This was perfectly consistent with the previous opinions and public
conduct of Mr. Chase. He had supported the three amendments to the
constitution, and notwithstanding the censure of his Democratic
associates, he had been signally active and influential in
procuring the ratification by Ohio of the fifteenth amendment. In
addition to this, he was probably the only prominent Western
Democrat who was for the payment of the public debt in coin, and
in favor of a speedy return to specie payments.

When the convention assembled, on the first of June, neither the
talents and energy of Mr. Vallandigham nor the great name and
authority of the chief justice were sufficient to carry through, in
all its parts, the Dayton programme. The financial resolutions were
stricken out and the oft-defeated greenback theory, slightly
modified, was inserted in its place. Other important paragraphs of
Mr. Vallandigham were also omitted, in which "secession, slavery,
inequality before the law, and political inequality" were described
as "belonging to the dead past" and "buried out of sight." This
left as the new departure two resolutions, which were adopted only
after strong opposition.

"1. _Resolved, by the Democracy of Ohio_, That denouncing the
extraordinary means by which they were brought about, we recognize
as accomplished facts the three several amendments to the
constitution, recently adopted, and regard the same as no longer
political issues before the country.

"2.... The Democratic party pledges itself to the full, faithful,
and absolute enforcement of the constitution as it now is, so as to
secure equal rights to all persons under it, without distinction of
race, color, or condition."

The Democratic managers claim that by this movement they have taken
such a position that, at least equally with the Republicans, they
are entitled to the confidence and support of the early and earnest
friends of the principles of the three recent constitutional
amendments. They claim at the same time, in the same breath, that
they are entitled also to the confidence of the Democratic people
whom they have hitherto taught that the amendments were ratified by
force and fraud; that they are revolutionary and void, and that
they are a dangerous departure from the principles