Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1852-06-26
ttffstn The National lntelligsneer1
Major Jack Downing's Account Of the
Democratic National Convention.
n..H,aunr =, aa,nriar night, June D, 1862.

BatTtaent; Saturday night June D, iSos'
TO joshua DowNtNa, Esq,
p,s,mas,at. powninstiile, state Of Maife.
Ueay UHsie Joshaa The job Is done
aud it,s been about the toughest wof
,l,at / ever did. I've sweat like q tise
nlI tie week, aud I'm hungry hs - bear
NAT but wia. there's been sittles enotel
rlpt,ty OF 1t. aud good too, and q plenty 9
ltauor too, more than The Maine liquo
law could upset aud spill ii, six months
hut tile trouble ID, we lad go mitch 10 g
we couldn't get time 10 eat, guess ~
made out to ketell a lunch OF q few mouth
ials about twice a day, aud got a eliahc
to sleru upon an average about two iiuttr
a ,iul,i. After I've writ this letter Z
Won, mean TO turn In and sleep over III
Monday, and then streak it home aht
help yet up the mass meeting to ra'lil
the nomination. the ratification OF Down
i%,rviIie must lie a reafer. You better W
ratllna things ready for 1t till come.
,cisi, / could give you soine idea Of The
weak work we have had here. I've
worked in The logging swamp, aud know
what 'tis to handle logs, aud pile EN- OF
the latllt, and roll EN- into the FLYER all.
I've worked on burnt fields in clearing mp
and know what 'tis to chop aud pile from
Monday morning TIL Saturday night but
| declare 10 lnan this has been The tttiIes'
week Of log.foiIing ! ever see. But ]
,lon't L~egrudge the work a bit. we've
made such n nice Job Of 1t, and saved the
country. We've put life into the Demo.
cratic PARTY again, that we thought las'
fall was "a dead as a doof4nail. We've
kiIled of Abolition, we've ehoked to death
Secession. and gin Freesoil The fits aud
expect we've tiuuderstruek Whipgery &c
that Ii n~eyer'll yet over it. We've got
the democratic party fairly Oh is legs
again. standing on the good old platform
that ~ttiileral Jackson left II OH that is,
agin the Bank, agin the Tariti, aud agi'
Internal improvements; and now we've
nothing To do but 70 ahead.
But | must tell you, something abont
The duins. ] couldn't get Ia az one OF the
regular delegates from Maine, because The
President said my tathe wasn't on the list.
but "a soon rs ! told him | was the dele
gate from Downingville, he took me by
The hand, aud says he, All right, Major
Downing, I'm very glad TO see YOU here
YOU can come in az a snp|ernhmerafy, anu
o can do a great deal more good than Il
you were a regular delegate, ior You cal,
40 round quietly among all the delegates
and help to make EN- hdfasoHtze /, there
"a great deal Of that work 10 I've done be-
fore we can get along, and | don't know
Of any body that can do more IN that line
than YOU can. In fact, Major, If you
hadn't been sent az a delegate from Down.
iugvtile, YOU would readily be admitted b,
take part iii the proceedings Of the Con-
vention out of respect for the great sefvis
,es that you rendered Gineral .ll~acltsotl IN
the times that tiled the souls ot Demo-
Gratis SO | went Ia aud took hold and
went to work. There was All awful latn,
1t seemed most impossible to do anything.
But | on coat. aud elbowed my way right
through, en- from one end Of the hall to
'tothcr aud ! pretty 0 . got the swing
uf 1t, so | conld tell where to pull. aud
where to push, aud where TO put under
the mndspikes mud lit, Aud wien the
members got up to make speeches, aud
got to talking too much, or talking the
wrong way, knew Jest when to take
hold Of their coat tails and pull EN- down
on their seats. Aud sometimes / had to
20 Into the gallery, too. 10 keep the peo.
pie straight up there, and III spite OF all |
could do they would sometimes hoorali
aud hies Ia the wrong place. So you may
Judge ] have had my hands full all the
week. But I was determined to have II
%uo,ntnation, If | worked my hands OF up
80 she elbows. It was very hard to get a
nomination this time, and # | hadn't been
here, though ! say It myself, dent be.
lieve they would a got u at all,
The first real hard piece of shedding we
come across was the platform business
that Ia 10 say, the question whether we
should go to work and make a platform
first, or take right hold and 10 nominate
frat. 1t vas a knotty question, and
seemed TO bother some Of the members a
good deal, Mr.. Nabers and Mr.. Wise.
aud some others, Insisted upon it that we
should begin at the foundation, and make
n platform first for the Democratic poftt
10 stand on, aud then make a candidate to
,t to it. No work would ever stand we'll
unless you begin at the bottom aud lay a
yaoi foundation first. Here's a dozen
~lsrties here, every one fighting for their
particular candidate, aud each Que hoping
80 get the nomination. As long as that
hope lasts IL will hold EN- all together, aud
we can make EN- all work 10 help build a
platform. But the moment one gets the
nomination, the rest will all hy off in a
tangent; there will be no more working
Oh a platform, and your candidate viii be
lel standing upon nothing. Pit Mr..
Souls, of Louisiana, aud Gov. Floyd, of
rirgiuia, rowed just as hard t'oti,ei way.
They declared we never could make a
,,Iattorm first. Ii we undertook to 90 to
work upon IL now, every one of the dozen
would be pulling and hauling agiu
each other, and each one hewilig and cut
ting and carving TO make the platform TO
salt his own candidate. In that way we
never could make a platform il we should
work from the first of June TO the end of
time. The fact is the platform must be