CHAP. II.

DISRUPTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

1413

of the minority was evoked, and they resolved that the limit of concession was reached, and that they would yield no further. That minority, composed wholly of delegates from the free-labor States, and representing a majority of the Presidential electors (172 against 127), offered to adopt the "Cincinnati Platform," and a resolution expressing a willingness to abide by any decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on questions of Constitutional law. They also offered to adopt another resolution, denouncing the laws passed by Northern legislatures in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act. Mr. Butler opposed making even these concessions to their arrogant demands. The consequence was, the committee went into the Convention with three reports-a majority and minority report, and a report from Mr. Butler.

The debate upon these reports was opened by the chairman of the majority committee (Mr. Avery of North Carolina), who assured the Convention that if the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty should be adopted as the doctrine of the Democratic party, the members of the Convention from the slave-labor States and their constituents, would consider it as dangerous and subversive of their rights, as the adoption of the principle of Congressional interference or prohibition. The debate continued until the 29th (April, 1860), and on the morning of the 30th the vote was taken in the presence of an immense audience with which the hall was packed. Mr. Butler's report was first acted upon, and rejected. Then the minority report was presented by Mr. Samuels of Iowa, and adopted by a decided majority. Preconcerted rebellion immediately lifted its head, and the delegates from Alabama, led by L. Pope Walker (afterward the Confederate Secretary of War), seceded and left the Convention. This secession was followed by delegates from the other slave-labor States, and they all reassembled at St. Andrew's Hall to prepare for an independent political organization. The disruption of the Democratic party represented in the Convention was now complete. The slavery question had split it beyond hope of restoration; an event which had been provided for, in secret, by the politicians. When D. G. Glenn, of the Mississippi delegation, announced the secession of the representatives from that State, he said: "I tell Southern members, and, for them, I tell the North, that in less than sixty days you will find a united South standing side by side with us." These utterances called forth long and vehement cheering, especially from the South Carolinians; and that night Charleston was the theatre of great rejoicings, for the leaders there comprehended the significance of the movement.

On the following day, the seceders, with James A. Bayard of Delaware at their head, organized what they called a "Constitutional Convention;"

sneered at the body they had left, as a "Rump Convention," and on the 3d of May adjourned to meet in Richmond, Virginia, in June. The regular Convention also adjourned, without making a nomination, to meet at Baltimore on the 18th of June.

The seceders reassembled in Richmond on the 11th of June. Robert Toombs and other Congressmen had issued an address from Washington city, urging the Richmond Convention to refrain from all important action there, but to adjourn to Baltimore, and there re-enter the Convention from which they had withdrawn, and, if possible, defeat the nomination of Mr. Douglas. This high-handed measure was resorted to; and when the Richmond Convention adjourned, most of the delegates hastened to Baltimore, and claimed the right to re-enter the Convention from which they had formally withdrawn. The South Carolina delegates remained in Richmond to watch the course of events and manage the scheme.

At the appointed time the regular Convention assembled at Baltimore, with Mr. Cushing in the chair. The question arose as to the right of the seceders to re-enter the Convention. Some were favorable to their admission; others proposed to admit them provided they would pledge themselves to abide by the decision of the majority. A stirring time ensued, and the matter was referred to a committee, a majority of whom reported in favor of admitting Douglas delegates from the slave-labor States in place of the seceders. In the course of a vehement debate that ensued, a slave-trader from Georgia warmly advocated the policy of reopening the African slavetrade, and his sentiments were loudly applauded. The majority report was adopted, when a large number of delegates from the border slave-labor States withdrew. This was followed the next morning (June 23, 1860) by the withdrawal of Mr. Cushing and a majority of the Massachusetts delegation. "We put our withdrawal before you," Mr. Butler said, "upon the simple ground, among others, that there has been a withdrawal, in fact, of a majority of the States; and further (and that perhaps more personal to myself) upon the ground that I will not sit in a convention where the African slave trade, which is piracy by the laws of my country, is approvingly advocated."

Vice-President Tod, of Ohio, now took Mr. Cushing's place at the head of the Convention, which proceeded to nominate Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, for President by an almost unanimous vote. Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was afterward nominated for Vice-President. Meanwhile the seceders, young and old, had reassembled, called Mr. Cushing to the chair, denominated their body the National Democratic Convention, and proceeded to nominate John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for President, and

CHAP. II.

CANDIDATES FOR THE PRESIDENCY.

1415

Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice-President. A recent political organization calling themselves the "National Constitutional Party" had already nominated (May 9, 1860) John Bell of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice-President. A week later (May 16) a vast concourse of Republicans assembled in an immense building erected for the purpose in Chicago, and called the "Wigwam," nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President, and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for VicePresident.

By a series of resolutions, the Republican Convention took a position in direct antagonism to the avowed principles of the friends of the slave-system and the extra-judicial opinion of

Chief-Justice Taney. They declared that each State had absolute control over its own domestic affairs; that the new political dogma, averring that the National Constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the Territories of the Republic, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country; that the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom, and that neither Congress, nor a Territorial legislature, nor any individuals have authority to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the Union; and that the reopening of the African slave-trade, then re

cently commenced in the Southern States, as we have seen, under cover of the National flag, was a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age.

There were now four candidates for the Presidency in the field. The Democratic party was hopelessly split in twain. The Douglas wing made no positive utterances concerning the status of slavery in the Territories; and the party led by Bell and Everett, declined to express any opinions upon any subject. Their motto was-The Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws. Only the earnest and determined wing of the Democratic party led by Breckenridge, and of the

Republican party led by Lincoln, showed a really aggressive spirit born of absolute convictions. The Southern portion of the former had resolved to nationalize slavery or destroy the Union; the latter declared that there was "an irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery," and that the Republic could not exist "half slave and half free." This was the real issue; and after one of the most exciting political campaigns ever witnessed in our country, from June until November, Mr. Lincoln was elected Chief Magistrate of the United States by a large majority over the other candidates, with Mr. Hamlin as Vice-President. An analysis of the popular vote showed that three-fourths of the whole number were given to men opposed to the extension of slavery. This significant fact notified the friends of the slave-system that the days of their political domination in the councils of the nation had ended, perhaps forever, and they acted accordingly.

Such is a brief outline history of the conspiracy of Southern politicians to divide the Democratic party; give victory to the Republican party; cause the election of a "sectional President," and so afford a plausible pretext for a premeditated attempt to dissolve the Union and destroy the Republic. Thus far their schemes had worked to their satisfaction; it now remained for them to "fire the Southern heart" and produce a "solid South" in favor of emancipation from what they were pleased to call the tyranny of a "sectional party" led by a "a sectional President." This accomplished, they would be ready to raise the arm to give the fatal blow to the existence of the Republic.

The leading men who brought upon the Southern people and those of the whole country the horrors of a four-years Civil War, with all its terrible devastation of life, property and national prosperity, were few in number, but wonderfully productive of their kind. They were then, or had been, connected with the National Government, some as legislators and others as cabinet ministers. They were not so numerous at first, said Horace Maynard, a loyal Tennesseean, in a speech in Congress, "as the figures on a chess-board. There are those within reach of my voice," he said, "who also knew them, and can testify to their utter perfidy; who have been the victims of their want of principle, and whose self-respect has suffered from their insolent and overbearing demeanor. No Northern man was ever admitted to their confidence, and no Southern man unless it became necessary to keep up their numbers; and then not till he was thoroughly known by them, and known to be thoroughly corrupt. They, like a certain school of ancient philosophers, had two sets of principles or doctrines—one for outsiders and one for themselves; the one was 'Democratic principles' for the Democratic party, the other was for their own and without a name. Some

CHAP. II.

PREPARING FOR A REVOLUTION.

1417

Northern men and some Southern men were, after a fashion, petted and patronized by them, as a gentleman throws from his table a bone, or a choice. bit, to a favorite dog; and they imagined they were conferring a great favor thereby, which would be requited only by the abject servility of the dog. To hesitate, to doubt, to hold back, to stop, was to call down a storm of wrath that few men had the nerve to encounter, and still fewer the strength to withstand. Not only in political circles, but in social life, their rule was inexorable, their tyranny absolute. God be thanked for the brave men who had the courage to meet them and bid them defiance, first at Charleston in April, 1860, and then at Baltimore, in June! To them is due the credit of declaring war against this intolerable despotism.'

During the canvass in the summer and autumn of 1860, pro-slavery politicians traversed the free-labor States and disseminated their views without hindrance. Among the most daring and outspoken of these was William L. Yancey of Alabama, who was a fair type of politicians in other Southern States who, by vehemence of manner and sophistry in argument, misled the people. He was listened to with patience by the people of the North, and was treated kindly everywhere; and when he returned to the South, he labored incessantly with tongue and pen to stir up the people to rebellion, saying in substance, as he had written two years before: “Organize committees all over the Cotton States; fire the Southern heart; instruct the Southern mind; give courage to each other; and at the proper moment, by one organized, concerted action, precipitate the Cotton States into revolution."

The " proper moment" was near at hand. Mr. Lincoln was elected by a large majority over each candidate, and was chosen in accordance with the letter and spirit of the National Constitution; yet, because he received nearly a million of votes less than did all of his opponents combined, the cry was raised by the Southern politicians, that he would be a usurper when in office because he had not received a majority of the aggregate votes of the people; that his antecedents, the principles of the Republican platform, the fanaticism of his party and his own utterances, all pledged him to wage an unrelenting warfare upon the system of slavery and rights of the slavelabor States, with all the powers of the National Government at his command. They said, in effect, to the people, through public oratory, the pulpit, and the press, "Your rights and liberties are in imminent danger— 'to your tents, O Israel!""

While these alarming assertions were fearfully stirring the inhabitants of the Southern States, the politicians were rejoicing because their plans were working so admirably, and they immediately set about the execution of