carcely
closed before the clouds that hung over the country during the
summer were scattered, and our armies entered upon the most brilliant
movements and triumphs of the war--triumphs which did not cease
until the surrender at Appomattox.

But the Convention assembled at a time of uncertainty if not of
gloom and depression. The issue of the great struggle was not yet
clear. General Grant, with his unquailing resolution "to fight it
out on this line," had cut his way through the Wilderness over the
bloody field of Spotsylvania, and against the deadly lines of Cold
Harbor. He had fastened his iron grip upon Petersburg, and there
the opposing armies were still halting in their trenches. In the
Shenandoah Valley, Early was defiant and aggressive. In the West,
the delay at Kennesaw, the fall of the heroic McPherson, and other
reverses had marked a campaign of slow advances. The assaults upon
Mr. Lincoln's Administration had been renewed with increased venom
and persistence. Mistaken and abortive peace negotiations with
pretended rebel commissioners at Niagara Falls had provoked much
criticism and given rise to unfounded charges. The loyal spirit
and purpose of the people were unshaken; but there was some degree
of popular impatience with the lack of progress, and it was the
expectation of the Democratic managers that the restive feeling
might be turned into the channel of opposition to the Administration.

The Convention included among its delegates many of the most
distinguished leaders of the Democratic party. Massachusetts sent
Josiah G. Abbott and George Lunt. The credentials of Connecticut
were borne by the positive and aggressive William W. Eaton. Among
the representatives of New York were the accomplished Governor
Seymour; the acute Dean Richmond; Samuel J. Tilden, who had not
yet achieved his national distinction; Sanford E. Church, who
afterwards became chief judge of the Court of Appeals; and Ex-
Governor Washington Hunt, whose Silver-Gray conservatism had carried
him into the Democratic party. Ohio counted on the roll of her
delegates William Allen, who had been the contemporary of Webster
and Clay in the Senate; George H. Pendleton and Allen G. Thurman,
who were yet to take high rank in that body; and Clement L.
Vallandigham, just then more prominent with a doubtful celebrity
than any one of his abler colleagues. Pennsylvania contributed Ex-
Governor Bigler, and William A. Wallace already showing