NOMINATED AND ELECTED PRESIDENT.
The Republican National Convention--Democratic Convention--
Constitutional Union Convention--Ballotings at Chicago--The
Result--Enthusiastic Reception--Visit to Springfield--Address
and Letter of Acceptance--The Campaign--Result of the Election--
South Carolina’s Movements--Buchanan’s pusillanimity--Secession
of states--Confederate Constitution--Peace Convention--
Constitutional Amendments--Terms of the Rebels.
On the 16th of May, 1860, the Republican National Convention met at
Chicago, to present candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.
The Democratic Convention had previously adjourned, after a stormy
session of some two weeks, at which it was apparent that, if Mr.
Douglas’s friends persisted in placing him in nomination, another
candidate would be presented by the wing opposed to his peculiar views
on the slavery question, and the great party would thus be disrupted.
Another convention, claiming to represent, in a peculiarly individual
manner, the party in favor of the Constitution and the Union, had met
at Baltimore and put in nomination John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward
Everett, of Massachusetts.
The aspect seemed favorable for the election of the Republican
candidates, and that convention, on the morning of the 18th of May--one
day having been spent in organizing and another in the adoption of
a platform of principles--amid the intense excitement of the twelve
thousand people inside of the “Wigwam” (as the building was styled in
which the body was in session), voted to proceed at once to ballot for
a candidate for President of the United States.
Seven names were formally presented in the following order: William H.
Seward, of New York; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois; William L. Dayton,
of New Jersey; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania; Salmon P. Chase, of
Ohio; Edward Bates, of Missouri; and John McLean, of Ohio.
On the first ballot Mr. Seward received 173 votes, Mr. Lincoln 102,
Mr. Cameron 50, Mr. Chase 49, Mr. Bates 48, Mr. Dayton 14, Mr. McLean
12, and there were 16 votes scattered among candidates not put in
nomination. For a choice, 233 votes were required.
On the second ballot (Mr. Cameron’s name having been withdrawn) the
vote for the several candidates was as follows: Mr. Seward 184, Mr.
Lincoln 181, Mr. Chase 42, Mr. Bates 35, Mr. Dayton 10, Mr. McLean 8,
scattering 4.
The third ballot was immediately taken, and, when the call of the roll
was ended, the footings were as follows: For Mr. Lincoln 231, Mr.
Seward 180, Mr. Chase 24, Mr. Bates. 22, all others 7. Immediately
before the result was announced, four Ohio delegates changed their
votes to Mr. Lincoln, giving him a majority.
The scene which followed--the wild, almost delirious outburst of
applause within and without the building, the congratulations, the
hand-shakings, the various manifestations of joy, continued with
scarcely any interruption for some three-quarters of an hour--was
probably never before witnessed in a popular assembly.
The nomination having been made unanimous, the ticket was completed by
the selection of Senator Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, as Vice-President.
The country then felt that the right man had for once been put in the
right place. As a man of the people, in cordial sympathy with the
masses, Mr. Lincoln enjoyed the unhesitating confidence of the sincere
friends of free labor, regardless of party distinctions. His tried
integrity and incorruptible honesty gave promise of a return to the
better days of the republic. Every man, laboring for the advancement
of his fellow, knew that in him humanity, irrespective of race or
condition, had a tried and trusty friend.
The committee, appointed to apprise him of his nomination, found him
at his home, in Springfield, a frame two-storied house, apparently
about thirty-five or forty feet square, standing at the corner of two
streets. After entering the parlor, which was very plainly furnished,
though in good taste, a brief address was made by the chairman of the
convention, upon the utterance of the first sentence of which a smile
played round Mr. Lincoln’s large, firm-set mouth, his eyes lit up, and
his face conveyed to those who then for the first time met him, an
impression of that sincere, loving nature which those who had known him
long and well had learned in some measure to comprehend and revere.
* * * * *
In response to this address, Mr. Lincoln said:
“MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: I tender to you,
and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all
the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high
honor done me, which you now formally announce. Deeply, and
even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is
inseparable from this high honor--a responsibility which I could
almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men
and experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before
the Convention, I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the
resolutions of the Convention, denominated the platform, and
without unnecessary and unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr.
Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found
satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. And now I
will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you,
by the hand.”
In reply to the formal letter of the President of the Convention,
apprising him of the nomination, Mr. Lincoln addressed the following:
“_Springfield, Illinois_, May 23d, 1860.
“HON. GEORGE ASHMAN, _President of the Republican National
Convention_.
“SIR: I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention
over which you presided, and of which I am formally apprised in
the letter of yourself and others, acting as a Committee of the
Convention for that purpose.
“The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accompanies
your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to
violate, or disregard it, in any part.
“Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard
to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the
Convention; to the rights of all the States and Territories, and
people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and
the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy
to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared
by the Convention,
“Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen,
“ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”
The breach in the Democratic party, threatened at Charleston, was
subsequently effected by the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas
and Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, by one wing, and of John C.
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, by the other.
Although the election of Mr. Lincoln was, under the circumstances,
almost a foregone conclusion, yet the canvass which ensued was
acrimonious and vindictive in the extreme, the choicest selections from
the rank Billingsgate vocabularies being lavished on the head of Mr.
Lincoln and his supporters.
On the 6th of November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes,
securing the electoral votes of the States of Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, California, Oregon, and four votes of New Jersey, 180 in
all; Douglas, 1,375,157 votes, and the electoral votes of Missouri, and
three of New Jersey, 12 in all; Breckinridge, 847,953, and the votes of
Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, 72 in all; and
Bell, 590,631, and the votes of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 39
in all.
And now was to be tested whether words were to ripen into
deeds--whether threats would be reduced to practice--whether, indeed,
there were madness enough in any State or States to attempt the life of
the republic. Unfortunately, a short space of time elapsed before all
doubts were at an end. Men were to be found--not confined to a single
State, but representatives of nearly, if not quite all--not to be
counted by scores or hundreds even, but by thousands, and soon by tens
of thousands--ready to lay their unhallowed hands upon the Union, the
ark of our nation’s glory and strength.
To South Carolina belongs the bold, bad eminence of taking the
initiation in this conspiracy against the interests of humanity. While
this State--doomed forever after to an ignominy from which centuries
of unquestioned loyalty cannot free her--was taking the requisite
steps toward secession, the then President, James Buchanan, with a
pusillanimity--to use no stronger term--which modern history certainly
has never paralleled, in his annual message, after having urged the
unconstitutionality of the proceeding, gave explicit notification that
he had no constitutional power to prevent the proposed measures being
hastened to successful completion. Neither, though appealed to, at a
still earlier day, by the veteran chief of the army, to occupy and hold
the United States on the Southern coast, could he find any warrant for
protecting and defending the national property.
Surely nothing more could the conspirators have desired. On the 20th of
December, 1860, South Carolina claims to secede--Government forts and
arsenals are seized, and placed under the protection of the flag of the
State. Georgia’s Governor lays hand on the United States forts on the
coast of that State, on the 3d of January, 1861; as did the Executive
of Alabama on the following day.
Events of a startling nature follow in rapid succession. On the 9th
of January, hostile shots are fired upon a vessel bringing tardy
reinforcements to Fort Sumter, and Mississippi assumes to put herself
out of the Union. Alabama, Florida, and Georgia are not laggard;
nor are Texas and Louisiana found wanting. Cabinet officers from
the slave States either resigned, after having aided the fell work
to their utmost, or remained only to hasten its consummation. A new
constitution, “temporary” in its nature, was declared by delegates from
the seven States then in rebellion, and a President and Vice-President
appointed.
Meanwhile a convention, composed of delegates from most of the Free
States, and from all the border Slave States, was striving, at
Washington, to heal existing difficulties by compromise. Of its members
some were acting in good faith, others were using it as a breakwater
for the States already in overt rebellion. A series of resolutions,
however, aiming at peace on the basis of a preserved Union was agreed
to by a majority, and the body adjourned on the 1st of March.
On the 11th of February, moreover, the National House of
Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution--shortly afterward
concurred in by the Senate--providing for an amendment to the
Constitution, forever prohibiting any Congressional legislation
interfering with slavery in any State. Some there were, too, who were
willing to concede almost every thing and surrender the long mooted
question of slavery in the territories by the adoption of the so-called
Crittenden resolutions, which were killed in cold blood by Southern
Senators.
But no concession, short of actual national degradation, would satisfy
the recusants. Jefferson Davis, the head of the “Confederacy,” on
placing himself at the head of the rebellion, at Montgomery, Alabama,
February 18th, modestly defined the position of himself and his
co-conspirators thus:
“If a just perception of neutral interest shall permit us peaceably
to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will
have been fulfilled. But if this be denied us, and the integrity of our
territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us with
firm resolve to appeal to arms, and invoke the blessing of Providence
on a just cause.”
This was at once clinched by a recommendation that “a well-instructed,
disciplined army, more numerous than would usually be required, on a
peace establishment,” should be at once organized and put in training
for the emergency.