PROCEEDINGS OF THE Democratic National Convention AT CHICAGO, 1864. FIRST DAY. MONDAY, August 29, 1864. In accordance with the call of the Democratic National Committee, the delegates to the National Convention, assembled at twelve o'clock, noon, to-day, in the Amphitheatre, in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. AUGUST BELMONT, of New York, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, addressing the delegates as follows, called the convention to order: ADDRESS OF MR. BELMONT. GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: We are assembled here to-day, at the National Democratic Convention, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the United States. This task, at all times a most important and arduous one, has, by the sad events of our civil war, assumed an importance and responsibility of the most fearful nature. Never, since the formation of our government, has there been an assemblage, the proceedings of which were fraught with more momentous and vital results, than those which must flow from your action. Towards you, gentlemen, are directed at this moment the anxious fears and doubts, not only of millions of American citizens, but also of every lover of civil liberty throughout the world. [Cheers.] In your hands rests, under the ruling of an allwise Providence, the future of this Republic. Four years of misrule, by a sectional, fanatical and corrupt party, have, brought our country to the very verge of ruin. The past and present are sufficient warnings of the disastrous consequences which would befall us if Mr. Lincoln's re-election should be made possible by our want of patriotism and unity. The inevitable results of such a calamity must be the utter disintegration of our whole political and social system amidst bloodshed and anarchy, with the great problems of liberal progress and self-government jeopardized for generations to come. The American people have at last awakened to the conviction that a change of policy and administration can alone stay our downward course; and they will rush to the support of your candidate aud platform, provided you will offer to their suffrage a tried patriot, who has proved his devotion to the Union and the constitution, and provided that you pledge him and yourselves to maintain that hallowed inheritance by every effort and sacrifice in your power. [Loud applause.] Let us, at the very outset of our proceedings, bear in mind that the dissensions of the last democratic convention were one of the principal causes which gave the reins of government into the hands of our opponents; and let us beware not to fall again into the same fatal error. We must bring at the altar of our country the sacrifice of our prejudices, opinions and convictions-however dear and long cherished they may be 2-15-34 KW from the moment they threaten the harmony and unity of action so indispensable to our success. We are here not as war democrats, nor as peace democrats, but as citizens of the great Republic, which we will strive to bring back to its former greatness and prosperity, without one single star taken from the brilliant constellation that once encircled its youthful brow. [Cheers.] Let peace and disinterested patriotism, tempered by moderation and forbearance, preside over our deliberations; and, under the blessings of the Almighty, the sacred cause of the Union, the constitution and the laws, must prevail against fanaticism and treason. [Loud cheering.] Mr. BELMONT, on concluding his brief address, nominated for temporary chairman of the convention, Hon. William Bigler, of Pennsylvania. The nomination was received with great cheering, and was unanimously approved. Mr. BIGLER on taking the chair, was received with loud and long continued applause. When the cheers had subsided, he addressed the convention as follows: ADDRESS OF MR. BIGLER. ** GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: I am greatly honored in your selection of me to preside over the preliminary deliberations of this body. My acknowledgments for this high compliment, and for the kind greetings just extended to me by this vast concourse of my fellow citizens, will be best manifested by a proper discharge of the duties of the position to which you have called me. It is not expected, nor would it be befitting in one assuming the temporary Presidency of the convention, that he should enter upon any general discussion of the many interesting topics suggested by the unhappy condition of our country. A brief allusion to the occasion and purposes of our assembling is all that will be necessary. No similar body ever assembled in America with mightier objects before it, or to which such a vast proportion of the American people looked with such profound solicitude for measures to promote the welfare of the country and advance their individual happiness. ' The termination of democratic rule in this country was the end of peaceful relations between the States and the people. The elevation of a sectional party to authority at Washington, the culmination of a long indulged and acrimonious war of crimination and re-crimination between extreme men of the North and South, was promptly followed by dissolution and civil war. And in the progress of that war the * very bulwarks of civil liberty have been imperiled and the whole fabric brought to the very verge of destruction. And now, at the end of more than three years of a war unparalleled in modern times, for its magnitude and for its barbarous desolations, -after more than two millions of men have been called into the field, on our side alone, after the land has been literally drenched in fraternal blood, and wailings and lamentations are heard in every corner of our common country, the hopes of the Union, our cherished object, are in nowise improved. The men now in authority, because of the feud which they have so long maintained with violent and unwise men of the South, and because of a blind fanaticism about an institution of some of the States, in relation to which they have no duties to perform and no responsibilities to bear, are rendered incapable of adopting the proper means to rescue our country,- -our whole country-from its present lamentable condition. Then, gentlemen, it is apparent that the first indispensable step to the accomplishment of this great work is the overthrow, by the ballot, of the present administration, and the inauguration of another, in its stead, which shall directly and zealously, but temperately and justly, wield all the influence and power of the government to bring about a speedy settlement of the national troubles on the principles of the constitution and on terms honorable and just to all sections, North and South, East and West; one which shall stand unfalteringly by civil and religious liberty; one which, instead of relying solely on its own peculiar dogmas and doctrines and the ravages of the sword, shall refer the national troubles to the people, the fountain of political authority, and to the States under the forms of the constitution; one which shall have no conditions precedent to the restoration of the Union, but which shall diligently seek that result as the consummation of permanent peace amongst the States and renewed fraternity amongst the people. Gentlemen, we have been commissioned by the people to come here and initiate steps to accomplish these great objects; to select an agent and the agencies in this good work. That the task will be well performed I have unfaltering faith; and that |