The withdrawal of these Southern members threw the control of the
House into the hands of the Republicans. Their realization of
their power was expressed in two measures which also passed the
Senate; Kansas was admitted--as a State with an anti-slavery
constitution; and the Morrill tariff, which they had failed to
pass the previous spring, now became law. Thus the Republicans
began redeeming their pledges to the anti-slavery men on the one
hand and to the commercial interest on the other. The time had
now arrived for the Republican nominee to proceed from
Springfield to Washington. The journey was circuitous in order
to enable Lincoln to speak at a number of places. Never before,
probably, had the Northern people felt such tense strain as at
that moment; never had they looked to an incoming President with
such anxious doubt. Would he prevent war? Or, if he could not
do that, would he be able to extricate the country--Heaven alone
knew how!--without a terrible ordeal? Since his election,
Lincoln had remained quietly at Springfield. Though he had
influenced events through letters to Congressmen, his one
conspicuous action during that winter was the defeat of the
Crittenden Compromise. The Southern President had called upon
his people to put their house in order as preparation for war.
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