That conflict which opened the year with the long congressional contest over the speakership, and which found its only solution in the choice of Banks by a plurality vote, had been fed by fierce congressional debates, by presidential messages and proclamations, by national conventions, by the Sumner assault, by the Kansas war; the body politic throbbed with activity and excitement in every fiber.

Every free-State and several border States and Territories were represented in the Philadelphia Convention; its regular and irregular delegates counted nearly a thousand local leaders, full of the zeal of new proselytes; Henry S.Lane, of Indiana, was made its permanent chairman.
The party was too young and its prospect of immediate success too slender to develop any serious rivalry for a presidential nomination.
Because its strength lay evidently among the former adherents of the now dissolved and abandoned Whig party, William H.Seward of course took highest rank in leadership; after him stood Salmon P.Chase as the representative of the independent Democrats, who, bringing fewer voters, had nevertheless contributed the main share of the courageous pioneer work.

It is a just tribute to their sagacity that both were willing to wait for the maturer strength and riper opportunities of the new organization.

Justice John McLean, of the Supreme Bench, an eminent jurist, a faithful Whig, whose character happily combined both the energy and the conservatism of the great West, also had a large following; but as might have been expected, the convention found a more typical leader, young in years, daring in character, brilliant in exploit; and after one informal ballot it nominated John C.Fremont, of California.

The credit of the selection and its successful management has been popularly awarded to Francis P.Blair, senior, famous as the talented and powerful newspaper lieutenant of President Jackson; but it was rather an intuitive popular choice, which at the moment seemed so appropriate as to preclude necessity for artful intrigue.
[Illustration: MILLARD FILLMORE.] There was a dash of romance in the personal history of Fremont which gave his nomination a high popular relish.