course. (Applause.) Do not understand me as wishing to dictate to my friends. I have implicit confidence in your's and their patriotism, judgment and discretion. Whatever you may do in the premises will meet my hearty approval, but I conjure you to act with an eye single to the safety and welfare of the country, and without the slightest regard to my individual interest or aggrandizement. (Applause.) My interests will be but promoted, and ambition gratified, and motives vindicated by that course on the part of my friends which will be most effectual in saving the country from being ruled or ruined by a sectional party. The action of the Charleston Convention in sustaining me by so large a majority on the Platform, and designating me as the first choice of the party for the Presidency, is all t e personal triumph I desire. This letter is prompted by the same motives which induced my despatch four years ago, withdrawing my name from the Cincinnati Convention. S. A. DOUGLAS. With this knowledge of my opinions and wishes, you and other friends must act upon your own convictions of duty. Very truly, your friend, Hon. Wм. A. RICHARDSON, Baltimore, Md. The reading of the letter was received with the most enthusiastic applause the whole Convention rising in their seats, waving their hats and cheering. Mr. RICHARDSON resumed. Mr. President, we have discharged our whole duty. Whatever may befall us in that future so uncertain, we have the proud consolation that we have discharged our duty to just political associations; we have discharged our duty to this bright heritage that our fathers have given to us; we have discharged our duty to the country so connected with the hopes of all the future; we have discharged our duty to that God who placed us here that we might advance the great interests of our fellowman. (Applause.) So anxious was my friend, the nominee of this Convention, that this should be impressed upon the minds of all his friends here that he telegraphed the gentleman from New York (Mr. Richmond) on yesterday, I believe, to the same effect. I trust that no person who knows me believes that I would be guilty of manufacturing evidence for an occasion of this sort. (Cries of "no," 'no.") I have borne this letter with me for three days, but those gentlemen who have seceded from this Convention placed it out of my power to use it. And the responsibility, therefore, is on them. I do not care it we have but ten friends in the South. In all time to come, I shall be found, so long as my heart continues to beat, striving to maintain all their constitutional rights. I have stood amid the storm of Northern fanaticism, and I understand what it is. I understand what you have to pass through in your section of the country, and appreciate your position. But in a just cause you cannot fail. We will be enabled with you to pass that crisis, and place the government where it will be so administered as to secure all the rights of all sections of the country. It is in hours of danger that true men are found, and in such hours alone. Meet this issue boldly, fearlessly, and for the right. In thirty days from this time we shall have established our ascendancy throughout the North-West, and we shall have such an organization and power then as will give us the control of that Northern empire now fast growing into such vast importance and power. Sir, we shall have a terrible conflict. I expect to traverse the State in which I live from the lakes to the Ohio river. I expect to meet everywhere my fellow-citizens; I know their temper, and I know that they will put their mark upon that man who, when our army was winning for itself the proudest laurels, declared in Congress that it was an unnecessary and an unconstitutional war. (Applause.) We in the North have one sectional party to fight, and intend to whip them. You have an equally sectional party to fight in the South, and we expect you to whip them. When the election comes on in November next, we shall carry a majority of the electoral vote of the North, and we expect you to carry a majority of the electoral vote of the South. (Applause.) I am exceedingly obliged to the Convention for the kindness and patience with which they have listened to my remsrks. Mr. CESSNA, of Pennsylvania. We were informed, upon the opening of this Convention in this city, by our late highly respected and most lamented presiding officer, that when we adjourned at Charleston there were pending three motions to reconsider, and three motions so lay those motions to reconsider on the table. I move that the question be now taken upon those motions. The motion to lay on the table the motion to reconsider the vote by which the first resolution in the minority Report of the Committee on Platform was adopted was then put and carried. The several motions to lay on the table, the several motions to reconsider the vote adopting the 3d, 4th and 5th Resolutions in the minority Report substituted for the majority Report of the Committee on Platform and Resolutions, were then put and carried, and the motions to reconsider pending before the Convention at the time of its adjournment from Charleston to Baltimore, were severally laid upon the table. RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS. Mr. SEYMOUR, of New York, offered the following resolution, which was adopted, the question being put by Vice President Elston, of Indiana : Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be presented to the Hon.' David Tod, for the dignified, impartial and courteous manner in which he has presided over this Convention. The following resolutions were also adopted : Resolved, That our thanks are due and hereby tendered to the several railroad companies which have furnished us with half fare tickets to this Convention; and especially to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, for their kind exertions with other companies to procure for us such tickets, and for the extra trains run for our accommodation; and also to the Adams Express Company, for their kindness in transmitting messages, &c., for the acommodation of delegates. Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be and are hereby tendered to R. Eaton Gondell, of Illinois, ard E. O. Perrine, of New York, principal Reading Secretaries, and to John G. Parkhurst, of Michigan, and Franklin Vansant, of Pennsylvania, principal Recording Secretaries, for the energy, fidelity and attention with which they have discharged their respective duties. Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be tendered to the Marshal of the Police of Baltimore and those acting under him for the able manner in which they discharged their duties; also, to the Sergeant at- Arms of this Convention, and those acting under him, and all the officers of the Convention, for the efficient and able manner in which they have discharged their duties. Mr. MERRICK, of Illinois, offered the following resolution: Resolved, that the thanks of this Convention be tendered to the Committee of Arrangements on the part of the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore, and for the liberal and generous arrangements provided for the accommodation of this Convention, and the uniform courtesy displayed to its members. Mr. WARWACK, of Alabama. I desire to return the thanks of Alabama to this Convention for the nomination you have made for Vice President of the United States. Alabama has her choice now for President and Vice President, and we pledge Alabama to give her electoral vote for the ticket you have this day nominated-such a vote as she has not given since she voted for Jackson in 1828. I wished, when I heard the speech of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Richardson), that I had such a friend as Judge Douglas has in him. (Applause.) In 1856 Alabama voted for Mr. Douglas eight times, and the intriguers saw that he stood next for the nomination at the end of the next four years, that he must certainly be our next President, and they resorted to every measure to break him down. But Alabama will be true to the Union and the Democratic party. We know not who may be the nominee of the seceding Convention, but let him be from the South or from the North, if he be nominated by them, the State of Alabama will cast her electoral vote for the nominees of this Convention. Mr. STUART, of Michigan. Mr. President, we shall never be able to adjourn in a better mood than we are now. I therefore propose that we adjourn, and let us go into the field where the enemy are and conquer them in a hand-to-hand fight. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT'S ADIEU. The PRESIDent. Before putting the motion, the Chair must not forget to say how profoundly grateful he feels for the vote of thanks so generously tendered to him for his conduct in presiding over your deliberations. Called, for the first time, to preside over some six hundred gentlemen, the Chair announced to you in the beginning that he never could succeed in preserving order, unless he had the help and support of every member. He is proud to say now that he was not disappointed in that expectation. One word more. The victory in this contest, fellow Democrats, is in our hands. We have only to continue firmly, nationally, sternly, fairly, honorably in the discharge of our duties, as we have done since we met at Charleston, to crown our efforts with entire success. Wishing you all a safe return to your homes, to your wives and children, and God grant that you may all have them at home waiting for you. After putting the motion to adjourn, The PRESIDENT said, I now declare this Convention adjourned, and bid you adieu. The following is a statement of the number of Presidential electors to which each State is entitled, viz: States. 15 Tennessee States. States. 8 Virginia. 12 5 North Carolina. 5 South Carolina.. 6 Alabama 35 Louisiana 7 Mississippi. 27 Texas..... 3 Arkansas 8 Missouri JOHN G. PARKHURST, for the Secretaries. 7 Iowa 9 Oregon DAVID TOD, President.. Recapitulation of the Fifty-seven Ballots at Charleston. 322 4712 11 472 11 122 16 16 39 1512 16 140... 1511% 16 1 1 42 151/% 16 6612 13 On the first ballot Mr. Toucey received 2 votes and Mr. Pierce 1; and on MR. DOUGLAS' LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. WASHINGTON, JUNE 29, 1860. My inflexible purpose not to be a candidate, nor accept the nomination in any contingency, except as the regular nominee of the National Democratic party, and in that case only upon conditions that the usages, as well as the principles of the party, should be strictly adhered to, had been proclaimed for a long time and become well known to the country. These conditions having all been complied with by the free and voluntary action of the Democratic masses and their faithful representatives, without any agency, interference, or procurement on my part, I feel bound in honor and duty to accept the nomination. In taking this step, I am not unmindful of the responsibility it imposes; but in a firm reliance on Divine Providence, I have faith that the people will comprehend the true nature of the issue involved and eventually maintain the right. The peace of the country and perpetuity of the Union have been put in jeopardy by attempts to interfere with and control the domestic affairs of the people in the Territories, through the agency of the Federal Government. If the power and duty of Federal interference be conceded, two hostile parties must be the inevitable result. The one inflaming the passions and ambition of the North, and the other of the South; and each struggling to use the Federal power and authority for the aggrandizement of its own section at the expense of the equal rights of the other, and in derogation of those fundamental principles of self government which were firmly established in this country by the American revolution as the basis of our entire Republican system. During the memorable period in our political history, when the advocates of federal intervention upon the subject of slavery in the Territories had well nigh precipitated the country into revolution, the Northern interventionists, demanding the Wilmot proviso for the prohibition of slavery, and the Southern interventionists, then few in number, and without a single Representative in either House of Congress, insisting upon Congressional legislation for the protection of slavery, in opposition to the wishes of the people in either case, it will be remembered that it required all the wisdom, power, and influence of a Clay and a Webster, and a Cass, supported by conservative and patriotic men, Whig and Democrat, of that day, to devise and carry out a line of policy which would restore peace to the country and stability to the Union. The essential living principle of that policy, as applied in the legislation of 1850, was, and now is, non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the Territories. The fair application of this just and equitable principle restored harmony and fraternity to a distracted country. If we now depart from that wise and just policy which produced these happy results, and permit the country to be again distracted, if not precipitated into revolution by a sectional contest between pro-slavery and anti-slavery interventionists, where shall we look for another Clay, another Webster, or another Cass, to pilot the ship of State over the breakers into the haven of peace and safety? The Constitution must be main The Federal Union must be preserved. tained inviolate in all its parts. Every right guaranteed by the Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation is necessary to its enjoyment. The judicial authority, as provided in the Constitution, must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and faithfully executed. laws must be administered and the constitutional authorities upheld, and all unlawful resistance suppressed. The These things must all be done with firmness, impartiality, and fidelity, if we expect to enjoy and transmit, unimpaired, to our posterity, that blessed inheritance which we have received in trust from the patriots and sages of the Revolution. |