The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-05-07
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, MAY Z, 1860

session, we found it Impossible 10 speak under
stondinolv or with confidence, in reference either
TO its actual course or probable results and we
purposey refrained therefore, from ndugng in
any specuations upon the subject Owing to the
very imperfect telegraphic arrangements between
this city and Charleston, and the extreme lateness
of the hour at which news was received, it was
even out of our power to present our readers, as
we would have wished to do, with an accurate
resume of each days proceedings. 1t was always
sometime after midnight before we were in pos
session of anything like full report of what had
been done during the day, and after that hour
dispatches came with such perplexing irregularity
and by such unexpected channels, sometimes even
by way of New Orleans, that we had to abandon in
despair any attempt at contemporaneous comment
IT seemed in fact waste of paper TO be print
ing speculations, which the very next revelation
of tie telegraph might entirely over-set or con-
vert into certainty. Now, however, that the
Convention has adjourned, and we know exactly
how much it has DONE and how much it has left
undone, we have no hesitation in saying frankly
whatever we may have to say about it, AL
though silent, we have not been uninterested or
indifferent spectators Of its proceedings. Before
it met, we expressed our deep interest in its &C.
ton, for we looked to it for the presentation of
candidate, in support of whom the whole Con-
sentative party of the country might be asked to
unite with reasonable prospect of success. The
election of Republican President, while we
should not consider it any justification for extreme
action on the part of the South we should depre-
cafe as a serious national calamity. OF the Con-
stitutional Union party, its principles and pur-
poses, we know altogether too little to venture
upon the expression of any opinion about either
Whether it proposes to join forces with the Re-
publicans, for the purpose of ousting the Demo-
cratic party from power, or whether it will take
the field distinct organization, with a sepa-
rate candidate of its own are questions for the
Convention which meets here this week to SETTLE
If the former should be decided upon, any obec-
tons which we might have to the success of the
Republicans would, of course, initiate Just as
strongly against the United Opposition. If the
other course should be taken, it is easy to see
that nothing but the weakness and folly of the
Democratic party can give to Third ticket any
show of success for the danger of any division
of the conservative strength in such contest will
be universally felt, and compelled to choose be-
tween the two, men will naturally support the
Democratic as the older and stronger organza-
ton. The Constitutional Union party is too new
and too heterogeneous in its composition to have
any great power of cohesion, and has, moreover,
too much the sembance of an attempt to manu-
facture a Party to order and in this country, as
everywhere else, such attempts have proverbially
failed Upon the Democratic party therefore, at
least up the hour of the assembling of the Con-
vention at Charleston, the main, we had almost
said, the only hope of the conservative men of the
country seemed dependent. Whether that hope
is destined to disappointment is question which
the untoward turn that events have taken at
Charleston has involved in great uncertainty
The mere failure of the Convention to nominate
at that particular time and place is matter of
little consequence. 1t is rather an advantage
than otherwise that the nomination should be
postponed until after those of the other parties are
made. The causes which led to the postponement,
and broke up the Convention ITSELF are of much
more serious moment. They indicate the exist
ence of differences in the party which, unless they
can be reconciled before the 18th of June, or by
the Convention which resumes its session in this
city on that day, will render defeat in November
inevitable. In the Convention which met at
Charleston there were not less than three distinct
parties, and it was the struggle between these for
the mastery and the unwillingness ofeach to accent
ofany compromise, which prevented the nomina-
ton and led to the adjournment In the first
place, there were the friends of Mr. DOUGLAS.
numbering fully one-half of the Convention.
These had gone to Charleston for the express pur-
pose of securing Mr.. DOUGLAS nomination
About Platforms they were comparatively indffer-
ent, provided the Platform was one that Mr.
DOUGLAS could stand upon. They were probably
equally willing to take him him without Platform
with Platform embodying the doctrine of SQUAT
ter Sovereignty-with n Platform from which all
allusion to the subject of Slavery should be care
fully excluded. Many of them were attached to
Mr.. DOUGLAS by strong ties of personal and po-
litical sympathy, and were resolved to stick to
him through thick and thin, and to fight his
battle if need be, to the bitter end. Others gave
him their support under the conviction that he
was the strongest, Or as the phrase is, the most
available candidate; and others, and these doubt
less not few, followed his fortunes in the hope of
lettering their own. second party in the Con-
vention was composed of the delegates from the
Cotton States, who were opposed to Mr.. DOUGLAS,
and some of whom even went to the length of pro.
claiming their determination not to abide by his
nomination, and who, for the purpose of defeat
ing him. or for the more sinister one perhaps OF
dividing the Convention, and thereby leading to
rupture of the Party, and possibly of the UNION
itself, insisted upon the incorporation of Slave
Code in the Party Platform. A third division of
In
moderate and conservative members of the body
who were opposed to the extreme views and unreal
sonable demands of the delegates from the Cotton
States, but who preferred the nomination of any
other candidate than Mr.. DOUGLAS, and some Of
whom, as the sequel showed, thought a resort to
any tactics, even to the very questionable expedi-
ent of withdrawing from the Convention iusli-
fable for the purpose of preventing his nomna-
ton. Defeated, as they perfectly well knew be-
forehand that they would be, in their attempt to
engraft upon the Party Greed their own ultra and
sectional views, the delegates from the Cotton
States, before any ballottings for the nomination
were had, withdrew in a body from the Conven-
ton. Some of them acted in accordance with in
structOns from their constituents. All pro-
fessed to be acting in obedience to the
wishes of the people whom they repre-
Sened. Whether any of them rghtfully
Interpreted the popular will, is a matter
for their constituents to determine We already
see that steps have been taken both in Georgia and
Louisiana to condemn the action of the delega-
tons from those States, and we doubt not, that
everywhere, except among the more rabid fire.
eaters of Alabama, Mississippi and South Carroll
ma, similar feeling of disapprobation exists, if
1t is not expressed With the delegations from
the Cotton States went out some of the more mod
crate members of the Convention who as they disa-
vowed all participation in the extreme views of the
hre-eaters, must be supposed to have been
actuated IN the step solely by desire to defeat
Mr.. DOUGLAS. They left their seats professedIy,
because, as they said, the Convention no longer
represented the whole Party but in reality because
they did not choose TO stay behind for the sole
purpose as they believed, of ratifying the nomi-
nation Of an obnoxious candidate Their conduct
suggests an entirely different question from that
presented by the action Of the delegates from the
Cotton States-a question of morals of fair deal
ings and good faith-as between themselves and
the rest of the Convention, which we do not at
present propose to discuss. The opponents of
Mr.. DOUGLAS who stayed behind when the others
went out, procured the adoption of reso-