me to my friend George W. Gage, of Chicago, in the month of December, 1859.

"Well, the Democratic Party is going to be divided, and we can win with almost any good candidate-Chase, of Ohio, or Abraham Lincoln, of our State," the reply.

I am not aware that Mr. Lincoln at that date had been publicly mentioned as a candidate. Not till a month later did the people of New York, New Haven, Hartford, and Boston become acquainted with him personally. The thought may have come to him that his friends might bring him forward as a candidate, but I find no evidence that he himself had made any movement towards that end.

The Democratic Party had controlled the Government for many years. It was united and powerful on that Sunday in 1854 when Stephen A. Douglas and Jefferson Davis called upon President Pierce and unfolded the plan for the introduction of slavery into Kansas and the other Territories of the Union; but it was no longer a united party. President Buchanan had done what he could to prevent Douglas from being reelected to the Senate. The Democratic Senators from the slave-holding States had degraded him from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. They knew the Democrats of the Northern States were enthusiastic for his nomination as candidate for the Presidency, and determined to prevent it.

The Democratic Convention assembled at Charleston, S. C. A majority of the delegates from the Northern States were for Douglas. He

1860.

was a popular leader. The delegates from the Slave States acApril 23, knowledged his abilities. He had rendered them great service, but they did not accept his ideas of the right of the Territories to vote slavery in or out as the people pleased. Slavery must be voted in, never out. They had no candidate for the Presidency, but were in favor of establishing a great principle: Congressional protection to slavery in the Territories and States. The Southern delegates knew that Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, agreed with them, and secured his election as president of the convention. William L. Yancey, of Alabama, assumed leadership in debate. The men who were shouting for the nomination of Douglas were astonished when they heard these sentiments fall from his lips: "The Northern Democrats are losing ground before the rising Black Republican Party because they have not stood resolutely up against the anti-slavery sentiment. Northern Democrats have admitted that slavery is wrong. They must change. There must be legislation by Congress which will protect slavery everywhere."

Senator Pugh, of Ohio, replied to him: "We have been taunted with our weakness. We have been told that we must put our hands on our mouths, and our mouths in the dust. Gentlemen of the South, you mistake us. We will not do it."

For five days the delegates wrangled over resolutions, the Southerners demanding what the Northerners would not give. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, thought to settle all differences by adopting the platform of the convention held in Cincinnati in 1856, upon which Buchanan had been elected. "That was a swindle on the Southern States!" the shout of the delegates from Mississippi. The motion was adopted by a large majority. If Mr. Butler thought such a motion would bring peace and harmony he was mistaken. The time had come for carrying out what Yancey and his fellow-conspirators had planned. The delegates from Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas rose from their seats, marched out of the room, and organized another convention.

The great and powerful Democratic Party was divided. The delegates from the cotton States-who believed the world could not get on without that product-had split the party asunder. It was the initial step of a great and far-reaching scheme to bring about the disruption of the Union. Yancey outlined it in a speech made in an Alabama convention:

"To obtain the aid of the Democracy in this contest it is necessary to make a contest in its Charleston convention. In that body Douglas's adherents will press his doctrines to a decision. If the State-rights men keep out of that convention that decision must inevitably be against the South, and that either in direct favor of the Douglas doctrine or by the indorsement of the Cincinnati platform, under which Douglas claims shelter for his principles. . . . The State-rights men should present in that convention their demands for a decision, and they will obtain an indorsement of their demands or a denial of these demands. If indorsed, we shall have a greater hope of triumph within the Union; if denied, in my opinion the State-rights wing should secede from the convention and appeal to the whole people of the South, without distinction of parties, and organize another convention upon the basis of their principles, and go into the election with a candidate nominated by it as a grand constitutional party. But in the Presidential contest a Black Republican may be elected. If this dire event should happen, in my opinion the only hope of safety for the South is in a withdrawal from the Union before he shall be inaugurated—before the sword and treasury of the Federal Government shall be placed in the keeping of that party."

The people of Charleston were wild in their enthusiasm. Cultured ladies flocked to the hall in which the seceders assembled, and waved their handkerchiefs in token of their approval. Bonfires illumined the

streets.

The rival conventions adjourned without nominating candidates for the Presidency. They were to reassemble in Baltimore in the month of May.

The Whig Party also met in Baltimore. Southern men controlled the convention. They nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice-president. Public opinion in the Northern

States regarded Everett as the greater statesman. One editor called it the

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Kangaroo" ticket, as its hind legs were longest. I was present as a journalist, and noticed that the antagonism of the delegates from the Southern States was very much more intense against the Republican Party than against either wing of the Democratic Party.

At the Capitol (Washington) Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; Robert

Toombs, of Georgia;

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.

John M. Mason, of Virginia; and Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, were crowding Douglas to the wall. Like a stag at bay he confronted them, manifesting marvellous power and boldness in debate. Better than any other Northern Senator he understood their purpose. He had been deep in their counsels. He was experiencing the implacable hate of the slave oligarchy towards one whom they could not control. The Republican Senators had little sympathy for Douglas. They took no part in the debate. I was sitting on a sofa in the Senate-chamber with Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, when Senator Seward entered.

"He is to be our next President. He feels it; you can see it in his actions," the remark of Senator Wilson, who was regarded as one of the far-sighted politicians of the period. He knew every phase of public sentiment in the Eastern States, but he did not fully comprehend the rapid development of thought and feeling in the West.