organization was speedily
completed by the election of Governor Seymour as permanent president.
He had filled the same position in the convention of 1864. He was
destined to hold a still more important relation to the present body,
but that was not yet foreseen. His admirers looked to him as a
political sage, who if not less partisan than his associates was more
prudent and politic in his counsels. No other leader commanded so
large a share of the confidence and devotion of his party. No other
equaled him in the art of giving a velvety touch to its coarsest and
most dangerous blows, or of presenting the work of its adversaries in
the most questionable guise. It was his habit to thread the mazes
of economic and fiscal discussion, and he was never so eloquent or
apparently so contented as when he was painting a vivid picture of the
burdens under which he imagined the country to be suffering, or giving
a fanciful sketch of what might have been if Democratic rule had
continued. From the beginning of the war he had illustrated the
highest accomplishments of political oratory in bewailing, like the
fabled prophetess of old, the coming woes--which never came. In his
address on the present occasion he arraigned the Republican party for
imposing oppressive taxes, for inflicting upon the country a
depreciated currency, and for enforcing a military despotism. Like all
the other speakers he affected to see a serious menace in the
nomination of General Grant. Referring to the Republican platform and
candidate he said, "Having declared that the principles of the
Declaration of Independence should be made a living reality on every
inch of American soil, they put in nomination a military chieftain who
stands at the head of that system of despotism which crushes beneath
its feet the greatest principles of the Declaration of Independence."
And with this allusion he proceeded to condemn an assumed military rule
with all its asserted evils.

Extreme as was the speech of Mr. Seymour, it was moderate and
conservative in spirit compared with other displays and other
proceedings of the Convention. The violent elements of the Democratic
party obtained complete mastery in the construction of the platform.
They presented in the resolutions the usual declarations on many
secondary questions, together with an elaborate and vehement
arraignment of Republican rule. But the real significance of the new
Democratic creed was embodied in two