Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1860-06-28

The Convention.
In April last, the Democratic National Con
venton met in the city of Charleston Its ranks
full From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Saint
Lawrence to the Rio Grande no State unrepresen
ted hardly seat was vacant Of the six hundred and
six delegates present. compact body representing be
tween one hundred and twenty and one hundred anc
thirty electoral votes went for Douglas or nobody,
and for Douglas with has Interpretation of the Cincn
natl platform, or not at all. By adroit management
this minority of the Convention obtained control O
its organization and were able to appear with ceal
majority of voting strength, although largely out
numbered on the floor of the house. This was
done by the operation of the rule that each dele
gate should vote separately, unless where the Con
Vention of his State had otherwise directed provided
but that where such Convention had directed pro-
vided the vote of each State should be cast unit
The effect of this adroit manuvre was that in ever1
State where there was an antDouglas minority
the voice of such minority suppressed while, in
every State where there was Douglas minority, such
minority was allowed to poll its full strength. In New
York the voice of fourteen electoral votes suppress
ed In North Carolina and Virginia, the one OF
two votes that the Douglas could rally had its full
hearing The ten Douglas votes of Pennsylvania were
counted, although minority. The five anti-Douga
votes of Indiana suppressed although bearing
large proportion to the Indiana delegation the ten
Douglas votes did to the Pennsylvania delegation.
This was the position of things at Charleston. II
shows the adroneSs and unscrupulousness of the Dou
glas managers-it does not PROVE as asserted by Mr.
Douglas and his supporters that he his platform
received bona fde endorsement at the hands of tht
members of the Charleston Convention Tricks of th
kind neither make nor indicate public opinion.
AS the first week of the Charleston Convention wore
on, began to be apparent that the fictitious powe
thus obtained was to be used with the utmost rgor
when on Monday of the second week the crisis did ar
rive it was not until the Southern delegates had ex
haused every effort to obtain such concession on tn
question of platform essential to their own hon
Or and due to the rights and interests of their section
such concession too the managers for Judge Dough-
might easily and fairly have granted-such conces
sion they ought to have granted and 1vod have grant
ed had their object been harmony had they not cOnsd
cred the rights and interests of the Democratic party
together secondary to the promotion of that gentleman
And we take occasion here to say that although the del
egates from North Carolina were not originally Douga
men, yet they went to Charleston without any pledge
and generally without any serious committal agains
him. On any reasonable and fair platform we were pre-
pared to 60 for Judge Douglas at any moment when GU
vote might have suffced to nominate him. But bis wire
workers at Charleston would concede nothing and whe
we the word concede' wish it distinctly under
stood that no one asked for or wished for anything
addition to in advance of the Cincinnati PLATFORM
With that the whole South and is perfectly salts
fed. The object of the Southern and other constitr
tonal delegates simply to obtain such recognition
of the true intent and meaning of that platform as woul
prevent future difficulties and misconstuctions An
many of us were willing for harmony sake to be Statistic
with lower standard of construction than we had or
ginaly insisted upon. But no proposal would be s
ened to by the Douglas managers.
Let us here remark, that all along we had The hghes
respect for the character abilities and past services
Judge Douglas but that we could not accept him wit
the Cincinnati platform unexplained because, to do
would be to accept and endorse his Interpretation of
to which we could not consent There may have bee
those who made war upon Judge Douglas. 70 ths
war; one way or another North Carolina was no part,
We may have regretted the unfiendy relations exisp
between the President and Judge Douglas, or betwee
the friends of the President and those of the Senate
from Illinois We not the apologsts of the Pres
dent, nor are we the deamers of Judge Douglas. W
think the Democratic party and its principles matters
far greater moment than either of these gentlemen,
than one hundred of them; yea, five hundred, OR an
other number. We think that the rights of the mass
of great party-the dominant party in Union
thirythree States, containing thirty millions of peopl
are become cheap enough when man can say-suc
and such are my notions, and unless the Conventio
agrees to these notions will not consent to be nomin
ted and then his friends come into Convention to wol
all tricks determined to the principles and sa
rifce the rights of the party to this one Wht
this became apparent, there did arise for the fir
time strong feelings at the South as
ing this dctation the part of Judge Douglas friend
with whose movements it was impossible not to
that gentleman himself
Noteven when eight of her Southern sisters left b
at Chareston-left the Convention there,-did Nor
Carolina cease her efforts at acknowledgements to
Dor for harmony. She conferred with the remainiI