On May 16. 1860, the republican national convention met at Chicago. The city was full of political workers, and no previous convention had half the number of "out side delegates." Two days were spent in ornanization and the adoption of a platform, and balloting came on the third day. Up teAlie previous eveninn. Seward's nomination seemed certain; but the outside pressure for Lincoln was powereul, for his friends were chiefly men of Illinois, and the convention was held in their state. On the first ballot the vote WitS: Seward, 173i; Lincoln, 102; Cameron, 501; Chase, 49; Dayton, 14; McLean, 12; Collamer, 10; and six scattering. On the second ballot: Seward, 184i; Lin coln, 181; Chase, 42i; Bates 35; Dayton, 10; McLean, 8. On the third trial Lincoln got the nomination, and in the afternoon Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice-president. Lincoln was at Sprin.gfield, evidently very nervous. When he learned the result of the second ballot he felt sure of success. Then came news of the triumph, which he received without special emotion, and after shaking hands with a few friends said: "Gentlemen, there is a little short woman at our house who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am; if you will excuse me I will take it up and let her see it." On the following day a committee of the convention made a formal tender of the nomination, which Lincoln accepted in a very brief speech: " 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 the people of the nation; to the inviolability of the constitution and the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I ant most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles daclarell by the convention." The democratic national convention at Charleston split on the slavery question. The South totally repudiated Douglas and his squatter sovereignty, while Douglas was equally determined to stick to it. Most of the Southern delegates withdrew and organ ized a separate convention. Those who remained voted 57 times for a candidate, Doug las always having the highest number, but not the two-thirds required by democratic precedent. They adjourned to meet at Baltimore June 18. The seceders adjourned to meet at Richmond on the first Alonday of June, but on that date further adjourned to meet June 28 in Baltimore. The result finally was the nomination of three presidential can didates; Douglas by his convention, Breckinridge of Kentucky by the seceders, or extreme southerners, and Bell (formerly a whig) of Tennessee by the " constitutional union" party, composed for the most part of " know-nothings" and old-time whigs. The can vass was warm on all sides; and Douglas, encouraged by the result of the spring elec tions, felt certain of victory. Election day was Nov. 6, when by far the largest vote ever cast in the union was given. Lincoln got 1,837,601; Douglas, 1,291,574; Brecken ridge, 850,082; and Bell, 646,124; Lincoln lacked 930,170 of a majority, but the electoral vote told a different story, being 180 for Lincoln, 72 for Breckinridge, 30 for Bell, and only 12 for Douglas.
Lincoln felt deeply the responsibility of his great trust, and still more keenly the difficulty of administering the government for the sole benefit of an organization which had no existence in one-half of the union. He was anxious to take prominent southern ers, such as Alexander H. Stephens, and Gilmore of North Carolina, into his cabinet; but they refused all such advances. Secession was determined upon, and events tending to that end followed rapidly. Nov. 10, only four days after the election, a bill was pro posed in the South Carolina legislature to equip 10,000 volunteers, a U. S. senator from that state resigned, and a state convention was ordered to consider the question of secession. During that month and the next, senators and officers of the army resigned; secession meetings and conventions were held; the South accumulated arms and enlisted troops; and Dec. 20 the South Carolina convention unanimously adopted an ordinance seceding from the union. The year closed in gloom, and 1861 opened with no hope of peace. On Feb. 4 a peace congress met in Philadelphia; on the same day delegates met at Montgomery, Ala., to form a southern confederacy, and on the 18th the work was done, and Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president. In the mean time Lincoln was making his way towards Washington. After an affectionate parting with his mother who said she was sure she would never see him again, he put his house in order, handed over the law business to his partner, with a request that the old sign should remain for four years at least, and on Feb. 1 the arrangements for the journey were completed. He
bade farewell to his life-long friends in a brief and touching address, and turned his face toward the mighty responsibilities soon to be thrown upon him. Everywhere the people were anxious to see and hear him, and he made brief addresses at Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburg, before the New York legislature, in New York (in response to the mayor), in Trenton, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg. While at Philadelphia there came rumors of a threatened attack upon bis life; bridges were to be burned, tracks torn up, torpedoes exploded, and all manner of weapons were to be drawn against one of the most peaceful men in all the country. The great mass of this menace was sheer bra vado, yet his friends (not himself) deemed it proper to take extra care. On the morning of Washington's birthday Lincoln raised the old flag over Independence hall in Phila delphia, and immediately proceeded to Harrisburg. Here he was taken in charge by a few picked friends and the leading railroad officers, and early the next evening quietly went from his hotel to a special train for Washington. He wore no disguise; but cha.nged his stiff hat for a soft one, and threw on a shawl to conceal his features if necessary. At Philadelphia he was quietly transferred to the Baltimore railroad, reached Baltimore at 31 A.M., passed unnoticed, and was safe in Washington at 6 o'clock. His family followed in another train. His secret and safe arrival caused much comment, and he himself quickly regretted that he had not traveled openly in sight of all the peo ple; he felt that he had laid himself open to the charge of cowardice. Almost the first news he heard was the surrender of gen. Twiggs in Texas, a great gain to the secession ists. Lincoln was inaugurated on Monday, Afar. 4, and delivered an elaborate address, full of the best qualities of his nature. Ex-president Buchanan accompanied him to the White House and invoked peace and happiness for his administration. The appear ance of the new president is thus described by Ward Larnon in his Life of Abraham Lincoln : "He was 6 ft. 4 in. high, the leng,th of his legs being out of all proportion to that of his body. When he sat on a chair he seemed no taller than an average man, measuring from the chair to the crown of his head; but his knees rose high in front. He weighed about 180 lbs., but was thin through the breast, narrow across the shoul ders, and had the general appearance of a consumptive subject. Standing up, he stooped slightly forward; sitting down, he usually crossed his long legs or threw them over the arms of the chair. His head was long, and tall from the base of the brain and the eyebrow; his forehead high and narrow, inclining backward as it rose. His ears were large and stood out ; eyebrows heavy, jutting forward over small sunken blue eyes; nose long, large, and blunt; chin projecting far and sharp, curved upward to meet a thick lower lip, which hung downward; cheeks flabby, the loose skin falling in folds; a mole on one cheek, and an uncommonly prominent Adam's apple in his throat. His hair was dark brown, stiff, and unkempt; complexion dark, skin yellow, shriveled, and leath ery. Every feature of the man—the hollow eyes, with the dark rings beneath, the long, sallow, cadaverous face, intersected by those peculiar deep lines, his whole air, his walk, hia long and silent reveries, broken at intervals by sudden and startling exclamations. as if to confound an observer who might suspect the nature of his thoughts--showed that .he was a man of sorrows, sorrows not of to-day or yesterday, but long-treasured and deep, bearing with him continual sense of weariness and pain." Yet this strangely sor I lawful man dearly loved jokes, puns, and comical stories, and was himself world *mous for his illimitable narrative powers. He drank very little, and was in precept Ind example a temperance man; and at table always ate sparingly. He was never a %member of a church; he is believed to have had philosophical doubts of the divinity of Christ, and of the inspiration of the Scriptures as these are commonly stated in the sys tems of doctrine called evangelical. In early life he read Volney and Paine, and wrote tin essay in which he agreed with their conclusions. .0f modern thinkers he was thought to agree nearest with Theodore Parker.