The Yankee Delegates at Charleston.

Col. Forney is particularly down on the New England delegations at Charleston. The following is from his “Occasional” correspondence:

“Of all the delegates to the Charleston Convention, those who may be said to have covered themselves with, especial infamy are the parasites who represented some of the New England States, and particularly those who spoke for the Administration from Massachusetts. I am not one who distrusts the New England character, but it is a fact which candor compels me to state, that, with but few exceptions, the Yankee politicians are the most untrustworthy and dishonest. There are few Franklin Pierces in New England, and the course of the New Hampshire delegation at Charleston is probably the surest index of his own feelings in the great contest now going on. Though General Pierce is by no means the personal friend of Judge Douglas, I had the pleasure of hearing him declare, more than a year ago, that it was in vain to deny that the Democratic party of New England preferred the “Little Giant” to all other men for the Presidency.

What is to be the course of Whitney, Swift, Wright, Cushing, Butler, an others, from Massachusetts, who assisted the fire-eaters of the South in their war upon Douglas, notwithstanding that most of them had, before their departure for Charleston, took occasion to express the kindest feelings for Douglas—Mr. Whitney himself assuring the gallant Senator from Illinois that he would be found battling bravely for him to the bitter end, although he held an official position? A few weeks will answer the question. I forbear any allusion to the recreant delegates from Connecticut, being content to leave them to their constituents. The Southern people cannot have been blind to all these facts. They must have seen that if Judge Douglas is defeated at Baltimore on the 18th of June, it will be by the most open bribery and the most unblushing treachery. They must admit that if the North had been fairly represented, all the efforts of the Secessionists, would have been in vain, and at this time the whole Democratic party would have been rallied in solid column under his victorious banner.

SOURCE: “The Yankee Delegates at Charleston,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 6