well-known Democrat consisted in his having been on a foreign mission when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was under fire.  Still, Buchanan was reported “sound” on the essential features of this measure.  Before the national convention met, a well-organized movement was under way to secure the nomination of the Pennsylvanian.[527] Equally well-organized and even more noisy and demonstrative was the following of Douglas, as the delegates began to assemble at Cincinnati during the first week in June.

The first ballot in the convention must have been a grievous disappointment to Douglas and his friends.  While Buchanan received 135 votes and Pierce 122, he could muster only 33.  Only the Missouri and Illinois delegations cast their full vote for him.  Of the slave States, only Missouri and Kentucky gave him any support.  As the balloting continued, however, both Buchanan and Douglas gained at the expense of Pierce.  After the fourteenth ballot, Pierce withdrew, and the bulk of his support was turned over to Douglas.  Cass, the fourth candidate before the convention, had been from the first out of the running, his highest vote being only seven.  On the sixteenth ballot, Buchanan received 168 and Douglas 122.  Though Buchanan now had a majority of the votes of the convention, he still lacked thirty of the two-thirds required for a nomination.[528]

It was at this juncture that Douglas telegraphed to his friend Richardson, who was chairman of the Illinois delegation and a prominent figure in the convention, instructing him to withdraw his name.  The announcement was received with loud protestations.  The dispatch was then read:  “If the withdrawal of my name will contribute to the harmony of our party or the success of our cause, I hope you will not hesitate to take the step ... if Mr. Pierce or Mr. Buchanan, or any other statesman who is faithful to the great issues involved in the contest, shall receive a majority of the convention, I earnestly hope that all my friends will unite in insuring him two-thirds, and then making his nomination unanimous.  Let no personal considerations disturb the harmony or endanger the triumph of our principles."[529] Very reluctantly the supporters of Douglas obeyed their chief, and on the seventeenth ballot, James Buchanan received the unanimous vote of the convention.  For the second time Douglas lost the nomination of his party.

Douglas bore himself admirably.  At a mass-meeting in Washington,[530] he made haste to pledge his support to the nominee of the convention.  His generous words of commendation of Buchanan, as a man possessing “wisdom and nerve to enforce a firm and undivided execution, of the laws” of the majority of the people of Kansas, were uttered without any apparent misgivings.  Prophetic they certainly were not.  Douglas could approve the platform unqualifiedly, for it was a virtual indorsement of the principle which he had proclaimed from the housetops for the greater part of two years.  “The American