CHAPTER XXIV.

WITH the beginning of Fillmore's administration we enter upon a peculiar period in American history. It was the epoch during which public opinion was gradually transformed from the support of the institution of slavery and the condition of society in which slavery had its ground and root to another and more progressive and enlightened phase of progress and national morality. The period in question corresponded in time with the sixth decade of our century. It covered the administrations of Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan. Its opening was marked by the passage of the Omnibus Bill. The discussion of this great and complex measure continued to the 18th of September, when the last clause was adopted and the whole received the sanction of the President.

This bill was sustained and carried through Congress by the eloquence and persistency of Henry Clay. After the adoption of the bill the excitement of the country rapidly abated, and it seemed for the day that the distracting controversy was at an end. The peaceful condition, however, was only superficial. The deep-seated cause of the evil remained as before. The institution of slavery still existed and was destined in spite of all compromise still to disturb the harmony of American society, until it should be cut from the body of our national life with the keen edge of the sword. For the present, however, there was quiet. The Compromise Acts of 1850 were in the nature of an anodyne. They were administered with good intent and were

the last, perhaps the greatest, of those temporary, pacific measures which originated in the patriotism and hopeful spirit of Henry Clay. Shortly afterwards he bade adieu to the Senate and sought at his beloved Ashland a brief rest from the arduous cares of public life.

The Omnibus Bill proved to be a strictly political settlement. By it the moral convictions of few men were altered or amended. Public opinion took its own course, as it always does, despite the puny efforts of the men who sometimes vainly imagine that they make human history. In the North there appeared a general indefinite and growing hostility to slavery; in the South, a fixed and resolute purpose to defend and extend that institution.

To the Whig President, whose party was in the ascendant in most of the Free States, the measure was fatal. Although the members of his cabinet advised him to sign the bill, the Whigs were at heart strongly opposed to more than one of its provisions. The Fugitive Slave Law grated harshly on the awakening conscience of many of the best men of the epoch. When the President signed the bill they turned coldly from him. Though his administration in other respects was one of the ablest, most enlightened and progressive known in our history, his dalliance with the institution of slavery, however necessary such a course might have appeared to be, was not forgiven. Two years afterwards, in the Whig National Convention of 1852, although the policy of the President, with the usual political hypocrisy, was indorsed and approved by a vote of two hundred and twenty-seven against sixty, not twenty votes could be obtained in all the Northern States for the renomination of Fillmore! Thus do political parties punish their leaders for hesitating to espouse a principle which the parties themselves are afraid to avow!

To this period belongs the story of the attempt made by Vol. III.-5

a few lawless American adventurers to gain possession of the island of Cuba. Rumors of Cuban discontent had reached the United States, and it was believed by the insurrectionists that the Cubans were ready to throw off the Spanish yoke and to appeal to the United States for annexation. In order to further a rebellion against Spain, General Narciso Lopez, a Spanish-American soldier, fitted out an expedition in the Southern States, and on the 19th of May, 1850, landed with a considerable body of followers at Cardenas, a port in Cuba.

No uprising followed the adventure. Neither the Cubans nor the Spanish soldiers in the island joined Lopez's standard, and he was obliged to return to Florida. Not satisfied with this experience, he renewed the attempt in the following year and invaded Cuba with four hundred and eighty men. The force, however, was attacked, defeated, captured and the ringleaders were taken to Havana, tried, condemned and executed.

President Fillmore in his first annual message recommended to the consideration of Congress many important measures. Among these were the following: A cheap and uniform postage; the establishment, in connection with the Department of the Interior, of a Bureau of Agriculture; liberal appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors; the building of a national asylum for disabled and destitute seamen; a permanent tariff, with specific duties on imports, and discrimination in favor of American manufactures; the opening of communication between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast; a settlement of the land difficulties in California; an act for the retirement of supernumerary officers of the army and navy; and a board of commissioners to adjust the claims of private citizens against the government of the United States. Perhaps no other series of recommendations so statesmanlike and un

partisan has ever been made to the Congress of the United States. Only two of the recommendations, however-the asylum for sailors and the settlement of the land claims in California-were carried into effect. The Whigs of the President's party were in a minority in Congress, and the majority refused or neglected to approve these measures.

A difficulty now arose with Great Britain relative to the coast fisheries of Newfoundland. These belonged exclusively to England; but outside of a line drawn at the distance of a marine league from the shore American fishermen had certain rights and privileges. In course of time a contention sprang up between the fishermen of the two nationalities about the location of the line. Should the same be drawn from headland to headland, thus including bays and inlets? Or should the line be made to conform to the irregularities of the coast? The latter construction was favorable to American interests; the former, to those of Great Britain. The quarrel grew so hot that both nations sent men-of-war into the disputed waters. The difficulty extended from 1852 to 1854, and it frequently seemed that hostilities were imminent. Reason, however, triumphed over passion, and the difficulty was settled by negotiation in a manner favorable to the interests of the United States.

In the summer of 1852 Louis Kossuth, the celebrated Hungarian patriot, made a tour of the United States, and was received with enthusiastic admiration. He came as the representative of the lost cause of Hungary in her struggle against Austria and Russia. He sought such aid as might be privately given to him by those favorable to Hungarian liberty. His mission in this respect was highly successful; the long-established policy of the United States forbade the government to interfere in behalf of Hungary, but the people in their private capacity gave to the cause of freedom in that land abundant contributions.

To the same period in our history belong the first efforts of explorers to penetrate the regions about the North Pole. Systematic efforts were now made to enter and explore the Arctic Ocean. As early as 1845 Sir John Franklin, one of the bravest of English seamen, sailed on a voyage of discovery to the extreme north. He believed in the possibility of an open polar sea and of a passage through the same into the Pacific. Franklin made his way to a great distance in the direction of his delusive hopes, but the extent of his success was never ascertained. Years passed, and no tidings came from the daring sailor. It was only known that he had passed the country of the Esquimaux.

Following in the wake of the Franklin expedition, others went, first of all in search of Franklin himself, and after that to explore the Arctic regions. Henry Grinnell, a wealthy merchant of New York, fitted out several vessels at his own expense, put them under command of Lieutenant De Haven, and sent them to the north; but in vain. The government came to the rescue. In 1853 an Arctic squadron was equipped, and the command given to Dr. Elisha Kent Kane; but this expedition also, though fruitful in scientific results, returned without discovering Franklin.

The necrology of this epoch included, first of all, the great name of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. The distinguished Senator passed away on the 31st of March, 1850. His death was much lamented, especially in his own State, to whose interests and rights, as he understood them, he had devoted the energies of his life. His earnestness and zeal and powers of debate placed him in the front rank of American orators. As a statesman, however, he was wedded to the theory of State rights, in vivid contrast to Webster, who advocated the supremacy of the Union. He was a man of singular purity of life. He, Webster and Clay were known as "the great Trio." At the age