CHAPTER XII

The year 1860-The Charleston Convention-The Baltimore Convention-The Richmond Convention Stephen A. DouglasSplit in the Ohio Democracy-Election of Lincoln-His Inauguration-Breaking Out of the Civil War-Democratic State Convention of 1861-Its Peculiar Resolutions Salmon P. Chase and John Sherman-State Election of 1861.

The year 1860 must always remain one of the most notable in American history. In the events of that year Ohio bore a conspicuous part. The Democratic State Convention assembled in Armory Hall, Columbus, on January 5th, and was called to order by George W. Mannypenny, chairman of the State Central Committee. William Halpin was elected temporary chairman and William B. Woods permanent chairman. The great contest in this convention, as in many other state conventions that year, was over the question of instructing delegates for the "Little Giant," by which term Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was known. He was at first the strongest Democratic candidate for President in either North or South and the convention instructed for him by a large majority. The convention nominated four delegates-at-large to the National Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, and all of them were supporters of Douglas. In the National Conventions of Charleston and Baltimore, Senator George E. Pugh, one of the delegates-at-large from Ohio and a very able speaker, awakened the Southern leaders for the first time to a realization of the fact that the Democrats of the North would no longer submit to the domination of the South. He informed them that there were Democrats in the North who had as strong opinions on slavery, who would stand by those opinions to the extent of fighting for them, as readily as the most rampant Republican.

The National Democratic Convention of 1860 met at Charleston, April 23rd, with Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts as permanent chairman. The Northern delegates were strongly attached to Stephen A.

Douglas and had the advantage in the convention which the superiority of numbers always gives. On the fifth day of the convention they forced the adoption of a platform endorsing the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, whereupon the Southern delegates withdrew from the convention. This secession depleted the number of delegates to such an extent that it was impossible to secure enough votes to nominate Douglas under the two-thirds rule. The convention continued in session, however, and on the ninth day he received 153 votes, which was a majority of the delegates from all the states. In the North the platform was referred to as the "Budget of Blunders" and the secession of the Southern delegates as "the first great and fatal mistake.” It was contended that if the delegates had remained in the convention, North and South would finally have agreed upon some other man than Douglas who would have been satisfactory to both sections and that with such a man the Democrats could carry the election. On May 3rd the convention adjourned to meet in the city of Baltimore on June 18th.

The seceders organized a convention of their own at Baltimore on April 30th with Bayard of Delaware presiding. They adopted a platform of their own and adjourned to meet at Richmond on May the 18th. The Democratic press of the North took the position that the secession movement in the Charleston Convention was undertaken by the Southern delegates with the set purpose to disorganize the Democratic Party and destroy the Union. It was thought probable in the North, and to some extent the same opinion prevailed in the South, that pressure upon some of the secessionists would cause them to resume their regular places in the convention when it should reassemble at Baltimore. The Richmond Examiner endorsed this belief when it said editorially, "every Southern state will be fully represented at Baltimore. The idea industriously promulgated by the opposition press that there is no National Democracy at this time in the cotton states, in consequence of the much regretted secession, is absurd."

The National Democratic Convention reassembled at Baltimore, June 18th, and the Committee on Credentials handed in two reports. The majority report was unsatisfactory to many delegates, although it insisted that delegates who had withdrawn were not out of the con