Year: 1860


The two Democratic Conventions in Virginia
the Breckenridge Convention at tCnariottesvie' anu
the Douglas Convention at Staunton nave su'
journed without compromising their uinleaiaes'
All effeTts for paoifeation fsed Inc peihoefatic
party of the Old Dominion IS divided as II was
nsvs- ivide1 before, and the ancient prestige Of
old Virginia one of the unfaterng and ever re-
ljsoje Democratic States is gone, and gone forever
But one Of the NEST significant things about the
whole affair is a resolution adopted by each Con
gention, requiring the electors, if chosen by the
people, to cast the vote of the State in any way to
defeat Lincoln. We are bound to admit, and we
do SO with pleasure that this is sensible and a
patriotic determination. The split in the party in
Virginia almost certainly gives the vote of the
State to Bell--but even if the Bell ticket should
not be chosen, it practically amounts to abons the
same thing. Both sets of the Democratic electors
are pledged so to cast the vote of the State as to
defeat Lincoln, if that can possibly be done-and
as all the signs of the times go to show that Bell
and Everett are the real opponents OF Lincoln,
and offer the best prospect of defeating the sec
tonalists we regard Virginia as safe for the Union
candidates under any circumstances that may
occur!


This action Of the Virginia Democracy is thus
only an indirect mode of combining all the oppo-
sition to the Black Republicans upon single
ticket-a policy we have steadily advocated from
the beginning 1t is recognition of the fact that
the first and most important duty Of all patriots
Of all parties, is the defeat of Lincoln and Hamlin
Whether that can be best done with Bell or Breck-
inridge or Douglas, is point about which there
may be individual differences of opinion-but the
grand object is something upon which all parties
| in Virginia are thoroughly agreed. We constrae
this action of both wings Of the Virginia Deaoc-
racy as virtually release of their individual mem
bers from any obligation to support either ticket
and dispensation to such of them as think proper
TO rally around the Constitutional Union banner Of
Bell and Everett.


The disruption and division of the Virginia De-
mocracy is circumstance farmore suggestive and
significant than anything that has yet occurred in
the progress of the present canvass. Coming. as
it does upon the heels of the total reut of the
party in Kentucky, andits heavy losses in Missouri
Arkansas and North Carolina, it amounts virtually
to an abandonment of the contest in Virginia. that
hitherto impregnable stronghold of the Democracy
which has thus far withstood every assault of the
indomitable Opposition. In 1910 and lS4S, when
the Democracy were put to fight almost every
where else, they still held their position in the Old
Dominion. In no contest, State or Federal, have
they ever been beaten. But the seeds of discord,
so plentifully sown at Charleston and Baltimore
have germinated in all portions of the old Com
monwealth, from the fair plains of tide-water to
the romantic valleys of the Tenth Legion. There
is irrepressible conflict even in Virginia the
advance guard of the Southern Democratic
States. The scepter has departed, the power Of
its hitherto inYineible Democracy is at last de-
stroyed. That the party has become patriotic
only since il became powerless, is something of
which no one will complain, in view of the grand
results which the action of the Virginia Democ-
racy will produce in the final determination of the
Presidential contest.


The vote Of Virginia, we think, may be safely set
down for Bell and Everett. Either the Bell electors
will be chosen by the people, which is most prob
able; or else the Democratic electors, no matter
of which wing, will cast the vote of the State, in
accordance with the instructions of their respect
i've conventions, for Bell, as the only candidate
who can defeat the election of Lincoln. The first
step--Ee premier pas qui coate-has been taken
towards practical combination of the conserva-
tive elements Of all parties upon the Constitutional
Union ticket of Bell and Everett. The Old Do
minion, the border Democratic State of the South,
has set the patriotic example. It remains for the
other States of the South to second move
ment having in view 50 desirable an object as the
defeat of the dangerous sectional Black Republican
party of the North