discussed were settled at the polls, and William McKinley was elected president of the United States. There is no doubt but that the National Democratic party played an important part in this campaign. It was our mission to preserve the integrity of the Democratic principles. We declared the true Democratic doctrines in the platform adopted at Indianapolis and in all our public utterances we sustained them. We received but 130,000 votes but we gave direction to a public sentiment which led to the election of Mr. McKinley. The 'slave power had reached the maximum of its strength in 1856;' and the dogma of 'free silver coined at the ratio of sixteen to one' will be banished from Democratic platforms with the defeat of Mr. Bryan.'

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Anniversary of the Bloomington Convention of 1856-Old politics

Deaths.

On May 29, 1900, I attended the forty-fourth anniversary of the Bloomington convention. It was a memorial occasion, and was held at Bloomington, Illinois, under the auspices of the "McLean County Historical Society."

The convention of 1856 amounted in fact to the first Republican state convention, but was called by those opposed to the Nebraska bill.

It was a combination of delegates from the different counties of the state and a mass meeting, for many men took part in the convention who were not delegates.

I was the president of that convention, and, upon invitation of Messrs. Geo. P. Davis and E. M. Prince, I attended the memorial meeting.

Until the suggestion of the anniversary meeting, I had no idea that death had called so many of my friends and associates. I knew that Bissell, who was nominated by the convention for governor; Hoffman, nominated for lieutenant-governor, and afterwards found to be ineligible, and was succeeded by John Wood in his candidacy ; O. M. Hatch, who was nominated for secretary of state; Jesse K. Du Bois, for auditor; James Miller, for treasurer, and Wm. H. Powell, superintendent of public instruction, were dead. I knew that Judd and Cook, Allen and Baker, elected as Anti-Nebraska Democrats, with myself, to the general assembly in 1854, and who held the balance of power in the election of a senator in 1855, no longer lived. I knew that Owen Lovejoy, John F. Farnsworth, Archibald Williams, O. H. Browning and Richard Yates had passed away. I knew that Abraham Lincoln, the principal figure of that convention, had been

assassinated, but I was not prepared for so many deaths among the delegates and those who visited the convention.

Delegates were appointed to the Republican convention, which was to be held at Philadelphia, at which John C. Fremont and Wm. M. Dayton were nominated for the presidency and vice-presidency.

As a delegate, I attended the national convention; my personal associates were: Mr. Geo. Schneider, who survives; General W. H. L. Wallace, killed at the battle of Pittsburg Landing; Dr. Arnold and Harvey C. Johns, both of whom died at their homes-Dr. Johns, within the last year.

At this memorial meeting, we called the roll of the convention of 1856, but echo answered to most of the names called.

We had with us: B. F. Shaw, Thomas J. Henderson, Dr. Wm. Jayne, James M. Ruggles, Paul Selby, and a few others; and we knew that John H. Bryant, of Princeton, still survives, burdened with age. We heard of a delegate from Pike county, who had removed to Missouri. A paper from J. L. Morrison, of Morgan, was read by his son-in-law, the son of a delegate from Pike county, Dr. Thomas Worthington; also, a paper from John G. Nicolay, who represented Pike county as a delegate, and is now a resident of Washington City. The meeting of the survivors of 1856 was devoted to the discussion of old politics. How wonderful are the changes between the political issues of that day and the present. At that time, the slave power had reached the maximum of its strength; it threatened to invade the state and territories which were declared free by the Missouri compromise act of 1820.

The convention at Bloomington adopted a platform which asserted the power of congress to prohibit slavery in the free territories, and demanded the admission of Kansas into the Union with a free constitution. Governor Reeder was there, and Mrs. Robinson, who had

suffered much in Kansas. The civil war ensued, and Mr. Lincoln had an opportunity of reversing the most emphatic saying in all his speeches, "A house divided against itself cannot stand;" and of enforcing one of his grandest utterances, "We will not divide the Union, and you shall not ;" and I, as I have said, had the honor of "driving the last nail" into the coffin of slavery in Kentucky.

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INDEX.