Richmond Enquirer, May 18, 1860

The Charleston “Mercury” misconceiving the reasons that induced the “Enquirer” to request the Richmond Convention to suspend action until after the meeting of the Baltimore Convention, asks us the following question:

We beg leave respectfully to ask the Richmond “Enquirer,” under the action of the Charleston Convention and of the non-seceding Southern delegates in that Convention, can it be reasonably supposed that the Richmond Convention will pause in their action a single hour on account of anything that the Baltimore Convention may do or fail to do?

In answering our respected contemporary, that we would have the Richmond Convention pause and await the action of the Baltimore Convention, we would assign some of the reasons that influence our judgment in giving that advice.

It will not be a matter of any importance whether the nominations to be made at Richmond be precedent or antecedent to the Baltimore Convention, but it will be a matter of very great importance to have the whole South cordially and harmoniously united, upon a platform of principles, and with candidates in whom all confide. It will be found impossible for all the States who concur in the majority report to send delegates to Richmond. The State of Virginia fully and cordially concurs in that platform, and yet the short period of time between the adjournment at Charleston and the 11th of June, will prevent the appointment of delegates; and whether or not those already appointed will meet the Southern States we are unable to say, but whether they do or do not, we wish it distinctly understood, that the Democratic party of Virginia, so far as we have been able to ascertain its sentiments, desires most earnestly to participate in the action of the Southern States.

Virginia may not be represented in the Richmond Convention, and if represented by her present delegates they will not feel themselves competent to concur in nominations made by a Convention other than that to which they have been accredited.

There are other Southern States similarly situated. The time between adjournment at Charleston and the 11th of June, was not sufficient for county meetings, to appoint delegates to a State Convention, without which there could have been no harmony. Virginia, therefore, may be ostracised from the councils of the South by definite action being had in Richmond of the 11th prox.

But should the Richmond Convention when it meets, adopt the majority platform, and then await the action of the Baltimore Convention, the South can be united, either in Baltimore or upon nominations made by delegates from all the Southern States. We feel confident that unless a satisfactory platform is first agreed upon at Baltimore, all of the Southern States will withdraw.

Should the Richmond Convention nominate a ticket upon the majority platform, and the Baltimore Convention make different nominations, but upon the same platform, much confusion would ensue, and difficulties as embarrassing might arise as any that now beset the party. But by awaiting until the Baltimore Convention has finally acted, all these difficulties may be obviated.

We have also advised the Southern States to send the delegates appointed to the Richmond Convention as delegates to the Baltimore Convention. We advised this not from any desire or hope that they will be satisfied with any platform less than that they demanded at Charleston, but that their voice and influence may aid in obtaining the rights of the South from a united Democracy. We regard the rights of the Southern States as paramount to all parties, and above the advancement of any man; we desire to obtain those rights as a means to preserve this Union; and we believe the best means to secure this end, is for the Southern States once more to meet in the councils of the National Democracy, and make one more effort for justice and right. If that last effort is unsuccessful, the attempt will not be without its benefit; it will have removed all suspicion of factiousness; it will have shown the South as endeavoring by every fair means to preserve the organization of the party, and it will prove that the disruption of the party was made only after every effort at justice and right had twice failed, and when every doubt as to the object and end of a majority of the Convention was removed. By again uniting with the Democracy at Baltimore, all questions of representing or misrepresenting the popular sentiment of the Southern States will be finally settled. No man will doubt that the seceding delegations represented the sentiments of their States if they again appear in Convention, accredited to demand the same platform, and again instructed to withdraw if it be refused.

We have no doubt of this now, but there are many Democrats who have been induced to believe that the Southern States were misrepresented by the seceding delegations. The settlement of even this question will be worth the return of the Southern delegations to Baltimore.

The importance that attaches to the dismemberment of the Democratic party, demands that no slight cause should be allowed to produce consequences so fatal to the Union. The return of the Southern delegations to the Baltimore Convention may secure all the rights of the South and preserve the party in efficiency to protect those rights by success before the people. But by hasty and ill-advised action at Richmond, the rights of the South may not only be imperilled before the people, but would, in our opinion, be destroyed by the success of the Republican Party.

We are at a loss to discover in what way the rights of the South would be imperilled by the Southern delegates meeting at Baltimore, and seeking once more to obtain their rights from a Convention of the National Democracy. We still entertain the hope that some portion of the Northern Democracy will be disposed to do the South full justice when the Convention re-assembles at Baltimore; and with this hope, and unable to see any ill consequences that can result from the re-union of the Southern States, we have advised their return. We are actuated to this from the belief that the National Democracy will not be indifferent to the claim of right and justice, but that the Convention will retrace its fatal steps at Charleston, and will be again united on principle. We desire to preserve the efficiency and organization of the Democratic party, as well as to secure from that party the rights of the South. When convinced that the rights of the South will not be respected by the National Democracy, we shall be among the first to quit the organization, and to look for our preservation to the “might which slumbers in the peasant’s arm” throughout the Southern States.

We appeal to the Southern States not to withdraw their voice and influence from the Border Slave States, but to unite again in the councils of the party, and seek that justice which is common alike to the farming as [sic] to the planting slave States. These are some of the reasons that induce us to appeal to the Southern States to “pause” until the Baltimore Convention has acted, and for these reasons we hope the Southern States will reappoint the seceding delegates to Richmond and to Baltimore, and thus carry out the wise advice of the chairman of the Georgia delegation, which felt themselves compelled to withdraw from the Charleston Convention.