Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

The PRESIDENT: No call is necessary under any resolution yet passed.

The PRESIDENT announced the reception of the following invitation :

CHICAGO, May 16, 1860.

To the President of the Republican Convention :

The Board of Trade of this city hereby invite the delegates to your Convention, and other visitors to our city, to a short excursion on Lake Michigan; the excursion to leave the dock at Bush Street bridge, near the Richmond House, at five o'clock this afternoon.

[blocks in formation]

Hon. AARON GOODRICH, of Minnesota: I have been requested, in behalf of the Board of Trade of this city, to elicit, so far as may be by a mere remark and not a speech, what shall be the sentiment of this Convention touching that proposition from the Board of Trade. When I cast my eye about this vast tabernacle, that has been reared by the skill, the taste and the munificence of the ladies and gentlemen of Chicago, and which has been tendered to the great Republican cause without money and without price [great applause], I apprehend that every delegate in this Convention will respond aye to the invitation. I have nothing more to say. [Great applause.]

Mr. DUDLEY, of New Jersey: I move, Sir, that there be a committee of five appointed to inform the Board of Trade that we accept the invitation for five o'clock, and that the committee be appointed by the Chair.

A DELEGATE FROM IOWA: I move you that it be embraced in that resolution that the thanks of this Convention be tendered to the Board of Trade for their very liberal offer.

Amendment accepted, and resolution as amended adopted.

[Three cheers for the ladies of Chicago were called for and heartily responded to.]

Mr. GREELEY: Have we provided for the Committee on Platform?

The PRESIDENT: We have not.

Mr. GREELEY: Then I move we have a call of the states for the purpose of appointing a Committee on Platform.

The PRESIDENT: Will that be in order until after the permanent organization?

Mr. CARTER, of Ohio: I move the appointment of a committee of one from each state by the respective delegations from the several states, to report resolutions and a platform, and that the committee be made up in the ordinary manner by calling the roll of the states.

The PRESIDENT: The gentleman from Oregon has already moved that.

Mr. GREELEY: I withdraw mine.

Mr. B. OYLER, of Indiana: I move to lay the motion on the table, until after the permanent organization.

Gov. REEDER, of Pennsylvania: Will the Chair inform the Convention what motion is before it?

The PRESIDENT stated the motion of Mr. Carter.

Gov. REEDER: I rise to oppose the motion. It is the business of this Convention now to perfect its organization. You have appointed a Committee on Credentials, on the Order of Business, and on Permanent Organization, and because we are not organized it seems to me improper.

A VOICE (on the opposite side of the house): Speak louder-we cannot hear you.

Gov. REEDER: All I have to say is not worth talking to those at the other end of the platform. I merely desire to say, that I think this motion, at this time, is out of place. It will be time enough to provide for a platform and resolutions when we shall have organized this Convention, and we are appointing committees now simply because we are not organized. This matter of a platform and resolutions is not a preliminary affair. It is not at all necessary to our organization, and therefore it is upon the same footing with the nomination of a candidate, and should wait until the permanent and perfect organization of the Convention before it should be entered upon.

Mr. CARTER: I made that motion with the view of putting the Convention at work; whether the resolution is passed to-day or to-morrow, it will be passed by the same body of men, and with the view to the declaration of their sentiments. It is a laborious work, and ought to be performed while the Convention is in its vigor. The Chairman cannot fail to have remarked the indisposition to labor, when within fifteen minutes after getting together, a pleasure excursion is voted here. I hope it will be a pleasant one, but I think before we take it, we had better designate those who will enter upon the performances of the sphere of labor in this Convention, and we can do it as well now as at any time.

Mr. ELI THAYER, of Oregon: I am opposed to the amendment which has been offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I do not consider that the mere appointment of this committee is at all inconsistent with the preliminary business of this Convention. It is not proposed and it is not expected that this committee will report to-day. It is important, as the gentleman who preceded me has said, that this committee should have ample time to consider what shall be the platform of the Republican party in the coming campaign. This, sir, is the great burden of the work of this Convention, and I hope there will be no time lost in appoint

ing this committee, and that they themselves will lose no time in the labor that is entrusted to their hands. I am, therefore, opposed to this amendment, which proposes delay. The states and territories are ready to name the man who shall constitute for each a member of this committee. The State of Oregon is ready now. [Cries of “Question.”]

Mr. HAZARD, of Rhode Island: The gentlemen who advocated the postponement are right in theory, but it is obvious that the practical operations of this Convention would be retarded by a postponement. I hope, therefore, the motion to postpone will be withdrawn.

Gov. REEDER: The gentleman says we are right. If we are right why should we be voted down? It seems to me that when gentlemen concede that we are right, there is generally nothing remaining to do but to carry out the right. We are transgressing the right here, and for the purpose of what? For the purpose of convenience, and because it can make no difference. It may make no difference now, but the time may come, and will come, when it will make a difference, and then this action will be cited as a precedent. I am opposed to making bad precedents. I believe that the only way to pursue is to do it right and in order. If you appoint a committee, what is to prevent that committee from reporting to this Convention before you have made a permanent organization? And if they do so report, what is to prevent a majority of this Convention passing upon the resolutions and platform before you are organized? Do the gentlemen desire to see that? Do they desire to establish a precedent such as that, which may be used at some great crisis in the future for purposes of evil? It is admitted that we are right, and it seems to me that there the question ends.

Mr. CARTER: The gentleman from Pennsylvania is begging a little more than I am willing to grant. I do not feel that the first movement is right. There is no such concession in

this quarter of the hall. [Loud cries of "Question," which interrupting the speaker, he took his seat.]

The motion of Mr. Oyler, of Indiana, to lay over the motion to appoint a Committee on Platform and Resolutions until after the permanent organization of the Convention, was then put to vote and lost.

Hon. J. T. HOGEBOOM, of New York: I move to amend the motion to appoint a Committee on Platform and Resolutions, by adding, "that the committee report as soon as convenient after the permanent organization of the Convention."

Mr. CARTER: I accept the amendment.

Mr. OYLER: We have already appointed a Committee on Credentials, and for what? To know authoritatively and legally who have a right to a seat upon this floor. Now, sir, we are going on to provide for the most important thing that this Convention will do, except the designation of the man who shall bear our standard. I shall not attempt to say that there is one man on this floor not legally entitled to his seat; but we have no evidence of the fact. It is true, we have entered upon this floor, and have arranged ourselves at the different points which we designated by the names of the states, and the fair presumption is, that the men who fill these seats are honestly entitled to them; but that is no proof of the fact, and I undertake to say that this proceeding is against all precedent, and a bad precedent to be set by a Republican Convention. Why this haste? We will "work in haste and repent at leisure." What harm can be done by deferring this until after the Committee on Permanent Organization report, and the Convention organizes itself as a Republican National Convention? We are not that yet. I hope the delegates will consider that they will stop. Let us be organized before we do, or undertake to do, the most important work we have met to accomplish.

« ZurückWeiter »