At the critical moment they signally failed to vindicate the principles upon which they had appealed in the preceding canvass for popular support.

They are not justly chargeable with original Disunion proclivities.

Sentiments of that kind had been consolidated in the Breckinridge party.

But they are responsible for permitting a party whose rank and file did not outnumber their own to lead captive the public opinion of the South, and for permitting themselves to be pressed into a disavowal of their political principles, and to the adoption of the extreme views against which they had always warred.

The precipitate manner in which the Southern men of the ancient Whig faith yielded their position as friends of the Union was an instructive illustration of the power which a compact and desperate minority can wield in a popular struggle.