CHAPTER VI.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S NOMINATION AND ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES.

His nomination by the Republican National Convention.-Exciting Scenes. How he received the News.-Its Official Announcement to him. His Letter of Acceptance.-The composition of the Parties, and the Canvass of 1860.-He is elected President of the United States.Campaign Song, "Abe of the West."

On the 16th of May, 1860, the Republican National Convention assembled at Chicago, in an immense building erected for the purpose, and called "The Wigwam." There were four hundred and sixty-five delegates, and the city was filled to overflowing with earnest men, who had come there to press the claims of their favorite candidates; while the halls and corridors of the hotels swarmed and buzzed with an eager crowd. Excitement was on every face, politics on every tongue.

Long before the hour for opening, the concourse of people assembled around the doors numbered many thousands more than could gain admittance to the building. As soon as the doors were opened the entire body of the Wigwam was solidly packed with men, and the seats in the galleries were equally closely packed with ladies. The interior of the hall being handsomely decorated with evergreens, statuary, and flowers, presented a striking appearance. There were

not less than ten thousand persons in the building, while vast throngs blocked the entrance, and filled the grounds around, unable to obtain admission.

The opening day, (the 16th,) was taken up with the organization of the Convention, the Hon. George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, being appointed President; and vice-presidents and secretaries being selected from every State represented in the Convention. The next day, (the 17th,) the Convention again assembled at ten o'clock, and, upon the adoption of rules, it was agreed that a majority should nominate the candidates.

The committee on resolutions then reported the following platform, which was adopted with enthusiasm, the immense multitude of spectators rising to their feet, with cheer upon cheer of applause.

THE PLATFORM OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

“Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States in Convention assembled, in the discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations.

"First. That the history of the nation during the last four years has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph.

"Second-That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions; that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States, must and shall be preserved; and that we reassert 'these truths to be

self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.'

"Third.-That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented increase in population; its surprising development of material resources; its rapid augmentation of wealth; its happiness at home, and its honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may; and we congratulate the country that no Republican member of Congress has uttered or countenanced a threat of disunion, so often made by Democratic members of Congress without rebuke, and with applause from their political associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as denying the vital principles of a free government, and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people strongly to rebuke and forever silence.

"Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political faith depends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.

"Fifth. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as is especially evident in its desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution upon the protesting people of Kansasin construing the personal relation between master and servant I

to involve an unqualified property in persons-in its attempted enforcement everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and the Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest, and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people.

"Sixth.-That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extravagance which pervades every department of the Federal Government; that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to arrest the system of plunder of the public treasury by favored partisans; while the recent startling developments of fraud and corruption at the Federal metropolis, show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded.

"Seventh. That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with cotemporaneous expositions and with legislative and judicial precedent, is revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country.

"Eighth. That the normal condition of all the territories of the United States is that of freedom; that as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without the process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny 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.

"Ninth. That we brand the recent re-opening of the African slave trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity, a burning shame to our country and age; and we

call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic.

"Tenth. That in the recent vetoes by their Federal gover nors, of the acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignty, embodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and a denunciation of the deception and fraud involved therein.

"Eleventh-That Kansas should of right be immediately admitted as a State, under the constitution recently formed and adopted by her people and accepted by the House of Representatives.

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'Twelfth.—That while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country, and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working man liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence.

"Thirteenth. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the free homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or supplicants for public bounty; and we demand the passage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already passed the House.

"Fourteenth.—That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws, or any State legislation by which the rights of citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protoction to the rights