tative Douglasite. It is
sufficient proof of the sensitiveness of the relations between the two
factions that an expressed preference for one of these men should
again disrupt the convention, but the moving cause was far deeper than
the majority's action. Yancey belonged to the daring, resolute, and
unscrupulous band of men who, under the unhappy conditions that
threatened their defeat, had already decided upon disunion; and, when
the convention repudiated him, the lesser lights played their part.
Virginia led a new secession, followed by most of the delegates from
North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Maryland, and
finally by Caleb Cushing himself, the astute presiding officer, whose
action anticipated the withdrawal of Massachusetts.

When they were gone, Pierre Soule took the floor and made the speech
of the convention, fascinating all who saw and heard. An eye-witness
speaks of his rolling, glittering, eagle eye, Napoleonic head and
face, sharp voice with a margin of French accent, and piercing,
intense earnestness of manner. "I have not been at all discouraged,"
he said, "by the emotion which has been attempted to be created in
this body by those who have seceded from it. We from the furthest
South were prepared; we had heard the rumours which were to be
initiatory of the exit which you have witnessed on this day, and we
knew that conspiracy, which had been brooding for months past, would
break out on this occasion, and for the purposes which are obvious to
every member. Sirs, there are in political life men who were once
honoured by popular favour, who consider that the favour has become to
them an inalienable property, and who cling to it as to something that
can no longer be wrested from their hands--political fossils so much
incrusted in office that there is hardly any power that can extract
them. They saw that the popular voice was already manifesting to this
glorious nation who was to be her next ruler. Instead of bringing a
candidate to oppose him; instead of creating issues upon which the
choice of the nation could be enlightened; instead of principles
discussed, what have we seen? An unrelenting war against the
individual presumed to be the favourite of the nation! a war waged by
an army of unprincipled and unscrupulous politicians, leagued with a
power which could not be exerted on their side without disgracing
itself and disgracing the nation." Secession, he declared, meant
disunion, "but t