CHAPTER VI.

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.
Though Lin-coln lost his e-lec-tion as Sen-a-tor he did not seem to care. Doug-las was the choice, and Lin-coln went back to Spring-field and took up his law work. This, too, all turned out well for Lin-coln and the cause he loved, for had he been e-lect-ed Sen-a-tor he might not have tak-en just the part he did in the work of help-ing
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 to form the Re-pub-li-can par-ty. While Lin-coln then gave much work to the Law, he felt the stress of the times so much, and knew the great need of help-ing the side of the right just then, that he did not go out of pol-i-tics. He took an ac-tive in-ter-est in ev-er-y cam-paign and wrote much to aid the cause.
It was in the cold months of 1855 that he went to a meet-ing of Free-soil ed-i-tors at De-ca-tur, Ill., and then and there a move was made to help on the new par-ty which was to do its best to stop sla-ver-y from spread-ing. He worked ear-ly and late for the good of this par-ty try-ing to make men of un-like views a-gree. He said his wish was “to hedge¹ a-gainst di-vis-ions,” and keep all straight to the point of hold-ing back the spread of sla-ver-y.
Work as hard as he might for this great cause there were thou-sands who did not think as Lin-coln did. They said he was wrong and should they fol-low him the land would be in ru-ins and the Un-ion at an end. But all this could not stop this good man, for he knew that he spoke² the truth, so threats, a-buse, and sneers³ could not stir⁴ him from his grand work.
Be-fore this, in Ju-ly 1854, moves be-gan in man-y
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 parts of the North to form a new par-ty which should be a-gainst the spread of sla-ver-y. So in June, 1856, most of the States sent del-e-gates to Phil-a-del-phi-a and then and there the Re-pub-li-can par-ty was formed. They chose John C. Fre-mont as their can-di-date for the Pres-i-den-cy. Fre-mont was known as a brave ex-plor-er in the plains of the West, and one who took part in the con-quest of Cal-i-for-ni-a.
There was, al-so, a par-ty called “The A-mer-i-can,” or “Know-noth-ing” and they named as their choice, ex-Pres-i-dent Mil-lard Fill-more. This par-ty grew fast two or three years and then came to an end. Its aim was to keep men from o’er the sea out of of-fice and make them wait more time ere they could vote. The theme of sla-ver-y then came to have a new form and there was no room for oth-er de-bate.
The Dem-o-crat-ic par-ty met in Cin-cin-na-ti and named James Bu-chan-an of Penn-syl-va-ni-a as their choice. Bu-chan-an was e-lec-ted.
Ste-phen A. Doug-las thought he was sure of a nom-i-na-tion for that same place. He had done much work for the men who held slaves but they did not mean to re-ward him for what he had done.
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STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
“Shall Kan-sas come in free or not?” was the ques-tion that, then, was up-on the minds of thou-sands up-on thou-sands of the peo-ple of the U-ni-ted States.
A-bra-ham Lin-coln, then, think-ing of the mil-lions of his fel-low-men in sla-ver-y and of that slave-mar-ket in New Or-leans, which had nev-er gone out of his mind, spoke, both in pub-lic and pri-vate, with the force that e-ven he had ne’er used be-fore. He felt God’s time was near at hand when those who had been bought and sold like beasts of the field, should be set free. He did not then see just how it would be done, but he said to a friend;
“Some-times when I am speak-ing I feel that the time is soon com-ing when the sun shall shine and the
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 rain fall on no man who shall go forth⁶ to un-re-quit-ed toil⁷. How it will come, I can-not tell; but that time will sure-ly come!”
It was in March 1857, when Bu-chan-an had his in-au-gu-ral ad-dress all writ-ten out with care, and he was read-y to take his seat as Chief in the land, that he was told that a great step was a-bout to be tak-en by the “Su-preme Court,” the high-est court of law in the land. It seems that the jud-ges were then to de-cide in a case which dealt with the rights of men who held slaves un-der the Con-sti-tu-tion.
Mr. Bu-chan-an thought it would be well to put a few words more in-to his ad-dress, and these up-on the theme then brought up to him. So he wrote that he hoped the steps that were to be tak-en would “for-ev-er set-tle that vex-a-tious slave ques-tion.”
In a few days Rog-er B. Ta-ney of Ma-ry-land, Chief Jus-tice, gave the peo-ple of the U-ni-ted States a great sur-prise in what he had to say a-bout two slaves.
A sur-geon in the ar-my, Dr. Em-er-son, of St. Lou-is, owned Dred Scott and his wife Har-ri-et. He took them to Rock Is-land, in I-o-wa, to Fort⁵ Snell-ing, Min-ne-so-ta, and then back to St. Lou-is. As they had been
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 tak-en in-to a Free Ter-ri-to-ry the slaves made a claim that they were en-ti-tled to their lib-er-ty un-der the com-mon law of the coun-try. Five of the nine jud-ges of that court were from the Slave States. Sev-en of the jud-ges were of the same mind that the Con-sti-tu-tion “re-cog-nized slaves as prop-er-ty and noth-ing more.” The jud-ges held that as the blacks were not and nev-er could be cit-i-zens, they could not bring a suit in an-y court of the U-ni-ted States. The claim of Dred and Har-ri-et Scott would have to be set-tled by the Court of Mis-sou-ri. It was de-cid-ed that some laws made in 1820 and 1850 which could have helped the case of these two poor blacks, were “un-con-sti-tu-tion-al,” not le-gal or so as to a-gree with the law. They said all this showed, plain-ly, that a slave had no more rights than a cow or pig, and that be-ing the case sla-ver-y could not on-ly be in the Ter-ri-tor-ies, but just as well in the Free States. This sort of be-lief up-set the i-de-as that Mr. Doug-las taught, for he had told all to whom he made his great speech-es that on-ly those who lived in a Ter-ri-to-ry had a right to say wheth-er they would or would not have sla-ver-y.
Out of all these nine jud-ges there were but two who
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 were brave, wise, and just e-nough to hold to the point that it was up-on free-dom and not up-on sla-ver-y that the na-tion had been found-ed. The names of those two men were Mr. Cur-tis of Mas-sa-chu-setts, and Mr. Mc-Lean of O-hi-o.
The peo-ple rose in great wrath⁸ at what the sev-en jud-ges had said. With the blood of free-dom in their veins⁹ they plain-ly stat-ed that those un-just jud-ges had “de-cid-ed” what they did in the in-ter-ests of sla-ver-y.
The eyes of thou-sands of peo-ple o-pened. They saw now that there was much hard work to be done if there were to be a “Free Kan-sas,” and so they gave their votes and la-bor on the “free” side. Then when the slave-hold-ers felt there were more folks who want-ed Kan-sas free, they sent men from oth-er states in-to Kan-sas and this got in vast num-bers of votes that had no right to be put in-to the bal-lot-box-es.
The two sets had con-ven-tions, the Free States at To-pe-ka and the slave-hold-ers at Le-comp-ton. The pa-pers drawn¹⁰ up in these two pla-ces were sent to Wash-ing-ton. In the cit-y there were men who did their best to get Bu-chan-an to try to have Kan-sas made a state where there could be slaves.
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Then it was that Ste-phen A. Doug-las went to see Pres-i-dent Bu-chan-an and have a talk with him. Doug-las was an-gry at what the un-just jud-ges said. The Pres-i-dent said that he, him-self, was in fa-vor of the Le-comp-ton pa-per, that for slaves in Kan-sas. Then Doug-las told him that he should work a-gainst the views there held, and Bu-chan-an told him that a Dem-o-crat could not have i-de-as that would dif-fer from those held by the pres-i-dent and lead-ers of his own par-ty, with-out be-ing crushed¹¹ by them. So Doug-las went a-way. He knew the slave pow-er would not for-give him for the stand he took, but he al-so knew that if he did not work a-gainst hav-ing slaves in Kan-sas he would lose his own re-e-lec-tion to the Se-nate.
So a new al-ly a-gainst the spir-it of sla-ver-y was gained, though Doug-las did not work in the same har-ness as those who had formed the new par-ty of which we have spok-en—the Re-pub-li-can.

1 hedge   

n.树篱；障碍物；vt.用篱笆围；vi.避免直接回答

参考例句：

• The gardener trimmed the hedge.那位园林工人修剪了树篱。
• He squeezed through a gap in the hedge.他从树篱的缺口处挤过去。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 sneers   

讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You should ignore their sneers at your efforts. 他们对你的努力所作的讥笑你不要去理会。
• I felt that every woman here sneers at me. 我感到这里的每一个女人都在嘲笑我。

4 stir   

n.感动(激动，愤怒或震动)，搅拌，骚乱；vt.激起，惹起，搅和；vi.挪动，活动，离开，搅拌，激动

参考例句：

• Give the soup a stir.把汤搅拌一下。
• Don't stir up trouble between them.不要在他们之间惹麻烦。

5 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 toil   

vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事

参考例句：

• The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
• Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。

8 wrath   

n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒

参考例句：

• His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
• The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。

9 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 crushed   

a.压碎的，倒碎的

参考例句：

• The car was completely crushed under the truck. 小轿车被卡车压得完全变形了。
• The box was crushed when the car ran over it. 汽车辗过箱子时把它给压碎了。