In addition to these merely _quantitative_ differences in the Vowel-Sounds, there is a corresponding difference of _Quality_, which produces a Counter-Scale of Vowel-Sounds; an echo or repetition of the Basic Scale throughout its entire length. This new Scale is a Series of Sounds predominantly _short_ in quantity. They are called by Mr. Pitman the _Stopped_ Vowels. (In German they are denominated the _Sharp_ Vowels.) These Sounds are nearly always followed by a Consonant-Sound in the same syllable, by which they are _stopped_ or _broken abruptly off_, and the purity of their quality as Vowels affected or disturbed. It is not essential for our present purpose to give a detailed list of these Vowels; more especially as every Reader will readily recall them; as I, in pIn; E, in pEt; A in pAt; _o_, in n_o_t; _u_, in b_u_t; O, in stOne, cOAt; U, in fUll. In respect to the Vowel Diphthongs, the _Stopped_ Sounds are not materially different from the _short_ quantities of the corresponding Full ones; and no effort need be made to distinguish the two former varieties of Sound. The same is true of the Short and Stopped Sounds of A (ah). But the difference is very marked in the remaining Seven (7) Simple Vowels; the Stopped Sounds of which are given above. For the ordinary purposes of Language it is not necessary to distinguish these Stopped Sounds by any diacritical mark. But in the short Root-Words, where a difference of meaning depends upon the difference between the _full_ and _stopped_ Vowel, the so-called _grave_ accent is employed to denote the _stopped_ quality, as pique, pick, for example, written thus: pik, pik. The meaning of the Stopped Vowel-Sounds is merely the broken or _fractionized_ aspect of the same ideas which are symbolized by the corresponding _Full_ Vowel-Sounds. The nature and meaning of the Vowels being thus explained with sufficient amplitude for the uses now in view, we are prepared to advance, in a subsequent paper, to the consideration of the individual Consonant-Sounds, their character and inherent signification. THE TWO PLATFORMS. It was the opprobrium of the Republican party in the Presidential campaign of 1860, that the Southern States were not, in any but a limited degree, represented in its ranks; and so it was called a sectional party. The Presidential campaign of 1864 is not less remarkable, on the other hand, because the party which now appropriates the honored name of Democratic seems to ignore the crime of rebellion on the part of those Southern States, and thus invites an even more obnoxious appellation. History will record with amazement, as among the strange phenomena of a war the most wicked of all the wicked wars with which ambition has desolated the earth (phenomena that will perplex men and women of loyal instincts and righteous common sense to the latest day), the resolutions of the Chicago Convention of 1864.