. Carlisle of Kentucky, Joseph E. McDonald and Daniel W. Voorhees of
Indiana, were names familiar in Democratic councils.

Mr. August Belmont's lurid speeches had become the accepted signal-guns
of national Democratic conventions, and he did not disappoint
expectation on this occasion. His prophetic vision and historic
recital were even more expanded and alarming than before. He drew a
dark picture of evils which he charged upon the Republican party, and
then proceeded: "Austria did not dare to fasten upon vanquished
Hungary, nor Russia to impose upon conquered Poland, the ruthless
tyranny now inflicted by Congress on the Southern States. Military
satraps are invested with dictatorial powers, overriding the decisions
of the courts and assuming the functions of the civil authorities; and
now this same party which has brought all these evils upon the country
comes again before the American people asking for their suffrages! And
whom has it chosen for its candidate? The General commanding the
armies of the United States. Can there be any doubt as to the designs
of the Radicals if they should be able to keep their hold on the reins
of government? They intend Congressional usurpation of all the
branches and factions of the Government, to be enforced by the bayonet
of a military despotism."

Apparently it never occurred to Mr. Belmont that each succeeding
sentence of his speech carried with it its own disproof. With loud
voice and demonstrative manner, speaking in public before a multitude
of people, with his words certain to be quoted in the press on account
of the accident of his position, Mr. Belmont denounced the policy of
our Government as more tyrannical than that of Russia or Austria. What
did Mr. Belmont suppose would have been his fate if on the soil of
Russia or Austria he had attempted the slightest denunciation of the
policy of those empires? How long would he have ventured upon a tithe
of the unrestrained vituperation which he safely indulged in here? In
his visions he now saw General Grant upholding a Congressional
usurpation with bayonets. Four years before, he saw in Mr. Lincoln's
election "the utter disintegration of our whole political and social
system amid bloodshed and anarchy." Mr. Belmont had evidently not
proved a true prophet and did not aspire even to be a trustworthy
historian.

Mr. Henry M. Palmer of Wisconsin, who was chosen temporary chairman,
did not delay the Convention, and the