Part 6 (1/2)

The second Republican National Convention convened at Chicago on Wednesday, May 16, 1860, in the ”Wigwam,” a vast pine board structure specially built for the occasion by the Chicago Republican Club. The split in the Democratic Party, although the adjourned sessions of that Party had not yet been held, gave increased hope of Republican success this year, and it was felt by a great majority of the delegates and spectators that the Convention would name the next President of the United States. This strong probability added an importance and dignity, not unmingled with awe, to the work of the Convention. Edwin D. Morgan, of New York, called the Convention to order and faced an audience of about ten thousand people, only four hundred and sixty-six of whom were delegates. All of the free States were represented, as well as Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Texas and Virginia, and the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska and the District of Columbia. Mr. Morgan named David Wilmot for Temporary Chairman, and committees on Permanent Organization, on Credentials, and on Rules were then severally appointed. George Ashmun, of Ma.s.sachusetts, was reported a Chairman of the Convention, and one Vice-President and one Secretary from each State and Territory were named. A Platform Committee was then appointed, after which the Convention decided, after some debate over the admission of ”delegates”

from the Slave States, some of whom had never seen their States, to admit all delegates, and this included Horace Greeley, ”of Oregon,” who had not desired and had not been sent with the New York delegation. A virtual attempt to fasten the two-thirds nominating rule on the Convention was defeated, and it was decided that a majority of the whole number of votes should nominate. Judge William Jessup, of Pennsylvania, reported the platform, and it was adopted with the utmost enthusiasm.

The platform on which Mr. Lincoln was elected should be read by every Republican and every citizen interested in the history and development of the nation.

REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, 1860.

_Resolved_, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States, in convention a.s.sembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our const.i.tuents and our country, unite in the following declarations:

1. 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 const.i.tutional triumph.

2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Const.i.tution, ”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 inst.i.tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”

is essential to the preservation of our republican inst.i.tutions; and that the Federal Const.i.tution, the rights of the states, and the union of the states must and shall be preserved.

3. 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 the threats of disunion so often made by Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause from their political a.s.sociates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendancy, as denying the vital principles of free government, and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence.

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic inst.i.tutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.

5. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton const.i.tution upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal relations between master and servant to involve an unqualified property in persons; in its attempted enforcement everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of 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.

6. 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 systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored partisans, while the recent startling developments of frauds and corruptions at the federal metropolis show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded.

7. That the new dogma--that the Const.i.tution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States--is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its tendency and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country.

8. That the normal condition of all the territory 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 due process of law,” it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Const.i.tution 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.

9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity and 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.

10. That in the recent vetoes, by their federal governors, of the acts of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in those territories, we find a practical ill.u.s.tration of the boasted Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignity, embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demonstration of the deception and fraud involved therein.

11. That Kansas should of right be immediately admitted as a state under the const.i.tution recently formed and adopted by her people and accepted by the House of Representatives.

12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the general government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence.

13. 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 suppliants for public bounty; and we demand the pa.s.sage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already pa.s.sed the House.

14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws, or any state legislation by which the rights of citizens. .h.i.therto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all cla.s.ses of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.

15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor improvements of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Const.i.tution and justified by the obligation of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail should be promptly established.

17. Finally having set forth our distinctive principles and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however differing on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance and support.

An exciting incident occurred when Joshua R. Giddings moved to embrace the principles of the Declaration of Independence in the platform, and, when voted down, withdrew from the Convention; but what he proposed was afterwards accomplished by George William Curtis, of New York, and became the second plank of the platform, and Mr. Giddings returned to the Convention.

Two days were consumed in organizing and adopting the platform. The second night of the Convention, that which intervened between Thursday and Friday, was given up to remarkable exertions in behalf of the several candidates. William H. Seward, of New York, was the most prominent candidate before the Convention, and would probably have been named had the nominations been made on the first or second day of the Convention. The other candidates were Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania; Salmon P. Chase and John McLean, of Ohio; Edward Bates, of Missouri; William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, and Jacob Collamer, of Vermont. There was a strong opposition to Mr. Seward, based on the ground of his availability, as it was felt by Henry S.

Lane, of Indiana, and A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, who were the candidates for Governor in their respective States, that Mr. Seward could not carry those States. Mr. Greeley was also doing his utmost to defeat Mr. Seward, but was advocating the nomination of Edward Bates, of Missouri. The Illinois delegation had been instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and soon added Indiana to his support, and they also obtained promises of a majority vote of the New Hamps.h.i.+re, Virginia and Kentucky delegations on the first ballot, with some scattering votes from other States. Mr. Lincoln's candidacy was very promising, but not entirely certain of success, as, to many, the strength of Mr. Seward appeared invincible; but Mr. Lincoln's supporters were certain that if he could obtain a good vote on the first ballot it would be largely increased on the second ballot by votes from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Vermont. On the third day of the Convention, Friday morning, May 18th, the nominations were made. William M. Evarts presented the name of William H. Seward, and was immediately followed by Norman B. Judd, of Illinois, who nominated Mr. Lincoln. Others were named, and a number of seconding speeches were made, Mr. Lincoln's name being seconded by Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, and Columbus Delano, of Ohio. The cheers and noisy enthusiasm which attended the various speeches were terrifying in volume, and it was apparent that the Lincoln shouters had the advantage in volume of sound, and the influence of the vast a.s.semblage and the great pressure of environment unquestionably increased Mr. Lincoln's chances for the nomination. The balloting began and proceeded amid intense excitement; two hundred and thirty-three votes were necessary to a choice, and three ballots were taken, with the following result:

1st 2d 3d Ballot. Ballot. Ballot.

Seward ......... 173 184 180 Lincoln ........ 102 181 231 Cameron ........ 50 2 Chase .......... 49 42 24 Bates .......... 48 35 22 Dayton ......... 14 10 McLean ......... 12 8 5 Collamer ....... 10

Scattering votes were also cast for Benjamin F. Wade, John M. Reed, Charles Sumner, John C. Fremont, and Ca.s.sius M. Clay.