Year: 1866

when the sun arose this morning he was
laboring under an evident embarrassment. 1t
was for that reason that he hid his troubled
countenance behind a mottled cloud and con-
graduated himself upon the wretched little
dIIzzle which his voluntary absence thus per-
mitted to continue.


The sun was not the only individual who
labored under an embarrassment The city of
Philadelphia, taken as a mass, was equally
disturbed Everybody knew the cause OF his
neighbours excitement, out that only made the
matter worse. 1t was the great day appointed
for the great meeting Of the great Convention in
the great wigwam.


This Convention, as our readers have already
been made aware, is composed of delegates from
nearly every State and Territory in the Union.
Its assembling in our midst is certainly mo-
mentous event, for it has not had a counterpart
since the adjournment of the celebrated "Peace
Congress-" in Washington, on the 9th of Feb
ruary, 1861. For over five years the representa-
tive men of the different sections of our country
have encountered each other only at swords
points in the shock of battle.


1t was ON account of this great event
that the city was thrown into such an
unusual commotion. And on all sides was
heard the universal desire to witness the pro-
ceedings of the assembage. A slight canvass OF
the subject soon convinced nine hundred and
ninety-nine men out of a thousand that the
thing was an utter impossibility. Business
must come in for attention, even before politics.
with the mass of the people. And then, even
tLose who had the leisure time hanging on
their hands grew pale at thoughts of the
fearful, surging multitude who would be actu-
ated by a like curiosity with themselves.
Should they endure the jam and pressure of this
crowd? Assuredly not, if it could possibly be
avoided. 1t was just at this point that the mag
nlfcent enterprise of THE EVENING TELEGRAPH
REQUIRED to them, and they fetched a sigh of
relief as they abandoned the idea of personal
attendance upon every sitting OF the great Con-
vention. 1t would answer just as well, so ran
the argument, for every one to remain at home;
for in the evening he could take up his TELE
GRAPH, and there he would find every jot and
title of the days proceedings spread before him
in clear type OF course there was nothing at
all unusual in this; it was the manner ia which
the managers of that journal expected to obtain
their news, which created an excitement
scarcely less intense than that produced by
the meeting of the Convention itself. In these
days telegram from over the ocean has become
a commonplace and everyday occurrence; but
a telegram from across the street, or around the
corner, is indeed novelty. The fact that The
EVENING TELEGRAPH had erected from one ex-
tremity of the city to the other a line of tele-
graph wires for their own exclusive use in OBJ
tanning the latest possible proceedings of the
Convention, was universally conceded to be a
feat hitherto unsurpassed in the world of Jour-
nalism.


In the meantime the preliminares of the
Convention were making fearful headway, and
the reporters of The TELEGRAPH were kept upon
the tramp In search of items. The scene that
they encountered at the Continental Hotel last
evening and this morning was almost bewilder-
ing. That spacious edlace was full, in every
sense Of the term, with dense mass OF
humanity, and the most marvellous part of the
story is the fact that every man whom you
there encountered was delegate or an alter
naJe to the Convention. So great was the
crowd of guests that the proprietors of the
hotel had found it necessary to ill several of the
parlors and passage-ways with cots for their
accommodation.


Notwithstanding the fact that every train
arriving in the city for days past has brought a
large instalment OF the delegates and their alter
mates, II is an undisputed fact that many of the
most prominent men who were expected to par
ticipate iD the deliberations of the Convention
are still absent, and not likely to be present at
any time during its session. Ewing, of Ohio,
who had been fixed upon as the permanent
chairman, was given up several days ago.
In his absence, the name that met with most
favor for this prominent position was probably
that OF the Hon. Robert @. winthrop, OF Massa-
chusetts. But last evening the delegates were
thrown into commohon by the an nouncement
that he also would be present only In spirit.
which has tended greatly TO assuage the grief
caused by mis- absence:-


LETTER FROM ROBERT o. WINTHROP.
BROoKLYN, August 9-HOn. LeVeLett Saltonstall.
My Dear I'll am sincerely sensible to the honor
conferred upon mo yesterday bY the meeting ~
FAneul Hall over which you presided, IN placing
my name ct the head OF the Delegates at Largo to