n. The first
vote disclosed the full strength of Douglas to be 152. He required
202 to be declared the nominee. After an indefinite number of
ballots, it was found impossible to make a nomination; and on the
3d of May the convention adjourned to meet in Baltimore on the 18th
of June. In the intervening weeks it was hoped that a more harmonious
spirit would return to the party. But the expectation was vain.
The differences were more pronounced than ever when the convention
re-assembled, and, all efforts to find a common basis of action
having failed, the convention divided. The Southern delegates with
California and Oregon, and with some scattering members from other
States, among whom were Caleb Cushing and Benjamin F. Butler of
Massachusetts, nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for
President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice-President. The
Northern convention, with a few scattering votes from the South,
nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President, and Herschel V. Johnson
of Georgia for Vice-President. Of the seventeen States that made
up the Breckinridge convention, it was deemed probable that he
could carry all. Of the sixteen that voted for Douglas, it was
difficult to name one in which with a divided party he could be
sure of victory. United in support of either candidate, the party
could have made a formidable contest, stronger in the North with
Douglas, stronger in the South with Breckinridge. Had the Democracy
presented Douglas and Breckinridge as their National nominees, they
would have combined all the elements of strength in their party.
But passion and prejudice prevented. The South was implacable
toward Douglas, and deliberately resolved to accept defeat rather
than secure a victory under his lead.

DISRUPTION OF THE DEMOCRACY.

The disruption of the Democracy was undoubtedly hastened by the
political events which had occurred since the adjournment at
Charleston. An organization, styling itself the Constitutional-
Union Party, representing the successors of the Old Whigs and
Americans, had met in Baltimore, and nominated John Bell of Tennessee
for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice-President.
The strength of the party was in the South. In the slave States
it formed the only opposition to the Democratic party, and was as
firm in defense of the rights of the slave-holder as its rival.
Its members had not been so ready