ed it in the hall, the crowds continued it in the
street. At midnight, while Yancey made one of his silver-toned
speeches, which appears, by all accounts, to have been a piece of
genuine eloquence, the friends of Douglas, on the opposite side of
Monument Square, kept the bands playing and crowds cheering.

When the convention assembled on the second day, Church, in the
interest of harmony, withdrew the last clause of his resolution, and,
without a dissenting voice, all contested seats went to the committee
on credentials. Then the convention impatiently waited three days for
a report, while the night meetings, growing noisier and more arrogant,
served to increase the bitterness. The Douglasites denounced their
opponents as "disorganisers and disunionists;" the Southerners
retorted by calling them "a species of sneaking abolitionists." Yancey
spoke of them as small men, with selfish aims. "They are
ostrich-like--their head is in the sand of squatter sovereignty, and
they do not know their great, ugly, ragged abolition body is exposed."

On the fourth day, the committee presented two reports, the majority,
without argument, admitting the contestants--the minority, in a
remarkably strong document of singular skill and great clearness,
seating the seceders on the ground that their withdrawal was not a
resignation and was not so considered by the convention. A
resignation, it argued, must be made to the appointing power. The
withdrawing delegates desired the instruction of their constituencies,
who authorised them in every case except South Carolina to repair to
Baltimore and endeavour once more to unite their party and promote
harmony and peace in the great cause of their country.

This report made a profound impression upon the convention, and the
motion to substitute it for the majority report at once threw New York
into confusion. That delegation had already decided to sustain the
majority, but the views of the seceders, so ably and logically
presented, had reopened the door of debate, and a resolute minority,
combining more than a proportionate share of the talent and worth of
the delegation, insisted upon further time. After the convention had
grudgingly taken a recess to accommodate the New Yorkers, William H.
Ludlow reappeared and apologised for asking more time. This created
the impression that Richmond's delegation, at the last moment,
proposed to slaughter Douglas[561] as it did at Charleston, and the
latter's