Democratic DisunityĪfter the historic debates with Lincoln, Stephen Douglas found himself vilified by Southern Democrats. This new Republican Party offered to bind the nation together as a free-labor society modeled on Northern capitalism, free wage-labor, and the ultimate extinction of slavery. The platform also considered other key constituents by endorsing a protective tariff, a transcontinental railroad, and a Homestead Act that promised to give free land to settlers. Holding true to its antislavery but moderate core, the party platform opposed the extension of slavery westward and denounced John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. The delegates then nominated the former Democrat from Maine, Senator Hannibal Hamlin, as Lincoln's vice presidential running mate. With the momentum swinging his way, Lincoln won the third ballot. Lincoln then gained seventy-nine votes on the second ballot. They won over Indiana and Pennsylvania by offering cabinet posts to those states. "I authorize no bargains and will be bound by none," Lincoln telegraphed his campaign managers, but they ignored him to line up delegate support. Seward led Lincoln on the first ballot 173 1/2 to 102. Almost immediately, a stop Seward movement emerged, based upon the argument that he would never carry Indiana or Pennsylvania. When the Republican delegates gathered in Chicago at the Wigwam (a huge boxlike building) on May 16, they knew that the election of 1860 was theirs to lose. Additionally, Seward's long-established support for Irish immigrants, the basis of his New York City constituency, turned away former members of the anti-immigrant American Party, whose votes were needed to carry Pennsylvania and other states in the lower North. ![]() His close friendship with New York political boss Thurlow Weed alienated many midwestern Republicans, who feared political corruption. ![]() Eight years later, he coined the term "irrepressible conflict" in describing the state of relations between the North and the South as long as slavery remained alive in the nation. Seward had voiced his opposition to the Compromise of 1850 and his hatred of slavery by saying, "there is a higher law than the Constitution" which should guide American actions regarding slavery. senator-was known to be an uncompromising foe of slavery. The most powerful and prominent former Whig in the Republican Party, Seward-former New York governor and sitting U.S. However, his front-runner status proved to be his greatest obstacle in that it opened him to political criticism even before the convention delegates had met. His chief opponent, and the man who was sure that he had the nomination in his pocket, was William H. Most importantly, Lincoln had established a solid group of campaign managers and supporters who came to the Republican convention prepared to deal, maneuver, and line up votes for Lincoln. ![]() Furthermore, because he was out of office and new to national prominence, he had offended no one in particular within the party. Lincoln was successful in laying the groundwork for his candidacy, since by the spring of 1860, many politicians were indebted to Lincoln for his support. His style avoided the wordy moral rhetoric of the abolitionists in favor of clear and simple logic. Senate, he spent the next sixteen months speaking and traveling all over the North making campaign speeches for numerous Republican candidates. How were the political parties going to maintain unity in the midst of such intense sectional conflict? Winning Republican SupportĪfter Abraham Lincoln's defeat in the race for the U.S. Going into the presidential election of 1860, the issue of slavery had heated the nation to the boiling point.
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