Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

Out of the thirty-three members of the Committee on Resolutions, of which I was one, there were sixteen in favor of the Douglas platform as the one on which the Democratic party should stand at the coming election. The other sixteen were in favor of a very care-fully worded resolution, which seemed to me equally objectionable, because it left the question of slavery as a State institution, to be decided by the Supreme Court.

I for one was unwilling to trust that question to the Supreme Court because I thought I knew the opinions of the majority of the judges of that court; and if one should die no man could be put in his place and be confirmed by the Senate who would not stand by what were called the compromises of the Constitution in favor of slavery. I thought then as I think now, that it was destructive of all proper consideration and respect for the Supreme Court to put before it the decision of political questions. I had seen a warning example of that in the effect of the “Dred Scott” decision upon the respect and consideration which should be due to the Supreme Court and its opinions in matters of law, as the supreme law at last. That decision satisfied neither party, and was derided by one and trampled upon by the other.

Therefore I introduced a resolution which was the exact platform of the National Democratic Convention held at Cincinnati in 1856, under which that party had carried the election. The committee was in session three days, and the result of its deliberations was three reports. The first was the Douglas report; the second was what was afterwards known as the anti-Douglas report; and the third, which was mine, was known as the “Cincinnati platform pure and simple,” because I had inadvertently used that phrase in the committee. I had learned that the Southern delegates did not particularly desire the anti-Douglas resolution, but that they were especially afraid of the nomination and election of Douglas. They declared that they could not and would not trust him. It is needless here to state the reasons, or whether they were well founded or not, but only that from personal observation I learned the fact.

Mr. Douglas was my personal friend. The district which had sent me to the convention was undoubtedly in his favor. Calling on Judge Douglas on my way through Washington, I told him in a full and frank conversation that I did not think he could be nominated,