"Gentlemen of the South," he exclaimed, "you mistake us--you
mistake us--we will not do it."
In the full convention, where the representation of the States
was not equal, the Douglas men, after hot debate, forced the
adoption of the minority report. Thereupon the Alabama
delegation protested and formally withdrew from the convention,
and other delegations followed. There was wild excitement in
Charleston, where that evening in the streets Yancey addressed
crowds that cheered for a Southern republic. The remaining
history of the Democratic nominations is a matter of detail. The
Charleston convention adjourned without making nominations. Each
of its fragments reorganized as a separate convention, and
ultimately two Democratic tickets were put into the field, with
Breckinridge of Kentucky as the candidate on the Yancey ticket
and Douglas on the other.
While the Democrats were thus making history through their
fateful break-up into separate parties, a considerable number of
the so-called best people of the country determined that they had
nowhere politically to lay their heads. A few of the old Whigs
were still unable to consort either with Republicans or with
Democrats, old or new. The Know-Nothings, likewise, though their
number had been steadily melting away, had not entirely
disappeared.
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