The  several  delegations  then  presented
three  candidates  for  places  on  the  several
committees.
Mr.  Williams,  Chairman  ot  the  Com
mittee  on  Permanent  Organization,  re
ported  as  permanent  Chairman  of  the
Convention  General  J.  B.  Henderson,  of
Missouri,  who  was  elected  and  escorted  to
the  chair  amidst  the  applause  of  the  mul
titude  :

General  Henderson's  Speech.
On  taking  the  chair,  General  Hender
son  said  :

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONVENTION  : —
We  have  assembled  to  survey  the  past


history  of  the  party ;  to  rejoice,  as  we
may,  because  of  the  good  it  has  done  ;  to
correct  its  errors,  if  errors  there  be ;  to
discover,  if  possible,  the  wants  of  the
present,  and  with  patriotic  firmness,  pro
vide  for  the  future

Our  past  history  is  the  Union  preserved,
slavery  abolished,  and  its  former  victims
equally  and  honorably  by  our  sides  in  this
Convention  ;  the  public  faith  maintained,
unbounded  credit  at  home  and  abroad,  a
currency  convertible  into  coin,  and  the
pulses  of  industry  throbbing  with  renewed
health  and  vigor  in  every  section  of  a
prosperous  and  peaceful  country.  These
are  the  fruits  of  triumphs  over  adverse
policies,  gained  in  the  military  and  civil
conflicts  of  the  last  twenty-four  years.
