A look back at Humphrey's call for unity at the 1968 Democratic Convention

On Tuesday night Hillary Clinton was officially nominated by the Democratic Party. While her nomination is a milestone in American history, as the first female to be nominated by a major party, Clinton will be faced with the daunting task of unifying a fractured party. As her delegates moved to nominate their candidate supporters of Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders, took to the streets in protest.

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the party's nominee Hubert Humphrey was faced with a similar task. Humphrey, the sitting Vice President, was faced with uniting his party after beating Senator Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy, like Sanders, represented the more liberal side of the party as he gained momentum from being a peace candidate during the widely unpopular Vietnam War.

The 1968 DNC would go down as one of the most violent conventions and followed an already turbulent year with the assignations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Humphrey eventually lost the general election to Republican Richard Nixon and his loss remains a stark reminder to the current Democratic Party. Mending the party's fractures during the convention will be an easier feat than dragging-out internal party problems into the general election.

Below is a portion of the speech Hubert Humphrey delivered to Democratic delegates at the 1968 convention:

I choose not simply to run for President. I seek to lead a great nation.

And either we achieve true justice in our land or we shall doom ourselves to a terrible exhaustion of body and spirit.

I base my entire candidacy on the belief which comes from the very depths of my soul--which comes from basic religious conviction that the American people will stand up, that they will stand up for justice and fair play, and that they will respond to the call of one citizenship--one citizenship open to all for all Americans!

So this is the message that I shall take to the people, and I ask you to stand with me.

To all of my fellow Democrats now who have labored hard and openly this week, at the difficult and sometimes frustrating work of democracy, I pledge myself to that task of leading the Democratic Party to victory in November.

And may I say to those who have differed with their neighbor, or those who have differed with a fellow Democrats, may I say to you that all of your goals, that all of your high hopes, that all of your dreams, all of them will come to naught if we lose this election and many of them can be realized with the victory that can come to us.

And now a word to two good friends. To my friends--and they are my friends--and they're your friends--and they're fellow Democrats.

To my friends Gene McCarthy and George McGovern--to my friends Gene McCarthy and George McGovern, who have given new hope to a new generation of Americans that there can be greater meaning in their lives, that America can respond to men of moral concern, to these two good Americans: I ask your help for our America, and I ask you to help me in this difficult campaign that lies ahead.

And now I appeal, I appeal to those thousands--yea millions--of young Americans to join us, not simply as campaigners, but to continue as vocal, creative and even critical participants in the politics of our time. Never were you needed so much, and never could you do so much if you want to help now.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Robert F. Kennedy as you saw tonight had a great vision. If Americans will respond to that dream and that vision, if Americans will respond to that dream and that vision, their deaths will not mark the moment when America lost its way. But it will mark the time when America found its conscience.

These men, these men have given us inspiration and direction, and I pledge from this platform tonight we shall not abandon their purposes--we shall honor their dreams by our deeds now and in the days to come.

I am keenly aware of the fears and the frustrations of the world in which we live. It is all too easy, isn't it, to play on these emotions. But I do not intend to do so. I do not intend to appeal to fear, but rather to hope. I do not intend to appeal to frustration, but rather to your faith.

I shall appeal to reason and to your good judgment

The American Presidency, the American Presidency is a great and powerful office, but it is not all-powerful. It depends most of all upon the will and the faith and the dedication and the wisdom of the American people.

And I know, as you know, there is an essential strength in the American people. And tonight I call you, I call you, the American people, not to be of one mind, but to be of one spirit I call you, the American people, not to a life of false security, false promises and ease, but to a new sense of purpose, a new dedication and a new commitment.

Remember that those who founded this republic said that in order to secure these inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

I submit, my fellow Americans, we dare do no less in our time if this republic is to survive.

So I call you forth--I call forth that basic goodness that is there--I call you to risk the hard path of greatness.

And I say to America. Put aside recrimination and dissension. Turn away from violence and hatred. Believe--believe in what America can do, and believe in what America can be, and with the vast--with the help of that vast, unfrightened, dedicated, faithful majority of Americans, I say to this great convention tonight, and to this great nation of ours, I am ready to lead our country!