One of the interesting episodes of the convention was the arrival in Philadelphia, while the Whig convention was in session, of General Cass and his suite of Democratic leaders of national fame. Cass was on his way home from Washington, and the short time that he remained here he liberally divided public attention with the Whigs. An immense crowd welcomed Cass at the Jones Hotel, on Chestnut, above Sixth, and I there for the first time saw and heard General Cass, Senator Houston, Senator Allen, Senator Benton, and Representative Stevenson, all of whom spoke from the balcony of the hotel, and were cheered to the echo. I recall Houston as one of the handsomest men I have ever seen, with perfect physique, of heroic form, and a superbly chiselled face, portraying all the strength of the best type of the Roman. Cass was heavy and ponderous, but an able and attractive speaker, and I remember Benton well because his speech made him remembered as a colossal, perpendicular I. Allen was then notable as the “fog-horn,” and he could be heard a square beyond any of the others. A facetious delegate in the Whig convention, with admirable mock gravity, suggested that as the Democratic funeral train was in this city taking Cass’s body home by the lakes, the convention should adjourn. As might have been expected, and as was greatly feared by both the leading parties, the slavery issue was at once made the vital one of the contest. The Democrats hoped that as the contest warmed up the Van Buren followers would acquiesce as they did in 1844, but what at first seemed to be a cloud on the Democratic horizon no bigger than a man’s hand soon after developed into a promised tempest. The Barnburners, who had withdrawn from the Democratic National Convention, called a State convention, to meet at Utica, N. Y., on the 22d of June, and invited delegates from other States for conference. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, and Wisconsin were represented, and after devoting two days to the discussion of the best policy to adopt, Van Buren was formally nominated for President, and Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, for Vice-President, who declined, and supported Cass. Van Buren’s formal acceptance of the nomination followed soon thereafter, and it was the first definite notice to the regular Democrats that the Free-Soil Democracy was going to be earnestly arrayed against Democratic success.