trictly
national, devoted to the Constitution and the Union, and that the
Republican party, ignoring the historic warning of Washington, was
formed on geographic lines.[491] All this made little impression upon
the host of Northern men who exulted in the union of all the
anti-slavery elements. But their intense devotion to the positive
utterances of their platform took away the sense of humour which often
relieves the tension of political activity, and substituted an element
of profound seriousness that was plainly visible in speakers and
audiences. Seward did not hasten into the campaign. Richard H. Dana
wrote, confidentially, that "Seward was awful grouty." It was October
2 when he began speaking. Congress had detained him until August 30,
and then his health was so impaired, it was explained, that he needed
rest. But other lovers of freedom were deeply stirred. The pulpit
became a platform, and the great editors spoke as well as wrote.
Henry Ward Beecher seemed ubiquitous; Greeley and Raymond made
extended tours through the State; Bryant was encouraged to overcome
his great timidity before an audience; and Washington Irving declared
his intention of voting, if not of speaking, for Fremont.

[Footnote 491: Horatio Seymour used the same argument with great
effect. "Another tie which has heretofore held our country together
has been disbanded, and from its ruins has sprung a political
organisation trusting for its success to sectional prejudices. It
excludes from its councils the people of nearly one-half of the Union;
it seeks a triumph over one-half our country. The battlefields of
Yorktown, of Camden, of New Orleans, are unrepresented in their
conventions; and no delegates speak for the States where rest the
remains of Washington, Jefferson, Marion, Sumter, or Morgan, or of the
later hero, Jackson. They cherish more bitter hatred of their own
countrymen than they have ever shown towards the enemies of our land.
If the language they hold this day had been used eighty years since,
we should not have thrown off the British yoke; our national
constitution would not have been formed; and if their spirit of hatred
continues, our Constitution and Government will cease to
exist."--Seymour at Springfield, Mass., July 4, 1856. Cook and Knox,
_Public Record of Horatio Seymour_, p. 2.

"John A. Dix supported the Democratic candidates in the canvass of
1856; he did not, however, take an active part in the contest."--Morgan
Dix