359.  “Bleeding Kansas.”—­Meantime civil war had broken out in Kansas, Slavery men attacked Lawrence, killed a few free-state settlers, and burned several buildings.  Led by John Brown, an immigrant from New York, free-state men attacked a party of slave-state men and killed five of them.  By 1857 the free-state voters had become so numerous that it was no longer possible to outvote them by bringing men from Missouri, and they chose a free-state legislature.  But the fraudulent slave-state legislature had already provided for holding a constitutional convention at Lecompton.  This convention was controlled by the slave-state men and adopted a constitution providing for slavery.  President Buchanan sent this constitution to Congress and asked to have Kansas admitted as a slave state.  But Douglas could not bear to see the wishes of the settlers of Kansas outraged.  He opposed the proposition vigorously and it was defeated.  It was not until 1861 that Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.

[Sidenote:  John Brown’s Raid, 1859. Higginson, 286-289; Source-Book, 294-296.]

[Sidenote:  He seizes Harper’s Ferry.]

[Sidenote:  His execution, 1859.]

360.  John Brown’s Raid, 1859.—­While in Kansas John Brown had conceived a bold plan.  It was to seize a strong place in the mountains of the South, and there protect any slaves who should run away from their masters.  In this way he expected to break slavery in pieces within two years.  With only nineteen men he seized Harper’s Ferry, in Virginia, and secured the United States arsenal at that place.  But he and most of his men were immediately captured.  He was executed by the Virginian authorities as a traitor and murderer.  The Republican leaders denounced his act as “the gravest of crimes.”  But the Southern leaders were convinced that now the time had come to secede from the Union and to establish a Southern Confederacy.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

CHAPTER 31

Sec. 323.—­a.  Why were the people of South Carolina so opposed to any limitation of slavery?  How did they show their opposition?

b.  Had slavery disappeared in the North because people thought that it was wrong?

Sec.Sec. 324, 325.—­a.  What suggestions were made by some in the North for the ending of slavery?  What do you think of these suggestions?

b.  For what did Garrison contend, and how did he make his views known?  Why were these views opposed in the North?

Sec. 326.—­a.  Why were the Southerners so alarmed by Nat Turner’s Rebellion?

b.  What power had Congress over the mails?  How would you have voted on this question?

Sec.Sec. 327, 328.—­a.  Why is the right of petition so important?  How is this right secured to citizens of the United States?