on of free-traders outside of New York was a marked feature of
the assemblage, and had an important bearing on some of the subsequent
proceedings. From New York, also, a number were present, and they were
of course opposed to Mr. Greeley; but Mr. Greeley's friends succeeded
in keeping them off the list of delegates.

Stanley Matthews was made temporary chairman. In his brief speech he
said that those who had assembled in this gathering were still
Republicans, and he urged in justification of their independent action
that the forces in control of the party machinery had perverted it to
personal and unwarrantable ends. "As the war had ended," he continued,
"so ought military rule and military principles." This imputation of a
military character to the National Administration was the key-note of
all the expressions. Mr. Carl Schurz was the leading spirit of the
Convention, and amplified the same thought in his more elaborate
address as permanent President.

The platform was the object of much labor, as well as the theme of
much pride, on the part of its authors. It was designed to be a
succinct statement and a complete justification of the grounds on
which the movement rested. It started from the Republican position and
aimed to be Republican in tone and principle, only marking out the
path on which Liberal thought diverged from what were characterized as
the ruling Republican tendencies. It recognized the equality of all
men before the law, and the duty of equal and exact justice; it pledged
fidelity to the Union, to emancipation, to enfranchisement, and
opposition to any re-opening of the questions settled by the new
Amendments to the Constitution; it demanded the immediate and absolute
removal of all disabilities imposed on account of the Rebellion; it
declared that local self-government with impartial suffrage would
guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized
power, and insisted upon the supremacy of the civil over the military
authorities; it laid great stress upon the abuse of the civil service
and upon the necessity of reform, and declared that no President ought
to be a candidate for re-election; it denounced repudiation, opposed
further land-grants, and demanded a speedy return to specie payments.

On these questions there was no division in the Liberal ranks. But
there was another issue, which caused a sharper controversy and came
to a lame and impotent conclusion. The large nu