The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-10-05
TIE AEu.HEBRAsKA CONVENTION Al Au-


of the Nev York Evening Post, is indignant
at the unfair proceedings of Wings in the An
Il. Nebraska Convention which met at Auburn
IN the goth. He says that Messrs. Seward,
RAYMOND and other influential Wings, were
present in an adjoining room, directing move
ments; that Wings, not members, crowded in
among the delegates at the meeting, and Ia
bored to determine the character of the meet
ing: that, to secure fair expression of opin-
ion from the People, solemn resolution was
PASSED at the Saratoga Convention, that all
questions of nominations, &c, should be deci-
ded by the votes of the Convention, estimated
by assembly districts, giving each district one
vote and only one that this was done to Sc
cure just representation, and prevent the
adjourned Convention at Auburn from being
packed; that, relying upon this, the distant
districts were chiefly represented by single dele
gates; but that the majority in the Auburn Con-
yention to secure ratification of the Wing
ticket, violated this understanding, and passed
a resolution that the voting should be per cap
ita, and not by districts In this way the
Wings get everything under their own control,
and Disguised the other members of the Con-
vention.
The New York Times, whoee editor received
the nomination, for the Office of Lieutenant
Governor, gives the following version of the
affair:
"There was very deep and very natural
desire, on the part of the Democratic support
ers of the nti-Nebraska and of the Temper
ance movements that Democrat should be
placed on the ticket They felt that this was
due to them as powerful section of the gener-
al movement, and that it was necessary in or
der to put them in proper position with their
constituents. Their leading object was to &C.
cure fusion Of all political parties; and they
sought to effect this by substituting Demo
crat on the Wbig ticket as candidate for
Lieutenant Governor The justice and propri-
ETY. of such step were urged with very great
force upon the Convention, by Hon. John P.
Hale and others and were fully appreciated
and deeply felt On the other hand, the Wing
members of tho nti-Nebra.ka Convention
found themselves in an embarrassing position
because they were pledged as Wings to the
whole Wing ticket which occupied clear and
unmistakablo position on this question and as
their Convention had met and dissolved, there
was no possibility of revising its action. 1t
was urged furthermore on their behalf by Gen.
Burroughs, of Orleans county, with eloquence
and marked effect, that the Anti-Nebraska
Convention, by its action at Saratoga, had IN
Ulted the Wings to nominate such ticket as
they could adopt, and that the Wings had done
SO; and that any revisal or reversal Of that &C.
ton, besides being in bad faith, would indicate
an undue attachment to party names inconsist-
emit with their professions, and would involve a
divided action fatal to the great principles they
desired to establish. The fact was also pressed,
that the fusion desired could be much more
easily and properly commenced in the Con-
| greSStondL elections, than in the nomination Of
State ticket, inasmuch as harmony of action
was needed first of all in Congress, and that
union at other points would naturally follow
united action there. These arguments had great
weight with the Convention, and led to the
hearty and unanimous ratification of the NOM
nations of the Wing Convention"
There is slight mistake in this. The vote
for Raymond stood, 1877 to "a against him
and some fifteen or twenty Democratic dele
gates, disploased with the proceedings of the
meeting, refused to vote or had retired from
the Convention.
| The great blunder was, the failure of the
Saratoga Convention to nominate. That Con-
vention, fairly constituted of delegates from
all parties, and called to act upon the great
question of the day, ought to have framed a
ticket showing no preference to any one party
over another, and then have appealed to the
People to support it. This would have emsn-
cipated the Anti-Slavery movement in New
York from thraldom to Party, saved it from
being made subserviunt to personal ends and
have laid the foundation of real Party Of
Freedom. 1t was not done, and we see the
results-old organizations perpetuated, old
animosities, old prejudices, not only kept alive,
but aggravated.