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

70 PROOEEDINS OF TII
sought to remove forever the irritating causes which for thirty years, had
produced festering discontent at the North and the South, came forward as
a forlorn hope, in the passage of the Nebraska-Kansas act. I shall never
forget the deep emotions of respect and admiration with which I saw them
repair to resist the sectional prejudices of the people they represented. It
exhibited a moral grandeur worthy of the best days of the Republic. They
prepared to execute at once and forever an act which was the logical consequence of the compromise of 1850, and to remove forever from the domination
of Congress to the tribunals of the territories, the decision of the only great
question which has disturbed the fraternal love of our country. All knew
that the act was of such magnitude that it could not be performed without
hearing a loud outcry of fanatics, mal-contents and demagogues, but they
proved themselves equal to the occasion. The tempest burst forth with all
its fury; every foul element of religious rancor and hatred of race, was invoked to increase its strength. The treasonable wave of the Black Republican
party united with the fierce fanatacism of the miscalled American order,
swept over the land, and few were able to withstand the shock. I see many
around me who were the victims of the misguided vengeance of the people.
Let such men be remembered in your coming hour of victory. If they should
never arise from their prostrate position, they have fallen because of their
patriotism and courage, and the epitaph which marked the spot where the
immortal three hundred fell at Thermopylie, might well be inscribed to commemorate their deeds: "Go, stranger, and at Lacedaemon tell that here, obedienit to her laws, we fell." But I can not believe that such injustice would
ever mark the history of the Democracy. I believe that the people, when
the public reason is restored, will again lift them in their arms, bind up their
wounds, and amid the clangor of the approaching Presidential contest, will
hail them as leaders in the greatest battle which it has ever been the fortune
of the Democracy to offer in behalf of the Constitution and the union, against
all comers. The first duty of the Democracy is to restore those to honor who
who were thefirst to maintain, at all1 hazards, the principles and honor of the
Democratic party, and whom the enemies of the Democracy first ovewhelmed.
In conclusion, I return thanks, Mr. President, once more for the high kindness with which I have been signalized by this Convention; and, in tendering co-operation and allegiance to the Democratic party, I shall attempt, as
far as lies within my humble power, to ride deep into the ranks of our adversaries, and win my spurs in the approaching battle. I shall do this in no
inimical spirit, but I trust with all the fervor and sincerity of a man who
appreciates the priceless blessings that our Union confers, believes that they
can only be preserved by regarding all our people as equal without respect to
institutions or sections, and is determined while his heart beats to know no
friends or political associations which do not struggle to attain this end and
preserve the Union by the only means it can be preserved, which is by a strict
observance of the Constitution under which we live. I thank heaven that
while I stand here to-day and gaze across at the hills of my native Kentucky,
I stand with a party which by the unanimous voices of the delegates of thirtyone States, has emblazoned its policy upon its banner, by the party which, by
a unanimous voice, has selected its leaders-leaders of known worth, ability
and patriotism, as the exponents of its ideas, and a party which is the same,
both in principles and in candidates, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from
Canada to the Gulf-a party that stands majestic in its strength and simplicity, divided by no chain of mountains, severed by no river, while all the
other contending factions that hover around it, find that Southern institutions
are the boundaries of their patriotism, and the Ohio river the frontier of their
nationality. (Tremendous cheering.)
Mr. Petit, of Indiana, said-Mr. President, I thank you for the honor
you have done me in calling me up on this occasion. There is in the
history of the past of our party but little to bring a blush mantling
upon the cheek; while if we look forward there is much to beckon
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PROCEEDINA 8 OF THE