Was Douglas cognizant of the situation?  While his supporters did not abate their noisy demonstrations, there is some ground to believe that he did not share their optimistic spirit.  At all events, in spite of his earlier injunctions, only eleven delegates from Illinois attended the convention, while Pennsylvania sent fifty-five, Tennessee twenty-seven, and Indiana thirty-nine.  Had Douglas sent home the intimation that the game was up?  The first ballot told the story of his defeat.  Common rumor had predicted that a large part of the Northwest would support him.  Only fifteen of his twenty votes came from that quarter, and eleven of these were cast by Illinois.  It was said that the Indiana delegates would divert their strength to him, when they had cast one ballot for General Lane; but Indiana cast no votes for Douglas.  Although his total vote rose to ninety-two and on the thirty-first ballot he received the highest vote of any of the candidates, there was never a moment when there was the slightest prospect of his winning the prize.[391]

On the thirty-fifth ballot occurred a diversion.  Virginia cast fifteen votes for Franklin Pierce.  The schemers had launched their project.  But it was not until the forty-ninth ballot that they started the avalanche.  Pierce then received all but six votes.  Two Ohio delegates clung to Douglas to the bitter end.  With the frank manliness which made men forget his less admirable qualities, Douglas dictated this dispatch to the convention:  “I congratulate the Democratic party upon the nomination, and Illinois will give Franklin Pierce a larger majority than any other State in the Union,”—­a promise which he was not able to redeem.

If Douglas had been disposed to work out his political prospects by mathematical computation, he would have arrived at some interesting conclusions from the balloting in the convention.  Indeed, very probably he drew some deductions in his own intuitive way, without any adventitious aid.  Of the three rivals, Cass received the most widely distributed vote, although Douglas received votes from as many States.  While they drew votes from twenty-one States, Buchanan received votes from only fifteen.  Cass and Douglas obtained their highest percentages of votes from the West; Buchanan found his strongest support in the South.  Douglas and Cass received least support in the Middle States; Buchanan had no votes from the West.  But while Cass had, on his highest total, thirty per centum of the whole vote of the Middle States, Douglas was relatively weak in the Middle States rather than in the South.  On the basis of these figures, it is impossible to justify the statement that he could expect nothing in future from New England and Pennsylvania, but would look to the South for support for the presidency.[392] On the contrary, one would say that his strong New England following would act as an equipoise, preventing too great a dip toward the Southern end of the scales.