26

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION IN BALTIMORE.

self. Mr. Cushing, again in the chair, refused to make any decision, and referred the whole matter to the Convention. It was claimed, that the seceding delegates had a right to re-enter the Convention if they chose to do so. This right was denied, and the language of the resolution respecting the adjournment at Charleston, by which the States represented by the seceders were called upon to "fill vacancies," was referred to as an expression of the Convention, if fairly interpreted, against the right of the seceders to return.

June 21, 1860.

It was proposed, also, that no delegate should be admitted to a seat, unless he would pledge himself to abide by the action of a majority of the Convention, and support its nominations. Debate speedily ensued. It was hot and acrimonious during, at least, six hours on that first day of the session; and in the evening there were two mass meetings of the Democracy in the streets of Baltimore, at which vehement speeches were heard for three hours, by tens of thousands of people, citizens and strangers.

On the following morning, the subject of contesting delegations was referred to the committee on credentials. They could not agree; and on the fourth day of the session" two reports were submitted, the majority report recommending the admission of Douglas delegates (in place of seceders) from Louisiana and Alabama, and parts of the delegations from other States. The minority report was against the admission of the new delegates. These reports were discussed with great warmth, which sometimes reached the point of fierce personal quarrels. The proslavery men gave free scope to the expression of their opinions and feelings; and one of them, a mercantile dealer in slaves, from Georgia, named Gaulden, advocated the reopening of the Slave-trade, and thought he should live to see the day when the doctrines which he advocated would be "the doctrines of Massachusetts and of the North." He spoke in language shocking to every right-minded man; yet, while he disgusted a great majority of his hearers, he elicited the applause of many.

Finally, on Friday, the 22d, the majority report was adopted, and the places of most of the seceders were filled by Douglas men. Again there was rebellion against the fairly expressed will of the majority. The whole or a part of the delegations from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, California, Delaware, and Missouri, withdrew. That night was a gloomy one for those who earnestly desired the unity of the Democratic party. On the following morning, their hopes were utterly blasted when Mr. Cushing, the President of the Convention, and a majority of the Massachusetts delegation, also withdrew. "We put our withdrawal before you," said Mr. Butler, of that delegation, "upon the simple ground, among others, that there has been a withdrawal, in part, of a majority of the States, and, further (and that, perhaps, more personal to myself), upon the ground that

NOMINATION OF DOUGLAS.

27

I will not sit in a Convention where the African Slave-trade-which is piracy by the laws of my country-is approvingly advocated."

On the retirement of Mr. Cushing, Governor David Tod, of Ohio, one of the vice-presidents, took the chair, and the Convention proceeded to ballot for a Presidential candidate. A considerable number of Southern delegates, who were satisfied with the Cincinnati platform, remained in the Convention, and, as their respective States were called, some of them made brief speeches. One of these was Mr. Flournoy, of Arkansas, the temporary Chairman of the Convention at Charleston. "I am a Southern man," he said, "born and reared amid the institution of Slavery. I first learned to whirl the top and bounce the ball with the young African. Everything I own on earth is the result of slave-labor. The bread that feeds my wife and little ones is produced by the labor of slaves. They live on my plantation with every feeling of kindness, as between master and slave. Sir, if I could see that there is anything intended in our platform unfriendly to the institution of Slavery-if I could see that we did not get every constitutional right we are entitled to, I would be the last on earth to submit in this Union; I would myself apply the torch to the magazine, and blow it into atoms, before I would submit to wrong. But I feel that in the doctrines of nonintervention and popular sovereignty is enough to protect the interests of the South."

This speech had a powerful effect upon delegates from the Free-labor States, in favor of Mr. Douglas; and of one hundred and ninety-four and a half votes cast, on the second ballot, he received one hundred and eightyone and a half, when he was declared duly nominated for the Presidency. James Fitzpatrick, of Alabama,

was nominated for Vice-president. Two days afterward, Fitzpatrick declined the nomination, when the National Committee substituted Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia. On the evening of the 23d, the Convention made a final adjourn

ment.

The seceders, new and old, assembled at noon on Saturday, the 23d, in the Maryland Institute Hall, situate on Baltimore Street and Marsh Market Space, a room more than three hundred feet in length and seventy in breadth, with a gallery extending entirely around. It was capable of seating five thousand people; and it was almost full when the Convention was permanently organized by the appointment of Mr. Cushing to preside. That gentleman was greeted, when he ascended the platform,

1 The National Committee assembled at the National Hotel, in Washington City, on the 25th of June. In it all the States were represented, excepting Delaware, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Oregon.

28

SECEDERS' CONVENTION.-BRECKINRIDGE NOMINATED.

with the most vociferous applause, and other demonstrations of satisfaction. On taking the chair, he declared that the body then assembled formed the true National Democratic Convention, composed, as it was, of delegates duly accredited thereto from more than twenty States. The Convention then proceeded to business with the greatest harmony. They resolved, that the delegates to the Richmond Convention should be requested to unite with their brethren of the National Democratic Convention, then assembled, on the same platform of principles with themselves, if they felt authorized to do so. They took seats accordingly. Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, offered the majority report, which he had submitted in Convention at Charleston, and it was adopted without dissent, as the platform of principles of the sitting Convention, and of the party it represented.

After some further business, the Convention proceeded to the nomination of candidates for the Presidency and Vice-presidency, when George B. Loring, of Massachusetts, arose and said: "We have seen the statesmen of Mississippi coming into our own borders and fearlessly defending their principles, ay, and bringing the sectionalism of the North at their feet by their gallantry. We have admiration for this courage, and I trust to live by it and be governed by it. Among all these men to whom we have been led to listen, and whom we admire and respect, there is one standing pre-eminently before this country-a young and gallant son of the South." He then named John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, as a nominee for the Presidency." Vehement applause followed. A vote by States was taken, and Breckinridge received eighty-one ballots against twenty-four for Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York. The latter candidate was withdrawn, and the nomination of Breckinridge was declared. Joseph Lane, of Oregon, was nominated for the Vice-presidency; and after a session of only a few hours, the business was ended and the Convention adjourned." The South Carolina delegation, who remained in Richmond, formally assembled at Metropolitan Hall on the 21st, according to appointment, and adjourned from day to day until the evening of the 26th, when Mr. Yancey and many others arrived from Baltimore. The Convention then organized for business, which was soon dispatched. The platform and candidates offered to the party by the seceders' Convention at Baltimore were adopted by unanimous vote, with great cheering by the delegates and the crowd who filled the galleries. Then the Convention adjourned.

• June 23, 1860.

So ended the Conventions of the divided Democratic party, in the early

One of these was Jefferson Davis. In a speech in Faneuil Hall, on the 11th of October, 1858, while de nouncing the Abolitionists as disunionists, he said, pointing to the portraits of the elder Adams and others, on the walls: If those voices, which breathed the first instincts into the Colony of Massachusetts, and into the other colonies of the United States, to proclaim community-independence-and to assert it against the powerful mother country; if those voices live here still, how must they feel who come here to preach treason to the Constitution, and assail the Union it ordained and established? It would seem that their criminal hearts would fear that those voices, so long slumbering, would break their silence; that those forms which look down from these walls, behind and around, would come forth, to drive from this sacred temple these fanatical men-who deserve it more than did the changers of money and those who sold doves in the temple of the living God." At that very time, that bold, bad man was doubtless plotting "treason to the Constitution," and preparing to "assail the Union it ordained and established "-a proper subject for his own denunciations.

2 Mr. Breckinridge was then Vice-president of the United States under President Buchanan, and subsequent events show that he was a co-worker with Davis and others against the Government. He joined the insurgents, and, during a portion of the civil war that ensued, he was the so-called "Secretary of War" of Jefferson Davis,

IONAL

THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL UNION CONVENTION.

29

summer-time of 1860. The respective friends of the opposing candidates of that party (STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS and JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE) went into the canvass with great bitterness of feeling, such as family quarrels usually exhibit.

"May 9, 1860.

Six days after the adjournment of the Democratic Conventions at Charleston, representatives of a new political organization, not more than six months old, met in Convention at Baltimore." They styled themselves the National Constitutional Union Party, composed almost wholly of members of the old Whig party and a waning organization known as the American, or Know-nothing party. They assembled in the First Presbyterian Meeting-house (known as the Two-steeple Church), on Fayette Street, between Calvert

and North Streets, which has since been demolished, and its place occupied by the United States Courthouse. Its interior was well decorated with National emblems. Back of the president's chair was a full-length portrait of Washington, with large American flags, over which hovered an eagle; and the galleries, which were crowded with spectators, were festooned with numerous Union banners.

The venerable John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, Chairman of the National Constitutional Union Committee, called the Convention to order, and on his nomination, Washington Hunt, once Governor of the State of New York, and distinguished for talent, culture, and great urbanity of manner, was chosen temporary president of the Convention. Credentials of delegates were called for, when it was found that almost one-third of all the States were unrepresented.'

Toward evening, after a recess, Governor Hunt was elected permanent President. When the subject of a platform was proposed, Leslie Coombs, of Kentucky, an ardent follower and admirer of Henry Clay, took the floor, and put the Convention in the best of humor by a characteristic little speech. He declared that he had constructed three platforms: one for the "harmonious Democracy, who had agreed so beautifully, at Charleston ;" another for the Republicans, about to assemble at Chicago; and a third for the party then around him. For the first, he proposed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, which seemed to give license for the secession

The States not represented were California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin-eleven in all.

30

NOMINATION OF JOHN BELL.-THE PLATFORM.

of States, and disunion; for the second, the Blue-Laws of Connecticut; and for the third, the Constitution of the United States-"the Constitution as it is, and the Union under it, now and forever." The last sentence touched a

66

sympathetic chord in the Convention, of marvelous sensitiveness. The suggestion was received with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of delight; and on the second day of the session, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Chairman of the Committee on Platform, reported resolutions, which repudiated all creeds formed for a temporary purpose, as calculated to mislead and deceive the people," and recommended, as a foundation for the party to plant itself upon in the coming contest, that which was defined by the words:-THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNTRY, THE UNION OF THE STATES, AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS. This platform was adopted unanimously. The Convention now proceeded to vote for candidates for the offices of President and Vice-president, when two hundred and fifty-four votes were cast; and on the second ballot, John Bell, of Tennessee, an eminent politician, then past sixty-three years of age, was nominated for the Presidency.' The renowned scholar, statesman, and diplomat, the late Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, was selected for the office of Vice-president. In the canvass that followed, the adherents of these gentlemen were popularly known as the Bell-Everett party.

WASHINGTON HUNT.

The greatest harmony prevailed in this Convention. Not a word was said about "Americanism," or other old party issues, nor was there a whisper on the subject of Slavery, excepting an ejaculation of Neil S. Brown, of Tennessee, who thanked God that he had at last found a Convention in which the "nigger" was not the sole subject of consideration. The great topic for speech was the Constitution, which they thought would be imperiled by the election of either Douglas, Breckinridge, or the nominee of the Republican party, whoever he might be. The Convention adjourned on the second day of the session, and that night a ratification meeting was held in Monument Square, in Baltimore, whereat speakers and musicians were abundant. The spacious platform, erected in the Square, was spanned by an immense arch, on which were inscribed the words "THE UNION, THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS."

Six days after the adjournment of the National Constitutional Union Convention, the representatives of the Republican party assembled in large numbers at Chicago, Illinois-a city of more than one hundred thousand souls, on the verge of a prairie on the western shore of Lake Michigan, where, in 1830, there was only a small fort, and a few scattered houses of traders—a city

1 When the Rebellion broke out, in the spring of 1861, Mr. Bell was one of the earliest, if not the very first. of the professed Unionists of distinction who joined the enemies of his country in their attempt to overthrow the Constitution and destroy the nationality of the Republic.