Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/332

294 vote was cast unanimously for the two Northern men, Fillmore and Buchanan, both representing the cause of the Union, the Constitution and the Compromise of 1850.

The political situation was evident. "The distinct and avowed marshaling of a solid North against a solid South had begun,&quot; says Senator Elaine, &quot;and the result of the Presidential election of 1856 settled nothing except that a mightier struggle was in the future.&quot; These words of the great Senator from Maine, written nearly thirty years after this election, express the conclusion which at once heightened the fever of Southern anxiety.

Buchanan—inaugurated March 4, 1857—sincerely hoped that his administration would allay the agitation which had sprung up fiercely three years before. His election was regarded by the country as another significant endorsement of &quot;the finality&quot; of 1850, and he officially declared his desire that such action should be taken in the management of the territories as would avoid all national controversy between &quot;North&quot; and &quot;South.&quot; In this desire he clearly had the sincere sympathy of alt political parties in the South. The feeble resistance first made in parts of the South to the compromise was fully overcome in 1851, and it ceased to be a question. The alone from Fillmore men whose platform agreed with his own views on the sectional question. Their party dissolved like a mist immediately after Fillmore’s defeat, and its members in the South, though a half million strong, had no grounds of contest except such as might be found on local issues. Their leader, Mr. Fillmore, had written a remarkable letter in July, 1856 the protest of a patriot against sectional partyism—concerning which Mr. Greeley commented that it plainly declared the success of the Republicans would &quot;not only incite, but justly cause a rebellion of the Southern States. &quot; (American Conflict, 248.) Heeding the words of these great Northerners, the Southern Americans stood together in