As one member must be taken from each State, the Southern men obtained the control of all the committees, from the fact that the delegates from California and Oregon steadily voted with them.

There were thirty-three States in the Union in 1860,--eighteen free and fifteen slave-holding.
California and Oregon, uniting with the South, gave to that section seventeen, and left to the North but sixteen on all the committees.
The Democratic delegates from the Pacific States assumed a weighty responsibility in thus giving to the Disunionists of the South preliminary control of the convention, by permitting them to shape authoritatively all the business to be submitted.

It left the real majority of the convention in the attitude of a protesting minority.
The Southern majority of one on the committees was fatal to Democratic success.

In a still more important aspect its influence was in the highest degree prejudicial to the Union of the States.
Constituted in the manner just indicated, the Committee on Resolutions promptly and unanimously agreed on every article of the Democratic creed, except that relating to slavery.

Here they divided, stubbornly and irreconcilably.