with success beyond their brightest expectations. And so may our country's cause advance until every column in the temple of freedom shall be wreathed with amaranthine flowers, and every corner of our land become an altar to thy praise and glory.

All of which we beg in the name of our blessed Redeemer. Amen.

Mr. THOMPSON, of Mississippi, then submitted the following resolution, which was agreed to:

Resolved, That a committee of one person from each State, to be selected by the delegates thereof, be appointed to select the permanent officers of this convention.

Under the above resolution the respective delegations selected the following gentlemen to act as the

COMMITTEE ON ORGANIZATION.

Maine-W. C. Allen.

New Hampshire-J. R. Redding.
Vermont-Lucius B. Peck.
Massachusetts-Caleb Cushing.
Rhode Island-Philip Allen, jr.
Connecticut-J. T. Pratt.
New York-Zadoc Pratt.
New Jersey-Samuel Westcott.
Pennsylvania-H. B. Wright.
Delaware-A. P. Shannon.
Maryland-Hugh Ely.
Virginia-Henry A. Wise.

North Carolina-Robert P. Dick.
South Carolina-

Georgia-Joseph Sturgis, J. H.
Lumpkin.

Alabama-J. W. Bridges.
Mississippi-Jacob Thompson.
Louisiana-W. G. Kendall.
Ohio-Wm. Kennon.

Kentucky-G. W. Stevenson.
Tennessee-J. K. Howard.
Indiana-Finley Bigger.
Illinois-Thomas L. Harris.
Missouri-Montgomery Blair.
Arkansas-N. B. Burrow.
Michigan-J. H. Harmon.
Florida-David L. Yulee.
Iowa-W. F. Coolbaugh.
Wisconsin-J. A. Bryan.
Texas-W. P. Duval.
California-Chas. Loring.

Mr. WRIGHT, of Pennsylvania, submitted the following resolution : Resolved, That all persons, except delegates, alternates, and reporters of the public press, be excluded from the platform of this hall.

Mr. W. remarked that he had been informed by the committee who had this subject in charge that the platform was abundantly large to accommodate the delegations, alternates, and reporters of the press present.

Mr. THURMAN, of Ohio, moved to strike out of the resolution the word alternates.

On motion of Mr. WARD, of New York, the resolution of Mr. WRIGHT was then laid on the table, for the purpose of enabling him to offer the following resolution :

Resolved, That a committee of one delegate from each State be selected by the delegations thereof, who shall examine and report upon the credentials of members of this convention.

The resolution was agreed to and the committee selected. The State of Georgia, having two sets of delegates present, declined to appoint a member on the committee, and gave notice that each set of delegates had appointed one of its members to advocate before the committee their claims to recognition.

The following are the

COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS.

Maine-Thos. D. Jones.

Massachusetts-Isaac Davis.

New Hampshire-Edmund Burke. Rhode Island-W. B. Lawrence. Vermont-Isaac Bowdin.

Connecticut―J. W. Stedman.

New York-J. W. Nye.
New Jersey-J. C. Potts.
Pennsylvania-Isaac P. Flanaken.
Delaware-A. H. Wickersham.
Maryland-Jarvis Spencer.
Virginia-W. C. Flournoy.
North Carolina-Abram C. Rencher.
Alabama-John M. Malone.
Mississippi-Wm. McWillie.
Louisiana-John McVey.

Mr. BURROW, of Arkansas, offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee on Organization be instructed to report rules for the govern ment of this convention, and that, in the meantime, the rules of the last convention be th rules of this body.

On motion of Mr. THURMAN, of Ohio, the convention adjourned to 5 o'clock, p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The convention met, and was called to order by the President, pro tem. Mr. THOMPSON, of Mississippi, chairman of the Committee on Organization, submitted the following report:

REPORT ON ORGANIZATION.

The committee appointed to report officers for the permanent organization of the convention and rules for its government, make the following report:

For President.

Hon. JOHN W. DAVIS, of Indiana.

For Vice Presidents.

E. C. West, of New York.
S. C. Pavatt, of Tennessee.
E. Barksdale, of Mississippi.
William Stewart, of Indiana.
F. Crittenden, of Connecticut.
W. A. Hacker, of Illinois.
E. B. Bartlett, of Kentucky.

Secretaries.

L. Y. Lusk, of Louisiana.
S. H. Ayer, of New Hampshire.
O. S. Dewey, of North Carolina.
Saml. D. Patterson, of Pennsylvania.
C. Pryor, of Virginia.

David Noggle, of Wisconsin.

The committee also reported the following resolutions on rules, which were adopted:

1. Resolved, That the rules of the House of Representatives, as far as applicable for the government of the convention, be adopted as the rules of this convention.

2. Resolved, That two-thirds of the whole number of votes given shall be necessary to a nomination of candidates for president and vice-president of the United States by this convention. 3. Resolved, That, in voting upon any question which may arise in the proceedings of this convention, the votes shall be taken by States, at the request of any one State, each State to be entitled to the number of votes to which said State is entitled in the next electoral college, without regard to the number of delegates in attendance, the manner in which said vote is to be cast to be decided by the delegation of each State for itself.

Mr. CREIGHTON, of Ohio, moved to reconsider the vote by which the second resolution reported by the Committee on Organization was adopted.

A motion was made to lay the motion to reconsider on the table. On demand of the State of Maryland, the question was taken by States, and the vote resulted as follows:

Yeas.-Maine, 8; New Hampshire, 5; Vermont, 6; Massachusetts, 13; Rhode Island, 4; Connecticut, 6; New York, 31; New Jersey, 7; Pennsylvania, 27; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 8; Virginia, 15; North Carolina, 10; Georgia, 10; Alabama, 9; Mississippi, 7; Louisiana, 6; Ohio, 7; Kentucky, 12; Tennessee, 12; Indiana, 13; Illinois, 11; Missouri, 9; Arkansas, 4; Michigan, 6; Florida, 3; Texas, 4; Iowa, 4; Wisconsin, 5; California, 4-total 269.

Nays.-New York, 3; Ohio,* 10—total, 13.

The report of the Committee on Organization was then adopted.

On motion, a committee of three, consisting of Messrs. Stevenson, of Kentucky, Wise, of Virginia, and Thompson, of Mississippi, were appointed to wait upon the president and vice presidents elect, inform them of their election, and conduct them to their seats; which duty was performed by the committee.

The Hon. JOHN W. DAVIS, on taking the chair, addressed the convention, as follows:

Gentlemen of the convention: I return you my sincere and cordial acknowledgments for the honor you have conferred upon me in calling me to preside over your deliberations. Although not altogether unused to the duties of the chair, I approach it on this occasion with great doubt as to my success in presiding over so large an assembly. I ask you, by way of assisting me to discharge the arduous duties and responsibilities of the situation, to bear in mind that good old maxim, that "order is Heaven's first law." I shall call largely for your forbearance; may I not say I shall ask even more? I shall ask you to exercise that higher Christian virtue called "forgiveness," not only towards the chair,

*The residue of the delegation declined voting.

but towards each other. I ask also, and I conjure you, as fellow-democrats, embarked in the great cause of democracy-I conjure you by all the obligations that rest upon us as a party-that you will cultivate harmony, conciliation, compromise-" everything for principles, nothing for men.

Mr. KETTLEWELL, of Baltimore, chairman of the citizens" committee of reception, &c., stated that the committee selected by the democrats of Baltimore to provide accommodations for the convention, found it difficult to insure the observance of the necessary regulations, or to explain them to the delegates, that committee having no voice in the convention. He therefore requested, on behalf of the committee of citizens, that a committee of five members of the convention be appointed to co-operate with that committee in arranging and designating the seats for members, the mode of admission to the hall, and in preserving the order of members in entering and taking their seats; which request having been complied with, The president appointed, as such committee, Mr. Hallett, of Massachusetts, Mr. Angell, of New York, Mr. Van Dyke, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sayles, of Rhode Island, and Mr. Welsh, of Virginia.

A motion was made that the convention adjourn to 10 o'clock, a. m.,

to-morrow.

Mr. RANTOUL, of Massachusetts, desired to make a correction in the journal with regard to the vote upon the two-thirds rule; but the motion to adjourn not being withdrawn, he said he would do so in the morning. The question being then taken upon the motion to adjourn, it was agreed to.

And thereupon, at 7 o'clock, the convention adjourned.

SECOND DAY-WEDNESDAY MORNING, June 2, 1852.

At 10 o'clock the PRESIDENT called the convention to order. The reading of the journal was dispensed with. Prayer by the Rev. Mr. Plummer, of Pennsylvania.

B. B. FRENCH, esq., at the request of the President, took his place as one of the secretaries:

The PRESIDENT announced that the presentation of reports from the several committees was the first business in order.

Mr. BURROW, of Arkansas, offered the following resolutions:

Resolved, That a committee of one from each State be appointed to report the resolutions composing the Baltimore platform.

Resolved, That the member from each State, on said committee, be named by the delegation of the State from which he shall be taken, and that said committee have power to elect their chairman from their own body, or the body of the convention.

66

Mr. CHARLICK, of New York, moved to amend by striking out one member from each State," and inserting "two."

Mr. BROWN, of Tennessee, offered the following resolution in lieu of the resolutions offered by Mr. Burrow, to wit:

Resolved, That a committee of one from each State be appointed, to whom all resolutions in relation to the creed or platform of the democratic party shall be referred on presentation, without debate.

The question recurring on Mr. Charlick's amendment,

Mr. BURROW moved to lay the resolution and amendments on the table; which motion prevailed.

Mr. BORDEN, of Indiana, moved that a committee of one from each State be appointed to report persons to constitute the democratic national committee. Adopted, nem. con.

Mr PHILLIPS, of Alabama, offered the following resolutions, to wit:

Whereas, the several acts passed by the thirty-first Congress, known as the compromise acts, though received with disfavor by large portions of the people of the southern and southwestern States, has been acquiesced in by the people of those States, in the determination to abide by them rather than to hazard the peace and harmony of the Union:

And whereas, also the act passed at the same session, amendatory of the act of 1793, respecting "fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters," constitutes an essential part of that series of measures which has been submitted to the country as an "adjustment" or "final settlement" of the slavery agitation: ThereforeResolved, That the act herein referred to, and known as the fugitive-slave act, is clothed with the highest sanctions, and that good faith, as well as legal obligations, demand its full and faithful execution.

Resolved, That the national democratic party is based upon the equality and prosperity of the States and the perpetuity of their Union; it will therefore sternly resist all measures which tend to impair the one or destroy the other.

Mr. STURGIS, of Georgia, moved that these resolutions be laid on the table, and ordered to be printed, and made the special order of the day for to-morrow; which was disagreed to.

Mr. CHARLICK, of New York, offered the following amendment:

Resolved, That it is the duty of the federal government, so far as its power extends, to secure to each section of the confederacy the undisturbed enjoyment of its constitutional rights, and that a rigid and faithful enforcement of the act passed on the 18th of September, A. D. 1850, providing for the reclamation of fugitives from labor, is indispensably necessary to the perpetuity of the Union; that all attempts to impair its efficacy or weaken its guarantees, should be discountenanced and resisted by every well-wisher of the republic. But before any question was taken,

Mr. BROWN, of Tennessee, moved to take up the resolutions of Mr. Burrow, of Arkansas; which motion was agreed to.

Mr. HOGUE, of Illinois, moved the previous question; which motion was seconded, and

The convention voted that the main question should now be put. And the question recurring on Mr. Charlick's amendment, it was rejected.

The question was then taken on striking out the original resolution of Mr. Burrow and inserting the resolution of Mr. Brown, which was carried in the affirmative.

Mr. Brown's resolution was then adopted.

Mr. BRIGHT, of Indiana, moved the following resolutions; which were referred to the Committee on the Platform.

Resolved, That the democratic party of the Union, faithful now, as in times past, to the compacts of the federal constitution, regard it as a primary duty to abide by the series of measures known as the Compromise, and will deprecate any attempt to impair their efficacy, as tending to weaken the bonds of our national Union.

Resolved, That the fugitive-slave law, being in strict accordance to the requirements of the constitution, its execution and maintenance are demanded as an act of justice to the States and people of the South, and as a guarantee to all the sections of our beloved country that the constitutional rights of none shall ever be impaired.

Mr. THOMPSON, of Mississippi, moved to adjourn until 4 o'clock, p. m. Motions were also made to adjourn till 5 and till 3 o'clock this evening. The PRESIDENT stated the question to be upon the longest time first. The question being then taken upon the motion to adjourn till 5 o'clock, it was rejected.

The question then recurred upon the motion to adjourn till 4 o'clock. Mr. HALLETT said that if the convention will adjourn till 5 o'clock this