THE JUSTIN WINSOR, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. BY DR. H. VON HOLST, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JOHN J. LALOR. 1850-1854. COMPROMISE OF 1850-KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. CHICAGO: CALLAGHAN & COMPANY. UNIVERSITY 48 ж67 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, BY CALLAGHAN & Co., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, in Washington. PREFACE.* The six years whose history is treated in this part of my work, [this and the following volume of the American version] are the most important in the development of the "irrepressible conflict," between the north and the south. How fully warranted that expression of Seward was, becomes more apparent than ever, during this period. The want of reason, the passions and the increasing demoralization of the professional politicians are, indeed, still found in alliance with the powers of fate, but at the same time, their impotence in the presence of the progressive and sternly logical development of actual circumstances, becomes more and more apparent. Seldom has the What, that is the Essential in a process of development in the world's history and the life of a great civilized people, been so little influenced by what the holders of political power have done or left alone, as in this case. What they did and what they left undone, had a modifying effect only on the How of the process, and even on that only in a surprisingly small degree, because the leading politicians themselves were a necessary product of those actual eir *Owing to the size of the fourth installment of Dr. von Holst's work in the original German (Compromise of 1850-Buchanan's Election), we have found it necessary to divide it into two, in English, the first covering the period from the Compromise of 1850 to the KansasNebraska Bill inclusive, and the second the period from the KansasNebraska Bill to the Election of Buchanan. This preface of the author is therefore intended both for the present volume and the fifth of the translation. cumstances. The more deeply one studies the sources of the history of these six years, the more irresistibly does the recognition of this fact force itself upon the mind, until at last it becomes hard to understand how there can still be unprejudiced men, in both camps and among those who stood anywhere between them as spectators or fellowactors, who see in it nothing but an empty hypothesis. I believe that in this volume I have made a not entirely unimportant contribution to the proof of the allegation made above, a proof which it is my firm conviction will yet be furnished by the investigation of the history of slavery I deliberately say slavery and not slavery question-in such a shape as to put it forever beyond the possibility of dispute. In my opinion, the volume could. become such a contribution, only provided I discussed this period with an exhaustiveness which, spite of my endeavors to treat only of that which is indispensable to the understanding of the subject in hand, may weary many readers. This minute and critical entering into details was all the more necessary, since this period has, in many respects-especially as regards the "finality" question and Know-Nothingism-partly because of its unrefreshing character and partly because of the tangled and intricate nature of its history-been, in a special degree neglected not only by investigators, but even by party writers. It was, therefore, even more imperative than in the previous volumes, so far as space at all permitted, to prove my position from the original sources, verbatim. Otherwise, it would have been only too easy for the representatives of traditional party views and the pretended impartial with their deep-rooted notions, to dispose of my work with a shrug of the shoulders and a few general apodictic assertions, and then, so to speak, pass to the order of the day. I could not limit myself any further in this respect, if the PREFACE. judgment criticism on both sides of the Atlantic has passed on the first three volumes of my work, was to hold good of this one also, namely, that other investigators will have to reckon with my labors. Those who come after me, however, will have this great advantage: they will be able to represent as established facts what will be looked upon as demonstrated here from the original sources, in as many lines as I have needed pages to furnish unimpeachable evidence of them. THE AUTHOR. |