afterwards marching on Lawrence, the chief town
of the territory. The Free-soilers, however,
assembled there in unexpected numbers,
threw up entrenchments, and, being apparently
prepared to offer strong resistance,
the no-slavery army, after threatening the
town for a week, and plundering every
traveller who attempted to pass their camp,
suddenly raised their siege, and returned to
Missouri.

President Pierce soon afterwards,
pretending to recognise the authority of the
invaders' legislature, ordered the army of the
United States to assist in enforcing its laws.
At the same time large bodies of armed men
from South Carolina and other parts of the
slave states hastened to the assistance of their
friends, the Border ruffians of Missouri, who,
under pretence of suppressing a rebellion,
plundered and burned settlements of the
Free-soilers; and, according to the last
accounts, guerrilla bands had possession of
all the more settled parts of the territory;
the free state men generally being unwilling
to oppose to them an organised resistance,
lest they should seem to be fighting against
the army of the Confederation.

Under these circumstances the usual
national party conventions preliminary to the
Presidential campaign, which is to terminate
at the election in November next, have lately
met to arrange their platforms and nominate
their candidates.

At the American, or Know-Nothing Convention,
which first assembled at Philadelphia,
it was found that the delegates were
very much more interested in the slavery
question than in that of the repeal of the
naturalisation laws, which was the avowed
purpose of their proposed organisation as a
distinct national party. The Southerners
present could not be associated in any party,
a prominent object of which was not the
extension of slavery. They insisted that
resolutions expressing submission to the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise should be
introduced into their platform. Gaining a
sufficient number of votes from the north, and
being themselves unanimous, they carried
their point. A large part of the northern
members of the Convention including the
whole delegations from most of the northern
states, considering this course to have been
unjust as well as impolitic, withdrew from
the convention, and have since formed a
Northern American party, which has also
had its convention at New York, adopted a
platform, and nominated candidates. The
candidate of the slavery Americans is Mr.
Ex-president, Fillmore; that of the free soil
Americans, Mr. Banks, the present Speaker
of the House of Representatives. As neither
of these gentlemen has the smallest chance
of being elected, it is probable that both
will decline the nomination; and the votes
of their friends will be given for the
candidates of the two parties expressly
representing the two sides of the slavery
question.*

* Since this was written, Mr. Banks has declined, as I
anticipated.

Next assembled the convention of the
administration, or democratic party, at Cincinnati.
A strong personal objection to Mr. Pierce
himself was here exhibited, and the nomination
of Mr. Buchanan was made to the
succession; but the great act of Mr. Pierce's
administration was fully endorsed, and every
demand of the slave-holding interest was
yielded to in the construction of the platform
apparently without hesitation or reserve.
Under the circumstances, the long series of
resolutions adopted mean that, rather than
surrender the administrative control of the
country to their opponents, the democratic
party will adopt slavery as a national institution,
and will sacrifice every other interest
to increase its security, profit, and permanence.

It is evident that the leaders of the party
felt confident of their ability to carry the state
of Pennsylvania, the native state of Mr.
Buchanan, from his personal popularity among its
citizens, and doubted if they could, by any
conciliatory course, succeed anywhere else at the
north. Seeing the necessity of securing the
undivided vote of the south, they therefore
determined to outbid the South American
party, and contrived to do so by affirming
that slavery could exist, and was entitled to
the national protection, wheresoever it was
not already forbidden by positive enactments.

Mr. Buchanan, though originally opposed
to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, has publicly
accepted the nomination, and avowed
submission to the purposes expressed in the
platform of resolutions, and his willingness,
in case he should be elected, to be guided in
the administration of government by them.

Lastly, the Republican, or Opposition
party, has had its convention at Philadelphia,
and has nominated Col. Fremont as its
candidate for the presidency. Col. Fremont
was born in a slave state, but is the son of
a non-slaveholder; and is said to have had a
bitter private experience of the evils of
slavery. It was chiefly owing to his great
personal influence that the people of
California persistently refused to allow their
community to be saddled with slavery, and
insisted, against the entreaties and threats
of those who wished to have this advantage
of their unparalleled labour-market, on
entering the Union as a free state or not at all.

The platform of the republican party may
be condensed into three sentences. First,
they want Congress to rule the territories
and to exclude slavery therefrom; second,
they want the restoration of the Missouri
compromise; third, they want to respect the
rights of other nations. On the other hand,
the Cincinnati platform takes a different
ground: the Democrats want—first, Congress