NOTES

ONE A Redeeming Spirit Is Busily Engaged

1. Southport American, Mar. 2, 1844.

2. Louis S. Gerteis, “Antislavery Agitation in Wisconsin, 1836–1848,” and “An Abolitionist in Territorial Wisconsin: The Journal of Reverend Edward Mathews.”

3. Theodore Clark Smith, “The Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 97–162, esp. 101.

4. Southport Telegraph, Aug. 4, 1840. Dyer apparently was involved in the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin and later was a stockholder in the Territorial Liberty Association. Fanny S. Stone, ed., Racine and Racine County Wisconsin, 426–29; and C. W. Butterfield, The History of Waukesha County Wisconsin, 562; Russell B. Nye, Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830—1860.

5. Alice E. Smith, The History of Wisconsin, vol. 1: From Exploration to Statehood, 196–97.

6. Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 474–75; Joseph P. Schafer, The Wisconsin Lead Region, 44–56; C. W. Butterfield, The History of Grant County, Wisconsin; Raymond V. Phelan, “Slavery in the Old Northwest,” 252–64; John N. Davidson, “Negro Slavery in Wisconsin,” 82–86.

7. Southport Telegraph, Aug. 31, 1841, gives a good account of the disposition of Dodge’s slaves. Gerteis, in “An Abolitionist in Territorial Wisconsin,” 12, 258–62, 332–40, recounts the Mitchell controversy.

8. Grant County Herald, Apr. 23, May 13, 20, 1843; Shullsburg Telegraph, Mar. 13, 1849; Gerteis, “An Abolitionist in Territorial Wisconsin,” 125–31, 248–53. Eugene Berwanger, The Frontier Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension Controversy, 18–19, discusses the attitudes of nonslaveholding Southern yeomen who migrated to the old Northwest in reference to slavery, its extension, and blacks.

9. Alice Smith, The History of Wisconsin, 388–89.

10. H. A. Tenney and David Atwood, Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wisconsin, 374–75, contains a convenient record of Wisconsin’s population by county, from 1836 through 1880. Alice Smith, The History of Wisconsin, 250, 468.

11. Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 14, Dec. 19, 1843, Jan. 8, Feb. 5, 1844; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 25, 1845, June 13, July 18, 1846. These contain population data testifying to the preponderance of settlers from New York and New England in a number of southeastern towns, collected by one Julius P. Bolivar MacCabe. Also see, Lois Mathews, The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlements and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620–1865, 236–47; Alice Smith, The History of Wisconsin, 467–73; Joseph P. Schafer, Four Wisconsin Counties, Prairie and Forest, 80–82; Edward Alexander, “Wisconsin, New York’s Daughter State,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 11–30. Excluding the Wisconsin-born residents in 1850, most of whom were children, nearly 53 percent of Wisconsin’s population was born in the Empire State; with Wisconsin residents included, the figure was still a very high 35 percent.

12. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Alice Smith, The History of Wisconsin, 470; Schafer, “The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History.

13. Schafer, Four Wisconsin Counties, 390–94; Alice Smith, The History of Wisconsin, 470. CathleenConzen, Immigrant Milwaukee, 1836–1860: Accommodation and Community in a Frontier City, 16–19, states that as early as 1848, the city of Milwaukee had changed from a predominantly Yankee population to one in which a majority of its residents were foreign-born.

14. Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 464–68. Joseph P. Schafer, The Winnebago-Horicon Basin: A Type Study in Western History, 132–92, gives information on those people who settled in Calumet, Dodge, Fond du Lac, and Winnebago counties, for example.

15. Whitney Cross, The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850.

16. Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837–1860. Theodore Clark Smith, The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest, is an older, but still useful work on antislavery politics.

17. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 58; Cross, The Burned-Over District, 226–27; A. M. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin, 38–39; C. C. Olin, A Complete Record of the John Olin Family, 20–21.

18. Milwaukee Courier, Apr. 26, 1843; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 101–2.

19. Edward D. Holton Diary, Feb. 26, 1847, and passim, Edward D. Holton Papers, gives a perspective on Holton’s views. Gerteis, “Antislavery Agitation in Wisconsin,” 71–77, provides biographical material on Holton.

20. Milwaukee Democrat, Oct. 13, Nov. 17, 1843; Theodore Clark Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest, 59. Moses M. Strong, History of the Wisconsin Territory, from 1836–1848, 420, gives a breakdown by county of the returns.

21. Milwaukee Democrat, Nov. 10, 1843.

22. Hannah M. Codding, “Ichabod Codding,” 169–96; Gerteis, “Antislavery Agitation in Wisconsin,” 105–12 and “An Abolitionist in Territorial Wisconsin,” 255.

23. Michael Frank Diary, Feb. 13, 1844, Michael Frank Papers; Southport American, Feb. 24, 1844; Southport Telegraph, Feb. 6, 1844.

24. Grant County Herald, Oct. 16, 1844.

25. Milwaukee Democrat, Feb. 23, 1844; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 2, 1844; American Freeman, Mar. 6, 1844; Gerteis, “An Abolitionist in Wisconsin Territory,” 255; John G. Gregory, History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 743.

26. Dwight L. Agnew et al., Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, 326.

27. Milwaukee Democrat, Dec. 6, 1843 (e.g., this is one of many antiannexationist pieces that appeared in Sholes’s Democrat between Sept. 1843 and Feb. 1844).

28. Gerteis, “An Abolitionist in Wisconsin Territory,” 255. Since the Nov. announcement of the forthcoming Liberty paper first appeared in the Milwaukee Democrat, it may be that Sholes had already been approached about the job, but he remained uncommitted until Codding’s visit.

29. Olin, Record of the John Olin Family. C. C. Olin obtained exclusive ownership of the Freeman in late 1846.

30. Ichabod Codding in Sept. 1846, followed by C. C. Olin, J. P. Plumb, and Sherman M. Booth.

31. Olin, Record of the John Olin Family.

32. Of course, the Liberty party did not escape the charges of being fanatical, disunionists, etc., but those charges generally were mild compared to the scorn leveled at abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison.

33. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, ch. 4; Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War, 73—87.

34. American Freeman, Mar. 6, Apr. 10, 1844; Southport American, Feb. 24, 1844, for Racine County Liberty resolves; David Brion Davis, “The Emergence of Immediatism in British and American Antislavery Thought.”

35. American Freeman, Apr. 10, June 1, 1844, Sept. 9, 1845, Aug. 4, Sept. 9, 1846.

36. Ibid., Sept. 9, 1846, and Aug. 18, 1846.

37. Ibid., Mar. 6, 1844, paraded a number of antislavery quotations attributed to the founding fathers. Also see, Sept. 9, 1845, Aug. 18, Nov. 24, Dec. 2, 8, 1846, Apr. 8, 1848 and Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, especially ch. 3, as well as William Freehling, “The Founding Fathers and Slavery.”

38. American Freeman, Sept. 9, 1845; also see Aug. 18, 1846.

39. American Freeman, Nov. 10, 1846, gives a good summary of Liberty thought on the Union. Also see Paul C. Nagel, One Nation Indivisible: The Union in American Thought, 1776–1861; Kenneth Stampp, “The Concept of a Perpetual Union”; Richard B. Latner, “The Nullification Crisis and Republican Subversion.”

40. American Freeman, Nov. 19, 1846.

41. Ibid., Apr. 3, 10, 1844. David Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, 44–50, for a brilliant discussion of the place of slavery in the northern value system. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 133–43, also recognizes that, among “radical Republicans” at least, the issue of slavery was of primary importance in their hierarchy of values. Stampp, “Concept of a Perpetual Union.”

42. American Freeman, Apr. 10, 1844, Sept. 9, 1845; Winthrop Jordan’s classic White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 traces American racial attitudes to their English origins.

43. American Freeman, Sept. 22, Nov. 3, 1846, Sept. 17, 1847; Madison Democrat, Oct. 12, 1843, makes reference to some of these scientific notions. George Frederickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817—1914, and William R. Stanton, The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America, 1815–1859, are the most useful books on this topic.

44. American Freeman, Mar. 6, June 1, 1844, Nov. 3, 1846, Jan. 7, Apr. 7, 1847.

45. American Freeman, Mar. 24, 1847; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 99–101; Eric Foner, “Racial Attitudes of the New York Free Soilers.”

46. American Freeman, June 1, 1844; also see Sept. 22, 1846, for similar sentiments.

47. Southport American, Feb. 24, Mar. 29, 1844; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 13, Mar. 2, 1844; Racine Advocate, Apr. 9, 1844; Madison Wisconsin Democrat, Feb. 15, 1844.

48. American Freeman, Apr. 10, 17; Aug. 11, 1844; Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26; Apr. 2, 1845.

49. Leonard L. Richards, “The Jacksonians and Slavery,” 99–118, gives an appraisal of Northern Whig and Democratic attitudes toward slavery. Also see Herbert Ershkowitz and William G. Shade, “Consensus or Conflict? Political Behavior in the State Legislatures during the Jacksonian Era”; James Brewer Stewart, “Abolitionists, Insurgents, and Third Parties: Sectionalism and Partisan Politics in Northern Whiggery, 1836–1844,” 25–43.

50. Wisconsin Express, Apr. 3, 10, 17, Sept. 4, 1845; Southport American, Feb. 24, Mar. 2, 9, 1844; Fond du Lac Whig, Dec. 14, 1846; Grant County Herald, Feb. 12, Nov. 6, 1847; Janesville Gazette, May 23, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 9, 1845; Oct. 18, 1848.

51. Janesville Gazette, May 23, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 10, 1845, Nov. 17, 1847, April 27, 1848; Ephraim Perkins to John Tweedy, April 13, 1848, John Tweedy Papers.

52. Grant County Herald, Nov. 11, 1843, May 4, 11, 1844. Although the Herald was “neutral” politically at that time, it conveyed a decidedly Whig tone, and in 1845 the paper’s editors were instrumental in organizing the party in Grant County. See the Herald, July 5, 1845, June 24, 1847.

53. Southport American, Mar. 2, 1845; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 14, 1845; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, August 14, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 23, 1852. These offer retrospective views of the importance of the Texas issue. Also see Frederick Merk, Slavery and the Annexation of Texas, 135–47; William R. Brock, Conflict and Transformation: The United States, 1845–1877, 44–46.

54. Wisconsin Express, Mar. 20, 1845; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 27, 1852.

55. Southport American, Feb. 24, Mar. 2, 9, Apr. 13, 1844; Aug. 30, 1845; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 13, 1844, Jan. 9, 1845; Fond du Lac Whig, Dec. 14, 1846; Janesville Gazette, Jan. 24, 1846; Wisconsin Express, Mar. 20, 1845; Grant County Herald, May 4, 1844. The “expand or die” theory is treated by Eugene Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South, 243–70; William J. Cooper, Jr., The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828–1856, 64–65, 238–44; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 190–91; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 311–12; Potter, Impending Crisis, 46; C. Stanley Urban, “The Ideology of Southern Imperialism: New Orleans and the Caribbean, 1845–1860”; and Charles W. Ramsdell’s classic, “The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion.”

56. Janesville Gazette, Feb. 2, 1846. Also see the Southport American, Mar. 9, 1844, for similar sentiments.

57. Beloit Journal, Dec. 28, 1848, gives a good summary of Whig ideology, as does the Southport American, Mar. 2, 1844; Major L. Wilson, Space, Time, and Freedom: The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict, 1815–1861, 4–6; Ershkowitz and Shade, “Consensus or Conflict,” 614–17; Rush Welter, The Mind of America, 1820–1860, 190–218; Robert F. Dalzell, Jr., Daniel Webster and the Trial of American Nationalism, 1843–1852, 32–34.

58. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 9, 1845; Bet Williams to Elisha L. C. Keyes, 1847, Elisha Keyes Papers.

59. Grant County Herald, Dec. 12, 1846; American Freeman, Aug. 26, 1846; and ch. 2, for a more in-depth analysis of partisanship and race.

60. Southport American, Feb. 24, 1844; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 7, 1846.

61. Southport American, Mar. 2, 1844.

62. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 11, 1845; Wisconsin Express, Sept. 4, 1845.

63. Milwaukee Courier, Nov. 29, Dec. 13, 1843, Jan. 27, 1844; Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 12, 1843, Feb. 15, 1844, Aug. 29, 1846. The condition of free blacks seemed to bear out this contention; John C. Miller, The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, 84–88.

64. Wisconsin Democrat, Feb. 15, 1844, Aug. 26, 1846, July 31, 1847; Weekly Wisconsin, June 16, Nov. 3, 1847.

65. Southport Telegraph, Jan. 16, Feb. 12, Mar. 27, Apr. 30, July 9, 1844, Feb. 17, 1845, June 9, 1847; Racine Advocate, Apr. 9, 1844, Apr. 14, Aug. 4, 1846, Feb. 10, 1847; Madison Wisconsin Argus, Feb. 23, Mar. 2, 1847.

66. Southport Telegraph, Dec. 5, 1843, Jan. 16, 1844; Racine Advocate, Apr. 9, 1844; also see ch. 2.

67. Wisconsin Democrat, Jan. 10, 1846; Southport Telegraph, Feb. 27, Mar. 12, 19, July 9, 1844, Sept. 23, 1846; Beloit Journal, Dec. 28, 1848, give good accounts of Democratic ideology. Also see Wilson, Space, Time, and Freedom; Ershkowitz and Shade, “Consensus or Conflict?”; Welter, The Mind of America, 165–89, 243–44; Marvin Meyers, The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief. Many Wisconsin Democrats excluded internal improvements from their list of government-sponsored evils, thus indicating that self-interest or practicality sometimes relegated ideology to a subordinate place.

68. Southport Telegraph, Apr. 30, May 21, June 4, July 9, 1844. The Wisconsin Argus, July 1, 1845, contains the proceedings of the Democratic territorial convention’s endorsement of annexation, and the Racine Advocate, July 1, 1845, covers Racine County’s meeting, chaired by Michael Frank, an ardent antislavery Democrat, and attended by others of a similar bent, which likewise welcomed the joining of Texas to the United States.

69. Racine Advocate, Dec. 3, 19, 1843; Mar. 20, Apr. 19, 1844.

70. Milwaukee Weekly Wisconsin, June 16, 1847, expressed this opinion. Also see the Southport Telegraph, July 9, 1844.

71. Southport Telegraph, Apr. 19, 1842; Mar. 19, 1844.

TWO Negro Suffrage Is Antislavery Work

1. American Freeman, Mar. 6, 1844, Mar. 20, Jan. 5, 1847, Feb. 23, 1848. Emil Olbrich, The Development of Sentiment on Negro Suffrage to 1860.

2. Olbrich, Development of Sentiment on Negro Suffrage, 26–27; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 212.

3. Florence E. Baker, “A Brief History of the Elective Franchise in Wisconsin.”

4. Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 423–25. Frederick L. Holmes, “First Constitutional Convention in Wisconsin, 1846,” 229. Wisconsinites already had rejected statehood on three previous occasions and would reject it again in 1844.

5. Milwaukee Democrat, Dec. 27, 1843; Southport Telegraph, Jan. 2, 1844.

6. Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 425–26; Alice E. Smith, History of Wisconsin, 659. Wisconsin House Journal, 1844, Jan. 9 proceedings. I have used the manuscript copies of the territorial legislative journals which are irregularly paginated. When page numbers are listed, they will be noted, otherwise the date of the proceedings will be indicated.

7. Wisconsin Democrat, Feb. 15, 1844.

8. Wisconsin House Journal, 1844, Jan. 15, 16.

9. Wisconsin Council Journal, 1844, 144. The vote was six to five.

10. Wisconsin Democrat, Feb. 15, 1844.

11. Wisconsin House Journal, 1844, Jan. 13, 15 proceedings and 250, 258, 407.

12. Wisconsin Council Journal, 1844, 203, 431; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 431.

13. Gerteis, “Antislavery Agitation in Wisconsin,” 11–16, 38, discusses Frank’s varied reform activities; Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, 134; “Life of Colonel M. Frank,” in Frank H. Lyman, ed., The City of Kenosha and Kenosha County, Wisconsin, 90–112.

14. Wisconsin Council Journal, 1845, Jan. 16; Wisconsin House Journal, Jan. 22; Petitions, Remonstrances, and Resolutions Presented to the Senate and/or Assembly, 1845, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.

15. Milton M. Quaife, The Movement for Statehood, 1845–1846, 94–105; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 3, 1846.

16. Quaife, Movement For Statehood; Racine Advocate, Apr. 9, 1844.

17. Wisconsin Council Journal, 1846, 94; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 3, 1846.

18. Quaife, Movement For Statehood, 105; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 487, for list of Council members.

19. Quaife, Movement For Statehood, 87; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 490.

20. American Freeman, Sept. 28, Apr. 9, 1845, Oct. 5, 1844; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 22, 1845; Southport Telegraph, Sept. 24, Oct. 6, 1844. Voting data for the Liberty party is hard to come by for local contests. The regular party journals did not always print the returns; when they did, the Liberty vote often was left out. The Freeman did not print many returns either, possibly out of fear of discouraging the party faithful by the vote their candidates received; or it may be that the vote usually was so small that canvassers ignored it.

21. American Freeman, Feb. 12, 1845.

22. Ibid., Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26, Apr. 2, 9, 1845; Southport American, Apr. 15, Sept. 27, Oct. 4, 1845; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 4, 1845; Racine Advocate, Oct. 7, 1845; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 480–81.

23. Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 510; Holmes, “First Constitutional Convention,” 230–33.

24. Smith, History of Wisconsin, 307–67, for a description of territorial politics and the problems of the Whig party. The Whigs were slow to organize in frontier Wisconsin, and often the party served only as a temporary home for disgruntled Democrats. The Democrats, who were hurt by constant feuding factions vying for control, nonetheless were well established in the territory; they held all political appointments, commanded the patronage, attracted the best-known and most powerful leaders and had strong newspaper support. By statehood, the Whigs had organized, but by then the issues that traditionally had divided the two parties were becoming increasingly irrelevant; hence it never achieved any real electoral success in Wisconsin and was more susceptible to coalitionist efforts than in states such as New York and Massachusetts, where the party had both strong leadership and far better organization.

25. Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, 206; A. A. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin, 300–302; Gregory, History of Milwaukee Wisconsin, 1008–9, for background on King.

26. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 7, 16, 19, Feb. 3, Mar. 25, Apr. 20, 1846, for a sampling of King’s opinions. Also see William H. Seward to King, February, 1845, Rufus King Papers, where Seward in a different context urged the enfranchisement of blacks in New York, as a means of rendering “the abolition of slavery in our own great State complete” and permanently crippling the Liberty party.

27. Southport American, Mar. 14, Apr. 11, 1846; Janesville Gazette, Apr. 11, 1846.

28. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 10, 1846; Southport American, Feb. 21, Mar. 7, 21, 1846; Phyllis F. Field, “The Struggle for Black Suffrage in New York State, 1846–1869,” (Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University, 1974), 50–53.

29. Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 14, 1846.

30. Ibid., Jan. 16, Mar. 16, 1846; Southport American, Mar. 21, 1846.

31. Janesville Gazette, Feb. 21, 28, 1846.

32. Milwaukee Courier, Apr. 8, 22, 1846.

33. Southport American, Mar. 14, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 16, 1846. Unfortunately, the Freeman suspended publication from April through July 1846, for financial reasons. Fortunately, the Liberty course is not obscure as a result of references made to the party by other editors.

34. Southport Telegraph, Mar. 24, 1846; Southport American, Apr. 4, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 16, 1846.

35. American Freeman, Aug. 18, 1846, e.g., for the Liberty party emphasis of principles over party; Southport Telegraph, Mar. 24, 1846, and the Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 16, 1846.

36. Madison Wisconsin Democrat, Aug. 8, 15, 22, 1846; Wisconsin Argus, July 28, August 11, 1846; Wisconsin Express, July 28, Aug. 4, 1846.

37. Southport American, July 21, Aug. 6, 15, 22, 29, Sept. 3, 1846; Southport Telegraph, July 21, 28, Aug. 25, Sept. 1, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 11, 1846.

38. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 11, 1846.

39. American Freeman, Aug. 11, 18, Sept. 1, 22, 1846; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 4, 15, 18, Sept. 11, Oct. 6, 1848; Milwaukee Courier, Aug. 24, 1846; Southport American, Aug. 29, 1846; Grant County Herald, July 5, 1845, July 24, 1847, for development of party sentiment in the territory’s western counties; Quaife, Movement for Statehood, 302–56.

40. American Freeman, Aug. 4, 11, 18, 25, Sept. 2, 1846.

41. Florence E. Baker, “A Bibliographical History of the Two Wisconsin Constitutional Conventions,” provides a list of the delegates and their party affiliation, if known.

42. Journal of the Convention to Form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin, 1846, 29–30; Milo M. Quaife, ed., The Convention of 1846, 93, 177–79, 214, 224, 228, 250–52; Olbrich, Development of Sentiment on Negro Suffrage, 76; Field, “Struggle for Black Suffrage,” 57.

43. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 67–68, 86, 90; Quaife, Convention of 1846, 209, 214, 221–22; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 521.

44. Quaife, Convention of 1846, 214–15; Alfons J. Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan: Lion of the Law (Madison, 1960).

45. Quaife, Convention of 1846, 215.

46. Ibid., 241–48.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid., 217.

49. Ibid., 214, 228, 240–41, 250–52; Milo M. Quaife, ed., The Attainment of Statehood, 386, where Chase gave a fuller explanation of his motives at the first constitutional convention.

50. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 90–91. Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 513–14, states that only 122 of the delegates “were ever in attendance” at the convention, and that “there was never a day when less than 13 of these were absent, and sometimes the absentees numbered forty or more… the highest vote ever recorded was 109… the lowest 67, but it generally ranged from 80 to 100, and one fifth part of the votes were from 100–109.” So the number of voting delegates on the suffrage question was not unusually low, and probably most nonvoters were absent, not abstaining.

51. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 90–91. Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 470, give a proportionate breakdown of the foreign and native-born populations by county for 1850. German-speaking Roman Catholics were predominant in Washington County.

52. Quaife, Convention of 1846, 215, 218, 222, 542–43; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 27, 1846. Baker later would become editor of a Free Soil paper in Janesville. Burchard was probably referring to Waukesha County’s delegation, whose members, irrespective of party, were pledged to support black suffrage. A. M. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 63–65.

53. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 94.

54. Ibid., 228–29, for the remarks of D. A.J. Upham who said as much.

55. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 100.

56. Quaife, Convention of 1846, 412, 544–45; Journal of the Convention, 1846, 323.

57. Journal of the Convention, 1846, 90–91, 355–56, for both votes.

58. Quaife, Convention of 1846, 208, 218–20, 230–38, contains sketches of the speeches and attempts of a number of western delegates to impose more stringent qualifications on immigrant voting.

59. Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 664–65; Holmes, “First Constitutional Convention,” 246–48; Milo M. Quaife, ed., The Struggle Over Ratification, 1846–1847, passim, for the popular debates.

60. Franklin J. Blair to Jairus C. Fairchild, January 10, 1847, Lucius Fairchild Papers, discusses the “Hunker” opposition to the constitution; American Freeman, Dec. 2, 8, 1846, Jan. 27, Apr. 7, 1847; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 28, 1846; Janesville Gazette, Nov. 3, 14, Dec. 5, 1846; Quaife, Struggle Over Ratification, passim; P. F. Legler, “Josiah A. Noonan: A Story of Promotion and Excoriation in the Old Northwest,” 135–56.

61. Southport Telegraph, Nov. 4, 18, 46, Mar. 24, 1847; Racine Advocate, Mar. 4, 1846.

62. Rock County Badger, quoted in the Janesville Gazette, Dec. 5, 1846.

63. My numbers were derived from the Records of the Executive Department, Election Certificates from the State and County Board of Canvassers, 1847, which vary slightly from the official figures released.

64. Conzen, Immigrant Milwaukee, 16–19, 28; Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 470.

65. Schafer, Wisconsin Lead Region, 12.

66. Schafer, Winnebago-Horicon Basin, contains information on Fond du Lac and Dodge Counties.

67. See the Methodological Note and Tables in the Appendix following the final chapter. Table 24 provides estimated turnout data for elections held between 1847 and 1860.

68. Ershkovitz and Shade, “Consensus or Conflict?” 591–621; John L. Stanley, “Majority Tyranny in Tocqueville’s America: The Failure of Negro Suffrage, 1846,” is an important article on Whig divisions over black suffrage.

69. Stanley, “Majority Tyranny,” came to a similar conclusion in his New York study, that party lines on the black suffrage issue were not as tightly drawn as had been thought, as did Field in “Struggle for Black Suffrage in New York,” 78–81, 101–3. About 46 percent of the voting Democrats and 45 percent of the voting Whigs cast antisuffrage votes.

70. Robert Lane, Political Life: Why People Get Involved In Politics, 199–201; Walter Dean Burnham, “The Changing Shape of the American Political Universe,” for descriptions of roll-off and cross-pressure.

71. Quaife, Movement for Statehood, 101.

72. Ibid., 98–99.

73. Word of the veto did not reach Wisconsin in time to influence the first election.

74. Beriah Brown to Moses M. Strong, Aug. 14, 1847, James Holliday to Strong, Aug. 29, 1847, James Everett to Strong, Sept. 8, 1847, Nelson Dewey to Strong, Aug. 9, 1847, all in the Moses M. Strong Papers; John H. Rountree to John Tweedy, Aug. 6, 1847, Rufus King to Tweedy, Sept. 2, 1847, John H. Tweedy Papers; Wisconsin Democrat, Sept. 18, 1847.

75. George M. Jones to Strong, Oct. 15, 1847, Moses M. Strong Papers, echoed the widespread belief that many Democrats, especially in the East, were repulsed by Strong’s tendency toward “dissipation,” and that this had cost him the election.

76. Baker, “Bibliographical History of Wisconsin’s Constitutional Convention,” 156–59; Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 676–77.

77. Frederic Paxson, “Wisconsin: A Constitution of Democracy,” 30–52; Strong, History of Wisconsin Territory, 564–82; Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 666–74.

78. Journal of the Convention To Form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin, 1847, 64, 128, 182; no roll call was taken, but Warren Chase claimed that twenty-two had favored it.

79. Ibid., 130, 180–84.

80. Ibid.

81. Ibid., 183–85. The proposition originally passed thirty-five to thirty-four, but one delegate claimed “he had voted under a misapprehension of the question,” and his request for a reconsideration was approved.

82. No party affiliation was found for three delegates; two were from western counties and voted negatively, and one was from Dodge and cast a favorable ballot. In all three cases, the votes were consistent with majority sentiment in their districts.

83. Journal of the Convention, 1847, 183–84 for Kinnie’s remarks. Jefferson and Rock counties had closely divided constituencies, for example, the former in favor, the latter against.

84. King represented Milwaukee; James T. Lewis, future Democratic lieutenant governor and Republican war governor, hailed from Columbia County.

85. Journal of the Convention, 1847, 191.

86. Ibid., 192.

87. Ibid., 180–81, 193–94.

88. Ibid., 210, 604.

89. Ibid., 44, 53–55.

90. Thomas D. Morris, Free Men All: The Personal Liberty Laws of the North, 1780—1861, 94–129.

91. Journal of the Convention, 1847, 55.

92. Quaife, The Attainment of Statehood, 15–115, contains some of the popular debate.

93. American Freeman, Feb. 9, 23, 1848.

94. The vote on the 1847 constitution was significantly less than the vote on the rejected constitution. This is probably attributable to the widespread assumption that adoption was a virtual certainty and not to voter apathy.

95. Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860.

96. Richard N. Current, The History of Wisconsin, vol. 2, The Civil War Era, 1848–1873, 145–49.

97. Wisconsin’s constitution provided that constitutional amendments must receive the approval of both houses of the legislature in two successive sessions and then be popularly sanctioned in a referendum. Blacks could be enfranchised by legislative approval in any one session, subject to popular endorsement.

THREE This Movement Is More Radical Than the Leaders Themselves Dare Avow

1. Chaplain W. Morrison, Democratic Politics and Sectionalism: The Wilmot Proviso Controversy; Eric Foner, “The Wilmot Proviso Controversy Revisited”; Frederick J. Blue, The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848–1854; Potter, Impending Crisis, 20–27; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 107–65.

2. American Freeman, Sept. 1, 1846, Mar. 31, 1847, Feb. 2, 1848. It should be noted that Liberty men, unlike the Whigs, expressed little confidence in the expand or die theory; slavery’s restriction was but one part of the total denationalization package deemed necessary.

3. See Sewell’s, Ballots for Freedom, 131–38, and his John P. Hale and the Politics of Abolition, 52–85, as well as Theodore Clark Smith’s Liberty and Free Soil Parties, 105–20.

4. American Freeman, Nov. 11, 1847, Feb. 2, 9, 1848. The one-third estimate was derived from the proportion of delegates endorsing Hale at the Jan. meeting. Also see Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 104–6.

5. American Freeman, Apr. 26, May 3, 1848. A pro-Hale motion never came to a vote at the full convention.

6. Blue, Free Soilers, 47–70; Allan Nevins, The Ordeal of the Union 1:189–206. In its platform, the Democracy officially ignored the extension question; the Whigs ignored all questions, adopting no platform at all.

7. American Freeman, Apr. 26, 1848.

8. Ibid., May 31, June 7, 14, 21, 27, 1848; Edward D. Holton Diary, June [?], 1848, Edward D. Holton Papers. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified in March. By its terms, the United States received the territories of New Mexico and California, and the Texas boundary was fixed at the Rio Grande.

9. American Freeman, June 7, 14, 21, 28, 1848.

10. Ibid., Apr. 5, May 31, June 21, July 5, 1848. Samuel D. Hastings made the request of Booth, undoubtedly on behalf of other Liberty leaders. Hastings himself was a Pennsylvania native and veteran abolitionist residing in Walworth County. On Booth, see Gerteis, “Antislavery Agitation in Wisconsin,” 112–15; A. M. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 57–59. Booth also had close ties to C. C. Olin, chief stockholder and former editor of the Freeman, with whom, at one time, he edited the Charter Oak, Connecticut’s Liberty paper.

11. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 57–59; American Freeman, July 5, 12, 1848.

12. Ibid., July 18, 26, 1848. The convention also passed a resolution endorsing Booth and the course he was pursuing at the Freeman.

13. Ibid., Aug. 2, 1848. Booth reiterated this point just before his departure for Buffalo.

14. Ibid.

15. The quotation is from the Fond du Lac Whig, Dec. 14, 1846; also see Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 30, 1846; Ephraim Perkins to John Tweedy, Apr. 13, 1848, Tweedy Papers.

16. “Address of the Whigs to the Voters of Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Express, Oct. 12, 1848. James Brewer Stewart, Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Society, 111–13, discusses the tendency of increasing numbers of Northerners to question traditional assumptions and loyalties as the slavery controversy heated up; Major L. Wilson, “Liberty and Union: An Analysis of Three Concepts Involved in the Nullification Controversy,” 133–47, esp. 139–44, discusses the pressures on antislavery Whigs to reconcile their slavery views with their Unionism, as does Daniel W. Howe, The Political Culture of the American Whigs, 67–68. Whigs, it should be noted, would have preferred to see the war terminated without the acquisition of land by the United States, a position they abandoned for the most part when it became clear that the administration’s expansionist goals were popular.

17. Wisconsin Express, Oct. 12, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Aug. 18, 1847; American Freeman, Aug. 2, 1848. Of course, not all Whigs supported this perspective, and some did try to exploit the tariff issue in 1848. Yet the idea that the old issues were dead gained increasing acceptance with men of all parties through the end of the decade and on into the 1850s.

18. Stewart, “Abolitionists, Insurgents, and Third Parties,” 26–36.

19. Janesville Gazette, Oct. 2, 1847. Also see the Milwaukee Sentinel, June 29, Nov. 30, 1846, Jan. 27, Feb. 4, 1847; Southport American, Jan. 30, 1847; Grant County Herald, Feb. 12, Nov. 6, 1847; Wisconsin Express, Oct. 2, 1848.

20. Janesville Gazette, Dec. 28, 1848; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 27, 1847; Southport American, Jan. 30, 1847; Grant County Herald, Feb. 2, June 24, 1847. For continuation of this sentiment see Southport American, Jan. 3, June 20, Dec. 28, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 13, 31, 1849.

21. Janesville Gazette, Oct. 2, 1847, June 30, July 21, Aug. 31, Nov. 6, Dec. 28, 1848; Milwaukee Sentinel, July 15, 1848; Grant County Herald, Apr. 22, July 15, 1848; Brock, Conflict and Transformation, 79. William J. Cooper, The South and the Politics of Slavery, 226–74, esp. 238–44, discusses the Southern response to the territorial question and shows that at least some Southern leaders believed slavery never would expand into the West; thus they were willing to reach an agreement.

22. The Weekly Wisconsin, Aug. 9, 1848, contains references to some of the few Whig insurgents; Potter, Impending Crisis, 39–50; and Stewart, “Abolitionists, Insurgents and Third Parties,” on conflicting values and tensions within northern Whiggery.

23. Ibid., June 16, 1847.

24. Southport Telegraph, Apr. 21, 28, 1848; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” no.

25. Potter, Impending Crisis, 57–59.

26. Wisconsin Argus, Feb. 23, Mar. 2, 1847, July 4, Aug. 29, Oct. 3, 1848; Fond du Lac Journal, Oct. 6, 29, Nov. 3, 1848.

27. A. M. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 60; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 109–10, for Democratic opposition to Cass’s stand on internal improvements.

28. Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 16, 1847, July 8, Oct. 7, 28, Nov. 4, 1848, for a sample of Brown’s opinions. He was also a leading spokesman of Democrats unsympathetic to moral arguments respecting slavery or the slave’s plight, as outlined in chapter 1. Thus, Brown’s antiproviso position is consistent with his earlier views. Also see Potosi Republican, Aug. 17, 1848, which was not as forthright as Brown, but nonetheless denied Congress the right to determine slavery policy in the territories. Oregon was the one exception Brown referred to, but even here, he insisted, settlers already had set the precedent by prohibiting slavery, and Congress merely took the constitutionally dubious step of affirming popular will.

29. Green Bay Advocate, Feb. 10, Aug. 24, 1848; Waukesha Democrat, July 20, Aug. 29, Sept. 19, 26, Oct. 3, 10, 17, 26, 1848; Weekly Wisconsin, July 5, Aug. 30, Sept. 7, 1848. Some popular sovereignty Democrats thought Congress might have the right to legislate on slavery matters for the territories, but like George Hyer of the Waukesha Democrat, they yielded their “personal preferences” to those of the national party and its candidates and would forthrightly abandon the proviso in 1850, as did the Democracy generally.

30. Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 7, 28, Nov. 4, 1848; Waukesha Democrat, Sept. 19, Oct. 3, 1848; Wisconsin Argus, Aug. 29, 1848; Weekly Wisconsin, Aug. 30, 1848; Potosi Republican, Aug. 17, 1848, for an overview of this argument.

31. Wisconsin Argus, Aug. 29, Oct. 3, 1848. Also see the Waukesha Democrat, Sept. 26, 1848.

32. Assembly Journal, 1848, 49, 91–93; Senate Journal, 1848, 37, 48, 53; Southport Telegraph, June 16, 23, 1848. Some were squeamish about the resolutions, and in fact the resolutions were watered down to include only a petition that favored free territory; nonetheless they illustrate the minimum sentiment held by nearly all Wisconsinites and were deliberately weak so as to offend no one.

33. Potosi Republican, Oct. 19, 1848; see too the Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 28, 1848.

34. Weekly Wisconsin, Dec. 1, 1847, July 5, 1848; Potosi Republican, Sept. 14, Oct. 19, 1848; Green Bay Advocate, Aug. 24, 1848; Wisconsin Argus, Aug. 20, 1848; Waukesha Democrat, Aug. 29, Oct. 10, 1848; Wisconsin Democrat, Aug. 26, Oct. 28, 1848; Fond du Lac Journal, Oct. 6, Nov. 3, 1848.

35. Marshall M. Strong to Horace Tenney, Sept. 11, 1848, Horace Tenney Papers.

36. Southport Telegraph, Feb. 21, June 23, 1848; Racine Advocate, Feb. 10, 1847, Feb. 2, May 31, 1848; Fond du Lac Journal, Oct. 13, 1847, for Chase’s views; Alexander Randall to Moses M. Strong, Aug. 20, 1848, Strong Papers; Rock County Democrat, in the Janesville Gazette, Aug. 24, 31, 1848, and in the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 4, 1849. For the attitudes of Free Soilers toward blacks, see Richard H. Sewell, “Slavery, Race, and the Free Soil Party, 1848–1854,” 101–24; Eric Foner, “Politics and Prejudice: The Free Soil Party and the Negro, 1849–1852,” and “Racial Attitudes of the New York Free Soilers,” 311–29; Berwanger, The Frontier Against Slavery. The extreme racist element in Wisconsin’s Free Soil party was small. In fact, Free Soil attitudes resembled those of the Liberty organization to a striking degree.

37. The Janesville meeting had been called by James Bunner in his Racine Advocate, July 12, 1848; also see the American Freeman, Aug. 9, 1848, for the proceedings of the meeting. Wisconsin’s Buffalo delegation included five Liberty men, two Whigs, and eighteen Democrats.

38. American Freeman, Aug. 23, 1848; Evening Wisconsin, Mar. 12, 1897, contains some reminiscences of Booth the senior citizen; Blue, The Free Soilers, 70–80, 293–96; Theodore Clark Smith, The Liberty and Free Soil Parties, 136–43.

39. American Freeman, Oct. 1, 3, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Oct. 6, 1848; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 96, 170–89, and Foner, “Politics and Prejudice,” give sensitive evaluations of Free Soil attitudes toward blacks. Free Soilers claimed Van Buren favored striking the proposed whites-only clause, but eventually supported a $250 property qualification placed on blacks since it had boiled down to a question of that or total exclusion.

40. Thomas Ogden to John Tweedy, Aug. 27, 1848, Tweedy Papers.

41. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 19, Oct. 2, 12, 26, 1848; Beloit Journal, Sept. 14, 1848; Wisconsin Express, Oct. 12, 1848; Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 14, Nov. 11, 1848; Wisconsin Argus, Sept. 26, 1848; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 114–18.

42. Walworth, Waukesha, Racine, and Milwaukee; Kenosha County later was carved out of Racine to complete the district. It should also be noted that Walworth, Waukesha, and Racine cast slightly more than forty-four hundred or 88 percent of the district’s Free Soil vote, while immigrant Milwaukee remained hostile to so-called abolitionist candidates.

43. Manitowoc, Milwaukee, and Washington Counties all contained foreign-born majorities and were overwhelmingly Democratic; the three-county total gave Cass 4,031 votes, Taylor 1,602, and Van Buren 1,021. Most of the latter two totals were from Milwaukee, a fact that still gave the Democrats in that county a two-to-one preponderance. Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, St. Croix, and Crawford Counties in the west were closely divided between the major parties, with 3,608 votes for the Democracy, 3,383 to the Whigs, and a pitiful 306 for the Free Soilers.

44. Wisconsin Express, Feb. 6, 1849. Also see the Fond du Lac Journal, Nov. 3, 1848, for a typical statement respecting the statewide free soil consensus.

45. Racine Advocate, June 12, July 12, 1848. Sholes is quoted in the Southport Telegraph, June 2, Oct. 20, 1848. Also see the American Freeman, Aug. 9, 1848; Marshall M. Strong to Horace Tenney, Sept. 11, 1848, Tenney Papers.

46. Racine Advocate, June 14, July 5, 12, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Apr. 7, 28, June 2, Oct. 27, 1848, provide good summaries of Free Soil attitudes. Also see Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 170–201.

47. Racine Advocate, June 14, July 12, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Apr. 7, 28, June 2, Oct. 27, 1848.

48. Southport Telegraph, June 2, Oct. 27, 1848.

49. American Freeman, Oct. 25, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Sept. 8, 15, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 1848; Racine Advocate, Feb. 2, June 7, 14, 1848.

50. Moses M. Strong to Horace Tenney, Sept. 11, 1848, Alexander Randall to Moses M. Strong, Aug. 20, 1848, Strong Papers; Southport Telegraph, June 23, Oct. 27, 1848; Racine Advocate, June 28, July 5, 1848, Feb. 10, 1847.

51. Racine Advocate, June 28, 1848; Southport Telegraph, Apr. 7, 21, 28, June 2, 14, Dec. 1, 1848; Sewell, “Slavery, Race, and the Free Soil Party,” 101–19. Curbs on press and speech freedoms and censorship of mails most frequently were pointed to by Free Soilers to illustrate Southern “tyranny.”

52. Southport Telegraph, June 21, 1850; also see Dec. 8, 1848, June 20, 1849, Jan. 4, 7, 1850; Racine Advocate, Feb. 2, June 28, 1848; Wisconsin Free Democrat (formerly the American Freeman), Jan. 2, Feb. 20, 1850.

53. The 68 percent figure was derived by dividing the Free Soil party’s prosuffrage entry (11.1) by its presidential total (16.4), and the other percentages in the same way.

FOUR A Party Separate and Distinct

1. Sixteen assembly seats, three senate seats; Blue, Free Soilers, 142.

2. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Jan. 17, 24, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 15, 16, 17, 1849.

3. Wisconsin Express, Jan. 16, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 17, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 24, 1849.

4. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 17, 1849; Wisconsin Express, Jan. 16, 1849; Rufus King to John Tweedy, March 5, 1848, Tweedy Papers.

5. Weekly Wisconsin, Dec. 6, 1848; Wisconsin Argus, Nov. 14, 1848; Fond du Lac Journal, Nov. 24, 1848; Moses M. Strong to Byron Kilbourn, Nov. 24, 1848, Byron Kilbourn Papers; Byron Kilbourn to Moses M. Strong, Dec. 12, 1848, Moses M. Strong Papers; C. L. Sholes to Morgan L. Martin, Dec. 15, 1848, Morgan L. Martin Papers. The old negrophobe Strong had addressed the January 11 Free Soil convention in favor of a coalition.

6. Wisconsin Democrat, Nov. 19, Dec. 10, 1848.

7. Wisconsin Democrat, Jan. 20, 1849.

8. Ibid.; Wisconsin Argus, Jan. 16, 29, 1849.

9. Assembly Journal, 1849, 40–41; Wisconsin Argus, Jan. 30, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 14, 1849.

10. The Democrats voted twenty-seven to three to strike the resolve, three Democrats abstained; the Whigs split, six to strike, eight to retain the measure; thirteen Free Soilers voted to retain, two to strike.

11. Assembly Journal, 1849, 79–81. The Democrats favored the proposal twenty-three to six, the Whigs split seven to seven, and the Free Soilers opposed the measure thirteen to two.

12. Assembly Journal, 1849, 111–12.

13. Ibid., 177–79; Senate Journal, 1849, 117, 119, 136, 146–51, provides the full range of the debates. The Whig Assemblymen voted eleven to four and the Free Soilers fourteen to zero in favor of the senate version; only nine Democrats voted for it, twenty against.

14. Assembly Journal, 1849, 539–40, 567–72. At the outset of the debate, the Democrats voted twelve to eleven in favor of the Walker bill, with ten abstentions; final passage came with Democrats still split, fifteen in favor, nine against, and nine abstaining. Free Soilers gave all fifteen of their votes in favor, the Whigs twelve, with only two against.

15. Senate Journal, 1849, 567–72, 633, 655. Democrats voted four in favor, five against the resolution, with one abstention; Whigs four-one-one; Free Soilers, two-zero-one.

16. Assembly Journal, 1849, 333, 386–88; Senate Journal, 1849, 418, 430, 440, 497. Also see the Southport Telegraph, Mar. 16, 1849; Wisconsin Argus, Mar. 20, 1849. John Reymert, a Norwegian-born Free Soiler, introduced the suffrage measure. The combined Democratic vote was fifteen for the referendum, nineteen against, and nine abstaining; Whigs favored the measure twelve to eight, Free Soilers nineteen to zero.

17. Southport Telegraph, Feb. 2, 9, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28, 1849.

18. For Booth’s continued optimism, see his letter to Salmon P. Chase, Apr. 5, 1849, in the Booth Papers. The Waukesha Democrat, Feb. 6, 13, 20, 27, Mar. 6, 13, 1849; Fond du Lac Journal, Apr. 6, 1849; Oshkosh True Democrat, Apr. 13, 1849; and the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 26, Mar. 8, 1849, cover the joint meetings.

19. Shullsburg Telegraph, July 26, 1849. Booth was well aware of the disinclination of the conservatives to work with “old abolitionists” like himself; see the Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 21, 28, 1849, and the Waukesha Democrat, Feb. 6, 27, 1849.

20. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 21, 1849; Southport Telegraph, Feb. 18, 1849; and the Weekly Wisconsin, Feb. 7, 1849.

21. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Mar. 28, Apr. 4, 1849; Southport Telegraph, Apr. 6, 1849.

22. Theodore Clark Smith, “The Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 125.

23. See the Wisconsin Democrat, Aug. 25, 1849, for a public letter from John Delaney to Beriah Brown designed to clear up misconceptions about the purpose and accomplishments of the March 30 meeting. Delaney was a Democratic assemblyman from Portage.

24. Wisconsin Argus, June 5, 1849; Wisconsin Democrat, June 2, 1849; Weekly Wisconsin, June 27, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, June 20, 1849.

25. The Milwaukee Sentinel, July 7, 1849 contains the committee’s call.

26. Southport Telegraph, June 29, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, July 4, 1849.

27. Waukesha Democrat, July 10, 17, 24, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, July 18, 1849; Southport Telegraph, July 20, 27, 1849.

28. Waukesha Democrat, July 31, 1849; Fond du Lac Journal, July 20, Aug. 10, 17, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, July 25, 1849.

29. Oshkosh True Democrat, July 25, 1849; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 126–27.

30. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 16, 1857, gives a retrospective view of the problems confronting the Free Soilers in 1849; also see James Simmons to Jairus Fairchild, May 28, 1849, in the Fairchild Papers; Wisconsin Free Democrat, May 2, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 30, 1849.

31. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Aug. 8, 1849.

32. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 8, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 12, 1849. The proviso vote was twenty-three to fifteen with twenty-three abstentions.

33. Ibid.

34. Wisconsin Democrat, Sept. 8, 15, 1849; the Wisconsin Express, Sept. 11, 1849, reported the “deal”; Green Bay Advocate, Sept. 13, 1849; Oshkosh True Democrat, Sept. 28, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 29, 1849.

35. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 12, 1849; Wisconsin Democrat, Sept. 8, 15, 1849; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 10, 11, 1849; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 126–28.

36. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 12, Oct. 3, 1849.

37. Oshkosh True Democrat, Oct. 5, 12, 1849; Wisconsin Democrat, Sept. 29, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 3, 1849; Elkhorn Independent, Feb. 5, 1856, with Densmore as editor, provides further details as to the motivations of the Free Soil delegates in their 1849 convention.

38. The quotation comes from the Port Washington Advocate and was reprinted in the Southport Telegraph, Aug. 17, 1849.

39. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 17, 1849.

40. A. E. Elmore, Sat Clark, George Clark to Jairus Fairchild, Sept. 27, 1849, Elmore to Fairchild, Sept. 28, 1849, Fairchild Papers. The Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 27, 1849, contain the candidates’ statements.

41. Alexander Randall to Jairus Fairchild, Oct. 16, 1849, Fairchild Papers; Michael Frank, Diary, Oct. 23, 1849, Michael Frank Papers, discusses one such meeting at which Randall spoke. Randall, claiming poverty, also demanded and apparently received financial compensation for his efforts. Also see Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” for commentary concerning the health of the Free Soil organization as the campaign wound down.

42. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 17, 1849.

43. Dewey won 18,274 votes; Collins, the Whig, 12,039; and Chase, 3,765.

44. Janesville Gazette, Oct. 25, 1849, for Alden’s comments; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 5, 1849, for King’s. Also see the Beloit Journal, Oct. 4, 1849; Southport American, Oct. 10, 1849; Wisconsin Express, Dec. 25, 1849; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 24, 1849; Oshkosh True Democrat, Aug. 10, Sept. 14, 1849.

45. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Nov. 21, 1849.

46. Fewer than seven hundred blacks were in Wisconsin in 1850, Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 475.

47. Christopher Sholes said as much in the Southport Telegraph, Nov. 30, 1849.

FIVE The Principles of the Free Soil and Whig Parties Are Identical

1. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Nov. 14, 1849; Southport Telegraph, Nov. 30, 1849.

2. The Whigs received 41.2 percent of the vote cast in the 1848 governor’s election, 35.1 percent of the ballots in the 1848 presidential contest, and 35.4 percent in 1849’s canvass.

3. Holman Hamilton, Prologue To Conflict: The Crisis and Compromise of 1850, 43–62; Mark Stegmaier, Texas, New Mexico and the Compromise of 1850, 97–101; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 90–120; Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 67–99.

4. Wisconsin Express, Feb. 11, 1850; also Feb. 19, Mar. 5, Apr. 9, June 11. For a sampling of similar Whig responses to the controversy see the Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 31, Feb. 14, 28, Mar. 4, 15, Apr. 9, June 5, 27, Aug. 28, 1850; Beloit Journal, Apr. 11, Aug. 9, 1850; Janesville Gazette, Feb. 7, 21, 28, 1850.

5. Potter, Impending Crisis, 94–116.

6. Wisconsin’s Whigs were closely allied to New York’s William Seward-Thurlow Weed wing of the party. Seward had been a close advisor to Taylor, and the elevation of Fillmore, Seward’s major intraparty rival in New York, put the state’s Whigs in an uncomfortable position. If they failed to back down they risked party isolation and the loss of patronage and power in the state.

7. Horace Tenney, once a strong Democratic advocate of the proviso, now disregarded it as “ridiculous.” See his Wisconsin Argus, July 9, 1850. Beriah Brown, Tenney’s crosstown rival and an antiproviso Democrat, came to the same conclusion in the Wisconsin Democrat, March 2, 1850. Also see the Milwaukee Commercial Advertiser, July 9, 24, 1850.

8. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Jan. 2, 1850, Feb. 20, 27, Mar. 6, 20, 1850. Sholes echoed Booth’s sentiments in his Southport Telegraph, June 7, 21, 1850.

9. Wisconsin Express, Dec. 12, 1850.

10. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 231–53.

11. Morris, Free Men All, 130–47.

12. Wisconsin Argus, Oct. 29, 1850; Speech of Byron Paine, undated, probably 1851, Byron Paine Papers.

13. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 11, 12, 1850. For Booth’s comments, see the Wisconsin Free Democrat, Mar. 26, 1851, Oct. 16, 1850; William J. Vollmar, “The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City, Milwaukee: 1835–1870: (master’s thesis, Marquette University, 1968), 22–33. About one hundred blacks lived in Milwaukee in 1850.

14. See, for example, the speech of Christopher Sholes to the state legislature in the Assembly Journal, 1853, 719–32. The Wisconsin Free Democrat, Jan. 22, 1851, contains Booth’s statement.

15. Wisconsin Democrat, Oct. 26, 1850.

16. Weekly Wisconsin, Sept. 18, Oct. 16, 23, 1850; Milwaukee Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 8, 1850; Grant County Herald, June 26, 1854, provide a retrospective view of why this Whig editor from the lead district favored the compromise; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 26, 1850, discusses the frustration and fatigue felt by many over the continuing controversy; Cyrus Woodman to William J. Russell, Sept. 26, 1851, Cyrus Woodman Papers, is the Democrat cited.

17. Oshkosh True Democrat, Nov. 18, 1850, Jan. 10, 1851; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 23, 1850; Current, History of Wisconsin, 209.

18. Weekly Wisconsin, Aug. 27, 1851; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 29, July 14, 1851; Wisconsin Argus, May 28, 1851; Green Bay Advocate, July 17, 1851; Potter, Impending Crisis, 121–22, 130–40; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 95–99.

19. On fugitive slave cases, see the Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 10, Apr. 11, 1851; Wisconsin Express, Aug. 28, 1851; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Apr. 10, 23, June 11, 1851. For the response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, see, for example, Dustin Grow Cheever, Diary, Dec. 28, 1853, Dustin Grow Cheever Papers; and Potter, Impending Crisis, 140. On itinerant black speakers, again see Cheever, Diary, Mar. 28, Oct. 8, 1853, and Willet S. Main, Diary, Oct. 30, 1851, Willet S. Main Papers. For a sober analysis of northern accommodation to the law, see Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850—1860.

20. Senate Journal, Appendix, 1851, 39–49; Senate Journal, 1851, 17, 35, 51, 94, 134, 184–85; Assembly Journal, 1851, 252, 263, 429, 653.

21. The debates and votes can be followed in the senate and assembly journals in the previous citation.

22. Senate Journal, 1852, 273, 690.

23. Ibid.

24. Oshkosh Democrat, May 31, 1850.

25. Booth to Chase, Feb. 2, 1850, Booth Papers.

26. Southport Telegraph, Mar. 22, 1850; Durkee to John Fox Potter, Aug. 26, 1850, John Fox Potter Papers.

27. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Aug. 7, 14, 21, 1850.

28. Ibid., Sept. 25, Oct. 30, 1850; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 202–30; Theodore Clark Smith, The Free Soil Party in the Northwest, 199–225.

29. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 25, Oct. 16, 1850.

30. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 15–30, 1850; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 16, 30, 1850; Weekly Wisconsin, Oct. 16, 23, 1850.

31. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 30, 1850; Orsamus Cole to George Lakin, Sept. 16, 1850, George Lakin Papers; Cyrus Woodman to Ben Eastman, Nov. 30, 1850, Woodman Papers; Robert R. Flately, “The Wisconsin Congressional Delegation From Statehood to Secession, 1848–1861,” 26–27.

32. Ibid.; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 24, 25, 28, 29, 1850; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 8, Oct. 30, 1850.

33. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 24, 1851; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 15, 1851.

34. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 12, 1847, and Aug. 21, 1852, for the number of papers; Waukesha Democrat, Sept. 18, 1850, for efforts to set up new papers; Green Bay Advocate, Aug. 22, 1851, for one editor who resigned his post in favor of party unity; Wisconsin Argus, June 9, 1852, on the termination of the Brown-Tenney feud; J. C. Sneeden to Jairus Fairchild, July 27, 1852, Fairchild Papers, on the Democratic reaction to its termination and the merger of the two papers.

35. Assembly Journal, 1851, 62–67; Senate Journal, 1851, 40–41. See the Wisconsin Free Democrat, July 8, 26, 1851, for rumors that the national party organization had ordered Wisconsin’s Democracy “to reverse its position on the slave question… and resolve in favor of the Compromise, or its delegates cannot be received into the National Convention.”

36. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Apr. 30, 1851.

37. Wisconsin Argus, Sept. 12, 24, 1851; Kenosha Telegraph, Oct. 31, 1851; Oshkosh Democrat, Sept. 19, 1851.

38. Kenosha Democrat, Sept. 20, 1851.

39. Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 16, 1850, Apr. 15, Aug. 21, Sept. 3, 1851; Wisconsin Express, Dec. 11, 18, 1851.

40. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Aug. 13, Sept. 10, 1851; Kenosha Telegraph, Aug. 1, 1851, Racine Advocate, July 30, 1851.

41. Evening Wisconsin, Mar. 12, 1897, for a retrospective view of the proceedings; Theodore Clark Smith, “The Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 134–35; Theodore Clark Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest, 234–35.

42. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 24, 1851; Kenosha Telegraph, Sept. 26, 1851.

43. Evening Wisconsin, Mar. 12, 1897; Wisconsin Argus, Oct. 22, 1851.

44. Green Bay Advocate, Oct. 16, 1851, and the Wisconsin Argus, Oct. 22, 1851, on King’s role and advice.

45. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 29, 1851; A. M. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 76–79.

46. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 29, 1851.

47. Sheboygan Lake Journal, in the Racine Advocate, Oct. 8, 1851.

48. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 30, 1851.

49. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 22, 29, 1851; Janesville Standard, July 12, 26, Sept. 6, 1854, has J. C. Bunner’s recounting of the story behind the letter and Farwell’s explanation.

50. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 76–77; Ken Winkle, “Voters, Issues, and Parties: Partisan Realignment in Southeastern Wisconsin, 1850–1854” (master’s thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1977), 27–28, 97–100. Turnout for the governor’s contest was 47 percent; for the bank question, it was 43 percent.

51. Milwaukee Journal, in the Wisconsin Free Democrat, Nov. 26, 1851.

52. Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 18, 1851.

53. Ibid., Apr. 30, 1852; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Dec. 30, 1851, Jan. 14, 1852.

54. Ibid., Jan. 14, 21, 1852.

55. Milwaukee Sentinel, July 3, 15, 21, Sept. 14, 1852, for a sampling of state Democratic attitudes; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 141–44, 228–38.

56. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 22, July 25, 1852; Janesville Gazette, July 3, 1852, Aug. 14, 1852. The Green Bay Advocate, July 15, 1852, and the Weekly Wisconsin, July 14, 1852, give Democratic comments on the dispirited Whigs.

57. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, July 1, Nov. 3, 5, 8, 15, 1852; Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 5, 26, 1852; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 5, 8, 1852; Flately, “Wisconsin Congressional Delegation,” 48–49; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 244–45, on the 1852 Free Soil platform.

58. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 3, 1852; George Hyer to Elisha Keyes, Nov. 21, 1852, Keyes Papers.

59. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 27, 1852.

60. Ibid., Jan. 29, 1853.

61. Washington County Blade, Mar. ?, 1853, in Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 139; Wisconsin State Journal, May 30, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 1, 1853.

62. Oshkosh Democrat, June 6, 1853; see also Dec. 26, 1851.

63. Wisconsin Free Democrat, May 11, 19, 26, 1853.

64. Kenosha Telegraph, Apr. 8, 22, 1853.

65. Wisconsin Free Democrat, Apr. 9, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 1, 1853; Wisconsin State Journal, May 30, 1853; Kenosha Telegraph, Apr. 8, 1853; Racine Advocate, Apr. 20, 1853.

66. Wisconsin Free Democrat, May 25, Oct. 26, 1853.

67. Wisconsin State Journal, June 7, 8, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 9, 10, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, June 9, 10, 1853; Argus and Democrat, June 8, 1853; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in the Northwest,” 278–84. Farwell had a letter of absolute declination read to the delegates.

68. Wisconsin Free Democrat, June 9, 10, 1853; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 23, 1853.

69. Greeley’s comment is found in Richard W. Hantke, “The Life of Elisha William Keyes,” 47; Farwell’s thoughts were published in the National Era, July 7, 1853, quoted in Theodore Clark Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest, 280. Also see the Milwaukee Sentinel, June 21, July 7, 8, 9, Aug. 6, 15, 24, 1853, and the Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 2, 11, 1853.

70. Janesville Gazette, June 18, 25, July 9, Aug. 6, 1853.

71. Watertown Weekly Register, Oct. 8, 15, 22, 29, 1853, for Barstow’s alleged offenses. Also see Legler, “Josiah Noonan: A Story of Promotion and Excoriation in the Old Northwest,” 186–96; Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan: Lion of the Law, 27–42; Current, History of Wisconsin, 215.

72. Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 9, 10, 1853; Argus and Democrat, Sept. 10, 1853; Legler, “Josiah Noonan,” 195–96.

73. Noonan to Fairchild, Sept. 27, 1853, Stephen Carpenter to Fairchild, Oct. 10, 1853, Fairchild Papers; Carpenter to Horace Tenney, Oct. 13, 1853, Tenney Papers; J. R. Sharpstein to George Paul, Nov. 3, 1853, Paul Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 12, 14, 1853.

74. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 12, 1853.

75. Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 15, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 17, 18, 19, 1853; Mineral Point Tribune, Sept. 12, 1853.

76. Waukesha Independent Press, Nov. 2, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 29, 1853.

77. George B. Smith to William Barstow, Sept. 15, 1853, Smith Papers. Baird stayed in the race, although it is not known if Barstow directly attempted to influence him.

78. Josiah Noonan to J. C. Fairchild, Sept. 27, 1853, Fairchild Papers; J. R. Doolittle to George Paul, Sept. 15, 1853, Paul Papers; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 15, 1853; Weekly Wisconsin, Oct. 14, 19, 26, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 26, 1853.

79. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 28, 1853.

80. Daily Wisconsin, Oct. 8, 1853; Kenosha Democrat, Oct. 14, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 12, 1853.

81. Argus and Democrat, Oct. 10, 1853; Daily Wisconsin, Oct. 11, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 8, 1853; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 15, 1853; Watertown Chronicle, Oct. 12, 19, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Oct. 8, 12, 1853. Democrats packed the evening meeting as well and easily were able to block coalition efforts.

82. The Democratic supporter was the Watertown Register; the one remaining loyal Whig paper was the Janesville Gazette. For Holton’s western support see the Mineral Point Tribune, Nov. 3, 10, 17, 1853, and the Grant County Herald, Nov. 2, 9, 1853; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 138–49.

83. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 24, 1853; Fond du Lac Herald, Oct. 21, 1853.

84. Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 5, 1853; Winkle, “Voters, Issues, and Parties,” 64–87; Theodore Clark Smith, “Free Soil Party in Wisconsin,” 145–46.

85. See the Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 5, 1853, for King’s belief that there was little interest in the election.

86. Recent political histories of this period emphasize the absolute importance of local issues and ethnicity in helping form party loyalties and shape the changes that occurred. Using turnout in Wisconsin as a variable, it is clear that turnout stagnated and sometimes dropped between 1848 and 1855 and did not pick up again until 1856. The highest turnout for state or local elections during the decade occurred after 1856, and those elections, which will be discussed later, had definite reference to national issues, especially slavery. William E. Gienapp, in The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852—1856, emphasizes the importance of the ethnocultural issues, although not to the exclusion of national concerns. Yet Gienapp’s statistics suggest that the slumping turnout was not uncommon in the North, especially on those supposedly all-important local questions.

87. Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 25, 1853; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 15, 1853. The Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 29, 1853, contains Atwood’s remarks.

SIX We Must Unite or Be Enslaved

1. Potter, Impending Crisis, 145–76.

2. Cheever, Diary, Mar. 11, 1854, Cheever Papers.

3. Grant County Herald, Feb. 27, 1854.

4. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Papers, 1800–1860, 33d Congress, Petitions, contains many petitions from the state. Also see the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 28, Mar. 4, 1854. One of these meetings took place in Ripon, the supposed birthplace of the Republican party. It is true that the Ripon gathering did call for a new “Northern party” to work for repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, if it passed, but so did other anti-Nebraska meetings held throughout the North; while the meeting’s organizer, Alvin Bovay, who later claimed to have proposed the name Republican for the new party and to have been its founder, was in New York on July 13 when the Madison meeting, which did give birth to Wisconsin’s Republican party, was held. If any one person deserves to be known as the founder of the Republican party, at least in Wisconsin, it is Sherman Booth, who organized the first anti-Nebraska meeting held in the state, in Milwaukee on February 13, but who also worked patiently to forge the antislavery coalition that emerged out of the July meeting. For background on the Ripon meeting, see A. M. Thompson, Political History of Wisconsin, 110–11; Current, History of Wisconsin, 218–19; for Booth’s role in the Milwaukee meeting, see the Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 1854, and George C. Brown, “The Genesis of the Wisconsin Republican Party, 1854.”

5. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 30, 1854.

6. Kenosha Democrat, Feb. 3, 10, 1854; Green Bay Advocate, Mar. 2, 1854; Ozaukee Times, Feb. 11, 1854; Milwaukee News, most issues in February 1854 have comments bearing on the matter. The News was Noonan’s organ. Also see Richard L. Hanneman, “The First Republican Campaign in Wisconsin, 1854” (master’s thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1966), 21–54.

7. Monroe Sentinel, May 31, 1854, and Walworth County Reporter, June 14, 1854, are examples of Democratic papers that refused to be silenced. The Watertown Chronicle, May 31, June 7, 1854, is an anti-Nebraska Democratic paper that stood by the party, supposedly to reform it from within. Also see Beriah Brown’s Argus and Democrat, Feb. 20, 25, 1854. Brown was a supporter of Governor Barstow, Noonan’s chief rival for power and patronage within the state organization. Barstow, who had failed to oust Noonan as the Administration favorite, nonetheless used his considerable influence with Democratic legislators to crush an anti-Nebraska resolution; see, Assembly Journal, 1854, 159, 194, 231, 286–88, 368–72, Senate Journal, 1854, 303, 372, 377–79.

8. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 31, Feb. 6, 14, Mar. 6, 1854; Beloit Journal, May 4, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 8, 1854; Alexander Mitchell to King, Mar. 8, 1854, Josiah Noonan Papers; Hanneman, “The First Republican Campaign,” 46–48.

9. The Jeffersonian, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, June 12, 1854; Hanneman, “The First Republican Campaign,” 32–38.

10. Stone, Racine and Racine County, 429–36; John B. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court, 67–95; Michael J. McManus, “‘Freedom and Liberty First, and the Union Afterwards’: State Rights and the Wisconsin Republican Party, 1854–1861,” 29–56, recounts the Glover episode and its effect on Wisconsin’s Republican party.

11. The Argus and Democrat, Sept. 15, 1860, provides a level-headed retrospective of the event; the Evening Wisconsin, Mar. 12, 1897, printed a Milwaukee speech the senior Booth gave commemorating the event. See also A. M. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin, 96–108.

12. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 13, 1854; Gregory, History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 746.

13. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 13, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 13, 15, 17, 1854.

14. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 13, 22, 23, 24, 1854; Gregory, History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Joseph Schafer, “Stormy Days in Court: The Booth Case.”

15. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 14, 16, 18, 1854, carried extended treatments of the threats to freedom and states’ rights raised by the issue.

16. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 10, 14, 1854. Booth had called the meeting, which was attended by more than three hundred delegates.

17. Kenosha Democrat, Mar. 31, 1854.

18. Janesville Gazette, Mar. 18, 1854; Watertown Weekly Register, Mar. 25, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 18, 20, 1854.

19. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 17, 28, 29, May 2, 1854; Grant County Herald, Apr. 24, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 26, 1854.

20. Grant County Herald, May 22, 1854; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, May 5, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, May 8, 11, 12, 1854; Beloit Journal, May 12, 1854.

21. Wisconsin State Journal, May 18, 1854; also see May 19, 24.

22. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, May 26, 27, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, May 26, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 30, 1854. King had stayed out of the debate until now, probably not wishing to alienate party conservatives by once again encouraging a coalition.

23. Ibid., June 7, 1854.

24. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, June 9, 1854; Kenosha Telegraph, June 2, 1854; Watertown Weekly Register, June 3, 1854; Monroe Sentinel, May 31, 1854; Burr Oak, June 5, 1854.

25. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 10, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, June 12, 1854.

26. Mineral Point Tribune, June 22, July 6, 1854; Grant County Herald, June 26, 1854; Joseph Cover to Horace Tenney, Dec. 4, 1854, Tenney Papers, gives a retrospective view of western Wisconsin’s opposition to the convention.

27. Wisconsin State Journal, May 3, 1854; Daily Argus, June 15, 21, 28, 1854; Wisconsin Patriot, June 8, 22, 1854. The Patriot was the paper set up by Noonan and Tenney. See S. D. Carpenter to Horace Tenney, Oct. 13, 1854, Levi Hubbell to Tenney, Mar. 17, 1854, H. Robbins to J. T. Marston, Apr. 18, 1854, Jerome Brigham to Tenney, Aug. 24, 1853, all in the Horace Tenney Papers for some of the details surrounding the establishment of the paper.

28. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, June 12, 19, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, June 24, 1854.

29. Argus and Democrat, July 13, 1854; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, July 14, 1854.

30. This estimate from the diary of Willet S. Main, Dane County’s Democratic sheriff, on July 13, 1854, is probably as unbiased a projection as we have.

31. The Daily Argus, July 14, 1854, gives a good, if somewhat biased, account of the meeting. Also see Brown, “The Genesis of the Wisconsin Republican Party, 1854,” for an analysis of the delegates in attendance, esp. ch. 3.

32. Daily Argus, July 14, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, July 14, 1854; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, July 14, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, July 15, 1854. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 164, Current, History of Wisconsin, 218–19.

33. Wisconsin State Journal, July 14, 1854. Blue, The Free Soilers, 293–301, contains the 1848 and 1852 Free Soil platforms, for comparison’s sake. The founding fathers’ quotation is from the 1848 platform.

34. Walworth county Whigs had a history of opposing fusion that dated back to at least 1851. See for example, the Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 29, 1851, and Oct. 30, 1854. The county was expected to be overwhelmingly Republican in any event. Also see Kenneth Winkle, “Voters, Issues and Parties,” 48–80. Brown, “The Genesis of the Republican Party,” ch. 3, discusses in detail the organizational continuity and leadership transition. Michael M. Frank, Diary, Sept. 2, 1854, Frank Papers, gives a brief discussion of the effort to organize in his county; Mineral Point Tribune, July 22, 1854; Grant County Herald, July 31, Aug. 21, 1854, and Jan. 27, 1898, for an aged Cover’s retrospective view of the birth of the party in the southwestern part of the state; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 8, 1854.

35. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 7, 8, 11, 1854; Kenosha Telegraph, Sept. 7, 1854; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 7, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 8, 1854.

36. Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 19, 21, 1854; Potosi Republican, Sept. 16, 1854 Janesville Gazette, Sept. 29, 1854; Mineral Point Tribune, Sept. 20, 1854.

37. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 26, 1854; Argus and Democrat, Sept. 30, 1854.

38. Daniel Wells to George Paul, May 5 and May 11, 1854, Paul Papers; Gerald W. Wolff, The Kansas-Nebraska Bill: Party, Section, and the Coming of the Civil War, 64–69, 267–68, for a good summary of the problems confronting Democrats like Wells.

39. Wells to Paul, Sept. 23, Oct. 17, 19, 27, 1854; Noonan to Paul, Sept. 24, 1854; J. R. Sharpstein to Paul, Aug. 7, Sept. 13, 1854; Daniel Shaw to Paul, Sept. 10, 1854, all in the George Paul Papers; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Oct. 5, Nov. 1, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 23, Nov. 1, 1854.

40. Waukesha Plain Dealer, Sept. 20, Oct. 4, 11, 24, 1854; Marvin Bovee to Paul, Sept. 18, 1854, Paul Papers.

41. Ben Eastman to Cyrus Woodman, Mar. 21, 1854, and Cyrus Woodman to Henry Hubbard, Sept. 23, 1854, in the Cyrus Woodman Papers; C. C. Remington to Moses M. Strong, Aug. 11, 1854, Sam Crawford to Strong, Aug. 5, 1854, Strong Papers.

42. Mineral Point Tribune, Sept. 13, 20, 1854; Grant County Herald, Sept. 25, 1854; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 8, 1854; Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 13, 1854; Potosi Republican, Sept. 9, 1854; Janesville Gazette, Sept. 16, 23, 1854.

43. David Noggle to Horace Tenney, Sept. 8, 1854, Tenney Papers; Potosi Republican, Sept. 30, 1854; Janesville Standard, Sept. 13, 1854; Daily Argus and Democrat, Oct. 2, Nov. 14, 1854.

44. Grant County Herald, Aug. 4, 1854

45. Barstow’s Janesville Standard, Sept. 13, 1854, for example, predicted that Hoyt would lose by a significant margin.

46. Green Bay Advocate, Oct. 5, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 2, 5, 1854; undated letter from William Barstow to Morgan L. Martin, in the Green Bay and Prairie du Chien Papers, vol. 96, details Barstow’s efforts on Macy’s behalf.

47. Green Bay Advocate, Oct. 12, 19, 26, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 13, 23, 1854; Hanneman, “First Republican Campaign,” 128–29, 138; Flately, “The Wisconsin Congressional Delegation from Statehood to Secession, 1848–1861,” 64–65.

48. Billinghurst received 13,663 votes to 8,683 for Macy and an even 2,000 for H. G. Turner, the administration candidate.

49. Flately, “Wisconsin Congressional Delegation,” 68–70. Durkee’s election will be discussed in greater detail in ch. 9.

50. William E. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856, 475–551, suggests that in several other northern states at certain times, large numbers of prior nonvoters turned out to cast ballots.

51. Joel Silbey, “‘There Are Other Questions Beside That Of Slavery Merely’: The Democratic Party and Antislavery Politics,” 143–75, esp. 144–52. I arrived at this estimate by adding the 15 percent to the 7 percent already mentioned.

52. Comparing the raw returns in 1853 with 1854 suggests that the largest portion of Democratic defectors came from the northern district, while most of the new voters came from the western counties.

53. The Milwaukee News, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, June 5, 1854.

54. Potosi Republican, July 15, 22, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, July 20, 1854, for examples of this attitude.

55. Main, Diary, Oct. 31, Nov. 7, 1854, Main Papers. Also see Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 17–39, 101–38 for an excellent analysis of the increasing irrelevance of the old issues and the growing voter dissatisfaction with politicians.

56. Main, Diary, Dec. 31, 1854, Main Papers. Also see Jairus Fairchild to Lucius Fairchild, Feb. 7, 1855, Fairchild Papers.

57. C.C. Washburne to Cyrus Woodman, Oct. 23, 1857, Woodman Papers.

SEVEN This Thing Called Know Nothingism

1. Annual Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Wisconsin for the Year 1855, Wisconsin Governor’s Messages and Accompanying Documents, 1855, contains the 1855 State census returns. Also see Current, History of Wisconsin, 76–82.

2. Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1800–1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism, 238–61; Tyler Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s, 2–19; Potter, Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, 241–42.

3. Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1–230.

4. Ibid., 263–322; Current, History of Wisconsin, 140–45; Milwaukee Daily American, Oct. 3, 19, 1855.

5. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 20–31; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 122–31.

6. Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 292–95; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 60–65.

7. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 14, 1854, for an example of local coverage of Bedini’s journey. Billington, Protestant Crusade, 300–304; Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 27–31.

8. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 44–47.

9. Billington, Protestant Crusade, 322–38; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 159–65; Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 32–40; Potter, Impending Crisis, 241–46.

10. Billington, Protestant Crusade, 380–436; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 162–75, 198–99 and “The Politics of Impatience: The Origins of Know Nothingism,” 309–31; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 87–102; Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 103–26.

11. Milwaukee Daily American, Sept. 27, Oct. 3, 27, 29, 1855; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 162–69 and “Politics of Impatience,” 311–20. Gienapp, in The Origins of the Republican Party, 37–67, traces the “decomposition” of the second party system and the Whigs in the North, and he rightly credits the role ethnocultural issues played in this process. Indeed, Gienapp argues that those issues “more than any other factor … destroyed the second party system.” Yet, in spite of the monumental research he brings to bear, he remains unconvincing. Without question, ethnocultural conflict did help bring down the Jacksonian system, but the parties had been in a state of decomposition since at least 1849, and the Whigs, especially in Wisconsin, were near death well before 1854. The Whig party disappeared on the heels of the breakdown in sectional harmony between its northern and southern wings and its resulting irrelevance as a national organization. Party loyalty seemed pointless without a national bond and purpose. The Whig inability to capitalize on the outstanding state and local issues of the early 1850s emphasizes the profound alienation many Americans felt with the political system and their desire to vent their frustrations with its unresponsiveness. The Know Nothing party filled this void temporarily, but as Eric Foner, convincingly I think, points out, a distinction between nativism as a “cultural impulse” and as “a force in politics” must be made. Many Republicans found at least a part of the nativist message appealing, but it is not likely that the weighty decision to join and remain with the new party, with the ominous significance it had for national unity, resulted from hatred of foreigners and Catholics. Also see Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 52–102; Stephen E. Maizlish, The Triumph of Sectionalism: The Transformation of Ohio Politics, 1844–1856.

12. Current, History of Wisconsin, 117–96; Conzen, Immigrant Milwaukee; Schafer, Four Wisconsin Counties, esp. 171–93; also see Schafer’s, “Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin” and “Know Nothingism in Wisconsin.”

13. Joseph Schafer, “Prohibition in Early Wisconsin,” recounts early attempts to curb the liquor trade in Wisconsin; Frank L. Byrne, “Maine Law Versus Lager Beer: A Dilemma of Wisconsin’s Young Republican Party,” 115–20; Current, History of Wisconsin, 142–43.

14. Winkle, “Voters, Issues and Parties, 48–64.

15. Schafer, “Prohibition in Early Wisconsin,” 297–99.

16. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 103–66, for fusion efforts in the 1854 elections. Myron Clark, the victorious New York Whig, was himself a Know Nothing. Also see Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 94–102, for the importance of the slavery issue to many Northerners who were attracted to the Know Nothings.

17. William H. Seward, the favorite among Wisconsin’s Whigs, had a long history of opposition to nativism. Rufus King, for example, had worked on Seward’s New York paper, the Albany Journal, before moving to Wisconsin. See Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 234–36.

18. Schafer, “Know Nothingism in Wisconsin,” 7–12; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 272; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 246; Current, History of Wisconsin, 117–96. The foreign-born in Wisconsin represented at least one-third of the potential electorate. The rupture of the Know Nothing party over slavery in June, 1855, also effectively doomed any attempt to set up a separate organization in the state.

19. Atwood was coeditor of the Wisconsin State Journal.

20. It should be noted that few public figures escaped the Know Nothing charge in the heated political atmosphere of 1855.

21. Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, June 10, 1854, has a discussion of Know Nothingism by Booth wherein he suggests that the organization was more an outlet for men to demonstrate their Americanism than to express opposition to the foreign-born. Foreigners, it should be added, formed their own organizations, such as the Irish, who put together a militia company in the Milwaukee area, as did native-born citizens. Also see the Milwaukee Sentinel, May 29, 1854; James S. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee 4:30–31; Charles King, “The Wisconsin National Guard,” 346–48. If one defines hard-core Know Nothing membership as the difference between the vote received by the Republican gubernatorial and state treasurer candidates, native and foreign-born men respectively, in the 1855 state elections, we come up with a number of about thirty-three hundred, a small number given the time and space devoted to them.

22. Milwaukee Daily American, Oct. 4, 1855; Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 380–97; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 92–100. See note 21 for a definition of “hard-core” Know Nothingism.

23. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 10, 13, 1854; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 19, 1854; Racine Advocate, Oct. 23, 1854; Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 2, 1854; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 106. In some locales, the Know Nothing issue apparently did burn bright. In the town of Bristol, where residents were overwhelmingly from the northeast, the diarist Michael Frank wrote, “All political issues entirely lost sight of. The only issue Know Nothing and anti-Know Nothing.” Frank, Diary, Nov. 7, 1854, Frank Papers. Bristol’s demographic characteristic are contained in Winkle, “Voters, Issues and Parties,” 104.

24. Byrne, “Maine Law Versus Lager Beer,” 117–20; Schafer, “Prohibition in Early Wisconsin,” 296–99; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 206–7.

25. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 13, 1855. The Know Nothings were also rumored to be trying to work their way into the Democratic organization, but the threat was perceived, rightly, as far greater to the Republicans.

26. Ibid., June 29, July 2, 10, 1855.

27. Ibid., June 13, 1855. The September 3, 1855 edition contains a copy of Lockwood’s circular. Also see the Aug. 21, 1855, Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel, for further discussion of the Lockwood circular and the designs of the Know Nothings.

28. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 25, 31, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 25, 1855; Weekly Argus and Democrat, Sept. 4, 1855; Samuel Bean to Elisha Keyes, Aug. 27, 1855, Keyes Papers. Keyes had been a Know Nothing delegate from Wisconsin to the party’s recent national convention in Philadelphia.

29. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 24, 1855.

30. Chicago Tribune, in the Baraboo Republic, Aug. 4, 1855; D. C. Roundy to Samuel Hastings, July 5, 1855, Samuel D. Hastings Papers, and the Weekly Argus and Democrat, Aug. 22, 1855.

31. Elkhorn Independent, in the Daily Argus and Democrat, Aug. 28, 1855.

32. Wisconsin State Journal, July 27, 1855; Janesville Gazette, July 28, Aug. 4, 1855; Mineral Point Tribune, Aug. 1, 1855. Willet S. Main, Diary entry, July 25, 1855, Willet S. Main Papers, states that Booth’s nomination would also run afoul of “the [Milwaukee] Sentinel influence,” which opposed him.

33. Grant County Herald, Aug. 18, 1855.

34. Milwaukee Daily American, Sept. 27, Oct. 27, 1855. The American, established in July, claimed that the Know Nothings had hundreds of fully operational lodges in Wisconsin and at least twenty thousand members. Also see the Baraboo Republic, June 23, 1855; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 3, 1855.

35. Fourth of July Oration, delivered at Dover, Iowa County, Wisconsin, July 4, 1855, by Dr. William H. Brisbane, William Henry Brisbane Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 13, 15, 1855; Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 21, 1855; Baraboo Republic, June 23, 1855.

36. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 3, 1855.

37. Ibid., Aug. 31, 1855.

38. Ibid., Aug. 31, Sept. 6. Also see Dec. 1, 1855, where Booth recounts the order’s effort to elect its members as delegates to the Republican convention and warns that if the party “is owned by the Know Nothings … they can take it and run it. We will be neither leader, wheel, horse, or passenger.”

39. Ibid., Sept. 6, 1855.

40. Ibid., Aug. 31, Sept. 3, 1855; Weekly Argus and Democrat, Sept. 11, 1885; Elisha Keyes, History of Dane County (Madison, 1906), 216. Keyes, himself a Know Nothing delegate to the state convention, later wrote, “The convention was largely controlled by a secret political organization, known as the Know Nothings, although masquerading under the name of Republican in the convention.” At the convention, Coles Bashford, the Republican nominee for governor, claimed only 70 of the 214 delegates were Know Nothings; see the Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 6, 1855.

41. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 6, 7, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 7, 1855.

42. Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 12, 1855; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 6, 1855.

43. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 6, 1855. Coles Bashford to Samuel Hastings, Oct. 22, 1855, Hastings Papers. In this letter Bashford declared, “I am not a member of the Order of Know Nothings and Never have been!!”

44. See ibid., Sept. 7, 1855, for the candidates and Keyes, History of Dane County, 216, for the retrospective.

45. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 10, 1855.

46. Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 12, 1855; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 7, 11, 1855; Weekly Argus and Democrat, Feb. 26, 1856; ? (probably John Lockwood) to Elisha Keyes, Jan. 28, 1856, Keyes Papers. The Know Nothings were Elisha Keyes, S. S. Daggett, H. D. Holt, and D. E.Wood. David Atwood, one of the Wisconsin State Journal’s editors was also reputedly a lodge member, something the paper’s editorials would seem to belie, as was William C. Rogers. The Americans were offset by antislavery radicals John Fox Potter, William A. White, and Lysander Frisby.

47. Mineral Point Tribune, Sept. 11, 1855. Also see the Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 8, 10, 1855; Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Sept. 7, 1855; Main, Diary, Sept. 5, 6, 1855, Main Papers.

48. Unlike the Republican antiproscription resolution, cited above.

49. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 4, 5, 1855.

50. Schafer, “Know Nothingism in Wisconsin,” 15–17.

51. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 21, 1855.

52. R. C. Chandler to Elisha Keyes, Sept. 24, 1855; Keyes to John Lockwood, Sept. 12, 1855; John Lockwood to Keyes, Oct. 30, 1855, all in the Keyes Papers; Milwaukee Daily American, Nov. 10, 1855.

53. Current, History of Wisconsin, 227–30, gives a good, brief account of the election controversy. Turnout in 1855 climbed to 52 percent from the prior year’s 48 percent. A good deal of the increase came from the state’s foreign-born, who rallied to the antiprohibitionist governor’s support and against Know Nothingism.

54. Charles Roeser, the German-born Republican running for state treasurer, ran furthest of all the party’s candidates behind Bashford, but even with him, only 9 percent of the total number of Republican voters felt strongly enough in their nativist sentiments to scratch his name from the ballot. That hardly suggests that Know Nothing principles deeply affected large numbers of men or significantly influenced their political actions.

55. In the five counties with populations 50 percent or more foreign-born, Bashford ran 642 votes behind 1854’s total. In all counties containing at least one-third foreigners, he trailed by 558 votes. The other Republican candidates did worse.

56. From 32,614 in 1854 to 36,074 in 1855, an increase of 3,460.

57. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 4, 22, 1856. With the exception of Dane, those seven counties had a foreign-born population that constituted less than one-third of the whole. Dane’s foreign born made up 37 percent of the population.

58. The statistical analysis suggests that over 50 percent of the 1854 Democratic loyalists stayed home on election day in 1855.

59. Democratic candidates in 1854 received 27,157 votes, Barstow 35,750, an increase of 8,593. A majority of the residents of Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, and Washington counties were foreign-born. Those five counties gave Barstow 3,526 more votes than they gave to the 1854 Democrats and represented 41 percent of the increase in 1855.

60. Overall, the Democrats seem to have suffered greater upheavals than the Republicans as a result of the corruption, Know Nothing, and prohibition issues. The Republican coalition in 1855 was shaken but remained largely intact.

61. On the eve of the election, King published, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, a letter from the candidate in which he denied being a member of the Order. Schafer, “Know Nothingism in Wisconsin,” 19.

62. Know Nothings claimed to have polled more than twenty thousand votes for Bashford; that total was surely exaggerated. The bulk of the Republican support came from men who had supported the party in 1854, when slavery was the dominant issue. See note 21 for my estimate and analysis and compare to the Milwaukee Daily American, Nov. 10, 1855, for the twenty-thousand-vote claim.

63. Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 21, 23, 27, 28, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 14, 15, 17, 21, 1855; Janesville Gazette, Nov. 15, 1855; Grant County Herald, Nov. 14, 1855; Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 21, 1855; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 26, 1855; P. Gilder to Samuel Hastings, Nov. 27, 1855, Hastings Papers.

64. Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 5, 1855; Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 28, Dec. 4, 10, 1855; Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Nov. 15, 21, Dec. 3, 4, 1855; Milwaukee Daily American, Nov. 7, 1855, Feb. 2, 1856; John Lockwood to Elisha Keyes, Oct. 30, 1855, Keyes Papers.

65. William A. White to Elisha Keyes, Jan. 24, 1856, Keyes Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Jan.25, 1856.

66. ? (probably John Lockwood) posted from Milwaukee to Elisha Keyes, Jan. 28, 1856, Keyes Papers.

67. Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 11, 12, 13, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 9, 1856; Kenosha Tribune, Jan. 31, 1856.

68. Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 27, 1855, Jan. 7, 16, 1856; Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Jan. 18, 1856. Booth’s battle with the State Journal was particularly embittered, although other “old line” Whigs joined in “from time to time.”

69. Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Feb. 8, 11, 13, 1856.

70. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 4, 16, 22, 1856.

71. Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Apr. 15, 18, 1856.

72. Sherman Booth to John Fox Potter, Apr. 19, 1856, John Fox Potter Papers.

73. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Apr. 24, May 1, 3, 8, 1856; Janesville Gazette, Apr. 19, 26, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 16, 25, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 17, 23, 1856; Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Apr. 24, 1856, John Fox Potter Papers.

74. Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, May 4, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, May 5, 6, 1856.

75. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Apr. 24, 1854, Potter Papers; also see Main, Diary, May 24, 1856, Main Papers.

EIGHT Freedom and Liberty First, and the Union Afterwards

1. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 297–99; Potter, Impending Crisis, 207–9; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:434–37; James A. Rawley, Race and Politics: “Bleeding Kansas” and the Coming of the Civil War, 129–34.

2. Potter, Impending Crisis, 217–24; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 298–99.

3. Wisconsin State Journal, May 27, 29, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 30, 31, 1856; Monroe Sentinel, May 24, 28, 1856. These papers provide representative Republican responses to the sack of Lawrence.

4. Michael Fellman, “Rehearsal for the Civil War: Antislavery and Proslavery at the Fighting Point in Kansas, 1854–1856,” 287–307; Potter, Impending Crisis, 199–201. Kansas settlers, employing the doctrine of popular sovereignty, as mandated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, would decide if slavery would be permitted.

5. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 17, 19, 1854, published reports on the Kansas situation and the threats from Missourians; also see Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:300–306.

6. Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 23, 1854; also see Dec. 7, 8, 9, 29; Monroe Sentinel, Dec. 20, 1854; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:312–14; Rawley, Race and Politics, 87–92.

7. Wisconsin State Journal, May 10, 12, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, July 24, 1855; Monroe Sentinel, Aug. 29, 1855; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 169–71.

8. Potter, Impending Crisis, 203–8; Rawley, Race and Politics, 93–99.

9. Potter, in his superb work, Impending Crisis, 217–24, focuses on the propaganda campaign waged by the Republicans, thereby underestimating both the importance of disturbing events that were undeniably true and the genuine concern they gave rise to among many fairly sophisticated observers at the time. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, uncritically endorses Potter’s viewpoint. Gene Wise, American Historical Explanations: A Strategy for Grounded Inquiry, 32–41, argues that people’s perceptions about what is going on in their world may not be “objectively correct,” but the manner in which they interpret events as they are received is what matters. Kansas provides an excellent example of a historical drama being reported in a way that was out of proportion to what was really happening. But enough crucial truth did exist, such as the ballot box frauds and passage of the slave codes, that other events are viewed in light of those facts that helped shape people’s perception of and response to the controversy as a whole.

10. Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 21, 27, May 3, June 7, 20, 1854, May 10, July 5, 1855, Jan. 10, Apr. 29, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 14, 16, 1854, Dec. 30, 1855; Monroe Sentinel, May 24, 1855; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, May 8, 1856. President Pierce, under pressure from southern supporters, dismissed the territorial governor, Andrew Reeder, for opposing the proslavery legislature. Reeder, however, was also involved in questionable land deals, which by themselves were sufficient justification for his removal. Republicans, of course, ignored the land issue and castigated the president as a tool of the “Slave Oligarchy.” See the Milwaukee Sentinel, for example, July 31, 1855; Main, Diary, Dec. 31, 1855, Main Papers. Main wrote, “Kansas is the battleground. Pierce performed the mean act of removing Gov. Reeder who is for a Free State and appointing that doughface Shannon. Civil War almost rages in Kansas now. Shame that this great nation … should still support the … extension of the abominable institution.” Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:383–88, 416–19.

11. Wisconsin State Journal, May 10, 1855, Feb. 23, Apr. 29, May 28, June 2, Aug. 20, 1856; Monroe Sentinel, May 24, 1855; Kenosha Telegraph, May 8, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 29, 1854, Sept. 17, Dec. 21, 1855, Mar. 7, 1856; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 6, Sept. 18, Dec. 14, 1855, provide a sample of the endless Republican editorials on Kansas matters and their meaning to the future of the nation. One can pick up almost any Republican paper after mid-1855 and find some mention of Kansas. On proceedings of some of the “Freedom for Kansas” meetings, see the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 26, Mar. 7, June 13, 18, 19, July 7, 9, 1856, and the Janesville Gazette, Mar. 8, 15, 22, 1856. On occasion, those meetings stimulated the formation of local Republican clubs in preparation for the upcoming presidential campaign.

12. M. Gill to Coles Bashford, Apr. 13, 1856, Papers of the Executive Department of the State of Wisconsin, Routine and General Correspondence.

13. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 23, 1856, recounts the Milwaukee meeting. Also see Feb. 4, June 18, 19, 20, 21, July 7, 9, 13, 1856, for the proceedings and resolves of other meetings held in the state, as well as the efforts of Daniels; and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, May 17, Dec. 14, 17, 1855; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Aug. 30, 1855, May 8, 1856; Baraboo Republic, Sept. 13, Oct. 20, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 5, 1855, for Republican editorials on violence.

14. Cyrus Woodman to Almira Foss, Apr. 20, 1856, Woodman Papers. Also see the Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 5, 1855, May 28, June 2, 1856, and the Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 7, Apr. 11, 1856, for other Republican expressions of the need to stand up to the South in Kansas.

15. David Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 278–348, is the best analysis of the details and aftermath of the attack. See also, William Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rise of the Republican Party,” 218–45.

16. Wisconsin State Journal, May 28, June 2, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 30, June 7, 1856; Portage Independent, June 5, 12, September 15, 1856; Daily Milwaukee News, Nov. 2, 1856.

17. Portage Independent, June 5, 12, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 31, 1856; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, May 26, 28, 1856; provide a sample of the Republican reaction in Wisconsin to the assault. Also see Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 299–303.

18. James Kendall to John Fox Potter, July 8, 1856, Potter Papers. Also see Main, Diary entries, May 22, 23, 24, 26, 30, 1856, Main Papers.

19. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 30, 31, July 3, Sept. 23, 1856; Monroe Sentinel, July 26, 1856; Baraboo Republic, July 26, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, May 28, 1856. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 301–2, rightly notes the overall significance of the Sumner assault on Republican political fortunes in 1856 and the credence the attack gave to the party’s “mainstay” issue, Kansas.

20. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 301–3, 440–43, Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 163–219. The Know Nothings already were running aground due to divisions over slavery; Kansas and Sumner created additional insuperable problems.

21. Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 10, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 10, 1856; Milwaukee Daily American, July 28, Sept. 8, 12, 1856; David Atwood to John Fox Potter, Nov. 8, 1856, Potter Papers; Current, History of Wisconsin, 232–33; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 425–27; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 272–73.

22. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 10, 1856. Also see David Atwood to John Fox Potter, Nov. 8, 1856, Christopher Sholes to Potter, July 19, 24, 1856, all in the Potter Papers, for expressions of Republican willingness to accept Know Nothing support only if nativism was subordinated to the slavery question. James Miller to Elisha Keyes, July 17, 1856, Keyes Papers, indicates that Know Nothing leaders took up the Republican offer.

23. Milwaukee Daily American, June 28, 1856.

24. Ibid., Aug. 18, Sept. 8, 11, 12, 24, on Know Nothing support for the Republicans. It should be borne in mind that hard-core Know Nothings probably never numbered more than a few thousand in Wisconsin. It should likewise be remembered that Republicans never made any secret of their desire to court Know Nothing support. But they always had insisted that Americans subordinate their nativist attitudes to the Republicans’ antislavery platform. It is hard to imagine how, under those circumstances, Know Nothings could have found the Republican party, at least in Wisconsin, a satisfactory outlet for their nativist leanings, and some may have dropped out of politics or, instead, embraced the Democrats and their absolute Unionism. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 167–303, details the formation of the party in other states and the difficulties encountered in some, owing to Know Nothing strength.

25. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, May 28, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, May 28, 1856.

26. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 5, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, June 5, 6, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 6, 1856; Janesville Gazette, June 14, 1856.

27. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 9, 1856, contains the platform.

28. Main, Diary, Sept. 18, 1856, Main Papers.

29. Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:452–60.

30. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 1, 8, 16, Sept. 11, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 18, Sept. 9, 1856.

31. Weekly Wisconsin Argus, Aug. 19, 1856. Also see the Daily Milwaukee News, Nov. 2, 1856.

32. George B. Smith to Dock? (illegible), July 11, 1856, Smith Papers; Daily Milwaukee News, Sept. 27, Oct. 29, 1856; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 27, 1856.

33. Lyman Draper to Moses Strong, Oct. 31, 1856, Strong Papers; J. A. Bryan to George Paul, Oct. 20, 1856, Paul Papers; George B. Smith to Elyra Miller, July 5, 1856, Smith Papers; Beaver Dam Sentinel and Republican, Aug. 5, 12, Sept. 23, 1856; Janesville Standard, Sept. 5, 1855.

34. George B. Smith to J. W. Horney, July 25, 1856, Smith Papers; Beaver Dam Sentinel and Republican, Sept. 23, 1856; Weekly Wisconsin Argus and Democrat, Aug. 19, 26, Sept. 2, 1856.

35. Samuel Crawford, the Democratic congressional candidate from the western district and former associate justice of the state supreme court, who in 1854 upheld the right of Congress to legislate on the rendition of fugitive slaves, championed popular sovereignty whatever the outcome. His position is found in the Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 18, 1856, and the Janesville Gazette, Oct. 27, 1856.

36. Daily Milwaukee News, Sept. 27, Oct. 29, 1856, Jan. 9, 1857; Weekly Argus and Democrat, July 15, 1856.

37. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 413–14.

38. Ibid., 375–414; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union 2:487–514.

39. The Republican vote surged from 36,074 for Bashford in 1855 to 66,108 for Fremont. The Democrats went from 35,750 to 52,875.

40. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 519–37; Ray M. Shortridge, “The Voter Realignment in the Midwest during the 1850s,” American Politics Quarterly (Apr. 1976): 193–215.

41. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 446–47; Silbey, “‘There Are Other Questions Beside That of Slavery Merely,’” 147–52; Shortridge, “Voter Realignment in the Midwest During the 1850s,” 193–215.

42. J. R. Doolittle to F. S. Lovell, Sept. 5, 1856, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 9, 1856; William Dutcher to Horace Tenney, July 31, 1856, Horace Tenney Papers; Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 418, 423; Shortridge, “Voter Realignment in the Midwest During the 1850s,” 208–9.

43. Sheboygan County was equally divided between foreign- and native-born, and contained a large number of German Protestants. Buchanan squeezed out a narrow victory in the county that, unlike other immigrant counties, leaned heavily toward the Democrats. See Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 423–31, for voting patterns among the foreign- and native-born in 1856, and Current, History of Wisconsin, 233–34, 287–88.

44. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 103–48, 186–225.

45. Milwaukee Sentinel, July 11, 1855.

46. Menasha Conservator, Apr. 30, 1856, voiced the common Republican position that Northern Democrats, in return for a share in the spoils of office, worked with slaveowners to “perpetuate their tyranny over 20 millions of freemen.”

47. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 8, 16, 27, 1856, Oct. 6, 7, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 5, 29, 1855, Nov. 5, 1856; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 6, 1855, illustrate the basic Republican theories regarding the slave power. Also see, David Brian Davis, The Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style, esp. 51–61; Nye, Fettered Freedom, 282–315; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 73–102, and “Politics, Ideology, and the Origins of the American Civil War,” 15–34; and Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 357–65.

48. Racine Advocate, July 18, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 10, 1857, and the Menasha Conservator, Apr. 30, 1859.

49. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, May 28, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, Oct. 15, 1858, and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 6, 1855, for similar expressions.

50. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 16, 1856, Aug. 3, 1857.

51. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 3, 1857, Oct. 7, 1858; Portage Independent, Mar. 3, 1856; Wisconsin State Journal, May 26, July 25, Aug. 4, 18, 1856; Monroe Sentinel, July 21, 1856.

52. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 22, 1856.

53. Ibid. Also see Oct. 3, 16, 27, 1856, Oct. 16, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, July 25, Aug. 18, 1856, Oct. 15, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Nov. 5, 1856; Daily Wisconsin Free Democrat, Aug. 5, 1855; Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Oct. 27, 1857, Potter Papers.

54. The quotes come from resolves adopted by Green County Republicans and printed in the Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 5, 1855.

55. Portage Independent, June 12, 1856.

56. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Jan. 10, 1856; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, May 17, 1854, Nov. 4, 1856, Aug. 21, 1857; Portage Independent, Feb. 7, Mar. 6, 1856; Baraboo Republic, Aug. 23, Sept. 6, 1856; Portage City Record, Oct. 10, 1858, provide some examples of this aspect of Republicanism.

57. Monroe Sentinel, May 17, June 14, 1854; Baraboo Republic, Mar. 8, 22, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 23, 1861; Portage Independent, Feb. 3, 8, 1855. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, argues that “hostility toward slavery lay at the very core of Republican ideology” and that historians have exaggerated the dilution of the party’s moral appeal vis-à-vis their Liberty and Free Soil forebears, 7, 34, 38, 292; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 134–35, maintains that the Republican opposition to slavery had a meaning quite apart from that relating to black servitude—it was more deeply rooted in the republican ideology inherited from the revolutionary generation and had greater concern with the threat to white freedom posed by the slave power. Both Sewell and Holt, I believe, are correct, and their views are more complementary than contradictory.

58. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 3, 1856, reprints Barstow’s message; also see the Monroe Sentinel, Nov. 26, 1856, for an excellent editorial implicating slavery as the source of all the nation’s difficulties.

59. Wisconsin State Journal, July 4, 1855; also see the Monroe Sentinel, Nov. 26, 1856; Portage Independent, Feb. 8, 1855; Message of the Governor of Wisconsin to the Special Session of the Legislature, Sept. 3, 1856, printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 4, 1856, and the Menasha Conservator, July 17, 1857, for a nice summary of the reordering of political values occasioned by the events of 1854–1856 and Stampp, “Race, Slavery and the Republican Party of the 1850s,” 105–35, esp. 122–23.

60. Racine Advocate, Jan. 1, 1855; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 304–12; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 115–16, 311–12.

61. Menasha Conservator, June 26, July 17, 1856, Aug. 7, 1857; Grant County Herald, Sept. 11, 25, 1858; Wisconsin State Journal, May 12, 1855; Racine Advocate, Jan. 31, May 22, 29, 1854; Jan. 1, 1855, Nov. 23, 1859; Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 2, May 17, Oct. 11, 1854, Nov. 26, 1856, Jan. 7, 1857; Janesvilłe Gazette, Aug. 23, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 29, Aug. 5, 1854, Oct. 22, 1855, Jan. 3, 5, Aug. 7, 1857, Oct. 6, 1858, Jan. 23, 1861; Baraboo Republic, Apr. 23, 1857, Mar. 22, 1860; Racine Weekly Journal, Oct. 6, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 10, 1856, Sept. 22, 1858; Portage City Record, Nov. 11, 25, 1857, Jan. 27, 1858, Sept. 26, 1860; Portage Independent, Feb. 8, 1858; Mineral Point Tribune, July 1, 1856, Dec. 8, 1859. These Republican sources contain but a few references to the notion that restricting slavery would gradually kill it.

62. Baraboo Republic, Mar. 22, 1860; also James Sutherland to the Janesville Gazette, June 26, 1859, manuscript copy in the James Sutherland Papers; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 22, 1858; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 23, 1861.

63. Speech of Carl Schurz to the Republican Party Meeting in Chicago, Sept. 28, 1858, printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 7, 1858, in which he highlights this axiom.

64. Wisconsin State Journal, May 26, 1856, May 23, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 6, 8, 1858, Dec. 3, 1859; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, July 22, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 2, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 15, 1856, Aug. 21, 1857. Foner gives the fullest treatment of the Free Labor ideology in his Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, while Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 355–57, rightly points out that the free labor values were shared by nearly all Northerners.

65. Wisconsin State Journal, May 2, 1856; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 16, 1856; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, FreeMen, 44–51.

66. Wisconsin State Journal, May 23, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 7, 1858, for the Schurz quotation; also see Dec. 3, 1859; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, July 22, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 2, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 15, 1856, Aug. 21, 1857.

67. As the Liberty and Free Soil parties did before them.

68. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 17, 1855, Mar. 21, 1856, Sept. 4, 1857, Oct. 7, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 16, 1856; Mineral Point Tribune, July 14, Aug. 11, 1857; Monroe Sentinel, Jan. 16, 1856; Kenosha Telegraph, Aug. 26, Oct. 28, 1858; Wisconsin Governor’s Message, Jan. 12, 1860, Annual Messages of the Governors of Wisconsin, 1841–1875; Freehling, “The Founding Fathers and Slavery,” 82–86.

69. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 26, Dec. 4, 1856; Mineral Point Tribune, Aug. 11, 1857; Monroe Sentinel, Aug. 13, 1856; Speech of William H. Brisbane, n.d., in the William H. Brisbane Papers; Wisconsin Governor’s Message, Jan. 15, 1858, in the Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 16, 1858; Freehling, “The Founding Fathers and Slavery,” 86; Donald Robinson, Slavery in the Structure of American Politics, 1765–1820, provides a substantive analysis of the problems confronting the founders in dealing with the slavery issue and republican idealism.

70. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 17, 1855, Oct. 7, 1858; Kenosha Telegraph, Aug. 26, Oct. 21, 1858; A. H. Cerajin to Moses Davis, Nov. 18, 1856, Davis Papers; H. Crocker to John Fox Potter, Nov. 5, 1856, Potter Papers.

71. Neenah-Menasha Conservator, Nov. 21, 1859.

72. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Jan. 20, 27, Mar. 24, 1854, Aug. 2, Oct. 2, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 8, May 17, 29, 1854; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 18, 1854, July 12, 1855; Wisconsin State Journal, July, 8, 1854.

73. M. M. Holmes to the Watertown Chronicle, July 12, 1854. Paul C. Nagel chronicles the American attitudes toward the Union in One Nation Indivisible.

74. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 8, 1854; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 18, 1855; Wisconsin State Journal, June 1, 20, 1855; Baraboo Republic, July 28, Aug. 16, 1855; Monroe Sentinel, July 16, 1856.

75. Wisconsin State Journal, May 8, 1854.

76. Ibid.; Racine Advocate, June 12, 1854; Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 21, 1855, July 8, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 18, 1855, Apr. 10, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 1, 1855, June 3, 1856; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Oct. 2, 1856; Baraboo Republic, Jan. 15, 1856; Menasha Conservator, Dec. 15, 1859; D. K. Noyes to John Fox Potter, Nov. 23, 1856, and C. L. Sholes to Potter, Nov. 11, 1856, both in the Potter Papers. Also see the Majority Report of the Wisconsin Senate Committee on State Affairs, printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 2, 1858.

77. Perhaps some long-time Garrisonian “non-resistors” could no longer justify sitting out elections and were moved to support the Republican cause owing to the increased threat of the slave power. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 285–88, suggests as much.

78. Earlier chapters of this work point to the growing disillusionment of Whigs. Welter, The Mind of America, 1882–1860, 351–64, also picks up on this. Conservative Whigs saw preservation of the Union as an end in itself, but Conscience Whigs dominated in Wisconsin, and they were most disheartened by the growing dominance of the South over the previous decade. It also is open to question whether conservatives even joined the Republican cause. See the letter of the Wisconsin Silver Grey, Henry Baird, to Joshua Hathaway, August 13, 1856, Henry S. Baird Papers, where he expresses his opposition to both nativism and Republicanism. Baird was a former Whig candidate for governor of Wisconsin. Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 416, blames “the party’s failure to win greater support from conservative Whigs and Know Nothings” for the Republican defeat in 1856. And it was the fear of disunion that a Republican triumph would likely precipitate that held them back.

79. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 178–81, points this out, but Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 446–47, correctly I think, notes that Democratic defections to the Republican party were, on the whole, quite small. I also question the influence of Democrats in the Republican coalition, especially in Wisconsin. For the different positions of former Democrats on the Union, compare Alexander Randall and James Doolittle with John Walworth, editor of the Monroe Sentinel. Walworth, on more than one occasion clamored, “Without Liberty the Union is a curse.” Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 21, 1855, July 9, 1856. For reference to the absolute unionism of Randall and Doolittle, see note 83.

80. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 19, Sept. 23, Oct. 3, 1856, Oct. 6, 1858, May 23, July 20, 1859; Monroe Sentinel, July 9, 1856; Portage Independent, Aug. 14, 1856; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, July 18, 1855; Cyrus Woodman to Jacob Merrick, May 21, 1856, and to C. C. Washburne, May 27, 1856, Woodman Papers.

81. Wisconsin State Journal, May 8, 1854; Janesville Gazette, June 3, 1854; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Jan. 14, Feb. 11, 1858.

82. John Fox Potter to Edward Potter, Dec. 20, 1857, Potter Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 1854; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Aug. 2, 1855, Oct. 2, 1856.

83. James Doolittle to E. L. Runals, Dec. 25, 1856, James Doolittle Papers; Message of Governor Alexander Randall to the Citizens of Wisconsin, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 16, 1858.

84. Liberty men focused on the evil of slavery itself, Free Soilers on the territorial question. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, correctly emphasizes the links between the three parties and the changing focus of each.

NINE The Dangerous Doctrine of Nullification

1. “In Re Sherman Booth,” Wisconsin Reports (1854), 20. Other essays on the Glover Affair include, McManus, “‘Freedom and Liberty First, and the Union Afterwards’”; Schafer, “Stormy Days in Court: The Booth Case,” 89–110; Vroman Mason, “The Fugitive Slave Law in Wisconsin; with Reference to Nullification Sentiment”; Joseph A. Ranney, “‘Suffering the Agonies of Their Righteousness’: The Rise and Fall of the States Rights Movement in Wisconsin, 1854–1861.”

2. “The Argument of Byron Paine, Esquire: Regarding the Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act,” Wisconsin Miscellaneous Pamphlets, 27, 1–23.

3. “In Re Sherman Booth,” Wisconsin Reports (1854), 13–54, esp. 32–46.

4. Milwaukee Sentinel, July 20–25, 1854. A federal grand jury had issued a warrant for Booth’s arrest on July 11 for violating the Fugitive Slave Law. The federal district court judge, Andrew G. Miller, waited until the state court decision to act on the warrant.

5. “Ex Parte Sherman Booth,” Wisconsin Reports (1854), 134–44.

6. Ranney, “‘Suffering the Agonies of Their Righteousness,’” 92–96, gives a good account of the trial and the actions of Judge Miller in the case.

7. Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 15, Feb. 6, 1855.

8. Morris, Free Men All, 167–85.

9. The opinions of Wisconsin’s three supreme court justices can be followed in Wisconsin Reports (1854), “In Re Sherman Booth,” 13–54, for Smith’s original decree, “In Re Sherman Booth,” 54–134, for the decision of the full court in June 1854, and “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 144–97, for the February 1855 reaffirmation of the June ruling and the reversal of the federal court decision.

10. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 72–86, “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 170–72. Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics, 43–47; and Paul Finkelman, “Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Northern State Courts: Antislavery use of a Proslavery Decision,” 5–35.

11. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 54–71; “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 160–61.

12. Smith designed his opinion around Paine’s defense, sustaining every one of his main positions, which embraced the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and quoted liberally from them. Paine, “Argument of Byron Paine,” 2–3. Also see Paine to Charles Sumner, Jan. 12, 1856, Byron Paine Papers, where he admits the influence of John C. Calhoun on his thinking; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 135; and William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836, 134–76, for the South Carolinian’s theory.

13. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 39–40; “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 177–79; Schafer, “Stormy Days in Court,” 91–101.

14. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 49–54, 97–134; Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case; Finkelman, “Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Northern State Courts,” 5–14; Schafer, “Stormy Days in Court,” 102–3.

15. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 32–38, 90–91; “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 181–85. Also see the Walworth County Independent, in the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 19, 1854, for an elaboration of the theory of state judicial nullification; Herman Belz, A New Birth of Freedom: The Republican Party and Freedmen’s Rights, 1861–1866, ix-xiv.

16. “In Re Sherman Booth,” 86–92; “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 182–89.

17. Walworth County Independent, in the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 19, 1854; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 294–95; Morris, Free Men All, 174–75; Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 159—73.

18. Bestor, “State Sovereignty and Slavery,” 140–80; Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 219–301.

19. Paine, “Argument of Byron Paine,” 1–3; “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 188–89; A. D. Smith to William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, et al., published in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 27, 1857; Morris, Free Men All, 156–85.

20. “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” 172–76; Adrienne Koch and Harry Ammon, “The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson and Madison’s Defense of Civil Liberties”; Arthur Bestor, “State Sovereignty and Slavery: A Reinterpretation of ProSlavery Constitutional Doctrine, 1846–1860,” 136–37; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 294–95.

21. Charles Sumner to Byron Paine, Aug. 8 and Dec. 28, 1854, Jan. 18, 1856, and Wendell Phillips to Paine, Nov. 24, 1854, all in the Byron Paine Papers; Greeley’s editorial was reprinted in the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 17, 1854; letter of Judge A. D. Smith to William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, et al., printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 16, 1857; Schafer, “Stormy Days in Court,” 92; Mason, “The Fugitive Slave Law in Wisconsin,” 133.

22. Rufus King to William H. Seward, Feb. 11, 1855, William H. Seward Papers; Janesville Gazette, Feb. 3, 1855; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 6, 1855; Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 5, 1855; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Feb. 8, 1855; Portage Independent, Mar. 4, 1855; Walworth County Independent, June 19, 1854; Potosi Republican, Feb. 17, 1855; Monroe Sentinel, Mar. 7, 14, 1855. These contain a sampling of Republican opinion. The Milwaukee Morning News, July 22, 1854, contains a representative Democratic response, which labeled the decision a threat to republicanism and the Union.

23. The Senate race can be followed in the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 22, 27, 1854, Jan. 11, 17, 22, 1855; the Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 11, 30, 31, 1855; and the Weekly Argus and Democrat, Jan. 30, 1855. Also see Aaron M. Boom, “The Development of Sectional Attitudes in Wisconsin, 1848–1861,” 110–14; Flately, “The Wisconsin Congressional Delegation from Statehood to Secession,” 61–70. Byron Kilbourn was president of the LaCrosse and Milwaukee Railroad and a former Free Soil Democrat.

24. Booth, recently discharged from jail, led the Free Soil faction and reportedly vowed that “no one but Durkee shall be elected” by the Republican coalition. The Free Soilers looked to avenge Durkee’s 1852 defeat for reelection to Congress, when a number of Whigs allegedly crossed party lines and helped to elect Durkee’s Democratic opponent. For Booth’s “dictation,” see the Weekly Argus and Democrat, Jan. 30, 1855, and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 22, 1855. Byron Kilbourn to Horace Tenney, Dec. 15, 1854, Horace Tenney Papers, gives details on the efforts of Kilbourn to court his former Free Soil allies; and Rufus King to William H. Seward, Feb. 11, 1855, William H. Seward Papers, for King’s report on the difficulty of reconciling the Free Soilers, Whigs and anti-Nebraska Democrats in the Republican coalition.

25. Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 15, 1855; Janesville Gazette, Mar. 3, 1855.

26. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 5, 15, 1857. On these dates Booth published a retrospective on the 1855 caucus meetings. Also see the Feb. 26, Mar. 2 and 16, 1855, editions; the Janesville Gazette, Mar. 10 and 14, 1855; and the Mineral Point Tribune, Mar. 14, 1855. For Cole’s early support of the states’ rights position, see the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 22, 1854.

27. Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 21, 1855; Janesville Gazette, Apr. 14, 1855. More than 80 percent of the 1854 Democratic voters cast a ballot for Crawford; nearly 90 percent of the 1854 Republican electorate voted for Cole.

28. The Republicans dominated the senate, nineteen to eleven, and the assembly, sixty-five to thirty-one.

29. Rublee and King remained publicly uncommitted to any candidate; probably they were confident about Howe’s prospects and did not want to stir up any intraparty feuds. The Menasha Conservator, Jan. 15, 29, 1857, carried information on the maneuvering by the candidates and their backers, as did the Grant County Herald, Jan. 24, 31, 1857, the Daily Milwaukee News, Jan. 24, Feb. 13, 1857, the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 24, 1857, and the Wisconsin Argus and Democrat, Jan. 10, 1857. John Lockwood, the Know Nothing chieftain, supposedly was working diligently for Howe, but, according to Harrison Reed, editor of the Menasha Conservator and a keen observer of goings-on in Madison, he commanded a paltry four Republican votes in the caucus.

30. Sherman Booth to Samuel D. Hastings, Dec. 15, 1856, Samuel D. Hastings Papers; George B. Smith, Diary, Jan. 19, 1857, George B. Smith Papers; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 22, 1856, Jan. 24, 1857.

31. Doolittle had been elected to a judgeship on the state circuit court in 1854 but had resigned the position in 1856. He joined the Republican party in 1856 after being bypassed for the Democratic nomination to Congress from his district, and he worked actively for Frémont during the presidential campaign. The state constitution barred state judges from holding any other public office, except another judgeship, “during the term for which they are … elected.” Even though he had resigned, his term ran to 1860, and so, his opponents charged, he was not eligible to stand for the United States Senate. Only Doolittle’s hometown newspaper, the Racine Advocate, endorsed him, although he expected to pick up some support from former Democrats in the legislature.

32. Menasha Conservator, Jan. 29, 1857; Daily Argus and Democrat, Jan. 10, 1857.

33. Sherman Booth to Samuel D. Hastings, Dec. 15, 1856, Samuel D. Hastings Papers; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 22, 29, 1856, Jan. 24, 26, 1857.

34. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 5, 1857, for Booth’s report of the conversation with Howe, and Mar. 23, 1857. Before publishing the substance of the discussion, Booth read it back to Howe and obtained his agreement that it fairly represented his views. James L. Sellers, “Republicanism and State Rights in Wisconsin,” 213–29, recounts the episode and contains the Democratic quotation; Ranney, “Suffering the Agonies of Their Righteousness,” 98–102.

35. Menasha Conservator, Jan. 8, 15, 1857; Grant County Herald, Jan. 24, 1857; Racine Advocate, Jan. 24, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 14, 1857. The Democratic Daily Milwaukee News, Jan. 17, 1857, reported that Booth’s manifesto against Howe gave the Republican legislators fits and effectively blew apart his coalition. George B. Smith, Diary entry, Jan. 16, 1857, George B. Smith Papers. Smith, a Democrat, closely followed the controversy among Republicans in choosing a senator.

36. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 16, 1857; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 19, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 17, 1857.

37. Booth’s Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 20, 1857, claims that the caucus passed the resolutions by a five-to-one margin.

38. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 19, 1857.

39. This was a direct reference to South Carolina’s controversial application of states’ rights and nullification doctrine in 1832–1833.

40. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 20, 21, 1857, for the letter of Howe and the other candidates. The caucus had by this time declared Doolittle eligible for the seat.

41. Ibid., Jan. 22, 1857.

42. Ibid.

43. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Jan. 28, Feb. 22, 1857, John Fox Potter Papers; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 24, 26, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 23, 24, 1857.

44. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 17, 19, 20, 21, Feb. 2, 5, 1857; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 20, 21, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 24, 1857. The accusations that the Know Nothings actively worked for Howe’s election and indeed that he was himself a Know Nothing comprised the “trumped up and false issue” referred to by his supporters.

45. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Jan. 28, 1857, Potter Papers; Grant County Herald, Jan. 24, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Jan. 24, 26, 1857; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Jan. 22, 29, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 2, 5, 1857.

46. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Feb. 22, 1857, Potter Papers; Menasha Conservator, Jan. 22, 1857. George B. Smith noted in his diary, Jan. 19, 1857, that outside of the “old” abolitionists, Booth was hated within the party. Undoubtedly he made many enemies with his overbearing, abrasive, self-righteous personality, but he also was accorded a good deal of respect for standing firm on principle.

47. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 24, 1857; Menasha Conservator, Jan. 22, 1857.

48. Assembly Journal, 1853, 97, 719–31, 1855, 48–50, 752–55, 1856, 228, 497; Senate Journal, 1853, 23, 76, 83, 213–16, 1855, 603, 749; Weekly Wisconsin, Jan. 26, Feb. 2, 16, 1853; Wisconsin Free Democrat, Apr. 2, 1853; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 9, 1856; Morris, Free Men All, 163–64. On the one vote taken on a personal liberty proposal, in 1856, Republicans supported the measure by a seven-to-one margin, while three Democrats opposed it to every one in favor.

49. Senate Journal, 1857, 166.

50. Ibid., 241–42.

51. Assembly Journal, 1857, 431–32, 439–40, 456–62, 486–87; George B. Smith, Diary, Feb. 17, 18, 19, 1857, Smith Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 21, 1857. Booth was actively lobbying the assembly for the relief clause because the federal district court, in January 1857, had ordered his printing press and steam engine, valued at $3,000, to be sold at public auction in order to defray the expenses that Garland, Glover’s alleged owner, had suffered for the loss of his slave. The property was purchased for $175, after which Booth sued for and received a writ of replevin and had it returned pending the outcome of further court action. For Booth’s travails, see his Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 23, 24, Apr. 6, 1857, June 28, 1858.

52. Senate Journal, 1857, 287, 290; Assembly Journal, 1857, 1183. Forty-six Assembly Republicans voted for the final bill and five opposed it. In the Senate, only three Republicans favored the relief provision.

53. Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 21, 1857; Mineral Point Tribune, Mar. 17, 1857; Janesville Gazette, Feb. 28, 1957; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Apr. 5, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers. For the Democratic perspective, see the Weekly Argus and Democrat, Mar. 31, 1857 and the Daily Milwaukee News, Mar. 26, 1857.

54. The decision was handed down on Mar. 6, 1857, two days after the inauguration of the new president of the United States, James Buchanan.

55. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 267–96. Congress had repealed the Missouri Compromise three years earlier in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

56. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 14, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, June 4, 1857; Portage City Record, Oct. 27, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 7, 1857; Grant County Herald, Mar. 24, 1857; Willet S. Main, Diary, Mar. 13, 17, 1857, Willet S. Main Papers. The Buchanan administration took the proslavery implications of the Dred Scott decision to the limit when it claimed in the pages of the Washington Union, the mouthpiece of the national Democratic party, that it validated the right of slaveowners to settle in the territories with their bondsmen and declared unconstitutional state laws banning slavery. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 15, 21, 25, Dec. 2, 4, 1857, carried articles arguing these points from the Union. Also see Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case, 453, 467.

57. Mineral Point Tribune, Mar. 31, 1857; Grant County Herald, Mar. 28, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 28, 1857; Menasha Conservator, Mar. 26, 1857; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 24, 25, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 23, 1857.

58. Daily Milwaukee News, Mar. 18, 26, 1857; Weekly Argus and Democrat, Mar. 10, 31, 1857.

59. Using 1857 population estimates, about 54 percent of the estimated eligible voters turned out for the election. Presidential races drew by far the largest turnout from statehood in 1848 through 1860. The 1855 governor’s contest had attracted about 52 percent of the eligible electorate—the highest turnout for a state contest before the 1857 judicial election.

60. Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 8, 1857.

61. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Apr. 5, May 17, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 13, 1857.

62. Moses M. Davis to “My Dear Sir” (probably Byron Paine), Mar. [?] 1857, Moses M. Davis Papers; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Apr. 3, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers; Menasha Conservator, Apr. 2, 23, May 2, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 23, 27, 30, 1857.

63. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 6, May 5, 11, 1857; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, May 14, 21, 1857; Monroe Sentinel, May 27, 1857.

64. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 17, 18, 1857; Menasha Conservator, June 25, July 7, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, June 18, 1857; Milwaukee Sentinel, June 18, 1857.

65. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 18, 1857.

66. Menasha Conservator, June 25, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, June 19, 1857; Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, July 3, 1857, John Fox Potter Papers; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Aug. 14, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers.

67. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Aug. 14, 1857, Timothy Howe Papers.

68. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 27, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 2, 1857; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 4, 5, 1857; Baraboo Republic, Sept. 10, 1857; Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 9, 1857; Portage City Record, Sept. 9, 1857; Grant County Herald, Sept. 12, 1857.

69. Weekly Argus and Democrat, Sept. 8, 1857. Howe was joined on the committee by two other Republicans known to be cool towards the states’ rights position and the Booth faction.

70. Timothy Howe to Horace Tenney, Mar. 27, 1859, Timothy Howe Papers; William Brisbane, Diary, Sept. 3, 1857, William Brisbane Papers; Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 3, 4, 1857; Daily Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 5, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 7, 10, 1857; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 4, 1857.

71. See, for example, William Brisbane’s comments in his Sept. 3, 1857, diary entry, in the Brisbane Papers.

TEN A Little Matter of Justice

1. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, May 17, 1854, Aug. 21, 1857; Portage City Record, Oct. 20, 1858.

2. Newspaper debate, newspaper unnamed, between A. W. Arrington and William H. Brisbane, regarding the Dred Scott decision, June, 1857, in the Brisbane Papers; Portage City Record, Oct. 20, 1858.

3. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 29, 1854; also see the Monroe Sentinel, Jan. 7, 14, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, May 17, 1854, Aug. 6, 1855. The following suffrage discussion is a modified version of my article, “Wisconsin Republicans and Negro Suffrage: Attitudes and Behavior, 1857.”

4. See the Assembly Journal, 1850, 160, 199–200, 232, 239–41, 285–86, 362; 1851, 205, 367, 481; 1852, 588, 866; Senate Journal, 1852, 690. In 1850, approximately 635 blacks made their homes in Wisconsin; in 1855 their number climbed to 788, and in 1860 it neared twelve hundred. The 1850 and 1855 numbers come from census data published in the Senate Journal, 1856, Appendix 1, 65–78. The 1860 enumeration was derived from the Eighth Census of the United States, 1860.

5. Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 8, 1855.

6. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 10, 1855, for the legislative proceedings; Robert N. Kroncke, “Race and Politics in Wisconsin, 1854–1865,” 19; Leslie H. Fishel, “Wisconsin and Negro Suffrage,” 185.

7. Two of the petitions submitted to the legislature in 1857 survive in the files of the Secretary of State, Petitions, Remonstrances, and Resolutions Presented to the Senate and/or Assembly, 1857; also see the Senate Journal, 1857, 59, 117, 197; Assembly Journal, 1857, 301, 318, 386–87, 591, 711. For a retrospective view of the Republican party’s birth in the lead district and the hesitation its founders had in bringing the “ultra abolition” Mills into its councils, see the Grant County Herald, Jan. 27, 1898. Mills was a long-time resident of the lead district and a well-known and seemingly popular radical. The Grant County Herald, May 18, 1844, contains a Mills lecture on the beauties of human “diversity.”

8. Assembly Journal, 1857, Appendix 2, 3–12, contains the full text of the Mills report.

9. Ibid.

10. Assembly Journal, 1857, 712–13, 751, 757, 759; Senate Journal, 1857, 429–32, 456, 466, 529. Republicans in the assembly voted thirty to thirteen in favor of the Mills report, while the Democrats were twenty to seven against. The same majority prevailed in the final vote on the senate version. In the senate, Republicans came down thirteen to four in favor of their bill, while the Democrats were against it by an eight to one margin.

11. Daily Milwaukee News, Aug. 12; Daily Argus and Democrat, Aug. 13; Appleton Crescent, June 27; Waukesha County Democrat, Aug. 19; Lafayette County Herald, July 31; Superior Chronicle, Mar. 10; Horicon Argus, July, 24. Unless otherwise noted, all of the remaining newspaper citations in this chapter are from 1857.

12. Daily Argus and Democrat, Aug. 29.

13. Prescott Transcript, Aug. 15; Delavan Messenger, May 6; Fond Du Lac Commonwealth, June 10, July 1; Columbus Republican Journal, Aug. 18; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 7.

14. Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 1; Waukesha Republican, Apr. 14.

15. Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 3, 4, 7; Daily Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 5; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 3, 4, 5.

16. Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 7; Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 12.

17. Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 11; Milwaukee Daily News, Aug. 27, Oct. 22; Kenosha Times, Sept. 10; Appleton Crescent, Sept. 26, Oct. 24; Superior Chronicle, Sept. 29; Racine Democrat, Aug. 31; Fond Du Lac Union, Oct. 29; Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 26.

18. Appleton Crescent, Sept. 26; Racine Democrat, Aug. 31; Superior Chronicle, Sept. 29; Wisconsin Pinery, Oct. 8; Reedsburg Herald, Oct. 31; Manitowoc Herald, Sept. 19.

19. Fond Du Lac Union, Oct. 29; Lafayette County Herald, Oct. 16. The fear of “amalgamation” was played on regularly by the Democrats.

20. The Prairie Du Chien Courier, Sept. 24 and the Wisconsin Pinery offer good examples of this appeal to the foreign-born.

21. The Elkhorn Independent, Nov. 13, claims that expediency was precisely the motive of the candidates in their campaign of silence. Also see the Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 12; Horace Tenney and David Atwood, Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wisconsin, 133–41, and Moses M. Strong, History of the Wisconsin Territory, 521–22.

22. The first quote comes from the Appleton Crescent, Sept. 26, the second from the Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 19. The widespread support does not sustain Eugene Berwanger’s contention in his Frontier Against Slavery, 43, that “Republican editors [in Wisconsin] remained strangely silent about Negro suffrage” in 1857.

23. Neenah-Menasha Conservator, Aug. 6, Oct. 29; also see the Prescott Transcript, Aug. 15; Prairie Du Chien Leader, Oct. 24, 31; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 24; Whitewater Register, Oct. 24; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 4, 8, 21, Oct. 28; Mineral Point Tribune, Aug. 25.

24. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 19. Echoing King’s view were the Baraboo Republic, Oct. 8; Racine Advocate, Sept. 2; Richland County Observer, Sept. 29; Dodge County Citizen, Oct. 20; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Sept. 10.

25. Wisconsin Mirror, Sept. 29, Oct. 27; Elkhorn Independent, Oct. 23; Richland County Herald, Aug. 25; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 7; Fond Du Lac Commonwealth, Aug. 26.

26. Mineral Point Tribune, Aug. 25; also see the Whitewater Register, Oct. 24; Racine Advocate, Sept. 2; Prescott Transcript, Sept. 19; Elkhorn Independent, Oct. 24; Waukesha Republican, Oct. 27.

27. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 20; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 28.

28. Portage City Record, Sept. 30; Racine Advocate, Sept. 2; Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 1.

29. Elkhorn Independent, Oct. 23; Prescott Transcript, Aug. 15; Racine Advocate, Sept. 2; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 7.

30. Hudson Chronicle, quoted in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 22; Fond Du Lac Commonwealth, Oct. 28. These sentiments were given similar expression in many Republican papers, e.g., the Dodge County Citizen, Oct. 20, 27; Baraboo Republic, Oct. 24; Janesville Gazette, Oct. 24; Prairie Du Chien Leader, Oct. 24, 31; Neenah-Menasha Conservator, Oct. 29; Columbus Republican Journal, Sept. 8; Richland County Observer, Sept. 29; Waukesha Republican, Oct. 27; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 24; Monroe Sentinel, Sept. 24; Berlin Courant, quoted in Argus and Democrat, Sept. 7.

31. Columbus Republican Journal, Sept. 8; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 8; Baraboo Republic, Oct. 28; Racine Advocate, Sept. 2; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 7.

32. Janesville Gazette, Sept. 17; Dodge County Citizen, Oct. 27.

33. Janesville Gazette, Oct. 17.

34. Cover and other Whigs had for years carefully cultivated the region’s strong anti-bank, prointernal improvement sentiments and won many converts to the party who later shifted to the Republicans.

35. Grant County Herald, Oct. 24.

36. Ibid.; also see the LaCrosse Independent, Oct. 31, another western antisuffrage Republican paper. The Milwaukee Daily News, Sept. 25, discusses the petition containing Cross’s signature.

37. Daily Argus and Democrat, Sept. 15.

38. Columbus Republican Journal, Oct. 20. See the Daily Argus and Democrat, Apr. 27, Sept. 19, for a typical Democratic response to the black spokesmen.

39. William Brisbane Diary, Oct. 31, 1857, Brisbane Papers.

40. The Bad Ax, Ozaukee, and Rock County suffrage returns were not contained in the records of the secretary of state, but were found in local papers. For Bad Ax, see the Western Times, Nov. 18; for Rock, the Janesville Gazette, Nov. 16; for Ozaukee, the Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 17.

41. Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 19; Wisconsin Patriot, Nov. 5; Prairie Du Chien Courier, Nov. 20.

42. Current, History of Wisconsin, 262–67; Kroncke, “Race and Politics in Wisconsin, 1854–1865,” 23–34.

43. For a description of cross-pressure voting, see Lane, Political Life, 199–201.

44. Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 16, Oct. 17; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 8, 9, 17.

45. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 17; Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 16, 26.

46. Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 16, 26.

47. Ibid., Oct. 24, 31; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 21, 22. The reform ticket received a scattering of votes, suggesting that Democrats choosing to oppose Cross more likely did so by sitting out the election, although they may have shown up and registered an opinion on the suffrage question.

48. Milwaukee American, Sept. 23, 24, Oct. 5, 1857; Daily Wisconsin Patriot, Sept. 26. Two German Democratic papers, the Milwaukee Grad Aus and the Watertown Anzeiger, bolted the Cross ticket in favor of the “reformers.” It was rumored that Noonan had purchased the American and was actively doing everything he could to bring about Cross’s defeat. It was even hinted that, as a friend of Randall’s, Noonan had helped engineer Randall’s nomination and was working behind the scenes to secure his election. See the Weekly Argus and Democrat, Apr. 14, May 19, 1857; Daily Milwaukee News, Feb. 13, 1857; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 18, 1857.

49. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 20–42, provides a description of the nonresistors and their opponents who wanted to take a more active part in politics.

50. To compare election returns, refer to James R. Donoghue, How Wisconsin Voted and The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1862 and 1874.

51. Frank, Diary, Oct. 27, 1857, Frank Papers; also Current, History of Wisconsin, 237–59, for details on the impact of the financial panic of 1857 in Wisconsin.

52. Current, History of Wisconsin, Oct. 26, 31, Nov. 10, 1857. The Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 5, 12, 1857, also contains typical Republican postelection commentaries on voters’ over-confidence and economic concerns, which brought about their apathy in the 1857 election.

53. The blacks in those twenty-four counties represented 65 percent of the total in the state. Three went Republican and antisuffrage, one Democratic and prosuffrage. It should be borne in mind that in all counties, blacks constituted less than 1 percent of the population, so they did not have great visibility, except perhaps in Milwaukee.

54. Elkhorn Independent, Nov. 13; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 20.

55. Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 20.

56. Evidence of this “liberality” among Republicans can be found in Phyllis F. Field, “Republicans and Black Suffrage in New York State: The Grass Roots Response”; Robert R. Dykstra and Harlan Hahn, “Northern Voters and Negro Suffrage: The Case of Iowa, 1868”; Robert R. Dykstra, Bright Radical Star: Black Freedom and White Supremacy on the Hawkeye Frontier; LaWanda Cox and John Cox, “Negro Suffrage and Republican Politics: The Problem of Motivation in Reconstruction Historiography”; Glenn M. Linden, “A Note on Negro Suffrage and Republican Politics”; John M. Rozett, “Racism and Republican Emergence in Illinois, 1848–1860: A Re-evaluation of Republican Negrophobia.” For the argument that the Republican party basically embraced the racist assumptions of the day, see Berwanger, The Frontier Against Slavery; James Rawley, Race and Politics: Bleeding Kansas and the Coming of the Civil War; Litwack, North of Slavery. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, and Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, argue for the complexity and diversity of Republican attitudes toward blacks, but they still see fundamental party ideology as supportive of basic natural and civil rights for blacks.

57. The following comments regarding Iowa are from Dykstra’s Bright Radical Star, esp. 172–91, 282.

58. Alice Smith, History of Wisconsin, 464–73; Current, History of Wisconsin, 76–82; Dykstra, Bright Radical Star, 282.

59. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 99, 185–87.

60. James Doolittle to John Fox Potter, July 25, 1859, Potter Papers; the Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 2, 8, 1859, contains a speech on colonization presented by Doolittle to the Republican state convention; the Racine Advocate, Doolittle’s home organ, also gave considerable space to his views and the colonization issue in general; see, for example, August 24, 1859. On the ideology of Southern expansion into the Caribbean and Central America, see Urban, “The Ideology of Southern Imperialism, 48–73.

61. James Doolittle to John Fox Potter, Nov. 7, 1860, Potter Papers; Blair’s strategy was printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 2, 1859; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 267–95, gives a detailed summary of the Republican position on colonization.

62. Annual Message of Governor Alexander Randall to the Citizens of Wisconsin, Jan. 12, 1860, Wisconsin Governors Messages; Racine Advocate, Oct. 24, 1860; Grant County Herald, Sept. 8, 1860.

63. The Blair quotation is from a Boston speech reprinted in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 11, 1859; also see the Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 8, 1859; Oconto Pioneer, May 12, 1860; Grant County Herald, Jan. 5, Feb. 21, 1861; James Doolittle to John Fox Potter, Nov. 7, 1860, Potter Papers.

64. Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 3, 8, 1859, May 8, 1860; Racine Advocate, Aug. 3, 24, 1859.

65. C. C. Sholes to James Doolitle, May 21, 1860, Doolittle Papers; Racine Advocate, Aug. 17, 1859; Kenosha Telegraph, Sept. 1, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 3, 1859.

66. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, June 14, 1858; Daily Life, Dec. 21, 1861; Kroncke, “Race and Politics in Wisconsin, 1854–1865,” 61–64, discusses the seeming lack of interest displayed in colonization; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 274–76, discusses support among the free black leadership for colonization, although there is little evidence that this support was widespread among rank-and-file blacks.

67. Grant County Herald, Feb. 14, 21, 1861.

ELEVEN It Looks Like Civil War Is Inevitable

1. Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 1854.

2. Allan Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln 1:60–89; Potter, Impending Crisis, 297–98; Roy F. Nichols, The Disruption of American Democracy.

3. See chapter 9 for a discussion of the Dred Scott decision. Also Potter, Impending Crisis, 279–92.

4. The Milwaukee Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal, May 8 through 22, 1857, address Republican concerns with popular sovereignty. Also see Potter, Impending Crisis, 297–327; Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case, 449–83; Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:60–89, 148–75; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 299–300.

5. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 8, 12, Dec. 11, 1857; Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:229–49; Rawley, Race and Politics, 202–22.

6. Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:64–67.

7. Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:229–304, gives a dramatic rendering of events. The constitution with slavery had been overwhelmingly endorsed in another election, boycotted by free-state men, on December 21, 1857. In an election the following month, called by the territorial legislature, slave staters abstained, and the whole Lecompton charter was rejected. Buchanan backed the December results. Potter, Impending Crisis, 318.

8. Potter, Impending Crisis, 308–27; Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:250–304. Kansas finally achieved statehood in 1861.

9. J. R. Sharpstein to George H. Paul, Mar. 3, 1858, Paul Papers. Sharpstein was editor of the Milwaukee Daily News and postmaster of that city. Paul edited the Kenosha Democrat and occupied the postmastership there. Sharpstein advised Paul that the president had received reassurances that Paul stood behind him on the Lecompton question, and thus he would be retained in his position. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 8, 9, 10, 11, July 2, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 1858, recounts some of the pressure the administration was putting on state officeholders.

10. Sylvanus Cadwallader to George H. Paul, Mar. 8, 15, 1858, Paul Papers, provide examples of a local leader under pressure to reject Lecompton and the administration position. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 19, 22, 25, 1857, highlighted cracks in Democratic support of the administration that were coming to the surface. The state’s Democrats constantly fought each other, of course, but they usually could be counted on to back their national leaders.

11. Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Jan. 7, 1858; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 4, 1858.

12. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 14, 1858; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 15, Mar. 6, 8, 1858; Milwaukee Daily News, Mar. 8, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 8, 1858.

13. Boom, “The Development of Sectional Attitudes in Wisconsin,” 166–72.

14. Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 19, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 19, 21, 1857; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 343–48; Potter, Impending Crisis, 320–22; Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:261–64.

15. See chapter 8 for a discussion of Democratic attitudes; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 9, 14, 1858.

16. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 8, 1858, reprints the resolutions of the Milwaukee Democratic meeting in which this distinction is made clear. Also see the Sheboygan Journal, Mar. 10, 1858; Milwaukee Daily News, Mar. 8, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 12, 1857; Potter, Impending Crisis, 172–74, 320–21, 329–30.

17. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Oct. 25, 1857, Potter Papers; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Aug. 5, 1858; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 18, 1857. Lecompton resolutions were debated in the Wisconsin assembly and senate in 1858. Those debates clearly illustrate the differences between Republicans and Democrats, with Republicans focusing on the slavery question, Democrats on popular sovereignty. See the Senate Journal, 1858, 251, 266–67, 314–18, 326–27, 380–82 and the Assembly Journal, 1858, 217–18, 239–41, 1107–13, 1130–31, 1162–64; Bestor, “State Sovereignty and Slavery,” 122–27. Many Northern Democrats expressed that same desire, but they relied instead on “geographical conditions,” such as soil and climate, to keep slavery penned up, not on positive action. Thus, while one does not have to question the sincerity of their antislavery professions, it seems reasonable to suggest that they may have been halfhearted, more concerned with ending slavery agitation than slavery itself.

18. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 14, Dec. 19, 1857; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Aug. 5, Sept. 23, 1858; Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, July 31, 1857, V. H. Hewes to John Fox Potter, Mar. 6, 1858, Potter Papers; Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case, 451–55; Potter, Impending Crisis, 287–89, 308–9; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 100.

19. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Dec. 24, 1857, Davis to Potter, July 31, Oct. 25, 1857, A. A. Huntington to Potter, Mar. 27, 1857, all in the Potter Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 10, 1857, Feb. 27, Mar. 4, 15, 27, 30, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Jan. 6, Feb. 13, 1858; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 8, Mar. 15, 1858; Portage City Record, Dec. 23, 1857; Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Feb. 25, 1858.

20. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Apr. 5, 1858, John Jenkins to Nathaniel P. Banks, Feb. 9, 1858, both in the Potter Papers.

21. “Badger” to the Monroe Sentinel, Feb. 10, 1858.

22. Frank was now editing the Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, see Jan. 14, 1858, as well as Feb. 11, 1858; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 18, 1857, Jan. 28, 1858; E.G. Dyer to John Fox Potter, Feb. 17, 1858, Potter Papers; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 10, 1858.

23. Baraboo Republic, Apr. 23, 1857; Janesville Gazette, Mar. 27, 1857; Fond Du Lac Commonwealth, Mar. 20, 1857; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 20, 1857.

24. Portage City Record, Oct. 27, 1858; Wisconsin State Journal, June 4, 1857. Also see Potter’s conclusion in The Impending Crisis, 291–96, Fehrenbacher’s in The Dred Scott Case, 453, and Sewell’s in Ballots For Freedom, 299–303.

25. S. S. Bradford to John Fox Potter, May 14, 1858, Potter Papers. Historians have correctly pointed out Republican attempts to tone down their antislavery appeal in order to woo conservatives in the presidential campaign of 1860, but they fail to credit the determination of the radicals and most moderates to stand fast in their antislavery position, no matter the consequences. And if Wisconsin is at all representative, radicals and moderates made up a huge majority of the party faithful. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 419–28, discusses the pressures on Republicans to moderate their antislavery stance.

26. James Doolittle to Horace Tenney, Sept. 27, 1858, Tenney Papers, and Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 1:254, on Republican electoral disappointments in 1857.

27. Annual Messages of the Governors of Wisconsin, 1848—1875, 34–42, contains Randall’s address of January 15, 1858. See Josiah Noonan to Horace Tenney, Feb. 18, 1856, and Feb. 23, 1857, Dec. 14, 1857, Tenney Papers, for Noonan’s early petitions to inquire into the allegations of widespread fraud in the 1855 legislature and his frustration with the Republican’s failure to inquire into the matter. It was later revealed that Republican governor Bashford had accepted a fifty thousand dollar bribe for signing the measure, thus helping account for his reluctance to investigate. For Noonan’s support of Randall, see Noonan to Tenney, Sept. 2, 1857, also in the Tenney Papers. He hoped by helping the Republicans to “break them [the Barstowites] … to pieces.” Noonan’s assistance to the Republicans also was prompted by the favoritism shown by Buchanan for Barstow men in dispensing the patronage. Noonan himself had been removed from his position as Milwaukee’s postmaster. He offered to help the Republican in the investigation so long as it was conducted in a nonpartisan fashion. Noonan, it should be added, was cosigning notes for Randall, who as usual was broke. For other sources on the Noonan-Republican connection, see Noonan’s correspondence from John Fox Potter, Jan. 14, Mar. 8, 20, Apr. 2, 5, 19, 25, 29, May 5, 1858, Alexander Randall to Noonan, Jan. 5, Feb. 1, 3, 15, 25, Mar. 23, 1858, all in the Noonan Papers; Josiah Noonan to Horace Tenney, Feb. 9, Mar. 1, 1858, in the Tenney Papers, and the Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, July 7, Aug. 7, 21, Sept. 4, 26, Oct. 2, 1858, which ran an expose of Noonan’s alleged influence in obtaining backing for Randall in the 1857 Republican convention. The allegations were put together by E. B. Quiner, a Republican opponent of Randall. Booth, in the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 18, 1857, also claimed that Noonan, an “ingrained proslavery man,” had helped the governor. Current, History of Wisconsin, 242–48, 267–68, gives details on the investigation.

28. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 18, 27, June 7, July 24, 27, Aug. 2, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Aug. 26, 1858; Menasha Conservator, Aug. 5, 1858; Mineral Point Tribune, July 27, 1858; Portage City Record, Aug. 14, 1858; Wisconsin State Journal, June 5, Aug. 4, Sept. 2, 1858. The Address of the German Republicans is in the Free Democrat, Aug. 28, 1858, and the Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 30, 1858. The Milwaukee Sentinel, whose editor, Rufus King, had been named the recipient of railroad promoter largesse during the 1858 investigation, kept largely silent during this controversy, perhaps not wishing to incur the wrath of Randall, who, to popular acclaim, conducted the investigation in an even-handed manner.

29. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, June 9, 10, 1858; Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 4, 5, 1858.

30. Wisconsin State Journal, July 12, Sept. 27, 1857. Booth and Rublee traded increasingly bitter words and accused each other of trying to rule the party, but instead divided it. See the Journal, Aug. 24, 25, 1858, and Josiah Noonan to Horace Tenney, Aug. 26, 1857, Tenney Papers, for the attitude of Randall’s men toward “Booth, the mercenary curse,” and the Free Democrat, Sept. 27, 1858, for Booth’s side.

31. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Aug. 23, 1858, Howe Papers.

32. William Rogers to Horace Tenney, July 13, 1858, E. L. Phillips to Tenney, July 14, 1858, George Garry to Tenney, July 26, 1858, Gregor Menzel to Tenney, July 14, 1858, G. S. Graves to Tenney, July 26, 1858, William P. Lyons to Tenney, July 13, 1858, all in the Tenney Papers. Randall, Rufus King, John Fox Potter, James Doolittle, and Josiah Noonan were reportedly the prime movers behind the suggestion for the call. See John Fox Potter to Horace Tenney, Oct. 1, 1858, and James Doolittle to Tenney, Sept. 27, 1858, in the Tenney Papers, the Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 6, 1858, and the Baraboo Republic, Aug. 19, 1858. Tenney’s recent appointment as state comptroller also brought down the wrath of Booth, with whom he had been quarreling for years. He was also a close ally of Randall and Noonan, and once had been accused of attempting to rig the bidding for state printing jobs while Barstow was governor.

33. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 4, 5, 6, 1858.

34. Wisconsin State Journal, July 30, Aug. 5, 24, 25, 27, Sept. 14, 1858; Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Aug. 7, 1858. The Patriot noted that the Journal’s offensive against Booth had been devised by Noonan. That may have been true since Noonan had advised Tenney that Randall and the Republican party needed a stronger, bolder, more assertive paper than the State Journal. Rublee seems to have gotten the word and immediately gone on the offensive. See Noonan to Horace Tenney, July 27, Aug. 26, 1858, Tenney Papers.

35. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 17, Sept. 13, 1858. Booth was referring to Tenney’s alleged attempt to win state printing contracts while still a Democratic editor by bribing Barstow and other influential Democrats in his administration who made up “the Balance.”

36. Ibid., Aug. 4, 17, 20, Sept. 25, 27, 28, 1858.

37. Ibid., Sept. 27, 28, 1858; Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 18, 25, 1858. Booth and Harrison Reed had consulted about the necessity of another Madison paper, and Reed had agreed “to assume charge” of one if the need arose.

38. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Oct. 6, 7, 1858.

39. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 7, 8, 1858; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 13, 20, 1858; Portage City Record, Oct. 13, 1858. Current, History of Wisconsin, 268, notes that the Republican resolution called for opposition to the “further extension of the African race upon this continent,” in a “cynical appeal to [party] racists.” In fact, the resolution called for opposition to the extension of the “slavery of the African Race upon this continent.” The Sentinel, on October 8, had incorrectly printed the resolve as picked up by Current and other historians. Others appointed to compose the address included Moses Davis, Carl Schurz, Harrison Reed, and Edward Daniels, all well-known states’ righters and party radicals.

40. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 14, 1858, contains the “Address of the Republican State Convention to the People Of the State of Wisconsin,” which was signed by Booth, Rublee, and King, presumably as a show of party unity.

41. The Wisconsin State Journal, Oct. 9, 18, 30, 1858, printed the campaign schedules of the Democratic speakers and warned Republicans not to be complacent.

42. Potter and Washburne won reelection; Billinghurst lost in a close contest to Charles Larrabee, a good friend of Douglas.

43. The party regularity from 1856 to 1858 assumes those same people were in the state in 1856 or that, if they were Democrats or Republicans in 1856, they remained the same two years later.

44. Grant County Herald, Nov. 13, 27, Dec. 11, 25, 1858. Joseph Cover especially was critical of the “fearful, let-alone and cowardly” State Journal, and he hoped it would cease to do business in favor of a stronger, more reliable Republican paper. Although Washburn gained reelection, his total vote in 1858 was ten thousand less than in 1856, which lent some credence to the charge. However, most of the falloff was probably a result of lower turnout. Still, the Democratic total in Dane County did increase dramatically over 1857’s total, while the Republican tally declined, suggesting that at least a few Republicans voted for the Democratic challenger.

45. Carl Schurz to Moses M. Davis, Aug. 24, 1858, Davis Papers, for one Republican’s dissatisfaction with Billinghurst. Also see Flately, “The Wisconsin Congressional Delegation from Statehood to Secession, 1848–1861,” 87–91. It is more likely that Billinghurst lost more due to Douglas’s popularity in the traditionally heavily Democratic northern district than to stay-at-home states’ righters. In addition, Larrabee was a well-known Democrat and judge from the area and was himself popular with the region’s voters.

46. Taney’s decision is in the Records of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States: In the Matter of the United States v. Sherman M. Booth; and Stephen V. R. Ableman, Plaintiff in Error, v. Sherman M. Booth, Dec. Term, 1858, Vol. XXI, 1859, 21 Howard, 506–26 (hereafter referred to as Ableman v. Booth). Also see Morris, Free Men All, 175–76; Bestor, “State Sovereignty and Slavery,” 136–42; Mason, “The Fugitive Slave Law in Wisconsin With Reference To Nullification Sentiment,” 138–40, for other perspectives on the decision.

47. Ableman v. Booth, 517–21.

48. Ibid., 525–26; Morris, Free Men All, 178–80.

49. Ableman v. Booth, 526.

50. The Laws of Wisconsin, 1859, 247–48, contains the Joint Resolution. For the legislative proceedings, see the Assembly Journal, 1859, 777–79, 863–65, and the Senate Journal, 1859, 749–50. This resolution echoed one Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Kentucky legislature adopted on November 10, 1798.

51. Laws of Wisconsin, 1859, 248. The lawmakers substituted “positive defiance” for “nullification.”

52. The assembly vote was forty-seven to thirty-six, with the Republicans providing all of the votes in favor and only three against the resolves; four abstained. In the senate, the tally was thirteen to twelve. No Republican senator voted against the resolves; one abstained.

53. The quote is from the Kenosha Tribune and Telegraph, Mar. 24, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 21, 1859; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 15, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 11, 1859. Timothy Howe, unsurprisingly, did not support the resolves, and he mistakenly asserted that “they are copied mainly from Mr. Calhoun.” Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Mar. 24, 1859, Howe Papers.

54. Byron Kilbourn to Rufus King, in the Mineral Point Tribune, June 8, 1858; Menasha Conservator, Feb. 19, 1859. Kilbourn claimed that Barstow’s charges were “untrue, unsound and dangerous … sacrificing truth to his desire for revenge.”

55. Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 10, Mar. 4, 1859; Menasha Conservator, Feb. 19, 26, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 7, Mar. 28, 1859.

56. Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 17, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 14, 21, 1859; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Aug. 23, 1859, Howe Papers. Current, History of Wisconsin, 268–70, recounts the Republican desire to maintain a clean political image. Remarkably, the Democrats in 1858 ran five candidates who had received a total of $305,000 in railroad bonds.

57. The Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 12, 22, Feb. 10, 22, 1859, and the Mineral Point Tribune, Jan. 25, Feb. 22, 1859, seemed to think backing Smith as an independent solved the problem of having to keep or set aside the judge. The Democratic course changed all that.

58. Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 17, 1859; Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 18, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 21, 1859; Menasha Conservator, Feb. 19, 26, 1859. Thirty-six of the fifty Republican legislators present at the meeting reportedly voted for Paine.

59. Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 28, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, February 21, 1859.

60. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 22, 26, 28, 1859.

61. Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 4, 1859; Menasha Conservator, Mar. 5, 12, 1859; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 7, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 5, 1859. Smith formally withdrew from the race on March 15, lest his independent candidacy split the Republican vote. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 17, 1859, carried Smith’s statement.

62. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 9, 1859, contains the “Address.”

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid., Mar. 24, 1859, contains Schurz’s speech in full; also see Apr. 4, 1859, for a similar public address Schurz gave in Kenosha on March 31. He eulogized Jefferson and the Kentucky Resolutions and denounced the Democratic party for its continuous “submission” to every enactment of the slave power. He called on Wisconsinites to stand firm on “the question of State Rights…. Here is the battlefield, every man to his gun.” Schurz later claimed that his Milwaukee speech was the most well received of any he ever gave, but after the war he did not include it among his published addresses because his views had changed. Sellers, “Republicanism and State Rights in Wisconsin,” 227.

65. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 28, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 25, 26, 1859; Kenosha Telegraph, Mar. 24, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 25, 28, 1859; Mineral Point Tribune, Apr. 5, 1859; Grant County Herald, Mar. 25, 1859; Menasha Conservator, Mar. 26, 1859; Monroe Sentinel, Mar. 30, 1859; William H. Brisbane to Carl Schurz, Apr. 4, 1859, Schurz Papers, for examples of Republican support for Paine on the basis of states’ rights.

66. About one thousand more votes were recorded in that election than in the prior year’s record-setting congressional contest, representing about 65 percent of the eligible electors; it was the largest turnout for a state elective office to date.

67. Table 16, which looks at the 1859 judicial and 1858 congressional elections shows no evidence of crossover. Table 17, an analysis of the 1859 judicial and gubernatorial contests, suggests that some crossover occurred. Estimated relationships between the 1860 state supreme court election with the 1859 judicial and governor’s races, show a significantly less pronounced tendency of Republicans to cross over and vote for their opponents. My overall impression is that the estimate of seventy-five hundred crossover Republican votes from Paine to Lynde is probably too high, especially given Lynde’s well-known conservatism on slavery issues.

68. Rublee, in the Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 14, 1859, acknowledged that “the great mass of Republicans in this state differ with Judge Howe and agree with Judge Paine,” but he insisted, inaccurately I think, that they did not necessarily “endorse the doctrine of nullification.” Also see McManus, “‘Freedom and Liberty First, and the Union Afterwards,’” 51–52.

69. Portage City Record, Apr. 20, 1859. Also see the Kenosha Telegraph, Apr. 14, 1859, and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 13, 1859, now under the editorship of Christopher Sholes, for similar sentiments, and the Menasha Conservator, Aug. 5, 1858, for an expression of the centrality of the principle of “state sovereignty” to the Republican creed. Compare these expressions to Rublee’s in the prior note.

70. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Mar. 24, 25, Apr. 3, 1859, and Aug. 14, 1857; Howe to John Tweedy, Apr. 11, 17, 1859, all in the Howe Papers. Also see the Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 14, 1859.

71. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Apr. 3, 1859, Howe Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 11, 22, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 7, 14, 22, 1859.

72. Howe apparently chose the Oshkosh paper, which was one of the few Republican organs friendly to his views, instead of the Journal, perhaps fearing that his friend Rublee would be hurt if he was viewed as siding with Howe.

73. Portage City Record, Apr. 20, 1859; Racine Advocate, June 22, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 22, 23, May 7, 19, 30, June 25, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 22, May 17, 1859; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Apr. 11, 14, 1859, Howe Papers.

74. Edward Daniels to Horace Tenney, March 5, 1859, Tenney Papers. Daniels was a Randall appointee to the post of state geologist and an ardent antislavery man who deeply resented Booth’s “impolitic” and “contemptible” opposition to the governor’s appointment policies. Booth had little use for the state party committee, considering it the tool of wirepulling politicians. He instead preferred platform and even important policy decisions to be made by the people meeting in mass convention. As a result, he often ignored appointments to the committee, with the result that some of his greatest enemies, the Know Nothings in 1855 and Horace Tenney in 1858, succeeded in obtaining important positions on it from which to exert influence.

75. The Whitewater Register, in the Menasha Conservator, Mar. 19, 1859. Also see the Conservator, Mar. 5, 12, 26, for evidence of other disaffection with Booth, as well the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 8, 12, 1859, for Booth’s denial of dictating to the party, and the Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 8, 1859, which admits that both the Free Democrat and the Journal were under attack from some of their editorial brethren, who were demanding that the party’s leading papers be placed in the hands of “less dictatorial and less vulnerable men.”

76. Horace Tenney to Alexander Randall, Mar. 12, 1859, Tenney Papers; C. C. Washburn to John Fox Potter, July 10, 1859, Potter Papers; Racine Weekly Journal, Feb. 11, 23, Mar. 9, June 29, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Feb. 7, 8, 17, 19, 23, 1859. Noonan was reported to be in Madison actively working on Tenney’s behalf.

77. Carl Schurz to John Fox Potter, Dec. 24, 1858, Aug. 12, 1859, Potter Papers; D. W. Clark to Horace Tenney, Aug. 22, 1859, Tenney Papers; George W. Tenney to Carl Schurz, Aug. 19, 1859, J. W. Hoyt to Schurz, Aug. 19, 1859, Schurz Papers; Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Aug. 21, 1857, Howe Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, July 14, 15, Aug. 4, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Aug. 22, 1859; Racine Weekly Journal, June 29, Aug. 13, Sept. 7, 14, 1859; Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Dec. 31, 1859. Timothy Howe, to no one’s surprise, endorsed the governor over Schurz, the states’ rights candidate. A. M. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin, 142–45; William H. Russell, “Timothy O. Howe, Stalwart Republican,” 90–99. In shoring up support among his opponents, Randall, for example, had appointed the editors of the Beaver Dam Citizen and the Manitowoc Tribune to minor offices and thereby muted their criticism. David Atwood, former editor of the State Journal, was named state librarian; William Watson, King’s assistant at the Sentinel, was Randall’s personal secretary; and Harrison Reed, to the wonder of many, had taken over the editorship of the State Journal. After the election, the governor continued to pursue his strategy of consolidating his power and bringing harmony to the party when he appointed Christopher Sholes to the vacant post of secretary of state and Louis P. Harvey to a clerkship within the department.

78. For brief accounts of the trial, see Current, History of Wisconsin, 272–73; Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan, Lion of the Law, 63–64, and E. Bruce Thompson, Matthew Hale Carpenter, Webster of the West, 61–62.

79. Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Mar. 26, 1859.

80. Menasha Conservator, Apr. 9, 16, 1859. In the wake of his indictment, Booth wisely surrendered control of the Freeman to his old ally Christopher Sholes. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 26, 1859.

81. The Mineral Point Tribune, Feb. 15, 1855, published the address. Also see the Menasha Conservator, Apr. 16, 1859, and the Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 19, 1859, on Whiton’s death and Dixon’s appointment, and the Racine Advocate, Apr. 27, 1859, for the rumor that Dixon was cut in the Howe mold. For background on the assurances Randall received from Moses Davis, an ardent states’ rights man, on Dixon’s soundness, and on Davis’s denial of providing those assurances, see the Racine Advocate, Mar. 28, 1860, and the Portage City Record, Apr. 4, 1860. The Record was Davis’s home organ. Henry Tenney to Horace Tenney, Apr. 15, 1859, Tenney Papers, states to his brother that this was an “opportune” time to place Dixon on the bench, perhaps alluding to Booth’s problems and hoping to slip Dixon in while the Milwaukee editor’s political influence was declining.

82. Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 22, 29, 1859. Sholes probably received his information from Moses Davis, who may have been misled by Dixon.

83. Wisconsin Reports, 1860, Ableman v. Booth, unpaginated; Ranney, “Suffering the Agonies of their Righteousness,” 107–8.

84. Racine Advocate, Dec. 21, 1859, Jan. 25, 1860; Portage City Record, Dec. 28, 1859, Jan. 4, 1860; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Dec. 15, 1859; Kenosha Telegraph, Feb. 9, 23, 1860.

85. Portage City Record, Feb. 1, 8, 1860; Baraboo Republic, Jan. 19, 26, 1860; Kenosha Telegraph, Feb. 23, 1860; Racine Advocate, Jan. 18, 25, 1860; Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 20, 22, 27, 1860. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 14, 19, 20, 30, 31, 1860, ran a series of pieces written by different Republicans arguing the merits and drawbacks of making a nomination and taking a stand on the states’ rights question.

86. Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 2, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 2, 1860; Baraboo Republic, Mar. 1, 1860; Carl Schurz to John Fox Potter, Apr. 12, 1860, Potter Papers.

87. Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 1, 1860; Portage City Record, Mar. 7, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 2, 1860; Racine Advocate, Mar. 7, 1860. About 230 delegates attended the convention, so Dixon’s support seems to have been negligible.

88. C. L Sholes to John Fox Potter, Mar. 10, 1860, Potter Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 17, 1860; Portage City Record, Mar. 7, 21, 1860; “Republican” to the Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 19, 1860; Beloit Courier, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 17, 1860; Oconto Pioneer, Feb. 4, 1860.

89. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Apr. 8, 1860, Davis Papers; Mathilde to Fritz Anneke, July 4, 1860, Anneke Papers. The Annekes were a prominent German-born Milwaukee couple and good friends of Booth and his wife. They earlier had noted the inability of the states’ rights faction to contend with Randall and his friends without Booth to lead them. Mathilde stated simply, they did not “know what to do.” Mathilde to Fritz Anneke, Sept. 26, 1859, also in the Anneke Papers.

90. C. L. Sholes to John Fox Potter, Mar. 10, 1860, Potter Papers; Racine Advocate, Mar. 7, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 12, 1860; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 8, 1860; Portage City Record, Feb. 1, 1860. Horace Tenney, still smarting from the attacks of Booth and the “state rights party,” was the most prominent Republican named in the petition to Dixon urging him to run, along with the former Know Nothing Republican and member of the Republican state committee, Elisha Keyes. Keyes actively worked with Democratic leaders to get out the vote for Dixon. See George M. Paul to Elisha Keyes, Mar. 24, 1860, A. L. Hayes to Keyes, Mar. 25, 1860, Moses M. Strong to Keyes, Mar. 26, 1860, Samuel C. Bean to Keyes, Mar. 26, 1860, all in the Keyes Papers; Elisha M. Keyes to George M. Paul, Mar. 25, 1860, Paul Papers.

91. Clement’s quotation comes from his Racine Advocate, Mar. 14, 1860; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 6, 8, 1860; Kenosha Telegraph, Mar. 8, 1860; Grant County Herald, Mar. 17, 1860; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 5, 7, 1860; Henry J. Paine to John Fox Potter, Mar. 12, 1860, Potter Papers. The State Journal, unlike most party papers, urged Sloan not to reply to the demands of those seeking a public statement from him.

92. A. Scott Sloan to Elisha Keyes, Mar. 6, 1860, Keyes Papers; C. L. Sholes to John Fox Potter, Mar. 10, 1860, Potter Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 17, 1860.

93. Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 15, 17, 1860, contains Sloan’s Mar. 6 letter to his brother. Also see the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Mar. 17, 1860; Grant County Herald, Mar. 24, 1860; Racine Advocate, Mar. 21, 28, 1860. A number of Republicans, including the State Journal, were incensed with those who had coerced Sloan into making known his opinions and seeming once again to be placing the party officially in favor of states’ rights. They claimed it would only divide the party. The fact is, Sloan was in a very uncomfortable position. He probably would have lost far more states’ rights support had he not gone public, than he lost by doing so. For the attitudes of Republicans upset with the candidate’s public avowal, see S.J. Torld to Elisha Keyes, Mar. 22, 1860, J. B. Quimby to Keyes, Mar. 23, 1860, both in the Keyes Papers.

94. Dixon received four thousand more votes than Lynde and Sloan about forty-six hundred less than Paine. Probably four thousand Republican abstainers and crossover voters put Dixon over the top, but it is worth noting that the Republican masses still overwhelmingly backed Sloan and the states’ rights position.

95. Reed was accused of abandoning states’ rights shortly after he took over the editorial duties of the State Journal and, according to Charles Clement, came “under the seductive influence of public patronage.” See Clement’s Racine Advocate, Jan. 18, 25, Apr. 11, 18, 1860. Joseph Cover, in his Grant County Herald, Apr. 14, 1860, also vigorously denounced Reed and the Journal for allegedly being allied with Madison Republicans who were working against Sloan. Reed denied he had abandoned the states’ rights position, but he urged that the looming race for the presidency take precedence over all else. For that reason, he thought it was unwise to push the states’ rights position, “Regardless of the consequences to the unity and success of the Republican party.” Republicans like Reed and Rufus King seemed to believe it far more likely that Howe and his backers would bolt the party if they continued to suffer “proscription” at the hands of the Republican majority and the states’ rights leadership than that the states’ righters would abandon the Republican party. Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 27, Feb. 17, Apr. 5, 10, 11, 1860. King too had begun to tone down his position on states’ rights. See the Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 27, 1860. Carl Schurz, who was beginning to moderate his states’ rights position, like Reed, blamed the states’ righters for Sloan’s defeat; see Schurz to John Fox Potter, Apr. 12, 1860, Potter Papers. For the suggestion that Schurz, who “dabbles in fashionable politics,” was beginning to trim on states’ rights, on “orders from his chief,” William H. Seward, see Mathilde to Fritz Anneke, Mar. 31, July 4, 1860, in the Anneke Papers. Charles Durkee to Moses M. Davis, Apr. 11, 1860, Davis Papers; and Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Apr. 8, 1860, Potter Papers, for the despondency of states’ righters.

TWELVE The End of the Antislavery Question Has Arrived

1. Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 3, 1860, for an early statement of support for Seward, and May 22, 1860, for King’s postconvention comments; Potter, Impending Crisis, 418–30; Current, History of Wisconsin, 282–83; Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 2:229–60. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 358–64, provides a useful and more balanced analysis of the notion that the Republicans took a more distinctly conservative stance on slavery in 1860. Mark W. Summers, The Plundering Generation: Corruption and the Crisis of the Union, 1849–1861, 269–80; David A. Meerse, “Buchanan, Corruption and the Election of 1860,” Civil War History, 116–31.

2. Major Keyes [?—illegible, probably Elisha’s brother] to Elisha Keyes, Oct. 14, 1860, Keyes Papers; Frank, Diary, Oct. 24, 1860, Frank Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, July 12, 1860, for some evidence of Republican enthusiasm in Wisconsin. Also see Potter, Impending Crisis, 434–36; Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln 2:298–305.

3. Current, History of Wisconsin, 281, 285–86; Potter, Impending Crisis, 407–16, 440–41; Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln 2:290–98. A fourth candidate, John Bell of Tennessee, was put forward by an “Old Gentlemen’s Party,” comprised primarily of alarmed conservatives, most of whom had Whig antecedents, in support of the Constitution and the Union. Neither Bell’s nor Breckinridge’s candidacy was a factor in the Wisconsin race, the latter ultimately picking up 889 votes, the former 151.

4. For analyses of the South on the eve of the war, see J. Mills Thornton III, Power and Politics in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800—1860; Steven A. Channing, Crisis of Fear; Secession in South Carolina; William L. Barney, The Secessionist Impulse: Alabama and Mississippi in 1860; Potter, Impending Crisis, 430–32; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 219–59; Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 343, 364–65.

5. By contrast, Frémont’s support from previous nonvoters was probably around 45 percent.

6. See Nevins, Emergence of Lincoln 2:298–306, for a critique of Republican complacency on the danger the nation faced.

7. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, 361–64.

8. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 23, 1858, and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 10, 1858, provide two Republican responses to the disunion cry during the Lecompton crisis. Chapter eight discusses Wisconsin Republican Unionism in greater detail.

9. Main, Diary, Oct. 20, Nov. 2, 4, 24, 25, Dec. 2, 1859, Main Papers; Cheever, Diary, Dec. 3, 1859, Cheever Papers; Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 24, 1859; Monroe Sentinel, Oct. 26, Dec. 7, 1859; Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 1, 1859; Racine Advocate, Dec. 7, 1859; Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 2, 1859. The Democrats, of course, were outraged at Brown’s raid and called it “the inevitable tendency of Republican teachings.” Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Oct. 22, 1859. For the reflections of one prominent Democrat, see Smith, Diary, Oct. 19, Nov. 16, 17, Dec. 2, 1859, Smith Papers.

10. Timothy Howe to Horace Rublee, Oct. 26, Dec. 5, 1859, Howe Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 31, Dec. 2, 1859; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Oct. 20, 1859.

11. These sentiments were adopted at a radical meeting in Milwaukee, attended by the German Republicans Gregor Menzel and Bernard Domschke, as well as Edward Holton, Charles Sholes, and James H. Paine, all prominent party men. The Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 3, 1859, contains the resolutions adopted at that meeting. Also see the Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 24, 1859, the Monroe Sentinel, Dec. 7, 1859, and the Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Oct. 25, 1859. An alarmed John Tweedy warned radicals not to misrepresent the Republican position on Brown with avowals of support. The Sentinel printed Tweedy’s concerns on December 7, 1859.

12. Racine Advocate, Dec. 7, 1859; Kenosha Telegraph, Dec. 1, 1859.

13. Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 28, Dec. 3, 1859, Feb. 3, 1860; Wisconsin Daily Free Democrat, Nov. 10, 14, 1859; Prescott Transcript, Jan. 21, 1860.

14. Wisconsin State Journal, July 27, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 28, 1859, Aug. 9, Nov. 6, 1860.

15. Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 20, 1860; Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 22, 1860.

16. Christopher Sholes to John Fox Potter, Nov. 18, Dec. 27, 1860, Feb. 6, 1861, Edwin Palmer to Potter, Feb. 11, 1861, Jared Thompson to Potter, undated, probably late 1860, Potter Papers; Henry to James Doolittle, Nov. 28, 1860, Doolittle Papers; Jerome R. Brigham to John Fox Potter, Dec. 8, 1860, Jerome R. Brigham Papers; Main, Diary, Nov. 9, 1860, Main Papers; Baraboo Republic, Nov. 15, 1860; Portage City Record, Feb. 13, 1861.

17. Stampp, “Concept of a Perpetual Union,” 4–36, rightly notes that the principle of states’ rights battled for supremacy with the concept of absolute unionism from the earliest days of the Republic up to the outbreak of the Civil War.

18. Special Message of Governor Alexander Randall, May 15, 1861, Messages of the Governors of Wisconsin, 1861, 7–8. For other examples of growing Republican willingness to accept force to preserve the Union, see the Kenosha Telegraph, Nov. 22, 1860, Feb. 7, 1861; Baraboo Republic, Apr. 11, 1861; Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 5, 6, 1861.

19. Bestor, “State Sovereignty and Slavery,” 136–40; Belz, A New Birth of Freedom, 113–82.

20. George M. Dennison, The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831–1861 (Lexington, 1976), 6–8, 195–205, takes a similar stand.

21. Baraboo Republic, Mar. 8, 22, 1860.

22. Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 20, 1860; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 23, 1860.

23. Racine Weekly Journal, Oct. 31, 1860. Sewell, Ballots For Freedom, most effectively makes the argument for the continuity between Liberty party policies and later political abolitionists.

24. The Milwaukee Sentinel, June 15, Nov. 6, 1860, contains excellent editorials on the Republican perception of the degree to which slavery suffused every aspect of American life and threatened its future development.

25. Stampp, “Race, Slavery and the Republican Party,” 122–23.

26. Joel Silbey, “The Surge of Republican Power: Partisan Antipathy, American Social Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War,” for a discussion of New England cultural values and politics.

27. Joseph Trotter Mills, Diary, Sept. [?,] 1861, Joseph Trotter Mills Papers.

28. Moses M. Davis to John Fox Potter, Dec. 17, 1860, Davis Papers; E. M. MacGraw to John Fox Potter, May 5, 1861, Potter Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 7, Oct. 15, 1861; Racine Advocate, July 24, Oct. 23, Nov. 13, 1861; Racine Daily Journal, June 5, July 3, 19, 1861; Kenosha Telegraph, Apr. 25, July 18, 1861; Benjamin Piper to the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal, Jan. 3, 1862; Mineral Point Tribune, May 7, Aug. 2, 1861; Baraboo Republic, Feb. 28, Apr. 25, Nov. 13, 1861; Prescott Transcript, May 18, 1861; Grant County Herald, May 9, June 20, 23, 1861.

29. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 27, Oct. 15, Nov. 26, 1861; Wisconsin State Journal, May 4, Sept. 2, 1861; Mineral Point Tribune, May 21, 1862; Kenosha Telegraph, June 20, Aug. 1, 1861; for Republican support of the Lincoln administration. James Prince to John Fox Potter, Jan. 1, 1862, Peter Yates to Potter, Mar. 15, 1862, John Lockwood to Potter, Apr. 17, 1862, Charles Durkee to Potter, Apr. 22, 1862, Marshall M. Strong to Potter, June 10, 1862, all in the Potter Papers, calling for a more aggressive administration position toward slavery. Also see Timothy to Grace Howe, Dec. 13, 1861, for a similar expression. For a Democratic perspective, see George B. Smith, Diary, Oct. 7, 1861, July 25, 1862, Sept. 26, 28, 1862, in the Smith Papers and Donald E. Rasmussen, “Wisconsin Editors and the Civil War: A Study of the Reaction of Wisconsin Editors to the Major Controversial Issues of the Civil War,” 52–83.

30. Willet S. Main, Diary, May 19, 1865; also see the entries on Sept. 26, Dec. 31, 1862; Michael Frank, Diary, Dec. 31, 1862, Frank Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 2, 8, 1862.

31. See McManus, “Wisconsin Republicans and Negro Suffrage,” 36–54, for a more detailed discussion of Republican racial attitudes in Wisconsin.

32. John O. Holzhueter, “Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found,” 179–84.

33. Main, Diary, Mar. 31, 1870, Main Papers.