A part of the regular order of exercises at public meetings of Republicans was to express sympathy with their wounded champion and with the Kansas people of the pillaged town of Lawrence, and to adopt ways and means to bring to an end the Administration which they held responsible for these outrages.

Sumner, though silenced, was eloquent in a new and more effective way.

A half million copies of "The Crime against Kansas" were printed and circulated.

On the issue thus presented, Northern Democrats became convinced that their defeat at the pending election was certain, and their leaders instituted the change in their program which has been described in a previous chapter.

They had made an end of the war in Kansas and drew from their candidate for the Presidency the assurance that just treatment should at last be meted out to harassed Kansas.
Though Sumner's injuries were at first regarded as slight, they eventually proved to be extremely serious.