Josiah Gilbert Holland

“ We have come, sir, under a vote of instructions to that committee, to notify you that you have been selected by the convention of the republicans at Chicago for President of the United States. They instruct us, sir, to notify you of that selection; and that committee deem it not only respectful to yourself, but appropriate to the important matter which they have in hand, that they should come in person, and present to you the authentic evidence of the action of that convention ”

“ Lincoln, when elected to the presidency, called to the first place in his cabinet the man whom the convention had set aside, and that the country had the advantage of his wise counsels throughout the darkest period and most difficult passage of its history.
As has been stated, the city of Chicago was wild with delight. One hundred guns were fired from the top of the Tremont House. Decorated and illuminated rails were around the newspaper offices. All the bars and drinking halls were crowded with men who were either worn out with excitement or mad with delight. ”

“ Mr. Lincoln had scarcely returned to his home before the Democratic National Convention assembled at Charleston. This convention occurred on the twenty-third of April, and collected to itself all the plotters against the Union. That they met the northern members of the democratic party with any expectation to unite with them in a platform and the selection of a candidate, is not probable. Mr. Douglas, with his popular sovereignty, and Dred Scott decision, and "don't care" policy, offered them the only ground of Union. All saw this, and all were for or against Douglas. ”

“ The action upon this showed that the party had not quite come to the standard of Mr. Lincoln, moderate as he had been. Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, one of the old enemies of slavery and the slave power, wished to introduce into the platform that part of the Declaration of Independence which asserts, as self-evident truths, "that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and that governments are instituted among men to secure the enjoyment of these rights ”

“ The excitement in the city only began as it subsided in the convention. Mr. Lincoln was the favorite of Chicago and of Illinois--he was the people's idol. Men shouted and sang, and did all sorts of foolish things in the incontinence of their joy. After dinner the convention met again, and for the last time. The simple business was the completion of the ticket by the nomination of a candidate for vice-president ”

“ The North had become accustomed to threats of dissolution of the Union, and did not believe that those then rife would be better fulfilled than those which had preceded them. No one at the North, unless it may have been a few sympathetic politicians, had any faith in the earnestness of the pro-slavery schemers. ”

“ Douglas had deserved better treatment at the hands of the South than he had received, and saw, in the disruption of their party, the defeat of all their hopes.
The Republican Convention at Chicago assembled on the sixteenth of June. There was an immense crowd in attendance, casting into the shade entirely the assemblages at Charleston and Baltimore. Every hotel was crammed from basement to attic, even in that city of multitudinous and capacious hotels. It was calculated that fifteen hundred persons slept in the Tremont House alone. ”

“ Maine gave nearly half her vote for Lincoln; New Hampshire, seven of her ten for Lincoln. Massachusetts was divided. New York voted solid for Mr. Seward, giving him her seventy votes. Virginia, which was expected also to vote solid for Mr. Seward, gave fourteen of her twenty-two votes for Lincoln. Indiana gave her twenty-six votes for Lincoln without a break. Thus the balloting went on, amid the most intense excitement, until the whole number of four hundred and sixty-five votes was cast. It was necessary to a choice that one candidate should have two hundred and thirty-three. ”

“ Their candidate was in many respects the greatest man in the party. He was a statesman of acknowledged eminence, and had been for many years the leading representative of the principles upon which the republican party stood. They were strong, too, in the convention; and they were sure to secure upon the first ballot more votes for their candidate than could be summoned to the support of any other man. ”

“ Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. And now I will no longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand."
Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania, one of the committee, and a very tall man, looked at Mr. Lincoln, up and down, before it came his turn to take his hand, a scrutiny that had not escaped Mr. Lincoln's quick eye. So, when he took the hand of the Judge, he inquired: "what is your hight?" "six feet three," replied the Judge. "What is yours, Mr. Lincoln?" "Six feet four," responded Mr. Lincoln. ”

“ There is this to be said of this body of men--that they were in the main really anxious to save the Union, and that they had a juster appreciation of the dangers of the Union than the republicans, who were fond of ridiculing their fears. ”