A. B. Hart's _Slavery and Abolition_ (1906), in _American Nation_ series; F. J. and W. P. Garrison's _William Lloyd Garrison: the Story of his Life Told by his Children_ (1885-89), and both McMaster and Schouler in their histories, already mentioned, give all the essential facts about the abolitionists and the Wilmot Proviso struggle. James Ford Rhodes's _History of the United States_ (from 1850 to 1877) is a work of the greatest importance, and it gives, in vol. _I_, the best account of the compromise measures of 1850. The following biographies are valuable for the period: T. W. Barnes, _Memoir of Thurlow Weed_ (1884); William Birney, _James G. Birney and his Times_ (1890); G. L. Austin, _Life and Times of Wendell Phillips_ (1887); Henry Cleveland, _Alexander Stephens in Public and Private_ (1866); W. H. Haynes, _Charles Sumner_ (1909), in _American Crises_ series; A. C. McLaughlin, _Lewis Cass_ (1891), in _American Statesmen_ series. Special for the lower South: Miss Cleo Hearon, _Mississippi and the Compromise of 1850_ (1914); W. G. Brown, _The Lower South in American History_ (1902); J. W. DuBose, _The Life of William L. Yancey_; and A. C. Cole, _The Whig Party in the South_ (1913), named in a previous note. J. D. Richardson's _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_ (1900), vol. v; H. V. Ames's _State Documents on Federal Relations_ (1907); and the _Congressional Globe_ for the 29th and 30th Congresses give the most important speeches and documents bearing on the crisis of 1850. CHAPTER X PROSPERITY Partisan opposition to Franklin Pierce had almost disappeared before the day of his inauguration in 1853. Charles Sumner, to be sure, was in the Senate, but he was a silent member, and Massachusetts inclined to follow Edward Everett rather than Sumner. William H. Seward still spoke for the anti-slavery Whigs in Congress, and Salmon P. Chase maintained a precarious hold on Ohio. There was a handful of Free-Soilers in the House of Representatives who were ready to make trouble for the new Administration, and resistance to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law now and then broke out in riots in certain neighborhoods of New England and in the Western Reserve. But the opposition was everywhere declining until Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel, _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, with its exaggerated emphasis upon the cruelties of the slavery system, began to stir the consciences of men. Even so there was no substantial evidence that any great political upheaval or party change would occur within the next fifteen or twenty years. The people were contented with their country, and the growth of the population gave evidence of a great future.