Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[29] summer-time of 1860. The respective friends of the opposing candidates of that party (Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge) went into the canvass with great bitterness of feeling, such as family quarrels usually exhibit.

Six days after the adjournment of the Democratic Conventions at Charleston, representatives of a new political organization, not more than six months old, met in Convention at Baltimore.

May 9, 1860.

They styled themselves the National Constitutional Union Party, composed almost wholly of members of the old Whig party and a waning organization known as the American, or Know-nothing party. They assembled in the First Presbyterian Meeting-house (known as the Two-steeple Church), on Fayette Street, between Calvert and North Streets, which has since been demolished, and its place occupied by the United States Courthouse. Its interior was well decorated with National emblems. Back of the president's chair was a full-length portrait of Washington, with large American flags, over which hovered an eagle; and the galleries, which were crowded with spectators, were festooned with numerous Union banners.

The first Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, in 1860.

The venerable John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, Chairman of the National Constitutional Union Committee called the Convention to order, and on his nomination, Washington Hunt, once Governor of the State of New York, and distinguished for talent, culture, and great urbanity of manner, was chosen temporary president of the Convention. Credentials of delegates were called for, when it was found that almost one-third of all the States were unrepresented.¹

Toward evening, after a recess, Governor Hunt was elected permanent President. When the subject of a platform was proposed, Leslie Coombs, of Kentucky, an ardent follower and admirer of Henry Clay, took the floor, and put the Convention in the best of humor by a characteristic little speech. He declared that he had constructed three platforms: one for the “harmonious Democracy, who had agreed so beautifully, at Charleston;” another for the Republicans, about to assemble at Chicago; and a third for the party then around him. For the first, he proposed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, which seemed to give license for the secession