LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 



473 



sought no political preferment, but devoted him- 

 self assiduously to his profession, in which his 

 ability had already gained him a commanding 

 position. In 1844 he canvassed the State for 

 Mr. Clay. In 1846 he was elected to Congress, 

 and took his seat in 1847, the only Whig Rep- 

 resentative from Illinois, and probably the only 

 one who could have been elected. During the 

 single term in which he was a member of the 

 House of Representatives there were several 

 important questions before Congress, among 

 others, the Mexican War, the Right of Petition, 

 the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Co- 

 lumbia, the Wilmot Proviso, the Pacheco Case, 

 the River and Harbor Bill, the Modification of 

 the Tariff, and the abolishment of the Franking 

 Privilege. In regard to all these questions Mr. 

 Lincoln took a manly and decided action, voting 

 generally with his party, but independently 

 whenever he regarded their course as incon- 

 sistent with the highest rule of right. 



In 1848 Mr. Lincoln was a member of the 

 national convention which nominated Gen. 

 Taylor for the Presidency, and subsequently 

 canvassed Illinois in his favor. In 1849 he was 

 the W T hig candidate for United States Senator 

 from Illinois, but was defeated, the Democratic 

 party having a majority in both branches of the 

 Legislature. He now devoted himself most as- 

 siduously to his professional pursuits, though 

 still watching with great eagerness the political 

 measures before the country. In May, 1854, 

 the Nebraska bill was passed, and the Missouri 

 Compromise act repealed. This roused the 

 majority of the people of the Northern States 

 to a vigorous opposition, and Illinois, which 

 had long been regarded as one of the most reli- 

 able of the Western States for the Democratic 

 party, was revolutionized. Mr. Lincoln took a 

 prominent part in the political campaign of the 

 autumn of 1854. A United States Senator was 

 to be chosen in the place of Gen. Shields, who 

 had supported the Nebraska bill, which Judge 

 Douglas had originated. The State was carried 

 by the Whigs, who had two candidates for the 

 senatorship, Mr. Lincoln and Judge Trumbull, 

 one of Whig and the other of Democratic ante- 

 cedents. Regarding a division as disastrous at 

 that time, and satisfied of Judge Trumbull's 

 ability and integrity, Mr. Lincoln, with rare 

 generosity, not only withdrew his name from 

 the canvass, but persuaded his friends to support 

 Trumbull, who was then elected? 



In 1J356 Mr. Lincoln's name was prominent 

 before the first Republican national convention 

 for the Vice-Presidency, receiving one hundred 

 and ten votes on the informal ballot. His name 

 headed the Republican electoral ticket in Illi- 

 nois, and he took an active part in the canvass. 



In 1858 the senatorial term of Judge Doug- 

 las being about to expire, the Republicans of 

 Illinois, at their State convention on the lYth 

 of June, 1858, at Springfield, nominated Abra- 

 ham Lincoln as their candidate for United States 

 Senator. Judge Douglas was the candidate of 

 the Democratic party ; and, in accordance with 



"Western custom, the two candidates canvassed 

 the State in defence of their principles. The 

 canvass was one of deep interest ; great prin- 

 ciples were at stake. Both the candidates 

 were men of decided ability, and possessed the 

 power of swaying their audiencesJudge Doug- 

 las by a rare talent for reaching the popular 

 vein, and chiming in with the prejudices, the 

 sympathies, and the passions of the people, and 

 Mr. Lincoln by an irresistible logic, and a hap- 

 py faculty of "putting things," which, by a 

 few well-placed words, overturned and annihi- 

 lated his adversary's positions. It would have 

 been difficult to find two men better matched 

 for a controversy. At first their meetings be- 

 fore the people were accidental ; Judge Douglas 

 spoke at Chicago on the 9th of July, and Mr. 

 Lincoln on the 10th, and a week later both 

 spoke on the same day at Springfield. On the 

 24th of July Mr. Lincoln challenged Judge 

 Douglas to a series of debates on the principles 

 involved in the campaign. The Judge ac- 

 cepted, and though the terms he proposed gave 

 him four speeches to Mr. Lincoln's three, the 

 latter made no objection. Seven of these de- 

 bates were held in different parts of the State 

 between the 21st of August and the 15th of 

 October, and they were afterwards published in 

 full, from phonographic notes. The principles 

 of the two parties were very thoroughly dis- 

 cussed, and the weak points of each fully ex- 

 posed. The discussion Avas fair, open, and 

 manly, and it was very generally conceded that 

 Mr. Lincoln was unsurpassed in the mental 

 tournament. The Republicans had a majority 

 of about five thousand in the popular vote, but 

 owing to the inequality with which the State 

 was districted, and the pressure from other 

 States, Mr. Douglas was reflected to the Senate 

 by a small majority of legislative votes. 



During the next year and a half Mr. Lincoln 

 visited Ohio, Kansas, and New York, and made 

 several speeches of great ability on political 

 questions. That delivered in New York, and 

 subsequently published, was one of the most 

 effective and eloquent expositions of the policy 

 of the Republican party made, and served as a 

 text-book for the orators of that party in the 

 succeeding canvass. A speech delivered in 

 Cincinnati to an audience largely made up of 

 Kentuckians in the spring of I860, in which he 

 enunciated, in his own telling way, his abhor- 

 rence of slavery, is still remembered in that 

 city for its extraordinary power. The Repub- 

 lican national convention, which assembled at 

 Chicago on the 16th of May, 1860, was at first 

 nearly equally divided between Mr. Seward and 

 Mr. Lincoln as its candidate for the Presidency, 

 but the preponderance for Mr. Lincoln soon 

 became evident, and on the third ballot he was 

 nominated, receiving three hundred and fifty- 

 four out of four hundred and sixty-five votes, 

 and by motion of Mr. Evarts, of New York, the 

 nomination was made unanimous. The nomi- 

 nation with the platform was formally accepted 

 by him, in a graceful letter, on the 23d May, 



