negroes were to be counted as the equivalent of three white men. The
passage, in 1854, of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the purpose of which was
to confirm the existence of slavery and to extend the institution
throughout the country, was carried in the House by thirteen votes. The
House contained at that time no less than twenty members representing
the negro population. The negroes were, therefore, in this instance
involuntarily made the instruments for strengthening the chains of their
own serfdom.

It was in 1854 that Lincoln first propounded the famous question, "Can
the nation endure half slave and half free?" This question, slightly
modified, became the keynote four years later of Lincoln's contention
against the Douglas theory of "squatter sovereignty." The organisation
of the Republican party dates from 1856. Various claims have been made
concerning the precise date and place at which were first presented the
statement of principles that constituted the final platform of the
party, and in regard to the men who were responsible for such statement.
At a meeting held as far back as July, 1854, at Jackson, Michigan, a
platform was adopted by a convention which had been brought together to
formulate opposition to any extension of slavery, and this Jackson
platform did contain the substance of the conclusions and certain of the
phrases which later were included in the Republican platform. In
January, 1856, Parke Godwin published in _Putnam's Monthly_, of which he
was political editor, an article outlining the necessary constitution of
the new party. This article gave a fuller expression than had thus far
been made of the views of the men who were later accepted as the leaders
of the Republican party. In May, 1856, Lincoln made a speech at
Bloomington, Illinois, setting forth the principles for the anti-slavery
campaign as they were understood by his group of Whigs. In this speech,
Lincoln speaks of "that perfect liberty for which our Southern