ed, 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.

On June 23d, the convention proceeded to ballot. Douglas received
173-1/2 votes; Guthrie 10; and Breckinridge 5; scattering 3. On the
second ballot, Douglas received all but thirteen votes; whereupon it
was moved and carried unanimously with a tremendous shout that
Douglas, having received "two-thirds of all votes given in this
convention," should be the nominee of the party.[848] Colonel
Richardson then begged leave to have the Secretary read a letter from
Senator Douglas. He had carried it in his pocket for three days, but
the course of the bolters, he said, had prevented him from using
it.[849] The letter was of the same tenor as that written to Dean
Richmond. There is little likelihood that an earlier acquaintance with
its contents would have changed the course of events, since so long
as the platform stood unaltered, the choice of Douglas was a logical
and practical necessity. Douglas and the platform were one and
inseparable.

Meantime the bolters completed their destructive work by organizing a
separate convention in Baltimore, by adopting the report of the
majority in the Charleston convention as their platform, and by
nominating John C. Breckinridge as their candidate for the presidency.
Lane of Oregon was named for the second place on the ticket for much
the same reason that Fitzpatrick of Alabama, and subsequently Herschel
V. Johnson of Georgia, was put upon the Douglas ticket. Both factions
desired to demonstrate that they were national Democrats, with