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[502] longer a unit in behalf of slavery; it has been divided—I trust, never again to be united by any compromise whatsoever with the Slave Power. It seems to me to be one of the most striking proofs of the cheering progress of the movement in which we are engaged that have yet been given to us. Only think of it! The party which has, for so many years, cried out, “There must be no agitation on this subject,” is now the most agitated of all the parties in the country! The party which declares that there ought not to be any sectionalism as against slavery, has now been sundered geographically, and on this very question! The party which has said, “ Let discussion cease for ever,” is busily engaged in the discussion, so that, possibly, the American Anti-Slavery Society might adjourn sine die, after we get through with our present meetings, and leave its work to be carried on in the other direction! The party which says that anti-slavery must be put down in this country, is itself divided, discomfited, and, I believe, overthrown. “ Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” “ To him that overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for his mercy endureth for ever!”

A week later the Republican National Convention met1 in Chicago, and incorporated in its platform the Declaration of Independence (with a mental reservation)—resolving also against all schemes of disunion from any quarter (as if equally censurable), in favor of State rights, and against John Brown or Border-Ruffian invasions; against Judge Taney's doctrine that the Constitution carried slavery into the Territories; against the re-opening of the slave trade. To the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, no allusion. In the vote for candidates, to the infinite surprise of the Eastern States, to the grief even of many abolitionists, the prize of leadership was denied to William H. Seward and given to Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.

On the 18th of June, the dismembered Democratic2 Convention, attended and watched, without participation, by the cotton-State delegates, met at Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President. A secession followed, and a rump convention nominated John C.3

1 May 17, 1860; Lib. 30.83.

2 Lib. 30.102.

3 June 28.

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