liberty to America. Kossuth, the Hungarian revolutionist,
electrified American audiences by his appeals on behalf of the
downtrodden in Europe. Already the world was growing smaller.
America did not stop at the Pacific but crossed the ocean to
establish permanent political and commercial relations with Japan
and China.

The industries of the country were being reorganized to meet new
conditions created by recent inventions. The electric telegraph
was just coming into use, giving rise to a new era in
communication. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 was
followed by competing projects to construct railroads to the
Pacific with Chicago and St. Louis as the rival eastern
terminals. The telegraph, the railway, and the resulting
industrial development proved great nationalizing influences.
They served also to give increased emphasis to the contrast
between the industries of the free and those of the slave States.
The Census of 1850 became an effective anti-slavery argument.

The telegraph also gave new life to the public press. The
presidential campaign of 1848 was the last one in which it was
possible to carry on contradictory arguments in support of the
same candidate. If slavery could not endure the test of
untrammeled discussion when there were no means of rapid
intercommunication such as the telegraph supplied, how could it
contend against the revelations of the daily press with the new
type of reporter and interviewer which was now developed?

It is a remarkable coincidence that in the midst of the passing
of the old and the coming in of the new order there should be a