With Southern Democrats the feeling went somewhat deeper.  Forgetting how much they owed him in the past, and how much they might still gain through him in the future, they saw only that he was now their stumbling-block, the present obstacle to their full and final success.  It was the Douglas doctrine, squatter sovereignty, and “unfriendly legislation,” rather than the man, which they had come to oppose, and were determined to put down.  Any other individual holding these heresies would have been equally obnoxious.  They had no candidate of their own; they worshiped no single leader; but they followed a principle with unfaltering devotion.  They clung unswervingly not only to the property theory, but advanced boldly to its logical sequence—­Congressional protection to slavery in the Territories.

Of the convention’s preliminary work little is worth recording—­there were the clamor and protest of contesting delegations and small fire of parliamentary skirmishes, by which factions feel and measure each other’s strength.  Caleb Cushing was made permanent chairman, for the triple reason that he was from Massachusetts, that he was the ablest presiding officer in the body, and was for the moment filled with blind devotion to Southern views.  The actual temper of the convention was made manifest by the ready agreement of both extremes to join battle in making the platform before proceeding to the nomination of candidates.  The usual committee of one member from each State was appointed, and to it was referred the deluge of resolutions which had been showered upon the convention.

Had an amicable solution of the slavery issue been possible, this platform committee would have found it, for it labored faithfully to accomplish the miracle.  But after three days and nights of fruitless suggestion and persuasion, the committee reappeared in convention.  Upon four points they had come to either entire or substantial agreement.  In addition to re-affirming formally the Cincinnati platform of 1856, they advised the convention to favor, 1.  The faithful execution of the fugitive-slave law. 2.  The protection of naturalized citizens. 3.  The construction of a Pacific railroad. 4.  The acquisition of the Island of Cuba.  But upon the principal topic, the question of slavery in the Territories, they felt compelled to report that even an approximate unanimity was impossible.  In undisguised sorrow they proceeded to present two radically different reports.  The convention, not yet in the least realizing that the great Democratic party had suffered fatal shipwreck in the secret committee-room, listened eagerly to the reports and explanatory speeches of the majority and minority of the committee.