CHAPTER III.

THE NOMINATION OF MR. LINCOLN.

The Election in Connecticut in the Spring of 1800-Its Importance to the Nation-The Frauds by which Democratic Politicians Sought to Carry the State-Governor Buckingham's Re-election-Lincoln's Campaign-His Acquaintance with Governor Buckingham and Its Effect-The Presidential Election of 1860.

The year 1859 closed with important political changes, with a startling and most disturbing occurrence in Virginia, and with such bitter discussion and threats of secession in Congress as might well have alarmed all sober-minded people at the South, as well as at the North.

The administration had lost its control of the country. The few State elections that took place in the spring of 1859, as in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, were in favor of the Republican candidates, though New Hampshire had always been a reliably Democratic State, and Connecticut was just as likely to vote the one way as the other. But when the other State elections came, which were generally in the autumn, Massachusetts was Republican by 23,000 plurality, and the State of New York by 25,000, and Pennsylvania, for the first time, by over 26,000. It began to look as if the coming presidential election might be carried by the Republicans, and the administration of the general government in regard to the subject of slavery be completely revolutionized. Thus the Norwich Bulletin says in the autumn of 1859: "The first session of the next Congress, which will commence on the first Monday of December, will make the next President of the United States, and will doubtless unmake several presidential

aspirants. Mr. Buchanan was barely elected in 1856, and since his election his administration has been constantly weakening the party that elected him. The results of the congressional elections in the several States during the past year, point unmistakably to a Republican administration in 1860, and were the presidential election to come off next November, instead of a year hence, no Democratic candidate could carry a single Northern State." And the Springfield Republican says: "When the Whig and Democratic parties divided the country, at occasional intervals a Democratic State was carrried by the Whigs on the strength of some local question, or by the force of some great excitement. But the succeeding election was pretty sure to restore to the Democrats their ascendency. The Republican party, starting out with a fixed idea and a consistent national policy, has relied upon the progress of individual conviction, and has made steady gains of town after town, county after county, State after State, until its ascendency is established in nearly all the free States. Thus it has conquered one Democratic State after another, and what it takes it holds. New Hampshire and Maine are now as fixedly Republican as they once were Democratic."

Such was the political aspect of the times when Congress came together at the close of the year 1859. The adminis tration had lost control of the House of Representatives, many of whom had just been elected, though the Senate was still Democratic, since its members were elected for a longer term of service. The House could not elect a speaker, and it was two months before they had succeeded and were organized. The President had waited three weeks for this before sending in his message, though the country was impatient to learn what he was to recommend in that critical state of affairs. When it was published, he was found to have in no respect modified his pro-slavery policy, but to be more completely under the control of the Southern members

of his cabinet than ever. He still asked that more of the war-making power which belongs to Congress, and particularly the Senate, be put into his hands, to be used with reference to Mexico and the Spanish American States. He recommended the organization of a military force on purpose to interfere with Mexican politics, and place the Juarez party in power, and seize such portions of territory as we may consider proper indemnity for our old claims, and as furnishing security for the future.

Then began in Congress those long and bitter and treasonable debates, which were enough to inflame any people into madness, especially after all that had gone before. John Brown's raid and execution had just taken place, and one of the first things done in the House, when Congress came together, was to raise a committee of inquiry into that matter, with the expectation of implicating in it some of the Republican leaders, who seemed to have been just as much surprised by it as others. Then Helper's book, "The Impending Crisis," a vigorous arraignment of the system of slavery, especially in its social and economic bearing, which had been recommended by some of our public men and considerably circulated in some of the border slave States, was used with terrible earnestness to blast the prospects of certain politicians at the North. In the Senate, too, Jefferson Davis had introduced the ultimatum of the South: The rebuke of all slavery agitators, the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law and repeal of the personal liberty laws, and the recognition of property in slaves as an indefeasible right of territorial settlers, and entitled to congressional protection; which was made the text of all manner of provoking debate and treasonable talk. It seems incredible now, that men in other respects dignified and honorable; honorable and dignified enough to represent the States in the Congress of the nation, and to be entrusted with the declaration of war and peace, and

the maintenance of the Union, should have so trifled with such interests and courted ruin. Hear such language as this from Mr. Singleton of Mississippi, in the House: "We will have expansion of slavery in the Union, or outside of it if we must. I say the sooner we get out of the Union the better, for the longer we stay in it the worse for us. The South have made up their minds to sustain slavery. We don't intend to be prescribed by present limits, and it will not be in the power of the North to coerce the 3,000,000 of freemen at the South with arms in their hands, and prevent their going into the surrounding territories. Gentlemen must remember that gallant son of the South, Jefferson Davis, led our forces in Mexico and that, thank God, he still lives, perhaps to lead a Southern army." And Mr. Davis himself, in the Senate, whatever gallantry he may have shown in the field, had no more courtesy nor discretion than to use such language as this toward a fellow senator: "To say that the labor of the two sections is conflicting and irreconcilable, is a declaration of war, and hence the South is alarmed and must look to her defence. Seward is a traitor, and deserves the gallows. Virginia has hung John Brown, and if they get hold of Seward they will hang him."

Another presidential election was at hand. Mr. Buchanan had no prospect of a re-election. The questions at issue were well understood. The discussions over the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred-Scott Decision, and the admission of Kansas as a slave State, had enlightened the nation. It was plain that the South would never be satisfied with anything short of the establishment of slavery everywhere and its protection and encouragement by the general government. It was evident, also, that if this was not done, some of the Southern States were preparing to secede from the Union, and no concessions or compromises could prevent it. The party conventions to nominate candidates for the presidency

were about to be held, the Democratic convention at Charleston, S. C., and when divided, a second one at Baltimore, Md.; and still later the Republican convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln at Chicago, Ill. In such a state of general interest and intense anxiety throughout the country, the election of a single State, though no larger than Connecticut, attracted unusual attention. Then this State, as has been said, had been just about as likely to be Democratic as Republican, and her election would be a good index of the drift of political opinion at the North. Besides, this was one of the few States whose election came in the spring, while the others did not take place until the autumn.

Under such circumstances the political canvass of 1860 became the most vigorous the State ever knew. The Republican convention which renominated Governor Buckingham was held at Hartford in January. The Democratic convention which nominated Thomas H. Seymour was also held at Hartford in February. Mr. Seymour was an agrecable and popular citizen of Hartford, an upright and honorable man, much esteemed by his neighbors and friends. He was an officer in the New England regiment of volunteers in the Mexican war, and in command of it took a distinguished part in the capture of Mexico. He was four times elected governor of the State. He was for six years our Minister to Russia, appointed by President Pierce. When he returned, as the secession movement was coming on, "his sympathies were largely with the South, and he continued his opposition to the war until its close, as the leader of the Connecticut peace Democrats." And as four years before, Mr. Buchanan had just returned from his ministry at the Court of St. James, and had been found to be a more desirable candidate for the presidency, because he had not been at home to take any public position upon the questions raised during his absence, so Mr. Seymour was deemed in the present critical state of politics, a peculiarly desirable