restrained, and an
absolute control of opinion and action was commanded on this one
line. In the entire history of party conventions, not one can be
found so characteristic, so earnest, so determined to do the wisest
thing, so little governed by personal consideration, so entirely
devoted to one absorbing idea. It was made up in great part of
young men, though there were gray-haired veterans in sufficient
number to temper action with discretion. A large proportion of
the delegates were afterwards prominent in public life. At least
sixty of them, till then unknown beyond their districts, were sent
to Congress. Many became governors of their States, and in other
ways received marks of popular favor. It was essentially a convention
of the free States--undisguisedly sectional in the political
nomenclature of the day. The invitation was general, but, in the
larger portion of the South, no one could be found who would risk
his life by attending as a delegate. Nevertheless, there were
delegates present from the five slave States which bordered on the
free States, besides a partial and irregular representation from
Texas.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The anti-slavery character of the assemblage was typified by the
selection of David Wilmot for temporary chairman, and its conservative
side by the choice of an old Webster Whig, in the person of George
Ashmun of Massachusetts, for permanent president. This tendency
to interweave the radical and conservative elements, and, where
practicable, those of Whig with those of Democratic antecedents,
was seen in many delegations. John A. Andrew and George S. Boutwell
came from Massachusetts, William M. Evarts and Preston King from
New York, Thaddeus Stevens and Andrew H. Reeder from Pennsylvania,
Thomas Corwin and Joshua R. Giddings from Ohio, David Davis and N.
B. Judd from Illinois. Outside of the regular delegations, there
were great crowds of earnest men in Chicago, all from the free
States. The number in attendance was reckoned by tens of thousands.
Considering the restricted facilities for travel at that time, the
multitude was surprising and significant. The whole mass was
inspired with energy, and believed, without shadow of doubt, that
they had come to witness the nomination of the next President of
the United States. Confidence of strength is as potential an
element in a political canvass as in a military campaign,