Part 10 (1/2)

Lincoln went to Exeter, NH, to visit his son as in Phillips Acade he made several speeches, all of which were received with more than ordinary favor By the tier an unknown man He was looked on with marked favor in all that portion of the country which lies north of Mason and Dixon's line

CHAPTER XVIII

THE NOMINATION OF 1860

The subject of this chapter is the republican convention that noent narration of this, it is necessary to give a brief account of at least one of the three other important political conventions that were held that year That one was the regular democratic convention at Charleston And certain other facts alsoin two respects The first is that the plan of secession and of setting up a Southern nation founded upon slavery, was not a sudden or iht The evidence is conclusive that the plan had beenfor years Recent events had shown that slavery had reached the limit of its development so far as concerned the territory of the United States The plan to annex Cuba as a garden for the culture of slavery, had failed California had been admitted as a free state Slavery had been excluded froh that territory had for two years been denied admission to the sisterhood of states

As the slave poas not content with any limitation whatever, its leaders now looked for an opportunity to break up this present government and start a new one At the time (December, 1860) South Carolina passed the ordinance of secession, to be narrated later, certain things were said which may be quoted here These utterances exposed the spirit that ani before he was even known in politics

Parker said that thefor _a long series of years_”

Inglis endorsed the remark and added, ”Most of us have had this matter under consideration for the last twenty years”

Keitt said, ”I have been engaged in this movement _ever since I entered political life_”

Rhett said, ”The secession of South Carolina was not the event of a day It is not anything produced by Mr Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the fugitive slave law It is ahead _for thirty years_ The election of Lincoln and Hamlin was the last straw on the back of the camel But it was not the only one The back was nearly broken before

The other important fact was the result of Lincoln's Freeport question

The answer of Douglas was: ”I answer _emphatically_that in my opinion the people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution” This answer satisfied the democrats of Illinois and secured his election to the senate, as Lincoln predicted that it would But it angered the southern leaders beyond all reason--as Lincoln kneould

When, therefore, the democratic convention met in Charleston, the first purpose of the southern leaders was to defeat Douglas In their judgest candidate before the convention, but he was not strong enough to secure the two-thirds vote which under the rules of that party were necessary to a choice After fifty-seven ballots, and a corresponding a, continually higher, the crisis caates withdrew from the convention and appointed a convention of their own to be held in Riche that, if it acco, it would accomplish the defeat of the party It was probably done for this very purpose,--to defeat the party,--so as to give an excuse,out theto be injured or alarmed at the ascendancy of the republican party

Up to this point, at least, Lincoln had no aspirations for the presidency But he did aspire to the United States senate He accepted his defeat by Douglas in 1858 as only temporary He knew there would be another senatorial election in four years When asked how he felt about this defeat, he turned it into a joke, and said that he felt ”like the boy who had stubbed his toe, too badly to laugh, and he was too big to cry”

He had thought of being nominated as vice-president with Seward as President, which would have given hilad of any possible proo convention, which was still in the future For that would help his senatorial aspirations when the tiher, he declared, ”I must in all candor say that I do not think myself fit for the presidency” And he was an honest man With the senate still in view, he added, ”I am not in a position where it would hurt me much not to be nominated [for president] on the national ticket; but I aet the Illinois delegates”

Thus, at the beginning of the year 1860, Lincoln was in no sense in the race for the presidential nomination About that time a list of twenty- one names of possible candidates was published in New York; Lincoln's name was not on the list A list of thirty-five was published in Philadelphia Lincoln's name was not on that list After the speech at Cooper Institute the Evening Postwith others That was the only case in the East

In Illinois his candidacy developed in February and came to ahead at the republican state convention at Decatur Lincoln's na local conventions, and the enthusias Decatur was very near to the place where Thomas Lincoln had first settled when he came into the state When Abrahareeted with an outburst of enthusiasm

After order had been restored, the chairlesby, announced that an old-time Macon County democrat desired toaccepted, a banner was borne up the hall upon two old fence rails The whole was gaily decorated and the inscription was:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE RAIL CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IN 1860

Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 by Thos Hanks and Abe Lincoln-whose father was the first pioneer of Macon County

This incident was thethe soubriquet ”Honest Abe” to ”Honest Old Abe, the Rail-splitter” The enthusiasm over the rails spread far and wide That he had split rails, and that he even had done it well, was no test of his statesin, and it attached him to the common people, betho of mutual sympathy

The democratic convention had, after the bolt of the extreme southerners, adjourned to Baltilas

What any one could have done for the purpose of restoring harmony in the party, he did But the breach was too wide for even that astute politician to bridge over Lincoln grasped the situation It hat he had planned two years before, and he confidently expected just this breach ”Douglas never can be President,” he had said He fully understood the relentless bitterness of the slave power, and he well knew that whatever Douglas ht do for the northern democrats, he had lost all influence with the southern branch of that party So Lincoln told his ”little story” and serenely awaited the result