It was at the State Convention at Bloomington in 1856 that the Republican party in Illinois was formed, and there Lincoln made what many deem the greatest of all his speeches. This speech, preserved only in description, took ad vanced anti-slavery ground and was undoubtedly earnest and powerful. On June 17, 1856, at the Republican Nominating Convention at Philadel phia, Lincoln's name was put forth for Vice President, and was received with considerable favor, for he got 110 votes. This year. for the third time. Lincoln was on the electoral ticket, now as a Republican. and he made some fifty speeches for Fr6mont. The quality of these speeches bettered his reputation and spread it even to the East. In April. 1858. the Demoerats indorsed the stand Douglas hail taken in the Kansas dispute, and nominated him for the Sen ate. Lincoln expected and received the Repub lican nomination in June and in accepting lie delivered the carefully thought out speech which contained the famous statement that a house divided against itself eannot stand. In July he ehallemwd Douglas to the now famous seven de bates, the direct result of which was to win the latter the Senatorship. Lincoln. however, was not arguing for the Senatorial prize alone. but with a greater purpose—he was fighting for Republican success in the Presidential contest of 1800, and the opportunity it would bring to 'hit hard' the great 'moral. social, and politi •al wrong' of slavery.
In April, 1859, the people of his own town be gan to talk of Lincoln as a proper candidate for President. hut he discouraged the i lea. In September he made speeches in Ohio in the track of Douglas; in December he .poke at several places in Kansas. Ile was more and more talked of for a Presidential nomination. and finally authorized his friends to work for him. On February 27, 1800, on invitation. he appeared in Cork and spoke in Cooper Institute. The address was warmly praised in most of the city journals, and was in fact highly successful. After this he spoke in many miles in New Eng laml. He was present. though not a delegate. at the Illinois State Convention. May 9. 1860, where he received the most flattering. evidences of his great popularity. which was fully assured by the adoption without dissent of a resolution declar ing him the choice of the 11epublicans of Illinois for President.
On \lay 16, 1SG1), the Republican National Convention met at Chicago. The city was full of political workers. Indeed, no previous con vention had had half the number of 'outside delegates.' Two days were spent in organiza tion and the adoption of a platform. Balloting came on the third day. I. p 14, the previous evening Seward's nomination seemed certain; but the outside pressure for Lincoln was powerful, for his friends were chiefly men of Illinois, and the convention was held in their State. On the third ballot Lincoln won the nomination, and in the afternoon Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. was nominated for Vice-President. The platform adopted, though denying the right of Congress to interfere with slavery in the States. demanded that slavery be forbidden in the Territories. It declared in favor of internal improvements awl protection.
The Democratic National Convention at Charleston split on the slavery question. The South totally repudiated Douglas and his squatter sovereignty, NN hewn,: Douglas was equally determined to stick to it. Most of the Southern delegates withdrew and organized a separate convention. Those who reniained voted fifty-seven times for a candidate. Douglas always having the highest number. lint not the two thirds required by Democratic preeedent. They adjourned to meet. at Baltimore, June 1St h. The seceders adjourned to impt at 11iehmond. early in June, but after convening they further adjourned to meet June 2Rtli in Baltimore. The
result finally was the nomination of three Presi dential candidates: Douglas by one convention. Breckenridge of Kentucky by the seceders, or ex treme Southerners, and Bell i formerly a Whig) of Tennessee. by the 'Constitutional Union' Party, eomposed for the most part of 'Know-Nothings' and old-time Whigs. The canvass was worm nn all sides. Lincoln was elected on November 6th by ISO 111141:en ridge receiving 72, Hell 39. Douglas 12. The eb•etion was strictly sectional, for the got no electoral vote in a Southern Slate. Feeling the need of all possible support, Lincoln ehose his Cabinet carefully, trying to get a rieil representation; he wished even to have a Southerner, until his offer to (1raliam. of North Carolina, was flatly refused. Meanwhile the Snlltlr was making ready to secede, and on December 20th the South Carolina Convention pmni mon sly adopted the ordiname of secession. The year closed in gloom. and 1S61 opened with no hope of peace. On February 4th a peace congress met in Philadel phia; on the same day delegates met at Alont wintery, Ala., to form a Southern on the 18th the work was done, and Jefferson Davis was inaugu ra t 441 President.
On February 11. 1S61. Lineoln set out for Washington, taking a rather roundabout road. Everywhere the people were eager to see and hear NM. On Monday. Alarelt 4th, he was inaugu rated, and delivered an elaborate address, full of the best qualities of his nature. The appear ance of the new President is thus deseribed by Ward Lamon. in his Life of .11)rohnnt Lincoln: "He was six . feet four inches high, the length of his legs beimg out of all pro portion to that of his body. When be sat on a chair he seemed no taller than an average man, measuring from the chair to the crown of his bead; but his knees rose high in front. He weighed about 180 pounds, but was thin through the breast, narrow across the shoulders, and had the general appearance of a consumptive sub ject. Standing up. he stooped slightly forward; sitting down, he usually crossed his long legs or threw them over the arms of the chair. llis head was and tall from the base of the brain and the eyebrow; his forehead high and narrow, in clining backward as it rose. llis 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 eheek, and an uncom monly prominent Adam's apple in his throat. Ilis hair was dark brown, and unkempt; complexion dark. skin yellow, shriveled. and leathery. Every feature of the man—the hollow eyes, with Hie dark rings beneath, the long, sal low, cadaverous face. intersected by those peculiar deep lines, his whole air, his walk, his 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." Vet this strangely sorrowful man dearly loved jokes, puns, and com ical stories, and was himself world. famous for his inimitable narrative powers. Ile drank very little. and was in precept and example for tem perance; and at table he always ate sparingly. lle was never a member of a church; indeed, he is believed to have had doubts of the divinity of Christ and of the inspiration of the Scripture, i.e. of revelation. 1 n early life he read Volney and Paine. and wrote an essay in which he agreed with their conclusions. Of modern thinkers he was thought to agree most with Theodore Parker.