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resolutions made explicit declarations upon the topic of Slavery, so largely occupying public attention.
In a few paragraphs, they declared that each State had the absolute right of control in the management of its own domestic concerns; that the new dogma that the
Constitution, of its own force, carries Slavery into any or all of the
Territories of the
United States, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country; that the normal condition of all the territory of the
United States is that of freedom, and that neither Congress, nor a Territorial legislature, nor any individuals, have authority to give legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the
United States; and that the reopening of the African Slave-trade, then recently commenced in the
Southern States, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, was a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age.
This platform was adopted at six o'clock in the evening, by unanimous vote; when the Convention adjourned until next morning, without taking a ballot for candidates for the Presidency and Vice-presidency.
When the vote on the platform was announced, the scene that ensued, says an eyewitness, was of the “most astounding character.
All the thousands of men in that enormous Wigwam commenced swinging their hats, and cheering with immense enthusiasm, and the other thousands of ladies waved their handkerchiefs and clapped their hands.
Such a spectacle as was witnessed for some minutes has never before been witnessed at a convention.
As the great assemblage poured through the streets after adjournment, it seemed to electrify the city.
The agitation of the masses that packed the hotels and thronged the streets, certainly forty thousand strong, was such as made the little excitement at Charleston seem insignificant.”
1
On the morning of the third day of the session,
the
Convention was opened with prayer, by
the Rev. Mr. Green, of
Chicago, who expressed a desire that the evils which then invested the body politic should be wholly eradicated from the system, and that the pen of the historian might trace an intimate connection between that “glorious consummation and the transactions of the
Convention.”
Then that body proceeded to the choice of a Presidential candidate, and on the third ballot
Abraham Lincoln, of
Illinois, was nominated.
The announcement of the result caused the most uproarious applause; and, from the common center at
Chicago, the electric messengers flew with the intelligence, almost as quick as thought, to every part of the vast Republic, eastward of the
Rocky Mountains, before sunset.
The Convention took a recess, and in the evening nominated
Hannibal Hamlin, of
Maine, for
Vice-president.
Their labors
