A splendid band, from Fort McHenry, animated the crowded theatre with national airs, and the assemblage was graced by the presence of many ladies, who were accommodated in one of the tiers of boxes. Major-Gen. LEW. WALLACE, who is in command of the Department, and Staff, the Hon. JOHN LEE CHAPMAN, Mayor of the City, the First and Second Branches of the City Council, officers of the Army and Navy, and many other distinguished invited guests were spectators of the proceedings. The Delegates and Alternates were afforded facility of entrance by a side door, and the arrangements for their accommodation and for the officers of the Convention reflect credit on those gentlemen to whom that duty had been entrusted. The local press give especial credit to Messrs. WILMOT, MEYER, and FOREMAN, of the City Council Committee, and Mr. SAMUEL M. EVANS, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Convention. The newspaper press was numerously represented and suitably accommodated.

The President's desk was placed on an elevated platform on the stage, which had been enlarged to the extent of the parquette, which was boarded over, thus giving ample room for all the members in the discharge of their duties.

The Hon. EDWIN D. MORGAN, of N. Y., Chairman of the National Union Executive Committee, called the Convention to order at the prescribed hour, and spoke as follows:

Members of the Convention-It is a little more than eight years since it was resolved to form a national party to be conducted upon the principles and policy which had been established and maintained by those illustrious statesmen, GEORGE WASHINGTON and THOMAS JEFFERSON. A Convention was held in Philadelphia, under the shade of the trees that surrounded the Hall of Independence, and candidates-FREMONT and DAYTON—were chosen to uphold our cause. But the State of Pennsylvania gave its electoral vote to JAMES BUCHANAN, and the election of 1856 was lost.

Nothing daunted by defeat, it was immediately determined "to fight on this line," not only "all summer," [applause,] but four summers and four winters; and in 1860 the party banner was again unfurled, with the names of ABRAHAM LINCOLN [applause] and HANNIBAL HAMLIN inscribed thereon. This time it was successful, but with success came rebellion; and with rebellion of course came war; and war, terrible civil war, has continued with varying success up to nearly the period when it is necessary, under our Constitution, to prepare for another Presidential election. It is for this highly responsible purpose that you are to-day assembled. It is not my duty nor my purpose to indicate any general course of action for this Convention; but I trust I may be permitted to say that, in view of the dread realities of the past, and of what is passing at this moment-and of the fact that the bones of our soldiers lie bleaching in every State of this Union, and with the knowledge of the further fact that this has all been caused by slavery, the party of which you, gentlemen, are the delegated and honored representatives, will fall short of accomplishing its great mission, unless, among its other resolves, it shall declare for such an amendment of the Constitution as will positively prohibit African slavery in the United States. [Prolonged applause, followed by three cheers.]

In behalf of the National Committee, I now propose for temporary President of this Convention, Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky [applause], and appoint Governor Randall, of Wisconsin, and Governor King, of New York, as a committee to conduct the President pro tem to the chair.

The nomination was enthusiastically concurred in:

Dr. BRECKINRIDGE having taken the chair, amidst enthusiastic greetings, three cheers were given for the "Old War Horse of Kentucky," and he spoke as follows:

Gentlemen of the Convention-You cannot be more sensible than I am, that the part which I have to perform here to-day is merely a matter of form; and acting upon the principles of my whole life, I was inclined, when the suggestion was made to me from various quarters, that it was in the mind of many members of the Convention to confer this distinction upon me, to earnestly decline to accept; because I have never sought honors-I have neyer sought distinction. I have been a working man, and nothing else. But certain considerations led me to change my mind. [Applause.]

There is a class of men in the country, far too small for the good of the country-those men who merely by their example, by their pen, by their voice, try to do good—and all the more in perilous times-without regard to the reward that may come. It was given to many such men to understand, by the distinction conferred upon one of the humblest of their class, that they were men whom the country would cherish, and who would not be forgotten.

There is another motive relative to yourselves and to the country at large. It is good for you, it is good for every nation and every people, every State and every party, to cherish all generous impulses, to follow all noble instincts; and there are none more noble, none more generous than to purge yourselves of all self-seekers and betrayers, and to confer official distinctions, if it be only in mere forms, upon those who are worthy to be trusted, and ask nothing more. [Applause.]

Now, according to my convictions of propriety, having said this, I should say nothing more. [Cries of "go on."] But it has been intimated to me from many quarters, and in a way which I cannot disregard, that I should disappoint the wishes of my friends, and perhaps the just expectations of the Convention, if I did not as briefly, and yet as precisely as I could, say somewhat upon the great matters which have brought us here. Therefore, in a very few words, and as plainly as I can, I will endeavor to draw your attention to one and another of these great matters in which we are all engaged.

In the first place, nothing can be more plain than the fact that you are here as the representatives of a great nation-voluntary representatives chosen without forms of law, but as really representing the feelings, the principles, and, if you choose, the prejudices of the American people, as if it were written in laws and already passed by votes-for the man that you will nominate here for the Presidency of the United States, and ruler of a great people in a great crisis, is just as certain, I suppose, to become that ruler as anything under heaven is certain before it is done. [Prolonged cheering.] And, moreover, you will allow me to say, though perhaps it is hardly strictly proper that I should—but as far as I know your opinions, I suppose it is just as certain now, before you utter it, whose name you will utter, and which will be responded to from one end to the other of this nation, as it will be after it has been uttered and recorded by your Secretary. Does any man doubt that this Convention intends to say that Abraham Lincoln shall be the nominee? [Great applause] What I wish, however, to call your attention to, is the grandeur of the mission upon which you are met, and therefore the dignity and solemnity, earnestness and conscien

tiousness with which, representing one of the greatest, and certainly one of the first people of the world, you ought to discharge these duties. [Applause.]

Now, besides the nomination of President and Vice-President, in regard to which second office I will say nothing, because I know there is more or less difference of opinion among you; but, besides these nominations, you have other most solemn duties to perform. You have to organize this party thoroughly throughout the United States. You have to put it in whatever form your wisdom will suggest that will unite all your wisdom, energy and determination to gain the victory which I have already said was in our power. More than that, you have to lay down with clearness and precision the principles on which you intend to carry on this great political contest, and prosecute the war which is underneath them, and the glory of the country which lies before us if we succeed,―plainly, not in a double sense-briefly, not in a treatise, with the dignity and precision of a great people to utter, by its representatives, the political principles by which they intend to live, and for the sake of which they are willing to die. So that all men, everywhere, may understand precisely what we mean, and lay that furrow so deeply and clearly, that while every man who is worthy to associate with freemen may see it and pass over it, every man who is unworthy, may be either unable to pass it, or may be driven far from us. We want none but those who are like us to be with us. [Applause.]

Now, among these principles, if you will allow me to say it, the first and most distinct is, that we do not intend to permit this nation to be destroyed. [Applause.] We are a nation-no doubt a peculiar one-a nation formed of States, and no nation except as these States form it. And these States are no States except as they are States in that nation. They had no more right to repudiate the nation than the nation has to repudiate them. None of them had even the shadow of a right to do this, and, God helping us, we will vindicate that truth so that it shall never be disputed any more in this world. [Applause.] It is a fearful alternative that is set before us, but there are great compensations for it. Those of you who have attended to this subject know, or ought to know, that from the foundation of the present Government, before and since our present Constitution was formed, there have always been parties that had no faith in our Government. The men that formed it were doubtful of its success, and the men that opposed its formation did not desire its success. And I am bold to say, without detaining you on this subject, that, with all the outcry about our violations of the Constitution, this present living generation and this present Union party are more thoroughly devoted to that Constitution than any generation that has ever lived under it. [Applause.] While I say that, and solemnly believe it, and believe it is capable of the strongest proof, I may also add that it is a great error which is being propagated in our land, to say that our national life depends merely upon the sustaining of that Constitution. Our fathers made it, and we love it. But if it suits us to change it, we can do so. [Applause.] And when it suits us to change it, we will change it. [Applause.] If it were torn into ten thousand pieces, the nation would be as much a nation as it was before the Constitution was made-a nation always, that declared its independence as a united people, and lived as a united people until now-a nation independent of all particular institutions under which they lived, and capable. of modeling them precisely as their interests require. We ought to have it distinctly understood by friends and enemies, that while we love that instrument we will maintain it, and will, with undoubted certainty, put to death friend or foe who undertakes to trample it under foot; yet, beyond a doubt, we will reserve the right to alter it to suit ourselves from time to time and from generation to generation. [Applause.] One more idea on that subject. We have incorporated in that instrument the right of revolution, which gives us, without a doubt, the right to change it. It never existed before the American States, and, by the right to change, there is no need of rebellion, insurrection or civil war, except upon a denial of the fundamental

principles of all free governments-that the major part must rule; and there is no other method. of carrying on society, except that the will of the majority shall be the will of the whole-or that the will of the minority shall be the will of the whole. So that, in one word, to deny the principles. I have tried to state, is to make a dogmatic assertion that the only form of government that is possible with perfect liberty and acknowledged by God is a pure and absolute despotism. The principles, therefore, which I am trying to state before you are principles which, if they be not true, freedom is impossible, and no government but one of pure force can exist or ought to endure among men. But the idea which I wished to carry out, as the remedy for these troubles and sorrows, is this: Dreadful as they are, this fearful truth runs through the whole history of mankind, that, whatever else may be done to give stability to authority, whatever else may be done to give perpetuity to institutions-however wise, however glorious, practicable and just may be the philosophy of it—it has been found that the only enduring, the only imperishable cement of all free institutions, has been the blood of traitors. No goverment has ever been built upon imperishable foundations which foundations were not laid in the blood of traitors. It is a fearful truth, but we may as well avow it at once; and every blow you strike, and every rebel you kill, every battle you win, dreadful as it is to do it, you are adding, it may be, a year-it may be ten years-it may be a century-it may be ten centuries to the life of the Government and the freedom of your children. [ [Great applause.]

Now, passing over that idea-passing over many other things which it would be right for me to say, did the time serve, and were this the occasion,— let me add, you are a Union party. [Applause.] Your origin has been referred to as having occurred eight years ago. In one sense it is true. But you are far older than that. I see before me not only primitive Republicans and primitive Abolitionists, but I see also primitive Democrats and primitive Whigs— primitive Americans, and, if you will allow me to say so, I myself am here, who all my life have been in a party to myself. [Laughter and applause.] As a Union party I will follow you to the ends of the earth, and to the gates of death. [Applause.] But as an Abolition party—as a Republican party—as a Whig party-as a Democratic party-as an American party, I will not follow you one foot. [Applause.] But it is true of the mass of the American people, however you may divide and scatter, while this war lasts, while the country is in peril, while you call yourselves as you do in the call of the Convention, the Union party-you are for the preservation of the Union and the destruction of this rebellion, root and branch. And, in my judgment, one of the greatest errors that has been committed by our administration of the Federal Government-the Chief of which we are about to nominate for another term of office -one of its errors has been to believe that we have succeeded where we have not succeeded, and to act in a manner which is precisely as if we had succeeded. You will not, you cannot, succeed until you have utterly broken up the military power of these people. [Applause.]

I will not detain you upon these incidental points, one of which has been made prominent in the remarks of the excellent Chairman of the National Committee. I do not know that I would be willing to go so far as probably he would. But I cordially agree with him in this I think, considering what has been done about Slavery, taking the thing as it now stands, overlooking altogether, either in the way of condemnation or in the way of approval, any act that has brought us to the point where we are, but believing in my conscience and with all my heart, that what has brought us where we are in the matter of Slavery, is the original sin and folly of treason and Secession, because you remember that the Chicago Convention itself was understood to-day, and I believe it virtually did explicitly say, that they would not touch Slavery in the States, leaving it, therefore, altogether out of the question how we came where we are, on that particular point, we are prepared to go further than the

original Republicans themselves were prepared to go. We are prepared to demand not only that the whole territory of the United States shall not be made slave, but that the General Government of the American people shall do one of two things-and it appears to me that there is nothing else that can be done either to use the whole power of the Government, both the war power and the peace power, to put Slavery as nearly as possible back where it was— for, although that would be a fearful state of society, it is better than anarchy; or else to use the whole power of the Government, both of war and peace, and all the practical power that the people of the United States will give them, to exterminate and extinguish Slavery. [Prolonged applause.]

I

I have no hesitation in saying, for myself, that if I were a pro-slavery man, if I believed this institution was an ordinance of God, and was given to man, I would unhesitatingly join those who demand that the Government should be put back where it was. But I am not a pro-slavery man—I never was. unite myself with those who believe it is contrary to the highest interests of all men and of all Government, contrary to the spirit of the Christian religion, and incompatible with the natural rights of man. I join myself with those who say, away with it forever [applause]; and I fervently pray God that the day may come when, throughout the whole land every man may be as free as you are, and as capable of enjoying regulated liberty. [Prolonged applause.]

I will not detain you any longer. One single word you will allow me to say in behalf of the State from which I come, one of the smallest of the thousands of Israel. We know very well that our eleven votes are of no consequence in the Presidential election. We know very well that in our present unhappy condition, it is by no means certain that we are here to-day representing the party that will cast the majority of the votes in that unhappy State. I know very well that the sentiments which I am uttering will cause me great odium in the State in which I was born, which I love, where the bones of two generations of my ancestors and some of my children are, and where, very soon, I shall lay my own. I know very well that my colleagues will incur odium if they indorse what I say, and they, too, know it.. But we have put our faces toward the way in which we intend to go, and we will go in it to the end. If we are to perish, we will perish in that way. All I have to say to you is, help us if you can; if you cannot, believe in your hearts that we have died like men.

TEMPORARY SECRETARIES.

Mr. N. B. SMITHERS, of Delaware. Mr. President: In order to perfect the temporary organization, I move that the following gentlemen be appointed temporary secretaries, viz.: GEORGE A. SHAW, of Massachusetts; R. H. DUELL, of New York; Rev. M. C. BRIGGS, of California.

The question being put, the motion was agreed to.

PRAYER.

The CHAIRMAN.-It has been usual on such occasions, gentlemen, and it is most proper in itself, to have the blessing of GoD, in whom is all our hope, invoked, at this stage of the proceedings, upon our conduct, and the result of it. The Chairman of the National Committee will now introduce to you, therefore, the Rev. MCKENDREE REILEY, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who will lead us at the Throne of Grace.