Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1853-1860.] PRESAGES OF THE COMING CRUEL WAR.

319

destined to extinction, through the fatal influence of that
cruel war of which the presages were becoming more definite from year to year.
The attention of the reader must be directed once more to
the unedifying spectacle of party strife. The policy pursued during the administration of General Pierce resulted in
widening the breach between the North and the South. The
repeal of the Missouri Compromise was resented at the North,
and bitterly denounced as destructive of the hope of better
days, and indicating the determination of the propagandists
of slavery either to rule the whole country or to break up
the Union. This feeling was deepened by the proceedings
of the notorious Conference at Ostend, which looked to the
acquisition of Cuba, either by purchase or by force, in order
to prevent the emancipation of the blacks in that island-a
measure already projected by Spain-and to hold the island
as a fountain of supply of slaves and a market for their sale.
Then followed, in the month of May, the outrage in the
Senate House-perpetrated by Preston Brooks of South Carolina on Charles Sumner of Massachusetts-a brutal act, which
still more embittered Northern men. About that time the
Republican party came to its birth. The Whigs, as an organization, had ceased to exist, though a remnant held together under the name of "Know-nothings." But these
were soon to be absorbed by that great political power which
was destined to rule the future with an iron sway.
General Dix supported the Democratic candidates, James
Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge, in the canvass of 1856:
he did not, however, take an active part in the contest. John
C. Fremont and William L. Dayton were nominated by the
new political organization, by way of distinct menace to the
South; and Millard Fillmore and Andrew J. Donelson represented the Know- nothings. The position and views of General Dix at that particular time may be understood from some
letters which follow, and from two communications addressed
to Mr. Buchanan, the one before, the other after, his election: