The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-21
"REMINISCENCES OF Is6o

was referred of course to the Commit. tee on Credentials, John T., now Senator. Morgan, was chairman. This committee pre- sented majority and minority report. Ine majority report favored seating the delegation headed by Yancey; the minor ny report favored seating the delegation heaied by Hilliard. The two reports pro- vokad discussion, and Mir. Hilliard asked to De heard iE advocacy of the minority report. This privilege was granted. M-. 1 Hilliard was recent convert to Democ-
 racy. and on this account there was some question among the old veterans of the
 party as to the propriety of placing lead- ership in the hands of such recent con- vert. He had evidently heard of this comment, and referring to it he quoted in line style and with happy effect from Scott's Marmion the lines which the au- thor attributed to Marrnion in his inter view with Douglas:
 And If thou said'st I am not peer
 To any Lord in Scotland here,
 Lowland or highland, far or near,
 Lord Angus, thou hast lied"
 This utterance was applauded to the echo by his friends. Yancey was also .ac- corded the privilege of speaking in sup port of the majority report, and in reply to Hilliard. Replying to that part of Hilliards speech quoted above, he saii: The gentleman did not go far enough in his quotation from Scott's poem; I Will finish the quotation for him, and show how the boastful speaker of the words quoted fled from the wrathful Douglas" He then quoted the lines beginning:
 Lord Marmion turnd well was his mead And dashed the r0vvelS in his stood h .- V and so showing the flight of Marmion from the castle. There was then tre- mendous cheering from Yancey's friends. The majority report was adopted and the Yancey delegates seated. Unconsciousiy, perhaps. history was being made that affected the destiny of thousands. Under the lead of the fiery, impetuous, but inl- polite Yancey, the convention adopted resolution instructing the delegates to the Charleston Convention to withdraw from the convention unless 1t adopted as part of it's platform the right of the Southern people to carry slavery into the territories. This resolution was ops posed by many in the convention. amo.'g others by ex-Governor John A. Winston, who notwithstanding such opposition was sent as delegate to the Charleston Con- ventlon.
 Now mark the sequel When it was set- tied at Charleston that this sine qua non of the Alabama Democracy would not be adopted, many of the leading and infiu- ential delegates from the border States. with other gentlemen or prominence, ap- preached Mir. Yancey and succeeded in securing his consent to disregard the in structions. provided a majority or his as- sociate delegates would agree to such a course
 The Alabama delegates were called to- gether and the matter was submitted to them Then it was that the tenacious ex- Governor took the position, that while he had opposed the resolution of instructions, yet the State convention had adopted it, and therefore the delegates had no right to disregard 1t. This view was adopted by a majority of the delegation and the effort to have the delegation disregard the instructions proved fruitless. The Charles ton Convention adjourned to meet in Bal timore in June following. The delegates did meet there. but never acted together as one convention. They divided from the very first Two distinct conventions were held at the same time. one nominating Douglas of Illinois for President and Fitz- patrick of Alabama for Vice-President. The latter declining the nomination Her schel V. Johnson of Georgia was substi- AhtSu AAi HIS P4aSSI.
 The other convention nominated Breck- inridge of Kentucky for President and Lane of Oregon for Yice-President.
 This, division of the Democratic party resulted in the election of Lincoln for President, secession and civil war with all it's devastating horrors.
 The writer was in Baltimore and as a spectator attended the convention that nominated .Breckinridge and Lane. There are some rather remarkable features con- nected with this convntion. It was pre-, sided over by Caleb Cushing if Massa- chusettss who had been chosen President of the entire convention at Charleston. He made the declaration on taking the chair that he appeared there to preside over the deliberations of the National Demo- cratic party of the United States. This was received with great applause.