The Democrats Divided.-When the Democratic convention met at Charleston in the spring of 1860,a few months after Brown's execution,it soon became clear that there was danger ahead.Between the extreme slavery advo-cates of the Far South and the so-called pro-slavery Democrats of the Douglas type,there was a chasm which no appeals to party loyalty could bridge.As the spokesman of the West,Douglas knew that,while the North was not abolition-ist,it was passionately set against an extension of slavery into the territories by act of Congress;that squatter sovereignty was the mildest kind of compromise acceptable to the farmers whose votes would determine the fate of the election.Southern leaders would not accept his opinion.Yancey,speaking for Alabama,refused to palter with any plan not built on the proposition that slavery was in itself right.He taunted the Northern Democrats with taking the view that slav-ery was wrong,but that they could not do anything about it.That,he said,was the fatal error-the cause of all discord,the source of "Black Republicanism,"as well as squatter sovereignty.The gauntlet was thus thrown down at the feet of the Northern delegates:"You must not apologize for slavery;you must declare it right;you must advocate its extension."The challenge,so bluntly put,was as bluntly answered."Gentlemen of the South,"responded a delegate from Ohio,"you mistake us.You mistake us.We will not do it."
For ten days the Charleston convention wrangled over the platform and balloted for the nomination of a candidate.Douglas,though in the lead,could not get the two-thirds vote required for victory.For more than fifty times the roll of the convention was called without a decision.Then in sheer desperation the convention adjourned to meet later at Baltimore.When the delegates again assembled,their passions ran as high as ever.The division into twoirreconcilable factions was unchanged.Uncompromising delegates from the South withdrew to Richmond,nominated John C.Breckinridge of Kentucky for President,and put forth a platform asserting the rights of slave owners in the territories and the duty of the federal government to protect them.The delegates who remained at Baltimore nominated Douglas and endorsed his doctrine of squatter sovereignty.
The Constitutional Union Party.-While the Democratic party was being disrupted,a fragment of the former Whig party,known as the Constitutional Unionists,held a convention at Baltimore and selected national candidates:John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from Massachusetts.A melan-choly interest attached to this assembly.It was mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and Webster,cherished leaders now dead and gone.In their platform they sought to exorcise the evil spirit of par-tisanship by inviting their fellow citizens to "support the Constitution of the country,the union of the states,and the enforcement of the laws."The party that campaigned on this grand sentiment only drew laughter from the Demo-crats and derision from the Republicans and polled less than one-fourth the votes.
The Republican Convention.-With the Whigs definitely forced into a sepa-rate group,the Republican convention at Chicago was fated to be sectional in character,although five slave states did send delegates.As the Democrats were split,the party that had led a forlorn hope four years before was on the high road to success at last.New and powerful recruits were found.The advocates of a high protective tariff and the friends of free homesteads for farmers and workingmen mingled with enthusiastic foes of slavery.While still firm in their opposition to slavery in the territories,the Republicans went on record in favor of a homestead law granting free lands to settlers and approved customs duties designed "to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country."The platform was greeted with cheers which,according to the steno-graphic report of the convention,became loud and prolonged as the protective tariff and homestead planks were read.
Having skillfully drawn a platform to unite the North in opposition to slavery and the planting system,the Republicans were also adroit in their selection of a candidate.The tariff plank might carry Pennsylvania,a Democratic state;but Ohio,Indiana,and Illinois were equally essential to success at the polls.The southern counties of these states were filled with settlers from Virginia,North Carolina,and Kentucky who,even if they had no love for slavery,were no friends of abolition.Moreover,remembering the old fight on the United States Bank in Andrew Jackson's day,they were suspicious of men from the East.
Accordingly,they did not favor the candidacy of Seward,the leading Republican statesman and "favorite son"of New York.