ssibly the
fate of the Union.

It was soon evident that the South would have every advantage in
the convention which an intelligent and skillful administration of
parliamentary law could afford. Without showing unfairness, the
presiding officer, especially in a large and boisterous assembly,
can impart confidence and strength to the side with which he may
sympathize. But, apart from any power to be derived from having
the chairman of the convention, the South had a more palpable
advantage from the mode in which the standing committees must,
according to precedent, be constituted. As one member must be
taken from each State, the Southern men obtained the control of
all the committees, from the fact that the delegates from California
and Oregon steadily voted with them. There were thirty-three States
in the Union in 1860,--eighteen free and fifteen slave-holding.
California and Oregon, uniting with the South, gave to that section
seventeen, and left to the North but sixteen on all the committees.
The Democratic delegates from the Pacific States assumed a weighty
responsibility in thus giving to the Disunionists of the South
preliminary control of the convention, by permitting them to shape
authoritatively all the business to be submitted. It left the real
majority of the convention in the attitude of a protesting minority.
The Southern majority of one on the committees was fatal to Democratic
success. In a still more important aspect its influence was in
the highest degree prejudicial to the Union of the States.

Constituted in the manner just indicated, the Committee on Resolutions
promptly and unanimously agreed on every article of the Democratic
creed, except that relating to slavery. Here they divided, stubbornly
and irreconcilably. The fifteen slave States, re-enforced by
California and Oregon, gave to the Southern interest a majority of
one vote on the committee. The other free States, sixteen in all,
were hostile to the extreme Southern demands, and reported a
resolution, which they were willing to accept. The South required
an explicit assertion of the right of citizens to settle in the
Territories with their slaves,--a right not "to be destroyed or
impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation." They required
the further declaration that it is the duty of the Federal Government,
when necessary, to protect slavery "in the Territories, and wherever
else its constitutional authority extends." T