the Vice-Presidents of the Convention, then read two very interesting letters. They were from Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Fairfield, ex-Secretary of the Interior and ex-United States Senator, and Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, of Ashtabula, then United States Senator from Ohio-after which the meeting adjourned. Mr. Ewing said, in the course of his lengthy letter, in speaking of the Missouri Compromise:

* *

The repeal of that ancient measure of compromise and conciliation would be a great wrong, and unwise as unjust. It was the work of patriots and statesmen; it was admirably adapted to the then pressing want and agitated feeling of the country; and it has been, down to the present time, acquiesced in and sustained with remarkable unanimity; and the necessities of the country now, more especially, demand it as a continuing provision. * It was a wise and well considered provision. Its repeal would be a great wrong and a great evil. As such we ought to resist and if possible avert it. On this the people of the North, almost as a body, and a goodly portion of the South, will unite. Let us engage in it in a manner becoming the object; with calmness, prudence and consideration, and by no means allow ourselves to be defeated in this, which we all feel to be right, just and necessary, by blending with it, or suffering to be involved with it, any other object, however desirable to many. Let us take this issue singly and alone. In any departure from it, from the plain, straightforward path to the one sole object, there is danger-danger of division, and with division defeat. We can probably prevent the infliction of the anticipated wrong; if not, we can certainly in due time and by constitutional means redress it. I have purposely confined myself to the political and practical views of this subject, as, in my opinion, it embraces the true principles of the measure which it is the object of the Convention to sustain. Be kind enough to make known my concurrence in the expressed object of the Convention and very strong conviction that if pursued calmly and wisely it can not fail of ultimate success.

The letter from Senator Wade was strong, earnest, and aggressive-vigorous and brave like the man who wrote it. The meeting cheered it heartily, and it was subsequently widely republished throughout the State. It read as follows:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of March 4th, earnestly inviting me to attend and address the Mass Convention of such as are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which is to assemble at Columbus on March 22d. Please accept my warmest thanks for the honor of the invitation. I rejoice at this great movement of the people of Ohio to rebuke this meditated, and partially consummated, wrong, this outrage of Northern sentiment and violation of a solemn compact of our forefathers. It seems to me eminently proper that the first born of the Ordinance of 1787 should take the lead in opposing this tide of Southern aggression and slavery propagandism, encouraged by recent triumphs, and now rendered arrogant and confident of success by Northern treachery, leaving the free States the alternative between resistance or submission and humiliation. No doubt this is but the first of a series of measures having for their object the nationalization of slavery, and its legalization and extension into every region protected by the American flag. Indeed, this intention is rarely attempted to be concealed. Let us, therefore, while we demand nothing of the South which is not right, be very sure to have it perfectly understood that we will submit to nothing that is wrong. I need not, I am sure, remind you of the immense importance of this question of abrogating the Missouri Compromise to the free laborers of the North. They will not, they can not, and they ought not to consent to labor side by side with slaves. But I can not enter into the argument in a letter. I hope your proceedings will be characterized by impartiality, wisdom, moderation and firmness--such as will inspire the people of all political sentiments to join shoulder to shoulder in this great cause, and show at least as much zeal and unanimity in opposing, as the South does in upholding, the spreading and extending of slavery. Let us demonstrate to the world that the people of Ohio can and will act as efficiently for right, justice and liberty as others always do for wrong, degradation and slavery. Let us have no platforms but the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. It would give me great pleasure to meet my fellow-citizens on the great occasion, but important measures are pending in the Senate of the United States, and I may at any moment be called upon to act in reference to them; so that in my judgment duty requires me to forego the pleasure of meeting my friends, and to remain at the post assigned me. And I submit with the greatest cheerfulness, knowing that the good cause can not suffer in the hands of so many eminent men, much more able to consider this crisis of our affairs than I am.

The bill to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska was passed by the House of Representatives on May 22d, and speedily became a law by the signature of Franklin Pierce, then President. The Ohio delegation consisted of twenty-one members: Democrats 12, Whigs 6, Freesoilers 3. Those voting for the bill and in favor of repealing the Missouri Compromise were all Democrats, as follows: David T. Disney,

Frederick W. Green, Edson B. Olds and Wilson Shannon. Those voting against the bill and against repealing the Compromise were: Lewis D. Campbell, Joshua

R. Giddings and Edward Wade, Freesoilers; Edward Ball, Aaron Harlan, John Scott Harrison, William R. Sapp and John L. Taylor, Whigs; and Alfred P. Edgerton, Andrew Ellison, Harvey H. Johnson, William D. Lindsley, Matthias H. Nichols, Thomas Ritchey and Andrew Stuart, Democrats. Two were absent: George Bliss, Democrat, and Moses B. Corwin, Whig. Perhaps no enactment of Congress was ever so unpopular; and the storm of denunciation which greeted its introduction was only surpassed by that which followed its passage. Everywhere the people were in arms against the men and the party who had so outrageously betrayed them.

The members of Congress who opposed the passage of the bill met in Washington on Tuesday, June 20th, and organized by electing Solomon Foot, of Vermont, Chairman, and Daniel W. Mace, of Indiana, and Reuben E. Fenton, of New York, Secretaries. A Committee appointed for the purpose reported a lengthy Address, which, having been discussed and amended, was unanimously adopted and ordered to be published. The meeting was fully attended, and the Address was indorsed by all the anti

Nebraska members of Congress, which included seventeen of the twenty-one Representatives from Ohio.

THE NOMINATING CONVENTION.

Without express action in the matter, it was generally agreed at the March Convention that no formal call for a nominating State Convention should then be issued.

Instead, Joseph R. Swan, James H. Coulter and John W. Andrews, of Columbus, were appointed a Committee to receive calls for a convention in that city on July 13th, the call to be signed by all the electors of the State who were willing to participate, or be represented by delegates therein. did this Committee know what it was inviting upon itself when it agreed to this arrangement. The State Journal of June 15th described its dilemma in the following editorial:

Little

The Committee designated to receive the signed calls for the Convention on July 13th have laid upon our table a mass of documents truly formidable. The design was, as explained to us, to have the call, with the names attached, published in the Journal. The thing is impossible. We have not in the office, nor is there in the city, capital letters enough to begin to set the initials of the names. There is no way of accommodating the demand upon us short of sending off to the type-founders for a supply for this special purpose. It has been suggested that we take a few names from each list, and, designating their location by counties, publish the call in that form. This would be unjust, and would by no means convey to the people a correct view of the movement. It is emphatically a movement of the people; the call for a Convention has gone forth as with a shout; the people know what they are about this time, and they will be heard through their delegates on July 13th. Take for instance, a call returned from one locality in Stark County. The signers stand recorded: Whigs 62, Democrats 45, Freesoilers 10; total 117. Another comes from Lucas County with the signers designated as follows: Hunker Democrats 32, Hunker Whigs 28, Freesoil Democrats 14, Abolition Independents 5, Freesoil Whigs 4; total 83. From all quarters they come up signed by men

of all parties, the true men of the country, men who have something at stake in her institutions. We can make no selection of names from such a mass. It is enough that they have taken this thing in hand in their several counties and districts. They will be heard from in due season.

The Cleveland Herald, of June 30th, also referred to the matter editorially, as follows:

Old Summit is thoroughly awake to the importance of the Nebraska outrage. Men of all parties are joining hands upon the question of Northern rights. The call for the State Convention is signed by three hundred and seventy-five men; and we presume, outside of the postoffices and the canal offices, there are not six Nebraska men in Summit County. The Beacon says that of the number of signers one hundred are Democrats.

Perhaps it was this condition of circumstances which led to the publication of the following call. It appeared for the first time in the State Journal on Monday evening, June 26th:

The people of all political parties who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; who are opposed to the extension of slavery and the slave power into Kansas and Nebraska and other Territories; all who do not desire by their silence to encourage the further aggressions of the slave power --are requested to meet in their several counties and appoint not less than three delegates, and one at least to every 4,000 citizens, to attend the Convention to be held at the city of Columbus on the 13th day of July next. It is hoped that the delegates will be appointed in each county from all political parties; for whatever "live" issues there may be between the two great parties which divide the State, there is one question made by Southern slaveholders at this momentous crisis as common to all as the free air of heaven. It is whether this Republic and its free institutions shall be ruled by, and its great mission of freedom be sunk into, an oligarchy of slaveholders and the extension of slavery and slave power. Can any Northern man of any party hesitate upon such a question, or refuse to aid in reclaiming our free institutions from the domination of slaveholders; in purifying Northern repre

sentation in Congress from all pliant tools of Southern ambition; in breaking the chain of Southern measures now forging to bind this Republic to the car of slavery?

Pursuant to this call, the anti-Nebraska State Convention, as it was generally styled, met at the City Hall in Columbus, Ohio, at nine o'clock, on Thursday morning, July 13th. On motion, Benjamin F. Leiter, of Stark, was elected Temporary Chairman, and James H. Baker, editor of the Scioto Gazette, of Ross, and John S. Herrick, editor of the Ravenna Democrat, of Portage, Secretaries. On motion of John C. Vaughan, one of the editors of the Cleveland Leader, of Cuyahoga, a committee of three was appointed to procure a suitable hall for the Convention. The Chair thereupon named Benjamin F. Rice, John Greiner and Henry B. Carrington, of Franklin, as said Committee. On motion a call of the counties was had to ascertain more definitely the membership of the Convention. Seventy-two of the eighty-eight counties were found to be represented. On motion of James A. Briggs, of Cuyahoga County, Henry Hubbard, a venerable and distinguished lawyer of Massachusetts, and the Commissioner of that Commonwealth to Louisiana to enforce the just rights of her outraged colored seamen, was invited to a seat with the officers of the Convention. Joseph M. Root, of Erie, moved that the "delegates of each Congressional district be prepared at eleven o'clock to report one member for each of the following committees: Permanent Organization and Resolutions." Carried. Mr. Root was urged to address the Convention. He said:

Of course I am not authorized to speak for anybody except myself, but in our part of the State many agree with me that we ought at this Convention to nominate candidates for Supreme Judge and Member of the Board of Public Works. If we do not do this, the

people in our section will want to know what we came together for. I don't want to do nothing for no use. (Laughter.) It pleases me to see so many old-fashioned Democrats and Whigs here. I am a Freesoiler myself, but I am willing to let bygones be bygones and unite upon a platform that will not give offense to any one who is willing to denounce the last iniquity as well as the next. There are those here who have turned their backs on a victorious party for the sake of the holy cause of freedom. I envy them their position. It is an easy matter to be virtuous when there is no temptation to be otherwise. The Whigs find it easy enough to leave their old party. The Freesoilers find no trouble on that score to keep within the straight and narrow path. But with the Democrats it is different; and does it not become us as Freesoilers and Whigs to stand by these brave men to dare to follow wherever they dare to lead? We must all be practical. There are things to forget, as well as things to hope for. It is not time to drive the pigs out of the

garden when the house is on fire. (Laughter.) The slaveholders demand that we descend to things that they would not stoop to themselves. In the South no gentleman would call on another to catch his runaway negro. They keep hounds for that business, some who wear the human form perhaps, but they are beneath the other hounds! But I am not so greatly exercised about the fugitive-slave law as some of the Democrats. The law has never taken effect on the soil of Northern Ohio yet, and it never will. It behooves Boston and Cincinnati to be exercised on that subject; our people are not excited about it at all. If they had a decent law, the South might recover ten slaves where she reclaims one now. Congress has no right to legislate about it. The Supreme Court will deny such power to it whenever the question comes properly before that Court. But wherever the power is lodged, let it be exercised with decency and humanity. It is not enough to say that we favor restoring the anti-slavery clause to Kansas and Nebraska. Let us resolve to resist and repel every aggression of the slave power, whenever, wherever and however made. If but one progressive step is taken, I hope to see that step well taken. Much of the talk of the South is mere gasconade. Some people call the Southerners fire-eaters; but they have no use for fire.

The nearest they ever come to it is their love for firewater. (Laughter and applause.)

Mr. Carrington reported that the Committee appointed to procure suitable quarters for the Convention had arranged to secure Neil's New Hall for that purpose;

whereupon the Convention took a recess to reassemble there at eleven o'clock that morning. When it reconvened the following Committees were announced:

12.

Isaac

Permanent Organization— 1. David Fisher, Hamilton. 2. Levi Hoffman, Hamilton. 3. Alexander Denny, Preble. 4. Rufus Kilpatrick, Darke. 5. William A. Beach, Lucas. 6. Daniel Fall, Clermont. 7. James D. Martin, Madison. 8. Charles W. B. Allison, Logan. 9. Moses H. Kirby, Wyandot. 10. George I. Kane, Ross. II. George F. Warren, Jackson. Smucker, Licking. 13. Edward Smith, Morrow. 14. Eugene Pardee, Medina. 15. John H. Bear, Sandusky. 16. John R. Harper, Summit. 17. Benjamin S. Cowen, Belmont. 18. John Harrison, Morgan. 19. William L. Perkins, Cuyahoga. 20. James M. Brown, Ashtabula. 21. Jonas D. Cattell, Jefferson.

II.

Resolutions-1. Benjamin Eggleston, Hamilton. 2. James Elliott, Hamilton. 3. David Heaton, Butler. 4. Timothy Cunningham, Allen. 5. John Paul, Defiance. 6. William Ellison, Adams. 7. William H. P. Denny, Warren. 8. Ichabod Corwin, Champaign. 9. Homer Everett, Seneca. 10. Elias Nigh, Gallia. Henry B. Carrington, Franklin. 12. Joseph M. Root, Erie. 13. Norton S. Townshend, Lorain. 14. Joseph W. Vance, Knox. 15. Davis Green, Washington. 16. John Davenport, Guernsey. 17. Edward N. Sill, Mahoning. 18. Rufus P. Spalding, Cuyahoga. 19. George F. Brown, Geauga. 20. Ephraim R. Eckley, Carroll.

On motion a Committee on Credentials, of three members, was appointed. The Chair designated Richard McCarthy, of Montgomery, John H. Klippart, of Stark, and Eugene Pardee, of Medina.

Benjamin S. Cowen, Chairman of the Committee on Permanent Organization, submitted a report, which was unanimously adopted, nominating the following officers of the Convention:

President-Benjamin F. Leiter, of Stark

County.

8. Levi

Vice Presidents-1. John Burgoyne, Hamilton. 2. Thomas Gattier, Hamilton. 3. John W. Sohn, Butler. 4. James L. Brandeth, Shelby. 5. Asher Cook, Wood. 6. John R. S. Bond, Clermont. 7. John Probasco, Jr., Warren. Phelps, Champaign. 9. David Ayres, Union. 10. William G. Kephart, Sandusky. II. James T. Warren, Lawrence. 12. Alfred P. Stone, Franklin. 13. John Sherman, Richland. 14. John L. Stranahan, Huron. 15. Harvey B. Curtis, Knox. 16. Davis Green, Washington. 17. Hiram Foreman, Noble. 18. Thomas Earl, Medina. Andrew H. Gotham, Cuyahoga. 20. Jonathan Warden, Geauga. 21. Lewis Lawton, Carroll.

19.

Secretaries James H. Baker, Ross; John S. Herrick, Portage; Montgomery Stark, Green; Jacob Mueller, Cuyahoga.

The question of representation was discussed at some length. It was proposed that each county be allowed two votes in the nomination of candidates, but the motion was withdrawn before a vote was taken on the question. The suggestion of the Committee calling the Convention that each county be given a vote for each 4,000 inhabitants was finally agreed to.

Jacob Brinkerhoff, of Richland, moved that a Committee on Nominations of one delegate from each Congressional district be appointed. Carried.

At the afternoon session, Benjamin S. Cowen, of Belmont, moved to refer all res

2.

I. William G. Nelson, Hamilton. Frederick Hassaurek, Hamilton. 3. Moses B. Walker, Montgomery. 4. Jacob B. Walradt, Auglaize. 5. James W. Scott, Lucas. 6. William Keys, Highland. 7. John McCulloch, Clarke. 8. Charles W. B. Allison, Logan. 9. George H. Gadsen, Marion. 10. George J. Paine, Lorain. 11. William S. Lewis, Scioto. 12. James H. Coulter, Franklin. 13. James Pardee, Medina. 14. Thomas Wilson, Hancock. 15. John C. Tidball, Tuscarawas. 16. Israel Green, Guernsey. 17. Benjamin S. Cowen, Belmont. 18. Arnold Lynch, Stark. 19. Sherlock J. Andrews, Cuyahoga. 20. David Hanna, Lake. 21. Richard Hatton, Harrison.

On motion, the Committee on Nominations was instructed to report a State Central Committee. George W. Woods, of Butler, moved that the Committee be also directed to report two names for each office, the choice to be made from them by the Convention. Laid on the table. Rufus P. Spalding, of Cuyahoga, Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, submitted the following report:

WHEREAS, The "positive prohibition of slavery in the territory to the north and west of Missouri," imposed by Congress in the year 1820, at the instance of Southern statesmen, and as an equivalent for the admission of said State of Missouri without such restriction, has been removed by the passage of the bill to establish Territorial Governments in Nebraska and Kansas; and

WHEREAS, It becomes important to ascertain if the popular mind in regard to slavery has retrograded