973.7L63 
 Ci|F2i4P 
 
 Farrington, Frank 
 
 The parly of Abraham Lincoln 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
The Party of 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 BY 
 
 Frank Farrington 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/partyofabrahamliOOfarr 
 
THE PARTY OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
GREENLAWN LINCOLN PUBLICATIONS 
 
 By 
 Frank Farrington 
 
 Abraham Lincoln (A Narrative Poem) 1944. Edition 
 limited to 101 numbered and autographed copies. Out of 
 print. 
 
 The Nomination of Abraham Lincoln (Inside Story of the 
 1860 Chicago Convention) 1945. Edition limited to 151 
 numbered and autographed copies. 75 cents. 
 
 The Party of Abraham Lincoln (Account of the Organiza- 
 tion and Consolidation of the Republican Party) 1946. First 
 printing, 250 copies. $1. 
 
THE PARTY OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 BY 
 FRANK FARRINGTON 
 
 GREENLAWN PUBLICATIONS 
 
 DELHI, N. Y. 
 
 MCMXLVI 
 
Copyright 1946 
 
 by 
 
 Frank Farrington 
 
 First Edition 
 
C 4 TZ 4 
 
 r 
 
 To 
 County Chairman, Jim Foreman 
 
 Who for 35 Years Has Held My 
 
 Home County of Delaware, New 
 
 York State, Steadfast in the Ranks 
 
 of the Republican Party. 
 
FROM THE 
 
 REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM 
 
 OF 1860 
 
 Resolved . . . That the maintenance of the principles 
 promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied 
 in the Federal Constitution, "That all men are created equal; 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 
 able rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are 
 instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of 
 our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, 
 the Rights of the States and the Union of the States, must 
 and shall be preserved. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 REPUBLICAN BIRTHDAY 
 
 Something had been started by an apparently in- 
 significant meeting between Horace Greeley and a 
 Ripon, Wisconsin, Whig attorney, Alvan E. Bovay, 
 at Lovejoy's Hotel in New York City, 1852. 
 
 The attorney was discussing current political 
 conditions with the veteran "New York Tribune" 
 editor. He declared to Greeley he believed that one 
 day there would be a political party whose platform 
 would demand the exclusion of slavery from all the 
 territories. 
 
 "And what would you call such a party?" Gree- 
 ley wanted to know. 
 
 "The Republican party," Bovay replied, pro- 
 phetically, perhaps thinking as others did later, that 
 that name would help to make it easy for old voters 
 who had belonged to the Republican-Democrat or 
 Democratic-Republican party of the Jefferson-to- 
 Jackson era to turn their backs upon their pro- 
 Kansas-Nebraska friends and join a new and for- 
 ward looking movement headed for the curtailment 
 of slavery. 
 
Bovay became deeply interested in his new party 
 idea. He mulled it over and discussed it with his 
 friends in the village of Ripon, becoming increas- 
 ingly partisan in attitude as the passage of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska bill became imminent. [This bill, 
 finally to influence the rise of the Republican party 
 upon the ruins of the disintegrating Whig party, 
 provided for organizing Kansas and Nebraska with 
 "squatter sovereignty" — state option — on the 
 slavery question, thus abrogating the Missouri 
 Compromise of 1820.] 
 
 In February, 1854, Bovay wrote to Greeley, re- 
 minding him of their conversation and suggesting 
 that he demand in the "Tribune" that throughout 
 the country meetings be held in every town of op- 
 ponents of the bill, regardless of party, these meet- 
 ings to start active measures toward the organization 
 of the Republican party. It was not, however, until 
 June 24, 1854, that Greeley did suggest editorially 
 that the name, "Republican," would be suitable for 
 a party which should record its opposition to the 
 Kansas-Nebraska embroglio. 
 
 Meanwhile Bovay had not waited for Greeley to 
 act. He had not even waited for the objectionable 
 bill to be passed on March 3rd. He had brought to- 
 gether in the Ripon Congregational Church, Feb- 
 ruary 28, 1854, a little gathering of men and women 
 who passed a resolution declaring that if the bill were 
 passed, a new political party should be formed which 
 would draw from all the existing parties those who 
 were willing to unite in common cause against the ex- 
 tension of slavery, under the name, "Republican." 
 
 8 
 
This first Ripon meeting discussed the issues of 
 the time and among the speakers was a Professor 
 Daniels, later to edit the "Richmond (Virginia) 
 State Journal," in which he would advocate the 
 same principles enunciated at the Ripon meeting. 
 Others spoke of the apparent subservience of the 
 great national parties, Whig and Democrat, to the 
 demands of the slaveholders, of the need for aban- 
 doning the morally weakening old parties and de- 
 veloping a party that should take a firm stand against 
 the extension of slavery rather than demand its 
 immediate abolition. 
 
 The Ripon meeting, unimportant as to size but 
 highly important as to significance, was followed, 
 after the Senate had passed the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill, by a second meeting. March 20, 1854, which 
 called for all believers in Bovay's creed to come to- 
 gether. Mr. Bovay is quoted as having written, 
 years later, "I went from house to house and from 
 shop to shop and halted men on the street to get 
 their names for the meeting of March 20. At that 
 time there were not more than a hundred voters in 
 Ripon and by a vast deal of earnest talking, I obtain- 
 ed fifty-three of them." These met at the school- 
 house as Democrats, Free Soliers. Whigs and anti- 
 Nebraska men and agreed thenceforth not to pass 
 under any of those names, but as Republicans. Mr. 
 Bovay declares, "We were the first Republicans in 
 the Union." 
 
 May 9, 1854, a meeting of thirty Representatives 
 came together in Washington in the rooms of 
 Thomas D. Elliott and Edward Dickinson of Massa- 
 
chusetts. They were called together by Israel 
 Washburne, Jr., of Maine, to consult regarding the 
 crisis that seemed imminent in the great division of 
 public opinion regarding the best means for meet- 
 ing the advances of slavery. 
 
 Chiefly Whigs, these men recognized the fact 
 that the old Whig party could not be expected to 
 meet the needs of the time, being too badly weaken- 
 ed and split to have the necessary strength and viril- 
 ity. Loth to give up their Whig standing of years, a 
 majority of them yet agreed that there must be a 
 new line-up, a new party, and they agreed upon the 
 name, Republican, as being the most appropriate. 
 Thus they became the first missionaries for the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 Not long after this, back in his home state, Mr. 
 Washburn addressed a meeting at Bangor, in which 
 he stated that every believer of the anti-Kansas- 
 Nebraska faith should take his place in the ranks of 
 the new party dedicated to the principle that the 
 welfare of the Union and the stainless honor of 
 America demanded adherence to that faith. 
 
 It was August 7, 1854 that Maine reacted offi- 
 cially to the position taken by Washburne. At the 
 village of Strong, Franklin county, was held a con- 
 vention of regularly chosen delegates which took 
 the name, "Republican," and nominated a candi- 
 date for Senator who was defeated in the fall 
 election. This group comprised Whigs, Free 
 Soilers and one faction of the Democratic party. 
 
 The Whigs of Vermont met in state convention, 
 June 8, 1854, and voted that if and when the other 
 
 10 
 
states showed a willingness to cooperate to oppose 
 the extension of slavery, and if a convention should 
 be called to that end, they would send delegates. 
 On June 16 another call was issued for another state 
 convention of all favoring organized legal resistence 
 to the spread of slavery. This convention met July 
 13 and passed an anti-slavery resolution, with the 
 recommendation, "We propose and respectfully 
 recomend to the friends of freedom in other states 
 to cooperate and be known as Republicans." 
 
 Massachusetts followed July 20 with a state con- 
 vention atWorcester, where anti-slavery resolutions 
 were adopted and an agreement was reached that, 
 "in cooperation with the friends of freedom in other 
 states, we hereby form ourselves into the Republican 
 party of Massachusetts." At this time, however, 
 the Know Nothings were at the peak of their 
 strength in the state and they swept the next 
 election. 
 
 In November, 1853, the death of United States 
 Senator, Atherton, in New Hampshire, had made 
 necessary the choice of a successor to be elected by 
 the next legislature in March, 1854. Great effort 
 was made to combine Free Soilers, Whigs and 
 anti-Nebraska Democrats for joint action on the 
 Senatorship. This combination did not then elect 
 its candidate, but it formed the nucleus of a group 
 that, in 1855, did send John P. Hale to the Senate 
 as a Republican. 
 
 A. N. Cole of Allegheny county, New York, at 
 one time claimed to have been the "Father of the 
 Republican party" of the nation. He was influen- 
 
 11 
 
tial in bringing together an anti-slavery caucus May 
 16, 1854, which issued a call for a county nominat- 
 ing convention at Angelica, October 16. County 
 officers were nominated and later elected under the 
 name, "Republican," following suggestions in 
 Greeley's "Tribune." Cole is probably entitled to 
 be regarded as the Father of the Republican party 
 in New York state. 
 
 William H. Seward and his political manager, 
 Thurlow Weed, saw the danger to their leadership 
 in the formation of a new party in which they might 
 not be the important factors they were yn the old 
 Whig party, and they pushed ahead through New 
 York's political turmoil in 1854 to one last Whig 
 victory. The acceptance of the new party line-up 
 at Auburn in September by so outstanding a 
 political figure as Seward would have made his 
 nomination for the Presidency in 1856 or in 1860 
 or both a practical certainty. 
 
 July 13, 1854, a convention was held at Colum- 
 bus, Ohio. The call was addressed to those who 
 favored "breaking the chains now forging to bind 
 the nation to the car of American slavery." Its 
 action resulted in the election of an anti-Nebraska 
 delegation to Congress. A similar convention was 
 held the same day in Indiana with similar results. 
 These organizations were the beginnings of the 
 Republican party in those states. In 1855 Ohio 
 completed its Republican organization and elected 
 a Republican governor. Pennsylvania, too, or- 
 ganized its Republicans in 1855. 
 
 At Madison, Wisconsin, a state convention of 
 
 12 
 
anti-Neb raskans was held which must have been in- 
 fluenced by the little Ripon meeting of the winter 
 before. This convention, July 6, 1854, accepted 
 "the issue forced upon us by the slave power," and 
 in defense of freedom voted to cooperate and be- 
 come known as Republicans. 
 
 Holcombe, in "Political Parties of Today," says, 
 "The original spirit of the anti-slavery Republicans 
 was the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, 
 of the Land Ordinance of 1785 and of the North- 
 west Ordinance of 1787 ... . In these three docu- 
 ments the fighting principles of the anti-slavery 
 Republicans were first set forth." 
 
 The name, "Republican," had been variously 
 used in earlier times. Thomas Jefferson ran for 
 President in 1800 as a "Republican." In 1804 he 
 was re-elected by "Republicans." In 1808 the 
 "Republicans," or "Democratic-Republicans," as 
 they were then being called, elected Madison. In 
 1816 the "Democratic-Republicans" elected James 
 Monroe. In 1824 there were 4 tickets in the field 
 for the Presidency, all of them "Democratic-Re- 
 publicans," in what was called "A scrub race for the 
 Presidency," and the election was thrown into the 
 House of Representatives. In 1828 one faction 
 discarded the "Republican" part of the party name 
 and the other faction called themselves "National 
 Republicans" and failed to re-elect John Quincy 
 Adams as against Andrew Jackson. This was the 
 first election of a President as a straight Democrat. 
 The National Republicans nominated again in 1832, 
 this time Henry Clay, who lost to Andrew Jackson. 
 
 13 
 
This was the last use of "Republican" in a national 
 ticket designation until 1856. In this interim, if 
 the slavery Democrats dubbed the new party, 
 "Black Republicans,' ' that was simply evidence that 
 they accepted the name, "Republican," as an es- 
 tablished fact. 
 
 The Republicans of 1854 did not hestiate to 
 accept such of Jefferson's doctrines as related to 
 social freedom when coinciding with their own be- 
 liefs. At that time, "Jeffersonian," as an adjective, 
 was applicable to the newly formed Republican 
 party. Certainly the Republicans were more Jeffer- 
 sonian than the Democrats in matters related to 
 slavery.* The new party was to prove a party of 
 progress and aggressiveness as contrasted with the 
 day's more reactionary Democrats. 
 
 Of all the beginnings of the Republican party the 
 one most important at the time was that at Jackson, 
 Michigan, July 6, 1854. This Jackson convention 
 had been preceded by a convention of anti-slavery 
 Democrats at Jackson, February 22, 1854, at which 
 resolutions were passed denouncing the proposed 
 
 * Referring to the Ordinance of 1787 and certain clauses 
 drafted into the original by Thomas Jefferson, James Truslow 
 Adams says in "The Living Jefferson," "Had his clauses de- 
 claring that none of the newly acquired territory could ever 
 secede and that slavery could never exist in any of it after 
 1800, also been adopted, the slavery question would almost 
 certainly have been solved without a civil war . . . had he had 
 his way, the West would have been white and free from the 
 Gulf to Canada." It may be added that the anti-slavery clause 
 was lost by one vote. 
 
 14 
 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise and pointing 
 out the national character of freedom as opposed to 
 the sectional character of slavery. This convention 
 nominated a state ticket. 
 
 When the Michigan Republicans planned for 
 their state convention, it was seen that success for 
 their state-wide movement must depend upon a 
 union of all the anti-slavery elements against the 
 Democrats. The Whigs made no nominations. 
 The party that would have to be beaten comprised 
 the old line Democrats who made this a test cam- 
 paign. Wise heads foresaw the struggle and pro- 
 posed that the anti-slavery or Free Democrats with- 
 draw their ticket and join with the new party, not 
 as yet officially named. This they did at a meeting 
 at Kalamazoo. The Whigs and all persons opposed 
 to the spread of slavery to the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill and its emphasis on the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise were expected to and did fall in line 
 with the new movement. 
 
 In a biography of Zachariah Chandler, later Re- 
 publican United States Senator from Michigan, one 
 of those prominent in effecting the state-wide or- 
 ganization of the new party, is found in the call for 
 this Jackson convention and a full account of the 
 proceedings. 
 
 The call for the convention was published in 
 "The Detroit Tribune" and in "The Detroit Free 
 Democrat." It had been signed by 10,000 people. 
 Addressed to the people of Michigan, it declared: 
 
 "The slave power of this country has triumphed. Liberty 
 is trampled under foot. The Missouri Compromise, a solemn 
 
 15 
 
compact entered into by our fathers has been violated and a 
 vast territory dedicated to freedom has been opened to slavery. 
 . . . Such an outrage upon liberty . . . cannot be submitted to. 
 This great wrong must be righted or there is no longer a North 
 in the councils of the nation. The extension of slavery under 
 the folds of the American flag is a stigma upon liberty. . . . The 
 safety of the Union, the rights of the North to the interest of 
 free labor, the destiny of a vast territory and its untold millions 
 for all coming, time and finally, the high aspirations of humanity 
 for universal freedom, are all involved in the issue forced upon 
 the country by the slave power and its plastic Northern tools." 
 
 The call went on to invite all who believed the 
 time had come for a united front to "protect liberty 
 from being overthrown and downtrodden" to meet 
 in convention at Jackson, July 6, 1854 to take "such 
 measures as shall be thought best to concentrate 
 the popular sentiment of this state against the ag- 
 gression of the slave power." 
 
 There was a great rising of popular sentiment in 
 favor of this movement and the result was a gather- 
 ing of hundreds of leaders from all over the state, 
 all representing opposition to the threatening ad- 
 vance of slavery. No hall in Jackson would hold 
 the convention which, therefore, adjourned to an 
 oak grove on a tract known as "Morgan's Forty," 
 a location long since built into the city of Jackson. 
 
 Advance conferences and committee meetings 
 had been held to iron out the differences between 
 the various blocs of similar general thought but of 
 varying idea about detailed methods. Such dif- 
 ferences were so adjusted by the tactful efforts of 
 leaders that there was an enthusiastic unanimity of 
 thought and purpose when the convention was 
 
 16 
 
finally organized. A Free Soiler, Levi Baxter, was 
 made temporary chairman. A Whig, David S. Wal- 
 bridge, was made permanent president. The plat- 
 form committee comprised members from each of 
 the four Congressional districts of the state. An 
 outstanding Whig, Jacob M. Howard, Detroit, was 
 chosen chairman of the committee. The platform 
 had already been drafted and was in his hands. The 
 whole program of the convention had been care- 
 fully worked out and the platform was adopted sub- 
 stantially as prepared. 
 
 It was long and the quotations below have been 
 taken from the text in William Starr Myers' "The 
 Republican Party," which quotes from "The Life 
 of Zachariah Chandler/' "Detroit Post & 
 Tribune," 1880. 
 
 It proclaimed a determination to oppose by all 
 honorable means all "attempts to extend slavery in 
 this country or to permit it to extend to any region 
 or locality in which it does not exist by positive law." 
 
 It stated, with regard to whether new states should 
 be admitted as slave or free, "Congress has a right 
 to adopt such measures as the principles of liberty 
 and the interests of the whole country require." 
 
 It condemned in unmeasured terms the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise as an act "unprecedented 
 in the history of the country ... a plain departure 
 from the policy of the Fathers of the Republic in re- 
 gard to slavery . . . intended to admit slavery into 
 Kansas and Nebraska." 
 
 It demanded measures of protection and im- 
 munity for the North, among them the repeal of the 
 
 17 
 
Fugitive Slave Law, and an act to abolish slavery in 
 the District of Columbia. 
 
 To harmonize elements disagreeing with regard 
 to matters of national economy and administration, 
 it said, "Postponing and suspending all differences 
 with regard to political economy or administrative 
 policy in view of the imminent danger that Kansas 
 and Nebraska will be grasped by slavery, and a 
 thousand miles of slave soil be thus interposed be- 
 tween the free states of the Atlantic and those of the 
 Pacific, we will act cordially and faithfully in unison 
 to avert this gigantic wrong and shame. 
 
 "In view of the necessity of battling for the first 
 principles of republican government ... we will 
 cooperate and be known as Republicans until the 
 contest be closed. 
 
 "We earnestly recommend the calling of a gen- 
 eral convention of the free states, and such of the 
 slaveholding states or parties thereof as may desire 
 to be there represented, with a view to the adoption 
 of other more extended and effectual measures in 
 resistence of the encroachments of slavery; and that 
 a committee of five persons be appointed to cor- 
 respond and cooperate with our friends in other 
 states upon the subject." 
 
 This well defined platform and program formed a 
 nucleus for the beginning of a new state party 
 with a definite objective. Not outspokenly abolition- 
 ist in its pronouncements, it still could be accepted 
 by those who were radical in belief. It paved well 
 the way for harmony between the radicals and 
 conservatives of the anti-slavery persuasion. 
 
 18 
 
With the immediate withdrawal, in the conven- 
 tion under the oaks, of the Free Democrats from the 
 field as a separate party and with the expression of 
 their willingness to become part of the new Re- 
 publican movement, a committee was appointed to 
 nominate a state ticket for 1854. This act was con- 
 summated when the Free Democrat nominee for 
 governor was placed at the head of the ticket which 
 contained, in addition, five Whigs, three Free 
 Soilers and one other Anti-Nebraska Democrat. 
 This ticket was elected by about 7,000 majority over 
 the regular Democratic ticket. 
 
 Bryce's "American Commonwealth" says, "The 
 Whig element brought to the new party solidity and 
 a large number of wealthy and influential adherents. 
 The Abolitionist element gave it force and en- 
 thusiasm." 
 
 While part of the Whigs were being fused with 
 the Free Soilers, Free Democrats and Anti- 
 Nebraska men in the new Republican party, a much 
 larger part was being drawn into the ranks of the 
 Know Nothing or American party. This party had 
 come into being in 1853 as a secret order in New 
 York City. Its primary object was to eradicate 
 foreign influence, prevent exclusion of the Bible 
 from public schools, and free the ballot from cor- 
 rupt influence. Its growth was phenomenal and in 
 1854 it influenced and controlled elections in New 
 Jersey and Pennsylvania. 
 
 By May, 1854, this party had spread into half a 
 dozen states and was electing men who were on no 
 ticket and were not known as candidates. Its effect 
 
 19 
 
in this year was to bring about the defeat of the 
 Democrats in the North and to produce disorganiza- 
 tion in the Whig party. It elected more than 75 
 members of the new Congress, most of whom were 
 anti-slave and subsequently became Republicans. 
 
 The Know Nothing party worked secretly and its 
 members were called Know Nothings because, when 
 asked about the organization, their answer always 
 was, "I don't know." 
 
 This "America for Americans" party or secret 
 society voted down Catholics here and there. Mc- 
 Master says, "At Waltham, Massachusetts, the 
 Know Nothings elected their full ticket. Nobody 
 could tell where the ballots came from, who printed 
 them or where. Just before election an obscure 
 notice was posted, calling on certain persons, no- 
 body knew who, to meet at a certain place, nobody 
 knew where. But it was by means of odd shaped 
 pieces of paper cut from the notice that the initiated 
 were informed ... In June the Know Nothings 
 elected the mayor of Washington and of Philadel- 
 phia." In a goodly number of elections these Know 
 Nothings proved to hold the balance of power and 
 to wield it effectively when least expected. 
 
 While still growing in strength, it was at the con- 
 vention of its national council at Philadelphia, June 
 5, 1855, that the party split asunder upon the rock 
 of the slavery question. Leaders of the anti- 
 Nebraska sentiment went home to seek to interest 
 their constituents in turning their support to the Re- 
 publican party movement. The Massachusetts 
 delegation was urged by United States Senator 
 
 20 
 
Wilson of that state to go home and "take the lead 
 in forming a victorious Republican party in Massa- 
 chusettes." 
 
 This American-Know-Nothing party was prac- 
 tically through as a national order, though un- 
 officially retaining enough voting strength to em- 
 harass the movement toward a strong Republican 
 party and to permit the Democrats to win in New 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois and to 
 elect the candidates it chose to support in California, 
 Massachusetts and New York. It exerted a good 
 deal of influence and received much attention dur- 
 ing 1854, 1855, and 1856, but disintegrated be- 
 cause the policy of secrecy was not practical in more 
 than local elections and because the slavery question 
 divided its North and South councils. As this party 
 went down, the Republicans profited by the dis- 
 integration. 
 
 21 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LINCOLN UNIFIES THE ILLINOIS 
 REPUBLICANS 
 
 The movement to develop a nation wide Republi- 
 can party organization moved slowly ahead. Many 
 Whig and Free Soil and Know Nothing leaders were 
 loth to give up their old party affiliations, doubtful 
 of the permanence of this new party, doubtful that 
 the old parties were through. 
 
 The year 1854 had seen Republican state organ- 
 ization set up in the following states: 
 
 Jackson, Michigan, July 6 
 
 Madison, Wisconsin, July 13 
 
 Montpelier, Vermont, July 13 
 
 Columbus, Ohio, July 13 
 
 Indiana, July 13 
 
 Saratoga Springs, New York, August 8 
 
 Worcester, Massachusetts, July 20 
 
 A decided growth continued which led, by 1855, 
 to the election of 1 1 United States Senators by Re- 
 publicans, while 15 states, influenced more or less 
 and to a certain extent organized by the Republi- 
 cans, gave majorities against the Kansas-Nebraska 
 legislation. The anti-Nebraska strength in the 
 
 22 
 
House of Representatives was sufficient to pass a 
 resolution declaring the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise was a needless favor to the South and 
 an unfortunate move. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas was finding himself bom- 
 barded with anathemas because of his support of 
 the repeal measures and for a time he had to fight to 
 retain the Illinois leadership, particularly in the face 
 of the outspoken opposition of Abraham Lincoln 
 who was now coming rapidly to the front. The 
 Whigs had practically ceased to exist in the South, 
 where they were condemned for their anti-slavery 
 attitude in the North. 
 
 Through 1855 the Republican organization was 
 preparing for the next Presidential campaign. It 
 elected Salmon P. Chase governor of Ohio on the 
 Republican ticket. State Republican tickets were 
 put in the field in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, 
 but the party was not yet strong enough to elect 
 them. Connecticut would be lining up the next 
 year with a Presidential plurality for Fremont. 
 
 In New York the first influence of the spirit of the 
 new party seems to have been evidenced in 1854, 
 when Myron H. Clark was nominated and elected 
 governor by a fusion of the anti-Democratic factions 
 which included Whigs, Anti-Nebraska men, Free 
 Democrats and State Temperance people, as well 
 as a good many who already began to consider 
 themselves Republicans. 
 
 The first New York state convention bearing the 
 name, Republican occurred at Syracuse September 
 26, 1855, the place and date coinciding with the 
 
 23 
 
state Whig convention. The two groups were 
 formed into a coalition by Thurlow Weed and they 
 nominated a state Republican ticket. 
 
 Incidently, there lack not those who think the 
 political arts of Thurlow Weed at this time, more 
 than the anti-slavery issue, were responsible for the 
 formation of the Republican party of the state, but 
 even if true, that could have little bearing on the 
 party's beginnings in a wider sense, since it sprang 
 into being almost simultaneously in half a dozen 
 different states. 
 
 To quote from Bryce's "American Common- 
 wealth," "The Whig party having almost vanish- 
 ed, the Democrats seemed to be, for the moment, as 
 they had been once before, left in possession of the 
 field. But this time a new antagonist was quick to 
 appear. The growing boldness of the slave-owners 
 had begun to alarm the Northern people when they 
 were startled by the decision of the Supreme Court 
 in the case of the slave, Dred Scott .... This 
 hastened the formation out of the wrecks of the 
 Whigs of a new party which took in 1856 the name 
 Republican, while at the same time it threw an apple 
 of discord among the Democrats. ,, 
 
 And again, quoting, "Among the Federalists and 
 their successors, the Whigs and the more recent 
 Republicans, there has never been wanting a full 
 faith in the power of freedom ... It is rather to- 
 ward what I may perhaps venture to call the 
 Federalist-Whig-Republican party than towards the 
 Democrats that those who have valued the prin- 
 ciples of authority have been generally drawn. It 
 
 24 
 
is for that that the Puritan, not extinct in America, 
 has felt the greater affinity .... The tendency that 
 makes for a strong government being akin to that 
 which makes for a central government, the Fed- 
 eralist- Whig-Republican party, which has through 
 its long history and under its varying forms and 
 names, been the advocate of the national principle, 
 found itself for this reason also led, more frequently 
 than the Democrats, to exalt the rights and powers 
 of government." 
 
 June 19, 1855, a small group in Washington or- 
 ganized a club calling itself, "The Republican As- 
 sociation of Washington, D. C." Its members in 
 due time recommended the formation of such clubs 
 throughout the nation. Instrumental in the move- 
 ment were Daniel R. Goodloe, H. S. Brown and 
 Lewis Clephans. This appeal for nation-wide 
 effort was made under the date of January 17, 1856, 
 the same day on which call was issued for the first 
 National Republican Convention (not a nominating 
 convention) to be held at Pittsburgh, February 
 22, 1856. 
 
 This Pittsburgh meeting was an enthusiastic 
 gathering which comprised Republicans from the 
 Free states and some delegates from Maryland, 
 South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Missouri, 
 though these latter were unofficial and represented 
 small interested groups rather than any state-wide 
 sentiment. Without doubt the Southern and 
 border states were anxious to learn what was behind 
 this Republican movement. According to A. K. 
 McClure, this meeting "comprised a mass of politi- 
 
 25 
 
cal free thinkers, but no very able men" and pos- 
 sibly the Southern element went home feeling there 
 was little to fear from the event. Altogether 28 
 states and territories were represented. The num- 
 ber of delegates varies in different accounts from 
 260 to 400. 
 
 The call for the convention was as follows, signed 
 by the chairmen of the Republican state com- 
 mittees of five states: 
 
 To the Republicans of the United States: 
 
 In accordance with what appears to be the general desire 
 of the Republican party, and at the suggestion of a large por- 
 tion of the Republican press, the undersigned, chairman of the 
 state committees of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, 
 hereby invite the Republicans of the Union to meet in informal 
 convention at Pittsburgh on the 22nd of February, 1856, for 
 the purpose of perfecting the national organization and pro- 
 viding for a national delegate convention of the Republican 
 party at some subsequent day to nominate candidates for the 
 Presidency and Vice-Presidency to be supported at the election 
 in November, 1856. 
 
 A. O. Stone of Ohio, 
 J. C. Goodrich of Massachusetts, 
 David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, 
 Lawrence Brainard of Vermont, 
 William A. White, of Wisconsin. 
 
 Apparently, the names of four chairmen were 
 not appended to the copy of the call available for 
 the recording historian. 
 
 This Pittsburgh meeting was overflowing with 
 anti-slavery speeches and sentiment. John A. King 
 of New York was made temporary chairman and 
 Francis P. Blair of Missouri, permanent president. 
 
 26 
 
A national committee was chosen, with Edwin D. 
 Morgan, New York, its chairman and with 20 other 
 members and power to add to its numbers one 
 member from each unrepresented state. It was 
 given full power to fill vacancies. This committee 
 planned to issue a call for a national convention on 
 Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 1856. The resolutions 
 committee presented and secured the adoption of 
 three resolutions declaring: (1) Against the exten- 
 sion of slavery into new territory; (2) Promise of 
 aid to Kansas in the fight against lawless invaders 
 usurping authority; (3) Condemnation of the cur- 
 rent Pierce administration for aiding the progess of 
 the slave states to a position of national supremacy. 
 Prominent among those present was Horace Gree- 
 ley, sending despatches to his "Tribune' ' by 
 "magnetic telegraph." 
 
 Also on Washington's Birthday, 1856, there was 
 a gathering at Decatur, Illinois, of Illinois editors 
 opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. It was ex- 
 pected that 25 would be present, but half of them 
 were marooned at home by a snowstorm that in- 
 terfered with railway traffic. This group decided 
 that a Republican state convention should be held, 
 but the name, "Republican," was not to appear in 
 the call. It was not deemed wise to take the chance 
 of frightening the various milling elements by call- 
 ing them by a new name. 
 
 Lincoln had his finger on the pulse of this 
 editorial gathering. He was at Decatur and in- 
 fluenced the deliberations of the group. At the 
 evening banquet he was the chief speaker. He had 
 
 27 
 
declined the honor proposed by at least one editor, 
 that he be the candidate for governor in the fall. 
 "No," said he, "it would not do to have an oldline 
 Whig like me at the head of the ticket." He favor- 
 ed the choice of some sound anti-Nebraska Demo- 
 crat. The meeting passed a resolution favoring a 
 state convention at Bloomington, May 29. 
 
 In the interim between Decatur and Blooming- 
 ton, political excitement increased as delegates were 
 chosen and issues debated. 
 
 The varying interests of the numerous factions 
 who were to be amalgamated in the Bloomington 
 convention if possible, were such that few had much 
 faith a homogenous mixture could resist. William 
 H. Herndon seems to have been almost the only 
 man optimistic enough to believe lasting harmony 
 could come out of so discordant a gathering. And, 
 as for the proposed Bloomington meeting coming 
 to an agreement upon a platform, that seemed an 
 impossible consummation. 
 
 It was Herndon who drew up the radical call for 
 the Sangamon county convention to name delegates 
 to Bloomington and he took the liberty of signing 
 Lincoln's name to it. thus committing his law part- 
 ner beyond the latter's expectation or authorization. 
 
 Lincoln had said he did not know just where he 
 belonged, and small wonder, when old boundary 
 lines were being broken down and new ones laid out 
 almost every day. Loth to leave the old Whig party 
 of years of allegiance, always a party man, never 
 bolting the ticket because of personal defeat or dis- 
 appointment, he was not yet sure the new party 
 
 28 
 
would or could become a national factor, though he 
 realized the old Whig party was no longer capable 
 of functioning. 
 
 This hesitancy, however, came to an end almost 
 immediately after Preston Brooks of South Carolina 
 attacked Charles Sumner on the floor of the United 
 States Senate, May 22, 1856, and beat him brutally 
 with a heavy cane until the famous Massachusetts 
 Senator's life was believed to be in danger. 
 
 This event was heavy with importance in its in- 
 fluence upon Lincoln whose sensibilities were be- 
 coming so keenly attuned to the growing North- 
 South discord. It may have been the culminating 
 force that led him, two days later, to accept the ap- 
 pointment of delegate from Sangamon county to 
 that fateful Bloomington convention. 
 
 If Lincoln had been uncertain of where he was 
 going, his friends did not suffer from like doubt. 
 As far as they could direct his steps, he was going 
 straight into the fold of the Republican party where 
 he was to be elevated to a position of importance, 
 though just what that might be was not yet decided. 
 
 Herndon's convention call, with Lincoln's name 
 attached, was no sooner printed in "The Sangamon 
 Journal" than John T. Stuart, anxious to keep 
 Lincoln from plunging ahead with the radicals, 
 rushed into Herndon's office and demanded, "Did 
 Lincoln sign that Abolition call in *The Journal?' ' 
 
 Herndon said he had signed Lincoln's name to it. 
 
 "Did Lincoln authorize you to sign it?" 
 
 "No," Herndon admitted. 
 
 "Then you have ruined him," Stuart declared. 
 
 29 
 
Herndon was not sure of that and he wrote at 
 once to Lincoln who was attending court in Taze- 
 well county, telling him what had been done and of 
 the resentment of his conservative friends and their 
 fear of having Lincoln aligned with the radicals. 
 
 Lincoln telegraphed an immediate reply, "All 
 r ig ftt > g° ahead. Will meet you, radicals and all." 
 
 Thus Lincoln broke away from the ultra conser- 
 vative element and prepared himself to follow the 
 fortunes of the new party soon to be fully organized. 
 
 The newspapers and the popular agitators of all 
 faiths were sharp in their comments on the Bloom- 
 ington plan, but work on it went ahead, interest 
 gradually increasing. 
 
 Lincoln was then taking little interest in the 
 Kansas agitation that swept over the North in 1856, 
 with the shipments of "Beecher's Bibles," (rifles in 
 boxes labeled "Bibles") into that territory, and the 
 all but civil war going on there. He hated ex- 
 tremists and fanaticsm. He declined to serve on 
 the Kansas Relief Committee and asked that Jesse 
 W. Fell be appointed in his place. 
 
 Throughout 1854 to 1858 he was thinking deep- 
 ly of the future of the Union and evolving his prin- 
 ciple that the North would not go out of the Union 
 and the South should not. His speeches were on 
 the themes of the Constitution and freedom and 
 liberty and union. He continued to take pains to 
 show he was not an abolitionist. 
 
 On May 28, 1856, the day before the Blooming- 
 ton convention was to be opened, Lincoln reached 
 there on a train with Archibald Williams, a former 
 
 30 
 
fellow state legislator; T. Lyle Dickey, an Ottawa 
 Whig; and H. C. Whitney; a quartette to whom 
 Judge Davis, obliged to remain holding court at 
 Danville, had extended the hospitality of his home 
 about half a mile out of Bloomington. There Lin- 
 coln and his immediate companions counseled to- 
 gether about convention matters, far enough from 
 the center of excitement to be able to maintain sober 
 judgment regarding the affairs of the moment. 
 
 That afternoon Lincoln and Whitney went to the 
 railroad station to meet the train from Chicago, 
 anxious to know who would be among the delegates 
 from there. When Norman B. Judd detrained, 
 later to be so important a factor in Loncoln's nom- 
 ination for the Presidency, Lincoln exclaimed, joy- 
 fully, "There's the best sign yet. Judd is here and 
 he's a trimmer." If Judd, anxious to be with the 
 popular majority, had come, it told Lincoln there 
 were those prominent in political affairs who ex- 
 pected something to come of the convention. 
 
 Four weeks earlier the Democrats, in their state 
 convention, had declared for the Kansas-Nebraska 
 act, and this had alienated the affections of many 
 old Democrats who could not swallow Douglas and 
 Squatter Sovereignty. But the anti-slavery Demo- 
 crats were only one of the diverse elements of the 
 Bloomington convention. There were men of all 
 degrees of pro-Unionism and anti-slavery. All had 
 something in common. All distrusted or even 
 hated Stephen A. Douglas. All were opposed to 
 much done by the administration at Washington. 
 All were in greater or less degree opposed to the ex- 
 
 31 
 
tension of slavery. John M. Palmer and Norman 
 B. Judd could scarcely say enough to voice their 
 feelings as one-time Democrats now on the road to 
 Republicanism. 
 
 Inflammatory newspaper accounts of the deeds 
 of the Kansas Border Ruffians, Brooks' assault upon 
 Sumner, and a score of other exciting incidents of 
 the time, tended to arouse this Bloomington gather- 
 ing to a high pitch of excitement. Kansas hereself 
 had representatives present to arouse Illinoisans to 
 action. Ichabod Codding and Owen Love joy, two 
 of the most sensational of the Kansas promoters, 
 would have given much to enlist Lincoln under their 
 fanatical banner. But Lincoln was conservatively 
 holding back, declining to have much to do with 
 Kansas agitators. Some of the more conservative 
 delegates would have bolted the convention and re- 
 turned home before it was organized, had it not 
 been for the conciliatory tactics of Lincoln and his 
 associates. 
 
 Men like Reeder aroused the crowds with oratory 
 based on wild stories of things said to be happening 
 in Kansas, stories utterly at variance with the facts. 
 Lincoln was not deceived. Together with two 
 friends he was passing the court house where Reeder 
 was shouting battle, murder and sudden death to an 
 excited crowd. 
 
 "He doesn't convince me," said one of Lincoln's 
 companions. 
 
 "Nor me," Lincoln agreed, his prejudice against 
 the agitator clearly manifest. 
 
 Lincoln had kept himself informed of the true 
 
 32 
 
state of affairs in Kansas and the ranting of the 
 missionaries from that territory did not impress him. 
 
 There was still little use of the name "Republi- 
 can," to which the prefix, "Black," was being at- 
 tached by Douglas in his speeches. 
 
 The candidates for governor and lieutenant- 
 governor were nominated by acclamation in a furor 
 of enthusiasm, and this almost as soon as the con- 
 vention was organized and before a platform or a 
 name had been adopted. By its promoters this v/as 
 called "The People's Convention or "The Anti- 
 Nebraska Convention," but the Democratic press 
 in general used the name, "Republican." "The 
 State Register" said, "The Black Republican con- 
 vention was a consolidation of Know Nothings, 
 Abolitionists and renegade sore-heads." 
 
 Lincoln was chosen as one of the two Presidential 
 electors at large. He was also appointed a delegate 
 to the national nominating convention to be held at 
 Philadelphia, June 1 7, but all this was done without 
 officially giving the name, "Republican," to this 
 state organization of a nameless party. 
 
 When all the business of the convention had 
 been transacted, there remained the fact that the 
 gathering was anything but a meeting of men of 
 one mind. These various groups of differing 
 political affiliations were far from being amalgamat- 
 ed into a coherent party unit. There was needed a 
 welding force, something that would bring them to- 
 gether in a common ambition, with a feeling of 
 political brotherhood. 
 
 The natural thing was to expect a speaker to ac- 
 
 33 
 
complish this final result. Speaker after speaker 
 was trotted out and each did his best, but without 
 appreciable effect. Suddenly there came a call for 
 a speaker ignored by the official program. 
 
 Cries of, "Lincoln! Lincoln! Give us Lincoln!'* 
 arose throughout Major's Hall where fully 2,000 
 men had crowded into limited space. At last Lin- 
 coln arose from his seat in the back of the room. 
 
 "Take the platform!" men shouted and, his 
 shoulders bent forward, a serious look on his face, 
 he strode down the aisle. He reached the platform 
 and faced the enthusiastic hearers, his face show- 
 ing intense emotion as he sensed the arrival of one 
 of the crises of his career. 
 
 He had believed he would be called upon to 
 speak here and he had given the matter much 
 thought, but his speech was not written nor was it 
 destined to be, for this was the address that would 
 thenceforth be known as "The lost speech." 
 
 Here Lincoln faced a new situation. He must 
 break with the past of his Whig affiliations, with the 
 almost defunct party he had served so faithfully, 
 and throw his lot in with the new Republican party, 
 still a factor of undetermined strength in the politi- 
 cal life of the nation. It was here he was to declare 
 his belief that the old Whig party could no longer 
 function, that a new force was to be set in motion. 
 
 If much of the matter of this speech was not new, 
 but a repetition of what Lincoln had declared at the 
 Springfield fairgrounds and at Peoria, the form of it 
 was to some extent new, and the thrilling circum- 
 stances and manner of its delivery, with the vital 
 
 34 
 
thrusts at the evils of the time, were such as to give 
 new force and a new meaning to all that was said 
 and to carry new and overwhelming conviction. 
 The speech so thrilled and aroused hearers that 
 even the newspaper reporters forgot why they were 
 there and dropped pencils and paper; and the wor- 
 shipful Herndon, after the first few trenchant 
 phrases, forgot his habitual note making and fol- 
 lowed the words of his idol. 
 
 Beginning with manner and language calculated 
 to soothe his hearers, Lincoln declared that this new 
 political entity must not promise what it ought not, 
 lest it be called upon to perform what it could not. 
 
 But there must come an end to such conditions 
 as existed in Kansas "or blood will flow . . . and 
 brother's hand will be raised against brother." 
 
 "Kansas shall be free . . . Slavery must be kept 
 out of Kansas . . . Revolutions do not go backward 
 . . . Murderous violence is being used now in 
 order to force slavery upon Kansas . . . Sumner, 
 beaten to insensibility and now dying . . . Present 
 troubles due to this man, Douglas . . . This struggle 
 will be long and earnest . . . Men unafraid of cannon 
 will run from the terrible name of Abolitionist . . . 
 We do not intend to interfere with slavery . . . The 
 South is entitled to a reasonable and efficient fugi- 
 tive slave law . . . [A voice: "I say no!"] . . . I 
 say yes! It is part of the bargain . . . The Fathers 
 agreed to slavery and to a fugitive slave law and that 
 contract must be kept . . . But I go no further . . . 
 Let the legions of slavery use bullets, but let us wait 
 patiently until November and fire ballots at them in 
 
 35 
 
return . . . Slavery is a violation of the eternal right 
 . . . We have temporized with it from necessity . . . 
 But as sure as God reigns and school children read, 
 that black, foul lie can never be consecrated into 
 God's hallowed truth . . . Spread the floods of en- 
 thusiasm here aroused . . . Make Bissell governor 
 . . . Resort to force ought not to be necessary . . . 
 Moderation and forbearance will stand us in good 
 stead when we make an appeal to the God of Hosts 
 . . . Those who deny freedom to others deserve it 
 not for themselves . . . We will say to the Southern 
 disunionists, 'We won't go out of the Union and 
 you shan't.' " 
 
 Such phrases came out of the notes taken by, or 
 out of the recollection of the few. Said that season- 
 ed journalist, John L. Scripps, "Never was an 
 audience more completely electrified by human 
 eloquence. It fused the mass of hitherto incon- 
 gruous elements into a perfect homogeniety." 
 
 Herndon thought Lincoln that day grew to a 
 stature seven feet tall. 
 
 William Hopkins, a delegate from Grundy 
 county, told Lincoln, "Lincoln, that was the 
 damnedest best speech I ever heard. 
 
 Said Jesse K. Dubois to Henry C. Whitney, 
 "Henry, that is the greatest speech ever made in 
 Illinois and it puts Lincoln on the track for the 
 Presidency." 
 
 The enthusiasm of the convention, however, was 
 one thing and developing that enthusiasm through- 
 out the state of Illinois for a new party was some- 
 thing else. In the middle section of the state the 
 
 36 
 
Whig party was still strong and there were many 
 leading Whigs stoutly opposed to anything that 
 meant giving up their old party and taking on a new 
 allegiance, and perhaps losing some of their politi- 
 cal perquisites. In Lincoln's own city of Springfield 
 there was much bitter antagonism toward a fusion 
 of Whigs with other less clearly defined anti-slavery 
 blocs. 
 
 Lincoln and Herndon discovered this condition 
 when Herndon sought to hold a ratification meeting 
 directly after the Bloomington convention. He ar- 
 ranged to use the court house. He advertised with 
 large hand-bills. He engaged a brass band to help 
 draw a crowd, though he felt there could be no lack 
 of a crowd when Lincoln was named speaker. 
 
 It seems almost unbelievable now that no one 
 came to that rally save Lincoln and Herndon and 
 the janitor. Lincoln must have had some insight in- 
 to the situation, since he is said to have declared, 
 with a grin of embarassment over the failure, that 
 the attendance was larger than he had expected as 
 he had not thought the janitor would stay. 
 
 On the part of the Whigs at large there was feel- 
 ing that the new party might be a case of the tail 
 wagging the dog, since the number of Democrats 
 being drawn into it was so much smaller than the 
 number of Whigs and yet the Democratic elements 
 had so much more influence in party actions. It 
 seemed more like the Whigs coming to the Demo- 
 crats than like the Democrats coming to the Whigs. 
 All kinds of jealousies must exist but nevertheless 
 Republican party development marched on. 
 
 37 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A GREAT PARTY STARTS ITS 
 OFFENSIVE 
 
 Less than three weeks after the Bloomington con- 
 vention, the first national nominating convention of 
 the Republican party met at Philadelphia, June 17, 
 1856, to choose candidates for the forthcoming 
 Presidential election. 
 
 The Republican executive committee had met 
 March 27 at Washington, D. O, and issued the 
 formal call for this Philadelphia convention. This 
 convention was to comprise three delegates from 
 each Congressional district and six at large from 
 each state, a number fifty percent greater than had 
 previously been the practice for national conven- 
 tions. The call for the convention follows: 
 
 To the People of the United States: 
 
 The people of the United States without regard to past 
 political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present ad- 
 ministration, to the extension of slavery into the territories, 
 in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free state, and of 
 restoring the action of the Federal government to the principles 
 of Washington and Jefferson, are invited by the national 
 committee appointed by the Pittsburgh convention of February 
 22, 1856, to send from each state 3 delegates from every Con- 
 
 38 
 
gressional district and 6 delegates at large to meet in 
 Philadelphia on June 17 next for the purpose of recommending 
 candidates to be supported for the offices of President and 
 Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 This call was signed by Edwin D. Morgan, New 
 York, chairman, and by 20 others representing the 
 national committee. 
 
 The 565 delegates who met represented every 
 free state and, in addition, Maryland, Delaware, 
 Virginia and Kentucky. The territories of Kansas, 
 Minnesota and Nebraska and the District of 
 Columbia were also represented. The number in- 
 cluded such later wheel-horses of the party as James 
 G. Blaine, John M. Palmer, Thaddeus Stevens, E. 
 R. Hoar, Zachariah Chandler, Owen Love joy, 
 David Wilmot, Charles Francis Adams, Joshua R. 
 Giddings and Henry Wilson. Though named as 
 a delegate, Lincoln did not attend. 
 
 As contrasted with the Democratic convention of 
 that year at Cincinnati, which nominated James 
 Buchanan, Pennsylvania, for President and John C. 
 Breckenridge, Kentucky, for Vice-President, and 
 was most violent in its dissensions, this Republican 
 meeting, though strongly sectional in spirit, was 
 said to be as calm as a Methodist conference. 
 
 Henry S. Lane, Indiana, was chosen as presiding 
 officer of the convention. The meeting was en- 
 thusiastic and speakers brought thunders of ap- 
 plause as they recounted the sins of the Pierce ad- 
 ministration then in power. 
 
 A delegation from the "Council of 100 Demo- 
 crats" of New York, a seceding faction from the 
 
 39 
 
New York state Democratic party, arrived and by 
 resolution were seated as honorary members. Gen. 
 John J. Viele, New York, declared, "They are . . . 
 men who cannot and will not consent to be har- 
 nessed to the car nor dragged behind the juggernaut 
 of slavery." Some regular delegates were so excited 
 over the arrival of these ex-Democrats as to offer to 
 give up their places to them. 
 
 On the second day of the convention, June 18, 
 David Wilmot, chairman of the platform com- 
 mittee, reported the platform which was duly 
 adopted. 
 
 This platform was cleverly planned to include 
 enough of the old Free Soil principles regarding 
 slavery and enough of the Whig internal improve- 
 ments policy to placate the men who might be slow 
 to sever connections with those old parties. 
 
 It contained no reference to the tariff. The 
 country at that time was operating under the tariff 
 measure enacted in 1846, to which many had at- 
 tributed the current industrial depression. Despite 
 the objections of many to anything like progressive 
 free trade, the Democrats inserted in their 1856 
 platform a plank asserting, "The time has come for 
 the people of the United States to declare them- 
 selves in favor of free seas and a progressive free 
 trade throughout the world." The Republicans 
 were too deeply engrossed by the "impending 
 crisis" to give heed to the tariff just then. 
 
 (The following year many Republican members 
 of the 34th Congress voted with the Democrats for 
 a lower tariff on raw materials because Northern 
 
 40 
 
manufacturers, unable to get tariff protection on 
 manufactured products, asked for such compen- 
 sating reduction. It was not until 1860 that the Re- 
 publicans took a definite tariff position by enacting 
 the Morill tariff, which was decidedly the first great 
 Republican measure to become a law. It will be 
 remembered that Abraham Lincoln, on the rostrum 
 at Pappsville, in the summer of 1832, had declared, 
 "I am in favor of ... a high protective tariff . . ." 
 
 After adopting the platform, the convention 
 balloted for a candidate for the Presidency. John 
 C. Fremont's name was the one that had been most 
 prominently mentioned, though Judge John Mc- 
 Lean of Ohio was receiving consideration. Before 
 the formal nominations were made, Judge Spauld- 
 ing, Ohio, withdrew McLean's name, only, how- 
 ever, to withdraw the withdrawal that same after- 
 noon just before balloting began. 
 
 On the first formal ballot Fremont received 520 
 votes, McLean 3 7, William H. Seward 1 . 
 
 There was sufficient sentiment favoring Fremont 
 to have made his nomination by acclamation pos- 
 sible, but Thaddeus Stevens insisted that McLean 
 was the only candidate who could carry Pennsyl- 
 vania, hence the presentation of the latter's name. 
 McLean's poor showing was in part due to his age, 
 71, and in part due to an unwillingness to nominate 
 a man who was on the Supreme Court bench. 
 Seward was eliminated because he had persisted the 
 previous year in adhering to the Whig party and 
 ticket in New York state. 
 
 Lincoln had not favored Fremont as a candidate, 
 
 41 
 
but in coming into the party line-up, he had said, 
 "I am in and shall go for anyone nominated unless 
 he be 'platformed' expressly or impliedly on some 
 ground which I may think wrong." 
 
 John C. Fremont was born in Georgia. He was 
 a mathematics professor turned explorer. He had 
 become one of the United States Senators from 
 California and the cartoonists proceeded to call his 
 Presidential candidacy, "Col. Fremont's last grand 
 exploring expedition. " 
 
 McClure quotes a Californian opposed to Fre- 
 mont as saying of him that he was a millionaire with- 
 out a dollar, a soldier who had never fought a battle, 
 a statesman who had never made a speech." 
 
 Fremont had been a Democrat, though not an 
 aggressive party man. He had an antagonizing 
 party record. He was a picturesque figure. If 
 some of the wiser heads saw in his erratic nature 
 something of what it was to develop later when, as 
 a major general he became such a thorn in Lincoln's 
 side, they were unable to offset the popular en- 
 thusiasm for him. He was the popular choice as 
 well as the delegates' choice. It would be interest- 
 ing but idle to speculate as to what his election might 
 have meant had he defeated that pleasant old gentle- 
 man, James Buchanan. 
 
 Naturalized citizens were asked to vote for Fre- 
 mont because he was an advocate of a free Kansas. 
 "The Richmond Enquirer" declared Fremont's 
 election would be followed by disunion. Other 
 Southern editors prophesied quick secession and the 
 formation of a new, not to say hostile, South, if he 
 
 42 
 
became President. Senators Mason and Slidell, 
 later to be the cause of an Anglo-American diplo- 
 matic dispute, were opposed to his election. 
 
 Northern pulpits supported Fremont, as did 
 Northern scholars and the religious press. Henry 
 W. Longfellow gave up a trip to Europe to vote for 
 him. Willis, Irving, Bryant, Emerson, Curtis, took 
 the stump. A veritable flood of campaign literature 
 was released. Campaign clubs, marching clubs, 
 mass meetings of crowds never before equaled, 
 strove for Fremont throughout the North. No 
 effort was made for him in the South, where a Re- 
 publican campaigner would have been roughly 
 handled. 
 
 McClure thought Fremont's was the strongest 
 nomination that could be made, but declared years 
 later that his election might have been equally dis- 
 astrous to himself and to the country. He carried 
 New York state with more votes than both 
 Buchanan and Fillmore (Democrat and Know 
 Nothing candidates) but his total electoral vote was 
 but 114 out of 294. 
 
 Col. William B. Archer, who had been in the 
 Illinois legislature with Lincoln, made the first move 
 toward nominating the latter at this time for Vice- 
 President. This action was in part because he was 
 disgruntled that his candidate for President, Judge 
 McLean, had been turned down. If he could not 
 get McLean nominated for President, he would try 
 to land the Vice-Presidency for Lincoln. 
 
 He went to the Illinois headquarters at the Girard 
 House and sought John M. Palmer, Norman B. 
 
 43 
 
Judd and Lyman Trumbull. Archer proposed that 
 they try to get Lincoln nominated. The others fell 
 in with his suggestion and they went to work. They 
 argued their claims until midnight with other dele- 
 gates. They gained some encouragement and suc- 
 ceeded in getting John Allison, Pennsylvania, to 
 agree to present Lincoln's name the next morning. 
 
 When the morning session opened on the 1 9th of 
 June all the delegates were in good humor, ready to 
 listen to and applaud almost anything. Allison 
 nominated Lincoln as a favorite son of Illinois and 
 "the prince of good fellows and an old-time Whig." 
 
 Archer followed with a typical seconding speech, 
 stating Lincoln was born in Kentucky and had 
 always been a Henry Clay Whig. He went on to 
 explain that, though the people of Illinois would 
 stand by the new party in the fall, there was much 
 doubt about the southern part of the state where a 
 large part of the population had come from Ken- 
 tucky and Tennesee. He declared, "With Lincoln 
 on the ticket, Illinois will be sure for Fremont." He 
 said he believed the state would be safe anyway, but 
 with Lincoln as Fremont's running mate, it would 
 be doubly safe. 
 
 Judge Spaulding of Ohio interrupted to ask, 
 "Can Mr. Lincoln fight?" 
 
 At this Col. Archer jumped at least a foot and a 
 half from the floor and, gesturing emphatically with 
 his arms shouted, "Yes, sir! He is a son of Ken- 
 tucky!" 
 
 A New Jersey delegate then took the floor to 
 speak for William H. Dayton of his state. After 
 
 44 
 
him came John M. Palmer who said, after some in- 
 troductory remarks, "I have met Mr. Lincoln — or 
 rather, when Mr. Lincoln is about in political con- 
 tests, I have generally dodged him, as a Democrat. 
 He would be a fine candidate." Palmer went on to 
 say he would support Dayton or Wilmot if nomi- 
 nated, adding, "But if they want ten thousand ad- 
 ditional votes in Illinois, give us Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 All in all, however, the support of Lincoln was 
 rather luke-warm. 
 
 On the first, an informal, ballot, Lincoln received 
 110 votes. On the first official ballot he received 
 20 votes as follows; Connecticut, 4; New York, 14; 
 Pennsylvania, 2. Palmer withdrew his name just 
 before the completion of this ballot. 
 
 Palmer then took the opportunity to thank "those 
 who have honored the favorite son of our state with 
 their votes. Illinois is devoted to the great cause 
 that has brought us together here and in Abraham 
 Lincoln she knows she has a soldier tried and true. 
 We have offered him to the Republican party of the 
 United States for the Vice-Presidency, but we pre- 
 fer harmony and union, even to the success of our 
 cherished favorite.' ' 
 
 This honor at Philadelphia had the effect of com- 
 mitting Lincoln irrevocably to the Republican ticket 
 and platform. He made 50 speeches during the 
 campaign. 
 
 It turned out that Archer's predictions regarding 
 southern Illinois were well founded. Lincoln work- 
 ed hard to hold that part of the state for the Re- 
 publicans, but the Whigs, with Fillmore as their 
 
 45 
 
candidate, fought just as hard and the Illinois vote 
 was split and Buchanan was elected. He even car- 
 ried Lincoln's county by two to one over Fremont 
 who ran third. 
 
 Perhaps fortunately, Archer had been too late 
 in starting his little Lincoln boom. But thus the 
 name of Lincoln was brought forcibly to the at- 
 tention of the politicians and newspaper readers of 
 the North. 
 
 "The Chicago Weekly Democrat" commented, 
 "We are glad Mr. Lincoln got so many votes for 
 Vice-President. There is no political Maine-Law- 
 ism about him and a better Fremont man does not 
 live." 
 
 Lincoln was attending court at Urbana, Illinois, 
 while this Philadelphia convention was in session. 
 "The Chicago Tribune" came in on the noon mail 
 the day after the convention adjourned. When the 
 papers reached the hotel, someone called out that 
 Lincoln had received 110 votes at Philadelphia for 
 Vice-President. There was a great shout, but the 
 acclaim brought no enthusiastic response from 
 Lincoln. 
 
 He disclaimed being the Lincoln mentioned. 
 "There's a big man in Massachusetts by that same 
 name," he said. "I've an idea he's the one." 
 
 In this 1856 campaign the Republicans' cause 
 had an appeal beyond that of more political ex- 
 pediency. It involved taking sides on urgent moral 
 issues. It brought the Protestant clergy into the 
 campaign with sermons on the need for an admin- 
 istration that would take a pronounced stand on 
 
 46 
 
slavery and kindred questions. In that first Re- 
 publican Presidential campaign principles rather 
 than politics were the issue. 
 
 There was a ticket nominated by those who could 
 not quite go along with the new Republican party 
 and yet wanted to get away from the Democrats. 
 These men included some old-line Whigs and Dem- 
 ocrats and a few Know Nothings and they marched 
 under the banner of the American party. But there 
 were some 50 seceders from the American party 
 convention and they called a meeting in New York 
 for June 12 and nominated Nathan P. Banks, Mass- 
 chusetts, for President and William F. Johnson, 
 Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The regulars of 
 the American party chose Millard Fillmore, New 
 York, and Andrew Jackson Donelson, Tennessee, 
 as their standard bearers. A postponed Whig con- 
 vention, in its last appearance in a Presidential con- 
 test, endorsed this ticket. 
 
 Possibly Fremont might have been elected had 
 he been a different type of man, but he was too well 
 known in California where he ran third and not well 
 enough known in Pennsylvania where, as Thaddeus 
 Stevens had predicted, he ran second. Thirty-one 
 states voted. Buchanan carried Pennsylvania, New 
 Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, California, Virginia, North 
 Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Delaware, Alabama, 
 Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas; total 19. 
 Fremont carried Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massa- 
 chusetts, New Hamshire, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode 
 Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, New York; total 11. 
 
 47 
 
Fillmore carried only Maryland. The electoral vote 
 was Buchanan, 174; Fremont, 114, Fillmore, 8. The 
 popular vote was Buchanan, 1,838,169; Fremont, 
 1,341,264; Fillmore, 874,534. 
 
 It is likely that a victory for Fremont would have 
 hastened secession and brought war, possibly with an 
 inadequate President. Too quick success for the new 
 party might easily have proved disastrous. The peo- 
 ple were not yet ready to fight for freedom. Abraham 
 Lincoln was not yet ready to play a leading part. 
 Stephen A. Douglas was yet to be defeated in de- 
 bate. A people just rallied to a new party may easily 
 relinquish their, as yet, untried loyalty, if too easy 
 first success is followed by temporary defeat. 
 
 In this 1856 election Illinois gave Buchanan 
 105,348; Fremont, 96,189; Fillmore, 37,444. 
 Douglas was an influential factor in carrying the 
 state. Lincoln had not yet risen to the point of 
 successfully challenging this great leader. This is 
 where the 10,000 extra southern Illinois votes 
 Palmer practically promised, with Lincoln for Vice- 
 President, might have turned the tide. 
 
 If the defeat of Fremont discouraged some Re- 
 publicans, they were the ones who will always flock 
 to a new standard which promises quick results and 
 easy picking, and will just as quickly desert it with 
 its first set-back. But the real believers in the new 
 Republican movement, its backbone, those in the 
 anti-slavery fight to stay to the finish, were not dis- 
 couraged. They saw in Douglas' disagreement with 
 the new administration help for the Republicans' 
 future chances. 
 
 48 
 
There were many who thought the 1856 cam- 
 paign probably marked the top flight of the Re- 
 publican party as merely one of the many third 
 party essays of the time. McClure believed it was 
 generally accepted by the opponents of the new 
 party that it was, "like a bee — biggest at its birth, 
 and that it could never win a national victory." 
 
 The positions of the three parties in this cam- 
 paign are briefly stated thus, as regards freedom: 
 
 The Republicans favored the prohibition of 
 slavery in the territories and the maintenance of 
 the nationality of freedom. 
 
 The Democrats favored a limitation of the right 
 of the people in the territories to regulate slavery 
 until admitted to statehood. They reiterated their 
 position of 1852 that Congress should not interfere 
 with slavery in the states. 
 
 The American platform favored freedom of 
 speech, freedom of press, free territories and free 
 Kansas. 
 
 Thus the Republican party in 1856 reached the 
 point at which it became a prominent political 
 factor in the nation. It had passed through the 
 phases of inception, organization, growing pains, to 
 reach the point where it must be recognized, even 
 by opponents of its principles, as an established 
 party or major importance, prepared to assert its 
 beliefs and stand by them, even to the battlefield. 
 It now had to be accepted by thinking men as a half 
 of our two party political system. 
 
 From this point onward its history is a story of 
 growth and progress, of unity with the defense of 
 
 49 
 
freedom, of the encouragement of American in- 
 dustry, of an open door for both labor and capital. 
 
 What it has become through decade after decade 
 of the country's growth into a world factor, has been 
 a result of the principles that influenced its establish- 
 ment, and of the outspoken declarations of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. 
 
 Perhaps part of the responsibility for the pro- 
 longed success of the Republican party has been 
 due to the fact that, as a former Lieutenant-governor 
 of New York state, the late M. Linn Bruce, once 
 said, "Throughout its existence the Republican 
 party has been found on the right side of all great 
 moral issues." 
 
 THE PLATFORM OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
 
 IN 1856 
 
 This convention of delegates assembled in pursuance of a 
 call addressed to the people of the United States, without 
 regard to past political differences or division, who are opposed 
 to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the 
 present Administration to the extension of Slavery into Free 
 Territory; in favor of admitting Kansas as a Free State, of 
 restoring the action of the Federal government to the prin- 
 ciples of Washington and Jefferson, and who propose to unite 
 in presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice- 
 President, do resolve as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promul- 
 gated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the 
 Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our 
 Republican Institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the 
 rights of the States, and the Union of the States, shall be 
 preserved. 
 
 Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be 
 a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalien- 
 
 50 
 
able rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and 
 that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal 
 Government were, to secure these rights to all persons within 
 its exclusive jurisdiction; 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 to maintain 
 this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to vio- 
 late it for the purpose of establishing Slavery in any territory 
 of the United States, by positive legislation prohibiting its exist- 
 ence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Con- 
 gress, of a territorial legislature, of any individual or associa- 
 tion of individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any 
 territory of the United States while the present Constitution 
 shall be maintained. 
 
 Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress 
 sovereign power over the territories of the United States for 
 their government and that in the exercise of this power it is 
 both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the 
 territories those twin relics of barbarism, Polygamy and Slavery. 
 
 Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States 
 was ordained and established by the people in order to form a 
 more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
 provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, 
 secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample provision 
 for the protection of the life, liberty and property of every 
 citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas 
 have been fraudulently and violently taken from them — their 
 territory has been invaded by an armed force — spurious and 
 pretended legislative, judicial and executive officers have been 
 set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the 
 military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitu- 
 tional laws have been enacted and enforced — the right of the 
 people to keep and bear arms has been infringed — test oaths of 
 an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a 
 condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office — 
 the right of an accused person to a speedy and impartial trial 
 by an impartial jury has been denied — the right of the people 
 
 51 
 
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against 
 unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated — they have 
 been deprived of life, liberty and property without due process 
 of law — that the freedom of speech and of the press has 
 been abridged — the right to choose their representatives has 
 been made of no effect — murders, robberies and arsons have 
 been instigated or encouraged and the offenders have been 
 allowed to go unpunished — that all these things have been 
 done with the knowledge, sanction and procurement of the 
 present Administration, and that for this high crime against 
 the Constitution, the Union and Humanity, we arraign the 
 Administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, 
 apologists and accessories either before or after the facts, before 
 the country and before the world; and that it is our fixed 
 purpose to bring the perpetrators of those atrocious outrages and 
 their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment hereafter. 
 
 Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as 
 a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, 
 as at once the most effectual way of securing for her citizens the 
 enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are en- 
 titled; and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory. 
 
 Resolved, That the highwayman's plea that "Might makes 
 right," embodied in the Ostend Circular was in every respect 
 unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame 
 and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it 
 their sanction. 
 
 Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most 
 central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by 
 the interests of the whole country, and the Federal Govern- 
 ment ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its con- 
 struction; and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate con- 
 struction of an emigrant route on the line of that railroad. 
 
 Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the im- 
 provement of rivers and harbors, of a national character, re- 
 quired for the accommodation and security of our existing 
 commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justified by 
 the obligation of government to protect the lives and property 
 of its citizens. 
 
 52 
 
IT 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 07-j 7L61C4F24P CQQ1 
 
 THE PARTY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN DELHI 
 
 3 0112 031805101