ago than exists for you to gather up the scattered bones of your sons who have fallen in this struggle from one end of the country to the other, re-clothe them with flesh, fill their veins with the blood they have so generously shed, and their lungs with the same breath with which they breathed out their last prayer for their country's triumph and independence." (Governor Vance, of North Carolina, in a speech at Wilkesboro, in 1864.) 'No one, however, knows better than Abraham Lincoln that any terms he might offer the Southern people which contemplate their restoration to his bloody and brutal Government, would be rejected with scorn and execration. If, instead of devoting to death our President and military and civil officers, he had proposed to make Jefferson Davis his successor, Lee Commander-in-Chief of the Yankee armies, and our domestic institutions not only recognized at home, but readopted in the Free States, provided the South would once more enter the Yankee Union, there is not a man, woman, or child in the Confederacy who would not spit upon the proposition. We desire no companionship upon any terms with a Nation of robbers and murderers. The miscreants, whose atrocities in this war have caused the whole civilized world to shudder, must keep, henceforth, their distance. They shall not be our masters, and we would not have them for our slaves." ("The Dispatch," in discussing Mr. Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation.) 32-Q CHAPTER XXI. 1864-WAR OF THE REBELLION-NOMINATIONS-CANDI DATES-PLATFORMS-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION— THE A STREAM-THE CABINET. HE friends of the prosecution of the war, the undoubted Union men of the country, were greatly divided at the beginning of this year. Indeed, a bitter and wicked faction was organized among those who had been supporters of the Administration, and classed under the head of Republican. For a time the influence of this faction was exceedingly injurious to the national cause; more so, perhaps, than that of the "Copperheads," in effect at all times the allies of the Rebellion. This faction vehemently opposed the renomination of Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency; attacked his official acts, the policy and conduct of public affairs under him; attacked his character; and in its general course greatly disturbed the country, as well as weakened foreign confidence. "The New York Tribune" and many other Republican newspapers systematically opposed the renomination of Mr. Lincoln, although their opposition was tempered, to some extent, by a sense of the injury they were likely to render the country. But few of these men could or would ever see that they were then placing themselves side by side with the enemies of the country, of the Union, and would be so fixed and adjudged in future times. With a view of quieting or dispersing this faction, the friends of the Administration, and as it proved, the true friends of the Union, took steps to hold the nominating convention at an unusually early day. This movement met the energetic protest of the Republican malcontents who wanted more time to infect and distract public sentiment. Of course, the leaders of the anti-Lincoln or anti-Administration Republicans were mainly men who had failed in their schemes of self-advancement, or failed to have things their own way. They were disappointed aspirants for military glory; disappointed office-seekers; disappointed schemers for this and that; Abolitionists who wanted slavery crushed out at once whether it could be done or not; men of wild and unreasonable. theories; men who had asked and not received; they were of the men who always rise up in every time of calamity to disturb the common harmony, to demand what can not or should not be done, and who themselves could not do what they seemed to desire, if all possible power were given them. On the 1st of May these Republican factionists issued a call for a convention to meet in Cleveland on the last day of that month. In this call it was said: "The time has come for all independent men, jealous of their liberties and of the national greatness, to confer together and unite to resist the swelling invasion of an open, shameless, and unrestrained patronage which threatens to ingulf under its destructive wave the rights of the people, the liberty and dignity of the Nation." Several other calls for the same convention were made, and all of them were expressed in similarly foolish and untrue language, and signed by men then and ever afterwards equally undistinguished. The convention met at Cleveland, Ohio, according to the call, with fifteen States and the District of Columbia represented by self-appointed delegates. Most of them were the friends of Fremont, and a very large per cent of them were Germans. General John Cochrane, of New York, was permanent president, and on taking the chair made a very extravagant speech. John C. Fremont was nominated by acclamation as the candidate for President, and with few dissenting votes John Cochrane was chosen for the VicePresidency. A platform in keeping with the character of the convention was adopted, and both candidates accepted the "distinguished honor." General Fremont's letter of acceptance dated June 4, 1864, was marked by especial severity towards the Administration, and was a source of deep regret to many who had formerly held him, perhaps, undeservedly high. Of this letter Governor Morton, of Indiana, said : "I carried the standard of General Fremont to the best of my poor ability through the canvass of 1856, and I have since endeavored to sustain him, not only as a politician, but as a military chieftain, and never until I read this letter did I have occasion to regret what I have done. It has been read with joy by his enemies and with pain by his friends, and omitting one or two sentences, there is nothing in it that might not have been written or subscribed without inconsistency by Mr. Vallandigham." This was the general verdict. Fremont finally declined to make the race, not, as he said for the benefit of Mr. Lincoln, whom, in his greatness, he considered at that time an utter failure, but for the sake of defeating McClellan of whom he thought much worse. This was, appropriately, the end of the political and military careers of General Fremont; and it may well be doubted whether he had the necessary qualities for success either as a politician or a general; a statesman, in any high sense of the word, he was not. Not always in a practicable and safe sense was he even a "Pathfinder." At noon on Tuesday, June 7th, the Republican or Union National Convention assembled in Baltimore. Robert J. Breckinridge, the distinguished Kentucky Presbyterian clergyman, was chosen temporary president, and on taking the chair, made a long, stirring speech, in which he clearly indicated that before the convention began its work it was well known who the chief on the ticket would be; the loyal people whom the convention represented, had but one candidate, and it had assembled to execute their will. In the afternoon a permanent organization was effected, with ex-Governor William Dennison, of Ohio, as chairman. On the following morning the matter of credentials was disposed of by admitting the Radical Union dele |