THE CHICAGO CONVENTION
[Sidenote] 1860.
In recognition of the growing power and importance of the great West,
the Republican National Convention was called to meet in Chicago on
the 16th of May. The former Presidential canvass, though resulting in
the defeat of Frémont, had nevertheless shown the remarkable popular
strength of the Republican party in the country at large; since then,
its double victory in Congress against Lecompton, and at the
Congressional elections over the Representatives who supported
Lecompton, gave it confidence and aggressive activity. But now it
received a new inspiration and impetus from the Charleston disruption.
Former possibility was suddenly changed to strong probability of
success in the coming Presidential election. Delegates were not only
quickened with a new zeal for their principles; the growing chances
spurred them to fresh efforts in behalf of their favorite candidates.
Those who had been prominently named were diverse in antecedents and
varied in locality, each however presenting some strong point of
popular interest. Seward, of New York, a Whig of preeminent fame;
Chase, of Ohio, a talented and zealous anti-slavery Democrat, an
original founder of the new party; Dayton, of New Jersey, an old Whig
high in personal worth and political service; Cameron, of Pennsylvania,
a former Democrat, now the undisputed leader of an influential tariff
State; Bates, of Missouri, an able and popular anti-slavery Whig from
a slave-State; and last, but by no means least in popular estimation,
Lincoln, of Illinois.
[Sidenote] Pickett to Lincoln, April 13, 1859. MS.
The idea of making Lincoln a Presidential candidate had occurred to
the minds of many during his growing fame. The principle of natural
selection plays no unimportant part in the politics of the United
States. There are always hundreds of newspapers ready to "nail to
the mast-head" the name of any individual which begins to appear
frequently in dispatches and editorials. A few months after the close
of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and long before the Ohio speeches and
the Cooper Institute address, a warm personal friend, the editor of
an Illinois newspaper, wrote him an invitation to lecture, and added
in his letter: "I would like to have a talk with you on political
matters, as to the policy of announcing your name for the Presidency,
while you are in our city. My partner and myself are about addressing
the Republican editors of the State on the subject of a simultaneous
announcement of your name for the Presidency."
[Sidenote] Lincoln to Pickett, April 16, 1859. MS.
To this Lincoln replied: "As to the other matter you kindly mention, I
must in candor say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. I
certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial friends think
of me in that connection; but I really think it best for our cause
that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made."
[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.]
[Sidenote] Lincoln to Judd, Dec. 9, 1859. MS.
A much more hopeful ambition filled his mind. Notwithstanding his
recent defeat, he did not think that his personal contest with Douglas
was yet finished. He had the faith and the patience to wait six years
for a chance to repeat his political tournament with the "Little
Giant." From his letter quoted in a previous chapter we know he had
resolved to "fight in the ranks" in 1860. From another, we know how
generously he kept faith with other Republican aspirants. "If Trumbull
and I were candidates for the same office you would have a right to
prefer him, and I should not blame you for it; but all my acquaintance
with you induces me to believe you would not pretend to be for me
while really for him. But I do not understand Trumbull and myself to
be rivals. You know I am pledged not to enter a struggle with him for
the seat in the Senate now occupied by him; and yet I would rather
have a full term in the Senate than in the Presidency."
[Sidenote] Lincoln to Frazer, Nov. 1, 1859. MS.
This spirit of fairness in politics is also shown by the following
letter, written apparently in response to a suggestion that Cameron
and Lincoln might form a popular Presidential tickets "Yours of the
24th ult. was forwarded to me from Chicago. It certainly is important
to secure Pennsylvania for the Republicans in the next Presidential
contest; and not unimportant to also secure Illinois. As to the ticket
you name, I shall be heartily for it after it shall have been fairly
nominated by a Republican National Convention; and I cannot be
committed to it before. For my single self, I have enlisted for the
permanent success of the Republican cause; and for this object I shall
labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not probable, the
judgment of the party shall assign me a different position. If the
Republicans of the great State of Pennsylvania shall present Mr.
Cameron as their candidate for the Presidency, such an indorsement of
his fitness for the place could scarcely be deemed insufficient.
Still, as I would not like the public to know, so I would not like
myself to know, I had entered a combination with any man to the
prejudice of all others whose friends respectively may consider them
preferable."
[Sidenote] Lincoln to Judd, Feb. 9, 1860. MS. Also printed in a
pamphlet.
Not long after these letters, at some date near the middle of the
winter 1859-60, the leaders of the Republican party of Illinois met at
Springfield, the capital of the State, and in a more pressing and
formal manner requested him to permit them to use his name as a
Presidential candidate, more with the idea of securing his nomination
for Vice-President than with any further expectation. To this he now
consented. His own characteristic language, however, plainly reveals
that he believed this would be useful to him in his future Senatorial
aspirations solely, and that he built no hopes whatever on national
preferment. A quarrel was going on among rival aspirants to the
Illinois governorship, and Lincoln had written a letter to relieve a
friend from the imputation of treachery to him in the recent
Senatorial contest. This act of justice was now used to his
disadvantage in the scramble for the Illinois Presidential delegates,
and he wrote as follows: "I am not in a position where it would hurt
much for me not to be nominated on the national ticket; but I am where
it would hurt some for me not to get the Illinois delegates. What I
expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now
happening. Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against me; and
they will for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and
to the Seward egg in the North, and go far towards squeezing me out in
the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a little in this matter
in your end of the vineyard?"
The extra vigilance of his friends thus invoked, it turned out that
the Illinois Republicans sent a delegation to the Chicago Convention
full of personal devotion to Lincoln and composed of men of the
highest standing, and of consummate political ability, and their
enthusiastic efforts in his behalf among the delegations from other
States contributed largely to the final result.
[Sidenote] 1860.
The political campaign had now so far taken shape that its elements
and chances could be calculated with more than usual accuracy. The
Charleston Convention had been disrupted on the 30th of April, and
adjourned on May 3; the nomination of John Bell by the Constitutional
Union party occurred on May 10. The Chicago Convention met on May 16;
and while there was at that date great uncertainty as to whom the
dissevered fragments of the Democratic party would finally nominate,
little doubt existed that both the Douglas and Buchanan wings would
have candidates in the field. With their opponents thus divided, the
plain policy of the Republicans was to find a candidate on whom a
thorough and hearty union of all the elements of the opposition could
be secured. The party was constituted of somewhat heterogeneous
material; a lingering antagonism remained between former Whigs and
Democrats, protectionists and free-traders, foreign-born citizens and
Know-Nothings. Only on a single point were all thus far
agreed--opposition to the extension of slavery.
But little calculation was needed to show that at the November polls
four doubtful States would decide the Presidential contest. Buchanan
had been elected in 1856 by the vote of all the slave States (save
Maryland), with the help of the free States of New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and California, Change the first four
or even the first three of these free-States to the Republican side,
and they, with the Frémont States of 1856, would elect the President
against all the others combined. The Congressional elections of 1858
demonstrated that such a change was possible. But besides this,
Pennsylvania and Indiana were, like Ohio, known as "October States,"
because they held elections for State officers in that month; and they
would at that early date give such an indication of sentiment as would
forecast their November vote for President, and exert a powerful,
perhaps a decisive, influence on the whole canvass. What candidate
could most easily carry New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and
Illinois, became therefore the vital question among the Chicago
delegates, and especially among the delegates from the four pivotal
States themselves.
William H. Seward, of New York, was naturally the leading candidate.
He had been longest in public life, and was highest in official rank.
He had been Governor of the greatest State of the Union, and had
nearly completed a second term of service in the United States Senate.
Once a prominent Whig, his antecedents coincided with those of the
bulk of the Republican party. His experience ran through two great
agitations of the slavery question. He had taken important part in the
Senate discussions which ended in the compromise measures of 1850, and
in the new contest growing out of the Nebraska bill his voice had been
heard in every debate. He was not only firm in his anti-slavery
convictions, but decided in his utterances. Discussing the admission
of California, he proclaimed the "higher law" doctrine in 1850;[1]
reviewing Dred Scott and Lecompton, he announced the "irrepressible
conflict" in 1858.[2] He had tact as well as talent; he was a
consummate politician, as well as a profound statesman. Such a leader
could not fail of a strong following, and his supporters came to
Chicago in such numbers, and of such prominence and character, as
seemed to make his nomination a foregone conclusion. The delegation
from New York, headed by William M. Evarts, worked and voted
throughout as a unit for him, not merely to carry out their
constituents' wishes, but with, a personal zeal that omitted no
exertion or sacrifice. They showed a want of tact, however, in
carrying their street demonstrations for their favorite to excess;
they crowded together at the Richmond House, making that hotel the
Seward headquarters; with too much ostentation they marched every day
to the convention with music and banners; and when mention was made of
doubtful States, their more headlong members talked altogether too
much of the campaign funds they intended to raise. All this occasioned
a reaction--a certain mental protest among both Eastern and Western
delegates against what have come to be characterized as "machine"
methods.
The positive elements in Seward's character and career had developed,
as always happens, strong antagonisms. One of the earliest symptoms
among the delegates at Chicago was the existence of a strong
undercurrent of opposition to his nomination. This opposition was as
yet latent, and scattered here and there among many State delegations,
but very intense, silently watching its opportunity, and ready to
combine upon any of the other candidates. The opposition soon made a
discovery: that of all the names mentioned, Lincoln's was the only one
offering any chance for such a combination. It needed only the
slightest comparison of notes to show that Dayton had no strength save
the New Jersey vote; Chase little outside of the Ohio delegation;
Cameron none but that of Pennsylvania, and that Bates had only his
Missouri friends and a few in border slave-States, which could cast no
electoral vote for the Republicans. The policy of the anti-Seward
delegates was therefore quickly developed--to use Lincoln's popularity
as a means to defeat Seward.
The credit of the nomination is claimed by many men, and by several
delegations, but every such claim is wholly fictitious. Lincoln was
chosen not by personal intrigue, but through political necessity. The
Republican party was a purely defensive organization; the South had
created the crisis which the new party was compelled to overcome. The
ascendency of the free-States, not the personal fortunes of Seward,
hung in the balance. Political victory at the ballot-box or a
transformation of the institutions of government was the immediate
alternative before the free-States.
Victory could be secured only by help of the electoral votes of New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois. It was therefore a simple
problem: What candidate could carry these States? None could answer
this question so well as their own delegates, and these, when
interrogated, still further reduced the problem by the reply that
Seward certainly could not. These four States lay on the border land
next to the South and to slavery. Institutions inevitably mold public
sentiment; and a certain tenderness towards the "property" of
neighbors and friends infected their people. They shrunk from the
reproach of being "abolitionized." They would vote for a conservative
Republican; but Seward and radicalism and "higher law" would bring
them inevitable defeat.
[Sidenote] N.Y. "Tribune," May 18, 1860.
Who, then, could carry these doubtful and pivotal States? This second
branch of the question also found its ready answer. The contest in
these States would be not against a Territorial slave code, but against
"popular sovereignty "; not with Buchanan's candidate, but with
Douglas; and for Douglas there was only a single antagonist, tried and
true--Abraham Lincoln. Such, we may reasonably infer, was the substance
of the discussion and argument which ran through the caucus-rooms of
the delegates, day and night, during the 16th and 17th of May.
Meanwhile the Seward men were not idle; having the large New York
delegation to begin with, and counting the many positive committals
from other States, their strength and organization seemed impregnable.
The opposing delegations, each still nursing the chances of its own
candidate, hesitated to give any positive promises to each other. At
midnight of May 17, Horace Greeley,[3] one of Seward's strongest
opponents, and perhaps better informed than any other single delegate,
telegraphed his conclusion "that the opposition to Governor Seward
cannot concentrate on any candidate, and that he will be nominated."
Chicago was already a city of a hundred thousand souls. Thirty to forty
thousand visitors, full of life, hope, ambition, most of them from the
progressive group of encircling North-western States, and strung to the
highest tension of political excitement had come to attend the
convention. Charleston had shown a great party in the ebbtide of
disintegration, tainted by the spirit of disunion. Chicago exhibited a
great party springing to life and power, every motive and force
compelling coöperation and growth. The rush and spirit of the great
city, and the enthusiasm and hope of its visitors, blended and reacted
upon each other as if by laws of chemical affinity. Something of the
freshness and sweep of the prairie winds exhilarated the delegates and
animated the convention.
No building in the city of Chicago at that time contained a hall with
sufficient room for the sittings of the great assemblage. A temporary
frame structure, which the committee of arrangements christened "The
Wigwam," was therefore designed and erected for this special use. It
was said to be large enough to hold ten thousand persons, and whether
or not that estimate was entirely accurate, a prodigious concourse
certainly gathered each day within its walls.
The first day's session (May 16) demonstrated the successful adaptation
of the structure to its uses. Participants and spectators alike were
delighted with the ease of ingress and egress, the comfortable division
of space, the perfection of its acoustic qualities. Every celebrity
could be seen, every speech could be heard. The routine of
organization, the choice of officers and committees, and the
presentation of credentials were full of variety and zest. Governor
Edwin D. Morgan, of New York, as Chairman of the National Republican
Committee, called the convention to order; and when he presented the
historic name of David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, for temporary chairman,
the faith of the audience in the judgment of the managers was already
won. The report of the committee on organization in the afternoon made
George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, a most skillful parliamentarian ready
in decision and felicitous in his phrases, the permanent presiding
officer. One thing was immediately and specially manifest: an
overflowing heartiness and deep feeling pervaded the whole house. No
need of a _claque_, no room for sham demonstration here! The galleries
were as watchful and earnest as the platform. There was something
genuine, elemental, uncontrollable in the moods and manifestations of
the vast audience. Seats and standing-room were always packed in
advance, and, as the delegates entered by their own separate doors, the
crowd easily distinguished the chief actors. Blair, Giddings, Greeley,
Evarts, Kelley, Wilmot, Schurz, and others were greeted with
spontaneous applause, which, rising at some one point, grew and rolled
from side to side and corner to corner of the immense building,
brightening the eyes and quickening the breath of every inmate.[4]
With the second day's proceedings the interest of delegates and
spectators was visibly increased, first by some sharp-shooting speeches
about credentials, and secondly by the main event of the day--the
report from the platform committee. Much difficulty was expected on
this score, but a little time had smoothed the way with almost magical
effect. The great outpouring of delegates and people, the self-evident
success of the gathering, the harmonious, almost joyous, beginning of
the deliberations in the first day's session, were more convincing than
logic in solidifying the party. These were the premonitions of success;
before such signs of victory all spirit of faction was fused into a
generous glow of emulation.
The eager convention would have accepted a weak or defective platform;
the committee, on the contrary, reported one framed with remarkable
skill. It is only needful to recapitulate its chief points. It
denounced disunion, Lecomptonism, the property theory, the dogma that
the Constitution carries slavery to Territories, the reopening of the
slave-trade, the popular sovereignty and non-intervention fallacies,
and denied "the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or
of any individuals to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory
of the United States." It opposed any change in the naturalization
laws. It recommended an adjustment of import duties to encourage the
industrial interests of the whole country. It advocated the immediate
admission of Kansas, free homesteads to actual settlers, river and
harbor improvements of a national character, and a railroad to the
Pacific Ocean. Bold on points of common agreement, it was unusually
successful in avoiding points of controversy among its followers, or
offering points for criticism to its enemies.
It is not surprising that Charleston and Chicago should furnish many
striking contrasts. At the Charleston Convention, the principal
personal incident was a long and frank speech from one Gaulden, a
Savannah slave-trader, in advocacy of the reopening of the African
slave-trade.[5] In the Chicago Convention, the exact and extreme
opposite of such a theme created one of the most interesting of the
debates. The platform had been read and received with tremendous
cheers, when Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, who was everywhere eager to insist
upon what he designated as the "primal truths" of the Declaration of
Independence, moved to amend the first resolution by incorporating in
it the phrase which announces the right of all men to "life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness." The convention was impatient to adopt
the platform without change; several delegates urged objections, one of
them pertinently observing that there were also many other truths
enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. "Mr. President," said
he, "I believe in the ten commandments, but I do not want them in a
political platform." Mr. Giddings's amendment was voted down, and the
anti-slavery veteran, feeling himself wounded in his most cherished
philosophy, rose and walked out of the convention.
[Sidenote] Murat Halstead, "Conventions of 1860," p. 138.
Personal friends, grieved that he should feel offended, and doubly
sorry that the general harmony should be marred by even a single
dissent, followed Mr. Giddings, and sought to change his purpose. While
thus persuading him, the discussion had passed to the second
resolution, when George William Curtis, of New York, seized the chance
to renew substantially Mr. Giddings's amendment. There were new
objections, but Mr. Curtis swept them away with a captivating burst of
oratory. "I have to ask this convention," said he, "whether they are
prepared to go upon the record before the country as voting down the
words of the Declaration of Independence?... I rise simply to ask
gentlemen to think well before, upon the free prairies of the West, in
the summer of 1860, they dare to wince and quail before the assertions
of the men in Philadelphia, in 1776--before they dare to shrink from
repeating the words that these great men enunciated." "This was a
strong appeal, and took the convention by storm," wrote a recording
journalist. A new vote formally embodied this portion of the
Declaration of Independence in the Republican platform; and Mr.
Giddings, overjoyed at his triumph, had already returned to his seat
when the platform as a whole was adopted with repeated and renewed
shouts of applause that seemed to shake the wigwam.
The third day of the convention (Friday, May 18) found the doors
besieged by an excited multitude. The preliminary business was disposed
of,--the platform was made,--and every one knew the balloting would
begin. The New York delegation felt assured of Seward's triumph, and
made an effort to have its march to the convention, with banners and
music, unusually full and imposing. It proved a costly display; for
while the New York "irregulars" were parading the streets, the
Illinoisans were filling the wigwam: when the Seward procession
arrived, there was little room left except the reserved seats for the
delegates. New York deceived itself in another respect: it counted on
the full New England strength, whereas more than half of it had already
resolved to cast its vote elsewhere. This defection in advance
virtually insured Seward's defeat. New York and the extreme North-west
were not sufficiently strong to nominate him, and in the nature of
things he could not hope for much help from the conservative middle and
border States. But this calculation could not as yet be so accurately
made. Caucusing was active up to the very hour when the convention met,
and many delegations went to the wigwam with no definite programme
beyond the first ballot.
What pen shall adequately describe this vast audience of ten thousand
souls? the low, wavelike roar of its ordinary conversation; the rolling
cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favorites; the solemn hush
which fell upon it during the opening prayer? There was just enough of
some unexpected preliminary wrangle and delay to arouse the full
impatience of both convention and spectators; but at length the names
of candidates were announced. This ceremony was still in its
simplicity. The more recent custom of short dramatic speeches from
conspicuous and popular orators to serve as electrifying preludes had
not yet been invented. "I take the liberty," said Mr. Evarts, of New
York, "to name as a candidate to be nominated by this convention for
the office of President of the United States, "William H. Seward." "I
desire," followed Mr. Judd, "on behalf of the delegation from Illinois,
to put in nomination as a candidate for President of the United States,
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois." Then came the usual succession of
possible and alternative aspirants who were to be complimented by the
first votes of their States--"William L. Dayton, Simon Cameron, Salmon
P. Chase, Edward Bates, Jacob Collamer, John McLean. The fifteen
minutes required by this formality had already indisputably marked out
and set apart the real contestants. The "complimentary" statesmen were
lustily cheered by their respective State delegations; but at the names
of Seward and Lincoln the whole wigwam seemed to respond together.
[Sidenote] Halstead, "Conventions of 1860," p. 145.
There is something irresistibly exciting in the united voice of a great
crowd. For a moment the struggle appeared to resolve itself into a
contest of throats and lungs. Indiana seconded the nomination of
Lincoln, and the applause was deafening. Michigan seconded the
nomination of Seward; the New York delegation rose _en masse_, waved
their hats, and joined the galleries in a shout which doubled the
volume of any yet given. Then a portion of the Ohio delegates once more
seconded Lincoln, and his adherents, feeling themselves put upon their
mettle, made an effort. "I thought the Seward yell could not be
surpassed," wrote a spectator; "but the Lincoln boys were clearly
ahead, and, feeling their victory, as there was a lull in the storm,
took deep breaths all round, and gave a concentrated shriek that was
positively awful, and accompanied it with stamping that made every
plank and pillar in the building quiver."
The tumult gradually died away, and balloting began. Here we may note
another contrast. The Charleston Convention was reactionary and
exclusive; it followed the two-thirds rule. The Chicago Convention was
progressive and liberal; it adopted majority rule. Liberal even beyond
this, it admitted the Territories and border slave-States, containing
only a minority or fraction of Republican sentiment, to seats and to
votes. It was throwing a drag-net for success. Under different
circumstances, these sentimental delegations might have become powerful
in intrigue; but dominated as they were by deeper political forces,
they afforded no distinct advantage to either candidate.[6]
Though it was not expected to be decisive, the first ballot
foreshadowed accurately the final result. The "complimentary"
candidates received the tribute of admiration from their respective
States. Vermont voted for Collamer, and New Jersey for Dayton, each
solid[7]. Pennsylvania's compliment to Cameron was shorn of six votes,
four of which went at once for Lincoln. Ohio divided her compliment, 34
for Chase, 4 for McLean, and at once gave Lincoln her 8 remaining
votes. Missouri voted solid for her candidate, Bates, who also received
a scattering tribute from other delegations. But all these compliments
were of little avail to their recipients, for far above each towered
the aggregates of the leading candidates: Seward, 173-1/2; Lincoln,
102.[8]
In the groundswell of suppressed excitement which pervaded the
convention there was no time to analyze this vote; nevertheless,
delegates and spectators felt the full force of its premonition; to all
who desired the defeat of Seward it pointed out the winning man with,
unerring certainty. Another little wrangle over some disputed and
protesting delegate made the audience almost furious at the delay, and
"Call the roll!" sounded from a thousand throats.
A second ballot was begun at last, and, obeying a force as sure as the
law of gravitation, the former complimentary votes came rushing to
Lincoln. The whole 10 votes of Collamer, 44 from Cameron, 6 from Chase
and McLean, were now cast for him, followed by a scatter of additions
along the roll-call. In this ballot Lincoln gained 79 votes, Seward
only 11. The faces of the New York delegation whitened as the balloting
progressed and the torrent of Lincoln's popularity became a river. The
result of the second ballot was: Seward, 184-1/2; Lincoln, 181;
scattering, 99-1/2[9]. When the vote of Lincoln was announced, there
was a tremendous burst of applause, which the chairman prudently but
with difficulty controlled and silenced.
The third ballot was begun amid a breathless suspense; hundreds of
pencils kept pace with the roll-call, and nervously marked the changes
on their tally-sheets. The Lincoln figures steadily grew. Votes came to
him from all the other candidates--4-1/2 from Seward, 2 from Cameron,
13 from Bates, 18 from Chase, 9 from Dayton, 3 from McLean, 1 from
Clay. Lincoln had gained 50-1/2, Seward had lost 4-1/2. Long before the
official tellers footed up their columns, spectators and delegates
rapidly made the reckoning and knew the result: Lincoln, 231-1/2;
Seward, 180.[10] Counting the scattering votes, 465 ballots had been
cast, and 233 were necessary to a choice; only 1-1/2 votes more were
needed to make a nomination.
A profound stillness suddenly fell upon the wigwam; the men ceased to
talk and the ladies to flutter their fans; one could distinctly hear
the scratching of pencils and the ticking of telegraph instruments on
the reporters' tables. No announcement had been made by the chair;
changes were in order, and it was only a question of seconds who should
speak first. While every one was leaning forward in intense expectancy,
David K. Cartter sprang upon his chair and reported a change of four
Ohio votes from Chase to Lincoln. There was a moment's pause,--a teller
waved his tally-sheet towards the skylight and shouted a name,--and
then the boom of a cannon on the roof of the wigwam announced the
nomination to the crowds in the streets, where shouts and salutes took
up and spread the news. In the convention the Lincoln river now became
an inundation. Amid the wildest hurrahs, delegation after delegation
changed its vote to the victor.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF LINCOLN'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.]
A graceful custom prevails in orderly American conventions, that the
chairman of the vanquished delegation is first to greet the nominee
with a short address of party fealty and promise of party support. Mr.
Evarts, the spokesman for New York, essayed promptly to perform this
courteous office, but was delayed a while by the enthusiasm and
confusion. The din at length subsided, and the presiding officer
announced that on the third ballot Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois,
received 364 votes, and "is selected as your candidate for President of
the United States." Then Mr. Evarts, in a voice of unconcealed emotion,
but with admirable dignity and touching eloquence, speaking for Seward
and for New York, moved to make the nomination unanimous.
The interest in a National Convention usually ceases with the
announcement of the principal nomination. It was only afterwards that
the delegates realized how fortunate a selection they made by adding
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, to the ticket as candidate for
Vice-President. Mr. Hamlin was already distinguished in public service.
He was born in 1809, and became a lawyer by profession. He served many
years in the Maine Legislature and four years as a Representative in
Congress. In 1848 he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States
Senate, and in 1851 was reelected for a full term. When in 1856 the
Cincinnati Convention indorsed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
which he had opposed, Mr. Hamlin formally withdrew from the Democratic
party. In November of that year the Republicans elected him Governor of
Maine, and in January, 1857, reelected him United States Senator.
[Sidenote] Halstead, "Conventions of 1860," p. 154.
For the moment the chief self-congratulation of the convention was that
by the nomination of Lincoln it had secured the doubtful vote of the
conservative States. Or rather, perhaps, might it be said that it was
hardly the work of the delegates--it was the concurrent product of
popular wisdom. Political evolution had with scientific precision
wrought "the survival of the fittest." The delegates leaving Chicago on
the various homeward-bound railroad trains that night, saw that already
the enthusiasm of the convention was transferred from the wigwam to the
country. "At every station where there was a village, until after 2
o'clock, there were tar-barrels burning, drums beating, boys carrying
rails, and guns great and small banging away. The weary passengers were
allowed no rest, but plagued by the thundering of the cannon, the
clamor of drums, the glare of bonfires, and the whooping of boys, who
were delighted with the idea of a candidate for the Presidency who
thirty years before split rails on the Sangamon River--classic stream
now and for evermore--and whose neighbors named him 'honest.'"
----------
[1] "It is true indeed that the national domain is ours. It is true
it was acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the whole nation.
But we hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. We hold no
arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired lawfully or
seized by usurpation. The Constitution regulates our stewardship;
the Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense,
to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the
Constitution which regulates our authority over the domain, and
devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no
inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon
them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so
discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree
their happiness."--William H. Seward, Senate Speech, March 11, 1850.
App. "Globe," p. 265.
[2] "Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that
it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical
agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is
an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it
means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become
either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free-labor
nation."--Seward, Rochester Speech, October 25, 1858.
[3] Mr. Greeley sat in the convention as a delegate for Oregon.
[4] One of the authors of this history was a spectator at all the
sessions of the convention, and witnessed the scenes in the Wigwam
which he has endeavored to describe.
[5] "I tell you, fellow-Democrats, that the African slave-trader is the
true Union man [cheers and laughter], I tell you that the slave-trading
of Virginia is more immoral, more unchristian in every possible point
of view, than that African slave-trade which goes to Africa and brings
a heathen and worthless man here, christianizes him, and sends him and
his posterity down the stream of time to enjoy the blessings of
civilization.... It has been my fortune to go into that noble old State
to buy a few darkies, and I have had to pay from $1000 to $2000 a head,
when I could go to Africa and buy better negroes for $50 apiece.... I
advocate the repeal of the laws prohibiting the African slave-trade,
because I believe it to be the true Union movement. I do not believe
that sections whose interests are so different as the Southern and
Northern States can ever stand the shocks of fanaticism unless they be
equally balanced. I believe that by reopening this trade, and giving
us negroes to populate the Territories, the equilibrium of the two
sections will be maintained."--Speech of W.B. Gaulden, of Georgia, in
the Charleston Democratic National Convention, May 1, 1860.
[6] These sentimental delegations were: Maryland, 11; Delaware, 6;
Virginia, 23; Kentucky, 23; Texas, 6; Kansas, 6; Nebraska, 6; District
of Columbia, 2. Total, 83 votes. Of these the leading candidates
received as follows:
1st ballot Seward, 30 Lincoln, 21
2d ballot Seward, 35 Lincoln, 30
3d ballot Seward, 33 Lincoln, 43.
Missouri might be counted in the same category; but, as she voted
steadily for Bates through all the ballots, she did not in any wise
influence the result.
[7] Each State was entitled to cast a vote equal to double the number
of its Electoral College.
[8] FIRST BALLOT IN DETAIL.
_For Seward_.--Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 21, New York
70, Pennsylvania 1-1/2, Maryland 3, Virginia 8, Kentucky 5, Michigan
12, Texas 4, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2, California 8, Minnesota 8, Kansas
6, Nebraska 2, District of Columbia 2.--Total for Seward, 173-1/2.
_For Lincoln_.--Maine 6, New Hampshire 7, Massachusetts 4, Connecticut
2, Pennsylvania 4, Virginia 14, Kentucky 6, Ohio 8, Indiana 26,
Illinois 22, Iowa 2, Nebraska 1.--Total for Lincoln, 102.
_Scattering_.--New Hampshire, Chase 1, Frémont 1; Vermont, Collamer
10; Rhode Island, Bates 1, McLean 5, Reed 1, Chase 1; Connecticut,
Wade 1, Bates 7, Chase 2; New Jersey, Dayton 14; Pennsylvania, Cameron
47-1/2, McLean 1; Maryland, Bates 8; Delaware, Bates 6; Virginia,
Cameron 1; Kentucky, Wade 2, McLean 1, Chase 8, Sumner 1; Ohio, McLean
4, Chase 34; Missouri, Bates 18; Texas, Bates 2; Iowa, Cameron 1,
Bates 1, McLean 1, Chase 1; Oregon, Bates 5; Nebraska, Cameron 1,
Chase 2.--Totals, for Bates, 48; for Cameron, 50-1/2; for McLean, 12;
for Chase, 49; for Wade, 3; for Dayton, 14; for Reed, 1; for Collamer,
10; for Sumner, 1; for Frémont, 1.
[9] SECOND BALLOT IN DETAIL.
_For Seward_.--Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 22, New York
70, New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 2-1/2, Maryland 3, Virginia 8, Kentucky
7, Michigan 12, Texas 6, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2, California 8, Minnesota
8, Kansas 6, Nebraska 3, District of Columbia 2.--Total for Seward,
184-1/2.
_For Lincoln_.--Maine 6, New Hampshire 9, Vermont 10, Massachusetts 4,
Rhode Island 3, Connecticut 4, Pennsylvania 48, Delaware 6, Virginia
14, Kentucky 9, Ohio 14, Indiana 26, Illinois 22, Iowa 5, Nebraska
1.--Total for Lincoln, 181.
_Scattering_.--Rhode Island, McLean 2, Chase 3; Connecticut, Bates 4,
Chase 2, Clay 2; New Jersey, Dayton 10; Pennsylvania, Cameron 1,
McLean 2-1/2; Maryland, Bates 8; Virginia, Cameron 1; Kentucky, Chase
6; Ohio, McLean 3, Chase 29; Missouri, Bates 18; Iowa, McLean 1/2,
Chase 1/2; Oregon, Bates 5; Nebraska, Chase 2.--Totals, for Bates, 35;
for Cameron, 2; for McLean, 8; for Chase, 42-1/2; for Dayton, 10; for
Clay, 2.
[10] THIRD BALLOT IN DETAIL.
_For Seward_.--Maine 10, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 18, Rhode
Island 1, Connecticut 1, New York 70, New Jersey 5, Maryland 2,
Virginia 8, Kentucky 6, Michigan 12, Texas 6, Wisconsin 10, Iowa 2,
California 8, Minnesota 8, Oregon 1, Kansas 6, Nebraska 3, District of
Columbia 2.--Total for Seward, 180.
_For Lincoln_.--Maine 6, New Hampshire 9, Vermont 10, Massachusetts 8,
Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 4, New Jersey 8, Pennsylvania 52, Maryland
9, Delaware 6, Virginia 14, Kentucky 13, Ohio 29, Indiana 26, Illinois
22, Iowa 5-1/2, Oregon 4, Nebraska 1.--Total for Lincoln, 231-1/2.
_Scattering_.--Rhode Island, Chase 1, McLean 1; Connecticut, Bates 4,
Chase 2, Clay 1; New Jersey, Dayton 1; Pennsylvania, McLean 2;
Kentucky, Chase 4; Ohio, Chase 15, McLean 2; Missouri, Bates 18; Iowa,
Chase 1/2; Nebraska, Chase 2.--Total, for Bates, 22; for Chase,
24-1/2; for McLean, 5; for Dayton, 1; for Clay, 1.