The delegates separated into two bodies, one body comprehending the representatives from the South, and the other those from the North. This was done in order to leave the Southerners free from undue Northern influence. Mr. Speed presided over the Southern assembly, and in his opening words declared the purpose of the convention to be to determine and proclaim whether the assertion of the late Confederates that their constitutional rights were being denied them in not admitting their Representatives- and Senators-elect to seats in Congress was true, or whether, on the other hand, the claim of the emancipated that their civil and natural rights were being denied them was true. He soon left no doubt upon the minds of his hearers as to his own view and belief, and he denounced the President's reconstruction work, both in principle and results, most roundly. On account of the intimate relation in which he had stood to the President as his legal adviser, and on {101} account of the fact that he was a citizen of one of the old slave-holding "States," his words had tremendous effect in steeling the purpose of the Republicans of the North. Under the inspiration of Mr. Speed's speech, the Southern convention framed and fulminated an address which arraigned the President as almost a traitor to his party and the Union, and as a friend of rebels and of sympathizers with rebels, described the results of his Reconstruction policy and acts as most deplorable, and urged the speedy adoption of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as the only possible cure for the evils which were afflicting the country. This address made up the issues of the campaign. The dividing line of the parties now separated those who favored the adoption of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment from those who did not. The issue was simple, and the vote upon it was decisive, as we shall see. The Administration party now attempted to divide the late soldiers, as it had attempted to divide the Republicans, with but little better effect. They got together a convention of the veterans at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 17th of September, and had the venerable General Wool preside over it. There were many good men and true present, among them Gordon Granger, Rousseau, Custer, McClernand, and Thomas Ewing; and they accused the Republicans of attempting to stir up another civil war over the question of negro suffrage, and urged their old comrades to insist that the status of peace, and all the consequences thereof, existed and must be preserved.