For the first time in the history of the government, the South was defeated in a Presidential election where an issue affecting the slavery question was involved.

There had been grave conflicts before, sometimes followed by compromise, oftener by victory for the South.

But the election of 1860 was the culmination of a contest which was foreshadowed by the Louisiana question of 1812; which became active and angry over the admission of Missouri; which was revived by the annexation of Texas, and still further inflamed by the Mexican war; which was partially allayed by the compromises of 1850; which was precipitated for final settlement by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, by the consequent struggle for mastery in Kansas, and by the aggressive intervention of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott.

These are the events which led, often slowly, but always with directness, to the political revolution of 1860.

The contest was inevitable, and the men whose influence developed and encouraged it may charitably be regarded as the blind agents of fate.