Fremont had received a popular vote of one million three hundred and forty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, carrying eleven States and one hundred and fourteen electoral votes; while only four years before, John P. Hale, standing on substantially the same platform, had received only a little more than one hundred and fifty-seven thousand, and not a single electoral vote. This showed a marvelous anti-slavery progress, considering the age of the movement, the elements it forced into combination, and the difficulties under which it struggled into life; and no one could misinterpret its significance. CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS OF REPUBLICANISM. The Dred Scott decision--The struggle for freedom in Kansas-- Instructive debates in Congress--Republican gains in the Thirty- fifth Congress--The English bill--Its defeat and the effect-- Defection of Douglas--Its advantages and its perils--Strange course of the New-York Tribune and other Republican papers--Republican retreat in Indiana--Illinois Republicans stand firm, and hold the party to its position--Gains in the Thirty-sixth Congress--Southern barbarism and extravagance--John Brown's raid--Cuba and the slave trade--Oregon and Kansas--Aids to anti-slavery progress--The Speakership and Helper's book--Southern insolence and extravagance --Degradation of Douglas--Slave code for the Territories--Outrages in the South--Campaign of 1860--Charleston convention and division of the Democrats--Madness of the factions--Bell and Everett-- Republican National Convention and its platform--Lincoln and Seward --Canvass of Douglas--The campaign for Lincoln--Conduct of Seward --Republican concessions and slave-holding madness.