Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held in Cincinnati, June 2-6, 1856. Pub. by order of the Convention:

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
of our country, look alone to its principles as the true safeguard of the Union,
rather than to the bigoted and trenchant rituals of a secret organization.
You know, Mr. President, the glories of the men to whom I allude. They
have come forward animated alone by love of Rebublican freedom, and dis daining the senseless mummeries of the Know Nothng order, and the treasona ble doctrine of the Black Republican party, as honorable auxilliaries, to swell
the ranks that to-day array themselves under the banner of the National
Democracy, and under the brilliant leadership of Buchanan and Breckinridge.
(Cheers.) I feel, sir, a profound satisfaction that we came to the aid of the
party now assembled, and joined its standard in the hour of darkness and
peril, without terms or compromise, neither asking honors, no longer as
enemies but as friends determined to stand by that party which did not hesitate to sustain the Union and the Constitution. In many an honorable field, in
many a tough contest, the old Whig party, led by its venerated statesmen,
have encountered the Democracy, and sometimes with success. The policy of
both were based on the Constitution, and were patriotic and comprehensive,
but different. No blush of shame rose either to the cheek of the victor or the
vanquished party when the fight was over but a manly acquiescence in the
verdict of the people was yielded to the successful party. No oaths to proscribe the friendless, no obligations to infringe religious freedom stain their
history, no treasonable dogmas like those of the Black Republicans, impairing,
if carried into effect, the equality of the States and violating the Constitution,
marked the race, but a free and honorable difference of opinion as to the
commercial, financial and domestic policy which should be pursued by the
nation. Against such factions, however, it now becomes the duty of the Whig
party to do battle or send in servile capitulation. It is between them and
the Democracy that the old Whigs of the country are compelled to decide.
MIy choice is made, (chleers) and when I see around me the numbers of delegates who once were members of that organization-when I see them
seeking refuge in the unshaken battalions of the Democracy-when I know
that two or three hundred thousand of the old Whig party share our sentiments, I cannot doubt result. It would be unjust in me, to refuse the testimony I offer to the gallant and patriotic stand made by the Democracy during
the last two years of the darkest hours that threatened the country. Standing as it does this day, it is more glorious far, than at any former period of its
history. It occupies a grander position than when by the foresight of Jefferson, it secured the bright and fertile plains of Louisiana, or when it added the
beautiful savannahs of Texas to the Union, or when it planted in triumph our
standard upon the turrets of Mexico, or when it completed the continental
breadth of the empire, by giving it an ocean boundary on either side, or
when it impressed the arts, the arms, the civilization and the free institutions
of our people upon the golden shores of California. (Applause.) Yes, Mr.
President, grander by far stands the Democratic party of to-day, than at
either of those proud epochs; because in the day of gloom and disaster it
courageously confronted domestic dissentions, trampled under foot the foul
theory of factions, and now prepares, in this hall, by these principles, and
under the leaders to-day chosen, to maintain to the last extremity those principles upon which rest the prosperity of our country and the peaceful union
of these States. It is true that, remembering rather the animosities of the
past than the emergencies of the present, there are some of the old Whig
guard that, like John Bunyan's pilgrims, yet halt at Doubting Castle; but
when the telegraph bears upon its wings the result of this day's deliberations,
their cheeks will no longer be sicklied with irresolution, but they will rush to
your standard and join you for the common cause of their country. (Great
applause.)
Permit me to add another remark: There were in the States of the North
a company of gallant men feeling the full force of constitutional obligations
and recognizing the sovereign right of the States of the Confederacy both to
regulate their own internal affairs and to lend the impress of our institutions
to the common territory of the country, without sectional distinction, who,
when Douglas, with the intrepidity of genius and the foresight of a statesman
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