ABSTRACT
The ten years from 1850 to 1860 were years of cumulative danger to the republic and to the principles of liberty and democracy upon which it was founded. For the Negro these years contained more of perils than of hopes. John Brown was hurried to the gallows, but not before an effort was made to implicate in his crime men who were prominent as Abolitionists. It has already been shown what steps were taken to capture Frederick Douglass. A Congressional committee was appointed for the purpose of thoroughly investigating the whole matter, but it accomplished nothing. The intensity of public interest in and anxiety for the future status of these new states was shown in the instant rush into Kansas from New England of colonists favourable to the cause of free soil, and from the South of colonists favourable to the cause of slavery.
