hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

STATE RIGHTS. 263
with the pony express, just established," prevented
that perfect knowledge of the situation at the centres
of political agitation which could render satisfactorily
accountable the action of either of the great parties.
Why Lincoln, then little known, should be preferred
to men of national reputation, did not at first appear.
It did not occur to them that to be too prominent
is to be in danger of destruction from the crossfire
of factions with past grievances to redress.
Although doubtful of the result, the names of Abraham
Lincoln of Illinois, and Hannibal Hamlin of
Maine, were placed before the republicans of the state
for president and vice-president. Still another presidential
ticket was in the field, that of the Americans,
or as they now called themselves, the constitutional
union party, who might more properly be named conservative
republicans, and whom the regular republicans
had at first hoped to receive in their convention;
but they met at Baltimore and nominated John Bell
of Tennessee for president, and Edward Everett of
Massachusetts for vice-president.
With regard to slavery, the republicans contended
that it could exist only by virtue of municipal law,
that no such law existed in the territories, nor any
power to enact one. Congress could not establish or
legalize slavery, and was bound to prohibit it in any
federal territory, whenever there was a necessity for
such exclusion. The Douglas democracy declared
that slavery or no slavery in any territory was optional
with the people, and neither congress, nor any other
16 In several parts of my history I have given some account of the Pony
Express. It was a private enterprise, undertaken by Russell Majors and
Co., owning the central stage line route, via Salt lake and Carson valley,
and carried a mail weekly from St Joseph to Sac, time 8 days. The first
mail received by pony arrived in Sac on the afternoon of the 13th of April,
1860, and was received with wild enthusiasm. It brought 80 letters for 8.F.
and half a dozen for Sac. Public news of importance was printed upon tissue
paper almost without weight, and by this means full reports of the political
conventions were received long before the arrival of the steamer mails. This
mail was interrupted by Indian hostilities in the Carson and Humboldt valleys
in the month of June, occasioning much discontent, but soon resumed.
The first pony mail bound east left Sac. April 4th, carrying 70 letters.