ition; he did not treat slavery in the
abstract; he did not transcend the Free-soil doctrine. But he spoke
with such power and brilliancy that Henry Wilson, afterward Vice
President, declared him "the bright particular star of the
revolt."[372] He was not an impassioned orator. He spoke deliberately,
and rarely with animation or with gesture; and his voice, high pitched
and penetrating, was neither mellow nor melodious. But he was
marvellously pleasing. His perennial wit kept his audiences expectant,
and his compact, forceful utterances seemed to break the argument of
an opponent as a hammer shatters a pane of glass. So great was his
popularity at this time, that his return to the Democratic party
became a personal sorrow to every friend of the anti-slavery cause.
"Indeed, such was the brilliant record he then made," says Henry
Wilson, "that had he remained true to the principles he advocated, he
would unquestionably have become one of the foremost men of the
Republican party, if not its accepted leader."[373]

[Footnote 372: Henry Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power of the
United States_, Vol. 2, p. 142.]

[Footnote 373: _Ibid._, p. 142.]

Several historic conventions followed the secession of the
Barnburners. Each faction held a state convention to select delegates
to the Democratic national convention which met in Baltimore on May
22, 1848, and, on the appointed day, both Hunkers and Barnburners
presented full delegations, each claiming admission to the exclusion
of the other.[374] It was an anxious moment for Democracy. New York
held the key to the election; without its vote the party could not
hope to win; and without harmony success was impossible. To exclude
either faction, therefore, was political suicide, and, in the end, the
vote was divided equally between them. To the politician, anxious for
party success and hungry for office, perhaps no other compromise
seemed possible. But the device failed to satisfy either side, and
Lewis Cass was nominated for President without the participation of
the State that must elect or defeat him.

[Footnote 374: "The Barnburners made the Monumental City lurid with
their wrath, frightening the delegates from the back States almost out
of their wits."--H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 162. "Or, as
one man said in a speech, 'the regular delegates might occupy half a
seat apiece, provided each of them would let a Hunker sit on his
lap.'"--_Ibid._, p. 161.]

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