If the President's scheme be consummated it would render the sacrifice of the Nation useless, the loss of her buried comrades vain, and the war in which we have so gloriously triumphed a failure, as it was declared to be by President Johnson's present associates in the Democratic National Convention of 1864." Many other propositions of an equally decisive character were announced by the convention, and General John Cochrane declared that "a more complete, just and righteous platform for a whole people to occupy has never before been presented to the National sense." Of the four conventions held, this, of the soldiers who had fought the battles of the Union, was far the most influential upon public opinion.
In its membership could be found representatives of every great battle-field of the war.

Their testimony was invaluable.

They spoke for the million comrades with whom they had stood in the ranks, and their influence consolidated almost _en masse_ the soldier vote of the country in support of the Republican party as represented by Congress.
Their enthusiasm was greater, their feeling more intense, their activity more marked than could be found among the civilians of the country who were supporting the same principles.

They declared the political contest to be _their own fight_, as they expressed it, and considered themselves bearing the banner of loyalty as they had borne it in the actual conflict of arms.

Their convention, their expressions, their determination were felt throughout the entire Union as an aggressive, irresistible force.