Public Quiet Broken by John Brown's Raid: Cincinnati Platform and Convention

Mr. Cushing, in his address on taking the chair in the Convention, declared it to be the mission of the Democratic party "to reconcile popular freedom with constituted order" and to maintain "the sacred reserved rights of the sovereign States." He declared that the Republicans were "laboring to overthrow the Constitution" and "aiming to produce in this country a permanent sectional conspiracy--a traitorous sectional conspiracy--of one-half of the States of the Union against the other half; who, impelled by the stupid and half insane spirit of faction and fanaticism, would hurry our land on to revolution and to civil war." He declared it to be the "high and noble part of the Democratic party of the Union to withstand--to strike down and conquer--these banded enemies of the Constitution."

These utterances were warmly applauded by the Convention, excepting by the extreme pro-slavery wing. They did not wish to "strike down" the Republican party. They had a more important scheme to foster. It was their wish to "strike down" the Democratic party, for the moment, by dividing it. They had come instructed to demand from the Convention a candidate and an avowal of principles which should promise a guaranty for the speedy recognition by the National Government and the people, in a practical way, of the system of slavery as a national institution. They knew that the most prominent candidate before the Convention, for the nomination, was Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who was committed to an opposing policy, and that he and his friends would never vote for such a "platform"--such an avowal of principles. They also knew that his rejection by the representatives of the slaveholders would split the Democratic party, and they resolved to act in accordance with these convictions. They held the dissevering wedge in their own hands, and they determined to use it with effect.

A committee composed of one delegate from each State was appointed to prepare a platform of principles for the action of the Convention. A member from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) proposed in that committee to adopt the "Cincinnati Platform" agreed to by the Convention that nominated Mr. Buchanan, and which committed the Democratic party to the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty;" that is to say, the doctrine of the right of the people of any Territory of the Republic to decide whether slavery should or should not exist within its borders. Now was offered the opportunity for entering the dissevering wedge, and it was applied. When the vote was taken on the proposition of Mr. Butler, it was rejected by seventeen States (only two of them free-labor States) against fifteen. This was followed on the part of the majority by an offer to adopt the "Cincinnati Platform," with additional resolutions declaring, in the spirit of Judge Taney's opinion, that Congress nor any other legislative body had a right to interfere with slavery anywhere, or to impair or destroy the right of property in slaves by any legislation. This proposition virtually demanded of the Democratic party the recognition of slavery as a sacred, permanent, and national institution.

It was now clearly perceived that the politicians of the slave-labor States were united, evidently by pre-concert, in a determination to wring from the people of the free-labor States further and more revolting concessions to the greed of the pro-slavery faction for political domination. The manhood of the minority was evoked, and they resolved that the limit of concession was reached, and that they would yield no further. That minority, composed wholly of delegates from the free-labor States, and representing a majority of the Presidential electors (172 against 127), offered to adopt the "Cincinnati Platform," and a resolution expressing a willingness to abide by any decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on questions of Constitutional law. They also offered to adopt another resolution, denouncing the laws passed by Northern legislatures in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act. Mr. Butler opposed making even these concessions to their arrogant demands. The consequence was, the committee went into the Convention with three reports--a majority and minority report, and a report from Mr. Butler.