed in asserting

1.  That the Personal Liberty laws of the free states “are hostile in their character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.”

2.  That Cuba ought to be acquired by the United States.

3.  That a railroad ought to be built to the Pacific.

Their agreement was a minor matter.  Their disagreement was so serious that when the minority could not have its way, it left the convention, met in another hall, and adopted its resolutions.

The majority of the convention then adjourned to meet at Baltimore, June 18. 1860.  As it was then apparent that Douglas would be nominated, another split occurred, and the few Southern men attending, together with some Northern delegates, withdrew.  Those who remained nominated Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson.

The second group of seceders met in Baltimore, adopted the platform of the first group of seceders from the Charleston convention, and nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon.

[Illustration:  A Lincoln]

%401.  The Constitutional Union Party.%—­Meanwhile (May 9) another party, calling itself the National Constitutional Union party, met at Baltimore.  These men were the remnants of the old Whig and American or Know-nothing parties.  They nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, and declared for “the Constitution of the country, the union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws.”

%402.  Election of Lincoln.%—­The Republican party met in convention at Chicago on May 16, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.  It

1.  Repudiated the principles of the Dred Scott decision.

2.  Demanded the admission of Kansas as a free state.

3.  Denied all sympathy with any kind of interference with slavery in the states.

4.  Insisted that the territories must be kept free.

5.  Called for a railroad to the Pacific, and a homestead law.

The election took place in November, 1860.  Of 303 electoral votes cast,
Lincoln received 180; Breckinridge, 72; Bell, 39; and Douglas, 12.

SUMMARY

1.  The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the question of slavery in the territories, and an attempt to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought it up again.

2.  In the organization of these territories a new political doctrine, “popular sovereignty,” was announced.

3.  This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle for Kansas began.  The first territorial government was proslavery.  The antislavery men then made a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state government.  Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution (Lecompton) for a slave state.  This was submitted to Congress and rejected, and Kansas remained a territory till 1861.