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NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

BALTIMORE, MD., Tuesday, July 9, 1872.

THE National Democratic Convention, to nominate candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States, assembled at Ford's Opera House, in the City of Baltimore, at 12 M., July 9, pursuant to the call of the National Democratic Executive Committee.

The Hon. AUGUST BELMONT, Chairman of the National Democratic Committee, appeared upon the platform in the performance of his duty of calling the Convention to order, and was greeted with loud cheers. When quiet was restored he spoke as follows:

Speech of the Hon. August Belmont.

* GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION, - It is again my privilege to welcome
the delegates of the National Democracy, who have met in order to present
to the American people the candidates for President and Vice President
for whom they solicit the suffrage of the Democratic and Conservative
voters of this great Republic. (Applause.) At our last National Convention,
on the 4th of July, 1868, I predicted that the election of General Grant would
result in the gradual usurpation of all the functions of the Government by the
Executive and by Congress, to be enforced by the bayonets of a military des-
potism. The vast majority of the people of the United States have witnessed,
with grief and sorrow, the correctness of that prediction, and they look forward
with fear and apprehension to the dangers which are threatening us if, by the
re-election of Gen. Grant, the policy thus far pursued by the radical party can
be continued. The thinking men of both parties have become alive to the fact
that we are now living under a military despotism, overriding the civil author-
ity in many States of the Union; that by the enactment of arbitrary and uncon-
stitutional laws, through a depraved majority in Congress, the rights of these
States are infringed and trampled upon, and that Cæsarism and centralization
are undermining the very foundations of our Federal system, and are sweeping
away the constitutional bulwarks erected by the wisdom of the fathers of the

Republic. These abuses have become so glaring that the wisest and best men of the Republican party have severed themselves from the Radical wing, which is trying to fasten upon the country another four years' reign of corruption, usurpation, and despotism; and, whatever individual opinion we may entertain as to the choice of the candidate whom they have selected in opposition to Gen. Grant, there cannot be any doubt of the patriotic impulses which dictated their action, nor can any fault be found with the platform of principles upon which they have placed their candidate. (Loud and continued applause.) The resolutions of the Cincinnati Convention are what the country requires, and they must command the hearty support of every patriot throughout the vast extent of our land. (Applause.) In the struggle which is before us we must look to principles and not men, and I trust that no personal predilections or prejudices will deter us from doing our duty to the American people. (Great cheering.)

Gen. Grant was a good and faithful soldier during our civil war; his stubborn and indomitabl ecourage helped to crown the Union arms with victory ; and the American people have rewarded his services with the most unbounded generosity. I am willing to concede that his intentions on taking the Presidential chair were good and patriotic, but he has most signally and sadly failed in the discharge of the high trust imposed upon him by the confidence of a grateful people. He is at this moment the very personification of the misrule which is oppressing us, and his re-election is fraught with the most deplorable consequences for the welfare of the republic, and endangers the liberties of our people. (Applause.)

On the other hand, Mr. Greeley has been heretofore a bitter opponent of the Democratic party, and the violent attacks against myself individually, which have from time to time appeared in his journal, certainly do not entitle him to any sympathy or preference at my hands. But Mr. Greeley represents the National and Constitutional principles of the Cincinnati platform (enthusiastic' cheering), and by his admirable and manly letter of acceptance, he has shown that he is fully alive to their spirit, and that, if elected, he means to carry them out honestly and faithfully. (Great cheering.) Should you, therefore, in your wisdom, decide to pronounce in favor of the Cincinnati candidates, I shall for one cheerfully bury all past differences, and vote and labor for their election with the same zeal and energy with which I have supported heretofore, and mean ever to support, the candidates of the Democratic party. (Loud applause.) The American people look with deep solicitude to your deliberations. It is for you to devise means by which to free them from the evils under which they are suffering. But, in order to attain that end, you are called upon to make every sacrifice of personal and party preference. However much you might desire to fight the coming battle for our rights and liberties under one of the trusted leaders of the Domocratic party, it will become your duty to discard all considerations of party tradition if the selection of a good and wise man outside of our own ranks offers better chances of success. (Applause.) You must remember that you are not here only as