Part 8 (1/2)

In this the newspapers took the initiative A number of papers editorially called for a convention, which was really a ates, and could be none This ton's birthday, 1856 It was a motley asses, des Said Lincoln: ”Of strange, discordant, even hostile eleathered from the four winds”

Politicians were conspicuously absent, for it would imperil their political orthodoxy to be seen there Lincoln was the principal one who had anything to lose He was consulted on all s ended with a dinner, at which he made a speech

He was the hout the state, and was the logical candidate for governor He would have been highly gratified with the candidacy But again he put personal desires one side that the general good ered He therefore proposed, in his after-dinner speech, for nomination a democrat who had a record of earnest opposition to the slave power Refusing the use of his own naest a nah anti-Nebraska deive us the victory That ularly no at Decatur called for a convention to be held at Bloo had been going on in so there was a notableThis was attended by E D Morgan, governor of New York, Horace Greeley, O P Morton, Zach Chandler, Joshua R

Giddings, and other prominent men They issued the call for the first national convention of the republican party to be held in Philadelphia in June

In May the Illinois convention asseton, and the most conspicuous person there was Lincoln It was there that hespeech already described It was the speech which held even the reporters in such a spell that they could not report it It is known in history as the ”lost speech,” but the fame of it endures to this day

The democratic convention met in Cincinnati early in June and nolas was for a second time defeated for the nomination

The republican convention met a few days later in Philadelphia At that tiht of his fame His character was ro as a novel by Du the continent Although unauthorized, he had in California raised a military company which was of material assistance to the naval forces of the United States against a Mexican insurrection He was an ardent hater of slavery He was precisely the man, as standard-bearer, to infuse enthusiasood start in its career He did this and did it well The large vote which he polled augured well for the future

All this wethe fact that it was fortunate for the party and for the country that he was not elected There was no doubt of his sincerity or his patriotism But he lacked self-control, wariness, patience He was hot-headed, extreotistical He never could have carried the burdens of the first administration of the republican party

When the election was over, it was found that Buchanan had carried every slave state except Maryland, which went to Fillland state and five other northern states

Buchanan received 174 electoral votes; Fremont, 114; Fillmore, 8 The popular vote was, for Buchanan, 1,838,169; for Fremont, 1,341,264; for Fill for the new party It showed that it had coave a reasonable hope of victory at the next presidential election

Lincoln was at the head of the electoral ticket of the state of Illinois He usually was on the ticket He playfully called himself one of the electors that seldom elected anybody In Illinois the honors of the election were evenly divided between the two parties Buchanan carried the state by a handsoood majority Lincoln had faithfully canvassed the state and raph from a speech made in Galena should be quoted The slave party had raised the cry of sectionalised that the republicans purposed to destroy the Union Lincoln said:

”But the Union, in any event, will not be dissolved We don't want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it on't let you With the purse and sword, the army, the navy, and the treasury in our hands and at our coovernment would be very weak indeed if a majority with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not preserve itself, when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined minority All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is hu but folly We do not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not”

These words were prophetic of the condition of the country and of his own policy four or five years later But he apparently did not apprehend that an unscrupulous adht steal the army and the munitions of war, scatter the navy, and empty the treasury

On the 10th of Deceo It was after the election, after Buchanan's supercilious ress The purpose of the speech was to forecast the future of the young party The following quotations e to congress] says the people did it He forgets that the 'people,' as he complacently calls only those who voted for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by about four hundred thousand votes All of us who did not vote for Mr Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand But in the late contest ere divided between Freether for the future? Let every one who really believes, and is resolved, that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only what he thought best, let every such one have charity to believe that every other one can say asbe; and with steady eye on the real issue, let us re-inaugurate the good old 'central ideas' of the republic We can do it The huain be able to declare, not that 'all states as states are equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the broader, better declaration, including these and much more, that 'all men are created equal'”

It was upon the wisdom of this plan that, four years later, he held the foes of slavery united, while the foes of freedo themselves It was this that carried the party to its first victory and made him president

CHAPTER XV

THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS

The adiven hiiant” To this he was fairly entitled Physically he was very little Intellectually he was a giant He was in 1858 perhaps the most prominent man in the United States He was the unquestioned leader of the do in public life that he was fa question of slavery he was the leader

Lincoln was a giant physically, and it soon became evident that he was no less intellectually These two ether in a series of joint debates It was iants No other such debates have ever occurred in the history of the country

Events led up to this rapidly and with the certainty of fate In 1854 Lincoln had been candidate for the senate to succeed shi+elds, but his party had been outwitted and he was coical candidate for governor, but he was of opinion that the cause would be better served per an anti-slavery democrat in nomination This was done and Bissell was elected Now in 1858 the senatorial terlas was about to expire and a successor would be chosen Douglas was the candidate of his own party The republicans turned naturally and spontaneously to Lincoln, for it would be no light task to defeat so strong an opponent

The republican convention field on the 16th of June

Lincoln was by acclamation nominated ”as the first and only choice” of the republican party for United States senator The above time-honored phrase was used sincerely on that occasion There was great enthusias day he addressed the convention in a speech which has beco words were:

”If we could first knohere we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object and confident proitation Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed 'A house divided against itself cannot stand' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided It will beco or all the other

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South”

This speech caainst- itself speech” By that na he said: ”Our cause, then, must be entrusted to and conducted by its own undoubted friends, those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result The result is not doubtful We shall not fail If we stand firm we shall not fail Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to co speech, delivered before an audience of ates who represented all parts of the state It was in no wise a harangue It was entirely thoughtful and strictly logical The effect of it was to intensify the enthusiash the state It was a speech that Douglas could not ignore, though he e of sectionalisainst his adversary