REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

31

illustrious as one of the wonders of the growth of our Republic. All of the Free-labor States were fully represented, and there were delegates from several of the Slave-labor States. An immense building of boards, called a

Wigwam, had been erected by the Republicans of Chicago, at an expense of seven thousand dollars, for the special use of the Convention. It was

tastefully decorated within,

PRESIDENT'S CHAIR.

rural in appearance. The and was spacious enough to Convention met in the hold ten thousand persons. Wigwam, on the 16th day A rustic seat, made of a of May. Not more than onehuge knot of a tree, was third of the vast gathering prepared for the use of the of people could enter the President of the Convenbuilding. E. D. Morgan, of tion; and everything about New York, Chairman of the the affair was rough and National Republican Executive Committee, called the Convention to order, and David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was chosen temporary chairman. In due time, George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, was chosen permanent President. It was a wise choice. His voice could be heard above any clamor that might be raised in the assembly, and he was remarkable for coolness, clearness of judgment, and executive ability. He was presented with a gavel made of a piece of the oak timber of Perry's flag-ship, Lawrence; and with this emblem of authority, inscribed with the words, "Don't give up the ship!" he called the Convention to order, and invited the delegates to business. A committee on resolutions, composed of one delegate from each State represented, was appointed, and on the following morning it submitted to the Convention a platform of principles, in the form 1860.

of seventeen resolutions.

a

• May 10,

?

After affirming that the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the National Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions; congratulating the country that no Republican member of Congress had uttered or countenanced any threats of disunion, "so often made by Democratic members without rebuke, and with applause from their political associates," and denouncing such threats as "an avowal of contemplated treason," the

32

THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.-LINCOLN NOMINATED.

resolutions made explicit declarations upon the topic of Slavery, so largely occupying public attention. In a few paragraphs, they declared that each State had the absolute right of control in the management of its own domestic concerns; that the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own

GEORGE ASHMUN.

force, carries Slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country; that the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom, and that neither Congress, nor a Territorial legislature, nor any individuals, have authority to give legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States; and that the reopening of the African Slave-trade, then recently commenced in the Southern States, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, was a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age.

This platform was adopted at six o'clock in the evening, by unanimous vote; when the Convention adjourned until next morning, without taking a ballot for candidates for the Presidency and Vice-presidency. When the vote on the platform was announced, the scene that ensued, says an eyewitness, was of the "most astounding character. All the thousands of men in that enormous Wigwam commenced swinging their hats, and cheering with immense enthusiasm, and the other thousands of ladies waved their handkerchiefs and clapped their hands. Such a spectacle as was witnessed for some minutes has never before been witnessed at a convention. As the great assemblage poured through the streets after adjournment, it seemed to electrify the city. The agitation of the masses that packed the hotels. and thronged the streets, certainly forty thousand strong, was such as made the little excitement at Charleston seem insignificant."

a May 19, 1860.

991

On the morning of the third day of the session," the Convention was opened with prayer, by the Rev. Mr. Green, of Chicago, who expressed a desire that the evils which then invested the body politic should be wholly eradicated from the system, and that the pen of the historian might trace an intimate connection between that "glorious consummation and the transactions of the Convention." Then that body proceeded to the choice of a Presidential candidate, and on the third ballot Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was nominated. The announcement of the result caused the most uproarious applause; and, from the common center at Chicago, the electric messengers flew with the intelligence, almost as quick as thought, to every part of the vast Republic, eastward of the Rocky Mountains, before sunset. The Convention took a recess, and in the evening nominated Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, for Vice-president. Their labors

1 Halstead's History of the National Political Conventions in 1860, page 189.

THE FOUR POLITICAL PARTIES.

33

were now done, and, after a brief speech by their presiding officer, the Convention adjourned, with nine cheers for the ticket.

Mr. Lincoln, the nominee, was at his home in Springfield, Illinois, at this time. He had been in the telegraph-office during the first and second ballotings, when he left, went to the office of the State Journal, and was conversing with friends when the third balloting occurred. The result was known at Springfield a few minutes after the voting was finished. The superintendent of the telegraph there wrote on a scrap of paper, "Mr. Lincoln, you are nominated," and sent a boy with it to the nominee. Mr. Lincoln read it to his friends, and, while they huzzaed lustily, he looked at it in silence. Then, putting it quietly in his pocket, he bade them "good evening," and went home.1

• May 28, 1860.

On the following day, a committee, appointed by the Convention, with President Ashmun at their head, waited upon Mr. Lincoln, and formally communicated to him, verbally, and by an official letter, the fact of his nomination. He received the message with great modesty and gravity, and promised to respond to it in writing. This he did three days afterward, in which, after accepting the nomination, he said:"The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies your letter, meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it, 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."

In the beautiful month of June, when Nature, in the temperate zone, is most wealthy in flowers and foliage and the songs of birds, and there is every thing in her aspect to inspire delight, and harmony, and good-will, one of the most important political campaigns noted in history was opened with intense vigor, and the most uncompromising and relentless hostility of parties. There were four of these parties in the field of contest, namely:

-

1. The Republican, who declared freedom to be the normal condition of all territory, and that Slavery can exist only, by authority of municipal law. Of this party, Abraham Lincoln was the standard-bearer.

2. The wing of the Democratic party led by John C. Breckinridge, who declared that no power existed that might lawfully control Slavery in the Territories; that it existed in any Territory, in full force, whenever a slaveholder and his slaves entered it; and that it was the duty of the National Government to protect it there.

3. The wing of the Democratic party led by Stephen A. Douglas, whose platform of principles assumed not to know positively whether slavery might or might not have lawful existence in the Territories, without the action of the inhabitants thereof, but expressed a willingness to abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court in all cases.

4. The National Constitutional Union party, led by John Bell, who

1 "There is a little woman down at our house," said Mr. Lincoln, in allusion to his wife, as he left the room, “who would like to hear this-I'll go down and tell her."

VOL. I.-3

34

THE CANVASS AND ELECTION.

declined to express any opinion upon any subject, but pointed to the National Constitution, without note or comment, as their political guide.

The politicians of only the two parties first named seemed to have positive convictions, as units, on the great subject which had so long agitated the nation, and they took issue squarely, definitely, and defiantly. A large portion of the Douglas party were also inclined to disregard the resolution which bound them to absolute submission to the decisions of the Supreme Court, and to stand firmly upon a pure "Popular Sovereignty" Platform, which that resolution had eviscerated, for they regarded a late decision of the majority of that court, in the case of Dred Scott,' as sufficiently indicative of its opposition to the great doctrine of that platform. All parties were agreed in earnest professions of love for the Union and the Constitution; and, with such avowals emblazoned on their standards, they went into the fight, each doubtful of success, and all conscious that a national crisis was at hand. There was a vague presentiment before the minds of reflecting men everywhere, that the time when the practical answer to the great question-What shall be the policy of the Nation concerning Slavery? -could no longer be postponed.

The conflict was desperate from July to November, and grew more intense as it approached its culmination at the polls. The Republicans and Douglas Democrats were denounced by their opponents as Abolitioniststreasonably sectional, and practically hostile to the perpetuation of the Union. The Breckinridge party, identified as it unfortunately was with avowed disunionists-men who for long years had been in the habit of threatening to attempt the dissolution of the Union by the process of secession, whenever the revelations of the Census or other causes should convince them that the domination of the Slave interest in the National Government had ceased forever-men who rejoiced when they saw, in the absolute disruption of the Democratic party at Charleston and Baltimore, a prospect for the election of the Republican candidate, which might serve them as a pretext for rebellion-men who afterward became leaders in the great insurrection against the National Government-was charged with complicity in disunion schemes. In speeches, newspapers, and in social gatherings, these charges were iterated and reiterated; and yet there were but few persons in the Free-labor States who really believed that there were men mad enough and wicked enough to raise the arm of resistance to the authority of the Supreme Government, founded on the National Constitution.

But the election of Mr. Lincoln, which was the result of the great political conflict in the summer and autumn of 1860, soon revealed the existence of a well-organized conspiracy against the life of the Republic, widespread, powerful, and intensely malignant. The leading conspirators were few, and nearly all of them were then, or had been, connected with the

I Dred Scott had been a slave in Missouri, but claimed to be a freeman on account of involuntary residence in a free State. The case did not require a decision concerning the right of a negro to citizenship; but the Chief-Justice took the occasion to give what is called an extra-judicial opinion. He decided that a freed negro slave, or a descendant of a slave, could not become a citizen of the Republic. He asserted, in that connection. that the language of the Declaration of Independence showed that the negroes were not included in the beneficent meaning of that instrument, when it said, "all men are created equal," and that they were regarded “as so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

CHARACTER OF THE CONSPIRATORS.

35

National Government, some as legislators, and others as cabinet ministers. They were not so numerous at first, according to a loyal Tennessean (Horace Maynard), who knew them well, "as the figures on a chess-board," but became wonderfully productive of their kind. "There are those," he said, in a speech in Congress, "within reach of my voice, who also know them, and can testify to their utter perfidy; who have been the victims of their want of principle, and whose self-respect has suffered from their insolent and overbearing demeanor. No Northern man was ever admitted to their confidence, and no Southern man, unless it became necessary to keep up their numbers; and then, not till he was thoroughly known by them, and known to be thoroughly corrupt. They, like a certain school of ancient philosophers, had two sets of principles or doctrines-one for outsiders, the other for themselves; the one was 'Democratic principles' for the Democratic party, the other was their own and without a name. Some Northern men and many Southern men were, after a fashion, petted and patronized by them, as a gentleman throws from his table a bone, or a choice bit, to a favorite dog; and they imagined they were conferring a great favor thereby, which could be requited only by the abject servility of the dog. To hesitate, to doubt, to hold back, to stop, was to call down a storm of wrath that few men had the nerve to encounter, and still fewer the strength to withstand. Not only in political circles, but in social life, their rule was inexorable, their tyranny absolute. God be thanked for the brave men who had the courage to meet them and bid them defiance, first at Charleston, in April, 1860, and then at Baltimore, in June! To them is due the credit of declaring war against this intolerable despotism." The truthfulness of this picture will be fully apparent in future pages.

Union