titution upon Kansas; denied "the authority of
Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of an individual to give
legal existence to slavery in any territory;" demanded a liberal
homestead law; and favoured a tariff "to encourage the development of
the industrial interests of the whole country." The significant
silence as to personal liberty bills, the Dred Scott decision, the
fugitive slave law, and the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, evidenced the handiwork of practical men.

[Footnote 537: New York _Tribune_, June 2, 1860.]

Only one incident disclosed the enthusiasm of delegates for the
doctrine which affirms the equality and defines the rights of man.
Joshua E. Giddings sought to incorporate the sentiment that "all men
are created free and equal," but the convention declined to accept it
until the eloquence of George William Curtis carried it amidst
deafening applause. It was not an easy triumph. Party leaders had
preserved the platform from radical utterances; and, with one
disapproving yell, the convention tabled the Giddings amendment.
Instantly Curtis renewed the motion; and when it drowned his voice, he
stood with folded arms and waited. At last, the chairman's gavel gave
him another chance. In the calm, his musical voice, in tones that
penetrated and thrilled, begged the representatives of the party of
freedom "to think well before, upon the free prairies of the West, in
the summer of 1860, you dare to shrink from repeating the words of the
great men of 1776."[538] The audience, stirred by an unwonted emotion,
applauded the sentiment, and then adopted the amendment with a shout
more unanimous than had been the vote of disapproval.

[Footnote 538: M. Halstead, _National Political Conventions of 1860_,
p. 137.]

The selection of a candidate for President occupied the third day.
Friends of Seward who thronged the city exhibited absolute
confidence.[539] They represented not only the discipline of the
machine, with its well-drilled cohorts, called the "irrepressibles,"
and its impressive marching clubs, gay with banners and badges, but
the ablest leaders on the floor of the convention. And back of all,
stood Thurlow Weed, the matchless manager, whose adroitness and wisdom
had been crowned with success for a whole generation. "He is one of
the most remarkable men of our time," wrote Samuel Bowles, in the
preceding February. "He is cool, calculating, a man of expedients, who
boasts that for