sented in this Convention, according to the votes prescribed by the Second Rule, shall be required to nominate a candidate for President and Vice-President. [Applause, and cries of "No! No!"]

The PRESIDENT: The first question is upon the first rule.

Mr. REEDER, of Pennsylvania: I desire to ask this House a question.

The PRESIDENT: Mr. Carter, of Ohio, has the floor.

Mr. REEDER: I beg the gentleman's pardon; I had not seen him.

Mr. CARTER, of Ohio: We are approaching a labor that is going to involve our constituencies in this Convention, and there is no report from the Committee on Credentials. [Voices: "We can't hear you."] Before entering upon the consideration of this report, which I perceive is to be litigated, I propose to go into the battle with the army organized. [Voices: "That's correct," "Good," and so on.] Therefore, I move the postponement of the consideration of the report of the Committee on the Order of Business, until we have a report from the Committee on Credentials.

Mr. REEDER: That is precisely the suggestion I was going

to make.

Mr. CARTER: I knew you were thinking just about right. The motion of Mr. Carter, to postpone the consideration of the report of the Committee on the Order of Business, was carried.

Mr. BENTON, of New Hampshire, and the Chairman of the Committee on Credentials, ask leave to submit the following report:

The Committee on Credentials report herewith the names and number of delegates from the several states as being elected, and deem it proper to say that the States of Pennsyl

vania and New Jersey have appointed four delegates from each Congressional District, and eight Senatorial delegates, instead of appointing delegates and alternates; and Iowa has appointed eight delegates from each Congressional District, and sixteen Senatorial delegates. [Laughter.] The Committee also present the names of the delegates present and duly elected from the District of Columbia and the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, leaving it for the Convention to decide whether they shall be permitted to vote in this Convention. All of which is respectfully presented in behalf of the Committee.

Mr. BENTON: The states and territories are specified, and I can read them if the Convention desire it, although the chairman did not deem it necessary, as they are in the specification accompanying the report.

Gov. REEDER: I desire to know if this committee has reported what states are represented and entitled to a vote in this Convention. Have they so reported?

Mr. BENTON: They have so reported.

Mr. DAVIS, of Massachusetts: I desire to have that portion of the report read, stating which states are represented and entitled to a vote in this Convention, with the number of votes to each.

Mr. BENTON: In accordance with the suggestion, I will read:

Hon. TIMOTHY DAVIS, of Massachusetts, moved that so much of the report as related to the delegation from Texas be referred back to the committee.

Mr. WILMOT, of Pennsylvania: I move to amend the motion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, so as to include the States of Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia. I had foreseen, before I came to this Convention, that the question would very properly arise as to the propriety of admitting those states to a full vote in this Convention. We are a Convention of delegates representing a party having constituencies at home. This is not a mass convention, in which each man's voice is to be heard, and in which a mere numerical majority of all who choose to attend controls the result, but this is a Convention of delegates representing a constituency, and having constituents at home to represent. [Great applause.] Now, sir, can it be possible that those gentlemen who come here from states in which they cannot maintain an

organized party-is it possible that they are to come here and by a full vote control the action of the Convention? I can see nothing better calculated to demoralize a party, and to break it up, than just such a proceeding. Why, sir, this nomination is to be the nomination of the Republican party in the Union, not the nomination of respectable gentlemen who may belong to the Republican party in Virginia, Maryland or Kentucky. What are the facts in Maryland? In Maryland, thirty gentlemen assembled in Baltimore for the purpose of sending a delegation to this Convention. Did they assemble as the representatives of a party? Not at all. They have never had a Republican party in Maryland, and, in my judgment, there will be no such party there until the people of the free states shall place this government in different hands, and relieve them from the tyranny which now weighs them down. There are respectable gentlemen in Maryland, many of them who sympathize with us and our cause; and so there are in every Southern State; but they have not the power to maintain a party organization. These gentlemen are not here as the representatives of any organized party at all. If this thing is to be done, the result of the deliberations of this Convention, respecting its nominee, may anything other than such a result as would be produced by the voices of those only who are properly represented upon this floor. Admit this precedent, sir, and hereafter some candidate, or rather the friends of the candidate, may, in their anxiety to procure a result favorable to their wishes, at the next Convention we shall have, carrying this thing still further, delegates not representing any party-but there will be gentlemen, excellent gentlemen, no doubt, coming in here from every state of the Union, brought here by influences from the North, but not sent here by a party at home. That will be the result. [Applause.] Sir, they may possibly come here in this manner, in a situation of this kind. I cast no imputation upon the gentlemen who come here to this Convention. I have full confidence in their integrity and in the earnestness and zeal with which they are enlisted in the cause;

be

but, sir, in another Convention that may assemble here, gentlemen may come from South Carolina, from Alabama, from Arkansas, and from Mississippi, for the express purpose of controlling, demoralizing and breaking up the Republican party. [Loud cheering.] Now, sir, if this is not stopped, there is no help for us. The true policy of the Republican party is to allow all its members a voice, but in proportion to their numbers. The committee have reported here that three hundred and four votes shall be necessary to a choice a majority of the votes of all the states, when a large portion of those states are not represented here. Why have they done that? Why have they broken down the plain old Republican rule, that the majority-the real majority-shall control? Because they know it is necessary for the accomplishment of some object. That rule, if adopted, would establish one precedent in the admission of men here to vote who are not representatives of a party; and then they adopt another mischievous rule for the purpose of rectifying the first. What we want is, that the representatives of the Republican party here should vote for a candidate for President, and that the majority should control. [Tremendous cheering.] That is what we desire. The rule that is proposed, would introduce upon us thirty or forty votes that do not represent any party whatever. They are gentlemen of character, gentlemen of worth, gentlemen who sympathize in this movement heartily; but they represent no organized party- they have no constituency at home. You admit them here, and then to avoid the consequences of your first wrongful act, you require three hundred and four votes for the nomination of a candidate. I, therefore, move that this question respecting Texas, embraced in the first motion, embrace, also, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and the District of Columbia, and all be referred back to this committee.

Mr. EWING, of Pennsylvania: I deprecate the sentiment of my friend from Pennsylvania. [Voice-"That's the talk." Applause.] We all come here as Republicans, and those men