These nominations rendered it still less prudent for Northern Democrats to accept a candidate with stronger Southern leanings than Douglas.  No Northern Democrat could carry the Northern States on a Southern platform; and no Southern Democrat would accept a nomination on the Douglas platform.  Unless some middle ground could be found,—­and the debates in the Senate had disclosed none,—­the Democrats of the North were bound to adhere to Douglas as their first and only choice in the Baltimore convention.

When the delegates reassembled in Baltimore, the factional quarrel had lost none of its bitterness.  Almost immediately the convention fell foul of a complicated problem of organization.  Some of the original delegates, who had withdrawn at Charleston, desired to be re-admitted.  From some States there were contesting delegations, notably from Louisiana and Alabama, where the Douglas men had rallied in force.  Those anti-Douglas delegates who were still members of the convention, made every effort to re-admit the delegations hostile to him.  The action of the convention turned upon the vote of the New York delegation, which would be cast solidly either for or against the admission of the contesting delegations.  For three days the fate of Douglas was in the hands of these thirty-five New Yorkers, in whom the disposition to bargain was not wanting.[845] It was at this juncture that Douglas wrote to Dean Richmond, the Deus ex machina in the delegation,[846] “If my enemies are determined to divide and destroy the Democratic party, and perhaps the country, rather than see me elected, and if the unity of the party can be preserved, and its ascendancy perpetuated by dropping my name and uniting upon some reliable non-intervention and Union-loving Democrat, I beseech you, in consultation with my friends, to pursue that course which will save the country, without regard to my individual interests.  I mean all this letter implies.  Consult freely and act boldly for the right."[847]

It was precisely the “if’s” in this letter that gave the New Yorkers most concern.  Where was the candidate who possessed these qualifications and who would be acceptable to the South?  On the fifth day of the convention, the contesting Douglas delegations were admitted.  The die was cast.  A portion of the Virginia delegation then withdrew, and their example was followed by nearly all the delegates from North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland.  If the first withdrawal at Charleston presaged the secession of the cotton States from the Union, this pointed to the eventual secession of the border States.