The second choice of everybody. Well he said my name is new in the field and i suppose im not the first choice of a great many. Our policy is to leave them in a mood to come to us if they are compelled to give up their first love. I know, it kind of gets you right there. Giving up your first love. So the themes we will talk about and im going to explain why there is certainly a book cover in the upper corner, but, first of all, republicans showed they were not the week party. They actually ran a very well organized campaign. And at the same time there is an old saying in politics that if your opponent is imploding, dont do anything to stop him. In this case there were some implosions on the part of the other parties involved. And we will get to those as we go along. We will do a little bit of the background leading up to the 1860 election and we will talk more about why slavery was a key issue both leading up to the election and then in the out come. This next one might make you stop and think for a second that he was the guy who won the nomination and shouldnt he be doing a lot to win it . And the answer is, yes, but remember that in the 19th century you did not openly campaign. A few people did and it cost them problems and they were not supposed to do that. Well he was not open about that and so he has to be careful and he has to make sure it doesnt look like he is too far out in front and i know the thought of him skiing has some appeal. And it is a modern election and a premodern election and it is modern in the sense that we are going to see the kinds of things that are designed to get people out to vote and you are going to see the media play an important role. At the same time, heres a way to think about it. We expect in president ial elections that it is possible there is a thirdparty candidate who might get some traction. But for the most part we dont expect that. In 1860 we have four parties basically and all four are in one way or another viable. It is possible any of them could pull this off. That is not unusual. If you think back to the elections we talked about where in 1824 it was a popular election and there are more than two candidates. In 1836 the whigs put three candidates in the field hoping for lightning to strike and in 1844 and in 1848 you have Third Party Candidates and then again in 1856 with a do have an impact. So today if a thirdparty candidate suddenly ran in 2020, we wouldve been, well, this is different. Back then it was a thirdparty candidate. Deal. Weve been through this. This is boring. Lets move on. So in that spirit of what theyre saying, lets move on. Ive put this book cover up here in boldface 1860 because a century later a reporter named Theodore White wrote a book called the making of the president. And today when you watch and read about politics and all the personalities play such a role, and you often hear donald trump loves fast food and barack obama had a lot of salad or whatever, the kinds of things we now find out about candidates are attributable in part to him treating this as a novelistic story. It is nonfiction, but he would beautifully and won the pulitzer prize. There is an element to this in 1860 as well. So we will look at the making of the president in 1860. There are plenty of books on the subject and most of them have come out in the last few years. Now, there could be a joke about whether my favorite historian is on the screen and he is. There are other historians here and i was thinking about a Country Singer who said youre asking who my Favorite Singer is. But in this case there has been more attention, especially in 2010 with the selection that suddenly there is more attention to how did this happen. Because lincoln was most unlikely victim and the Republican Party in the second election and he has never been on the National Ballot and has one term in the house. How does he get there . So these books of try to address that, some more successfully than others. And we will try to address that today. A little background and some reminders. The first time the Republican Party put a candidate in the field was in 1856 with john fremont, for whom almost everything in las vegas is named, as we know. James buchanan won and the key for republicans was that buchanan carried illinois, indiana, and pennsylvania and they were thinking that tremont did not. And if we can get those three states in particular and they would like to spread out beyond that, but those in particular swing states, if they can get the right man in 1860, the have a chance. Theres also the thirdparty led by millard filmore. Can republicans outpace them and find a way to cut them off . And the answer is the know nothings cut themselves off and they are antiimmigrant but they are fighting over slavery. The northern know nothings have a different position than the southern ones. And James Buchanan was elect did and one of the books about his administration suggest he did not do very well. The book is called the worst president and people say people in pennsylvania were in buchanan country would argue about this and i could get into an argument about it by myself but buchanan had a tough four years. The dred scott decision was controversial and there are divisions in the Democratic Party that result from the dred scott decision where stephen douglas, that little giant who believes in popular sovereignty, takes the stand that popular sovereignty still stands despite the dred scott decision and what is going on in kansas, where there is out and out warfare is counter to what they are supposed to do in connection with popular sovereignty and buchanan and douglas are split and he tries to get seated for reelection without much success. Soon after he takes office, there is an economic depression , and less lets face the fact. The president who is in office when the economy goes south to the blame for its. Well, buchanan was in office a little bit and he is going to pay the price. It is also the case there is a book on the claims that the people who led to the civil war with the blundering generation. The blundering generation in the story, buchanans administration was incredibly corrupt and the combination is when he has cabinet officials who are southern sympathizers who sympathize secession, sending money and goods and arms into the south and helping the south get ready for the war, but there are a lot of questions about federal contracts and payoffs and the canon and the party faced allegations that they are up to no good and they are crooked. And then, as we are going to see, the slavery issue does not go away with the dred scott decision. John browns attempt to take over Harpers Ferry and start a slave rebellion does not exactly work, but it does upset a lot of people and gets people talking about the slavery issue. And, they should have been. There certainly talking about it in illinois in 1858. Douglas was running for the third term in the senate and he is national figure, and the Republican Party in illinois did something that traditionally parties to not do. At the state convention they endorsed their own candidate for the u. S. Senate and it was lincoln. Douglas new from 20 Years Experience how tough it was going to be to take on lincoln and lincoln starts following him around illinois when he finishes speaking and finally they agreed to a set of seven debates and in the course of these debates lincoln is already getting some traction nationally and he has gotten votes in the 1856 Republican Convention but in 1858 he has rocketed to stardom and is taking on douglas. Douglas, for his part, winds reelection thanks to something we have all heard plenty about. Gerrymandering. The 1850 legislative district were still in effect in 1858 despite growth in illinois and lincoln had to win far more seats than he technically should have to get elect did. It turned out that he won more legislative seats than douglas in 1858. Remember, senators are elected by the legislature and lincoln won 5446. But douglas had enough seats to be able to hold onto his senate seat. One night after the election lincoln is walking along and he could be a bit of a klutz, i guess, is one of the things i admire about him. And he tripped and had trouble getting under control and he thought to himself it is a slip, not a fall. He did not win the selection and he was proud that he had taken a stand and impressed that he did as well as he did and made a contribution to the debate. There is a debate among historians as to how much he was targeting 1860, and it is not just the question of could he be elected president. Could he had off douglas. And he seemed likely to be the democratic nominee. During the debates douglas said that you vote on slavery, dred scott matter. And for southerners, and southerners dominate the Democratic Party, this was not what they wanted to year. And it is going to hurt douglas nationally. And sometimes people attribute to lincoln the awareness that he was going to cripple douglas and his chances of winning in 1860. I know that we all get tired of endless elections. It seems like they never and. The campaign for 2020 began the night after the 2016 election. It has always been that way and there is plenty going on in 1859 and lincoln is up to a few things. But there is a lot going on nationally that will affect where he is heading in 1860. The first is john brown was in kansas and he goes to virginia and attacks the Harpers Ferry arsenal and takes it over and is put on trial for treason against the state of virginia and convicted and sentenced to be hangs. And southerners are convinced this is a republican plot and there are a few republicans and some are abolitionists and they are not doing this from the standpoint of being members of the Republican Party anyway helped brown. But most are taking the position no we dont go for the violent result and we are not in favor of what this guy did. Anybody here who has lived up in the bay area . David broderick was a senator from california and a douglas man and a big lever popular sovereignty. Remember when california came into the union the idea was it would be a free state and, in fact there were southerners that came to california, rick surprise. They are coming from everywhere. And there were plenty of southern politicians in the area and david terry and product were rivals for power in democratic politics. And there is a bit of that southern honor code and lincoln almost got into a dual and Andrew Jackson fought a dual every second tuesday of the month. In this case they have dual and terry should roderick. A lot of the country has no idea. This is out in california. There is no tv coverage, no one texts from the dual. But it is noticeable to politicians and opinion makers, and it reminds them like the caning of Charles Sumner that this is a violent issue. And, since we are in nevada, i have to mention this. David terry later is still practicing law in california and he ends up in the case against someone named William Sharon who controlled the comstock load and sharon had a mistress and there was a legal right over whether he agreed to marry the mistress or with a married under the common law, and they went up in court. And the first time the ruling goes against the mistress, she pulls a gun. And the next time she pulls a knife and the attorney pulls a gun. Later, after they lost the case, they were on the train and bump into the judge who is hearing the case and terry punches the justice and the bodyguard kills him and there were people in california that said that David Broderick only got even. So i dont know if you wouldve been that thrilled, but at the very least was a filing here. Doing okay . What we are going to do is take a look at the other candidate, and then we will get to the republicans and what lincoln is up to. Logically, 1860 is a tough year for the democrats. James buchanan is not wildly popular and northern and southern democrats are divided. Douglas is the front runner and there are a few of the people whose names pop up, but douglas is controversial. Hes bound to run into problems and he did. And we have the one real candidate. His rope problem at the convention is that under the rule, two thirds of the delegates needed to vote for him or any other nominee. Where this gets weird is that douglas considers himself the ideal democrat. Popular sovereignty is the classic case. Well, even lincoln makes a comment along the lines of two thirds doesnt sound that democratic. Shouldnt be like 50 1, and it is designed to unite the party and it divides the party. So the democrats have a problem with democracy and the other problem they run into, but the convention was held in charleston, South Carolina. How many of you have been to charleston . Okay. Have you been in the late spring and early summer . Humid . Just a little. As someone said about a southern city, the bugs have twin engines. Is warm and sticky and theres no air conditioning. There is no deodorant and everyone is hot and unhappy. Whats more, the south does not have as much Railroad Construction as the north. Getting to charleston requires a bunch of changes and it is difficult for them to get there. So they finally get there and it is warm and humid and they are went right over they will nominate. So they are in trouble. Lincoln has a theory and his idea is heres what the democrats should do if they want to stick it to douglas. Nominate him on the platform he opposes. And say we are for dred scott and we nominate douglas. And then douglas has to say he is for or against it and he has to take a position. And if he has no principal, he will offend everybody. And lincoln once said that he seems to lie with any other man i know, so he is not a fan and douglas is not a fan of lincoln, but he does admire him. And douglas once the nomination and the convention divides and it breaks up. So they try again and this time they try in baltimore, which is easier to get to. No offense to charleston, it is easier to get to today. The northern democrat get together there in the southern democrats will have nothing to do with it for the most part and they nominate douglas and the convention chooses a guy from georgia named herschel johnson. Many many years ago when i had no life as opposed to now, i memorized Vice President s. What else did i have to do. Not many people wanted to be Vice President and in this case his choice was Alexander Stephens who was a far more prominent politician and stevens did not want to be Vice President. He proved how much he hated the vice presidency by becoming Vice President of the confederacy and spending four years fighting with jefferson davis. So he may have been fighting for the union as well. So the idea is douglas is the northern popular sovereignty guy and johnson will accept it and he is a southerner and it balances the ticket. Today we dont think much about that. In terms of geographic balance. In the 19th century it mattered a lot. So the southern democrats say, okay, we are not dominating douglas. They go with the sitting Vice President of the united states, john breckenridge. Trivia break. John breckenridge was elected Vice President when he was 35, the youngest man ever elected to the vice presidency. If he had been elected he wouldve been the youngest president ever. He was buchanans Vice President and he was once an ally of douglas. And breckenridge runs on the platform of dred scott is fine. We want a slave code for the territory. And the irony is breckenridge is from the upper south, he is from kentucky, where the feelings about slavery are not quite so deep as they are in the lower south. For his running mate, you want to talk about geographic diversity, they chewed you guy name joseph lane. There getting everything in this one. They have the south and the upper south and have the far left. And, by the way, there are only a few thousand voters in oregon and they dont think he will carry a bunch of states for them. And he is definitely proslavery and they think hes a good man to have on the ticket. He does not look happy about being the Vice President ial nominee. He wanted something better. If you like a party, we have a lot of parties. Another party forms and also in may 1860, like the democrats and republicans they have a convention, and they call themselves the Constitutional Union party. A lot of old former whigs, a good number of know nothings, the know Nothing Party has collapsed by 1860. Where are they going to go now they dont want to be a democrat or a republican . And you find a good number of southern and border state proslavery people, john bell, was in the lower left was one of the few southerners that was unopposed to the kansas nebraska act. He is one of those rarities and he is a politician from tennessee who was closer to Andrew Jackson than an enemy of Andrew Jackson but did not get shot for. I dont know how he let him off the hook. Sam houston, the governor of texas, John Crittenden was a kentucky politician consider the protigi of henry clay and looking for compromise . For a way to meet in the middle . John crittenden is your man. And the group included other northern former whigs who were not excited about the slavery issue. Edward everett was a professor, a diplomat, a u. S. Senator, and a few years after this he would become one of those rate historical trivia questions. They were dedicating this Veterans Cemetery at gettysburg and they invited the man they considered the great oratory of the era. He new latin and the great romans and he gave a two hour speech to hail the dedication of the cemetery and gettysburg. And then somebody else got up and talked for two minutes and he is the one we remember. So he wrote to lincoln after this if i could have captured in my two hours how perfectly you captured things in two minutes, i wouldve done a good job. The unionists choose bell and everett and both in their mid tolate 60s and i hope you dont think im making fun of age, but Life Expectancy back then, they are much older and today people in their midto late 70s are talking about running for president. Back then you did not hear that. And the platform was the union as it is in the constitution as it is, which i think we can think of as the dont talk about it platform. If we dont talk about the problem, it will go away. By the way, to tell you the rest of the course, it did not go away. We dont have to continue because we know how it turns out. But how do we get there. The Constitutional Unionists have their ticket and the southern democrats have breckenridge lane and the northern democrats have douglas and johnson. Thank you harpers weekly, for doing fine at work. This looks like a cable tv panel discussion. 16 different people having a discussion. So this is prominent candidates for the president ial nomination in chicago photographs by Matthew Grady who is around before the war starts and when they were coming to chicago for the Republican Convention, it was agreed that the front one or was Wayne Henry Seward and he has the biggest portrait, so he must be the most important one. He has a problem. He has several problems. One of them is he is prominent and people know where he stands and he is one of those guys where he cannot undo it and he cant say that here and then said there. He has said there is a higher law than the constitution and their is an irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom and southerners look at him as a radical guy who they cannot support, but so do a lot of republicans. There are conservative and moderate republicans that know hes too far out there. He has another problem. We talked before about his political manager and being involved in manipulating new york legislature. The Buchanan Administration is known for corruption among other things and if republican run him and say we oppose corruption, democrats will say, you oppose corruption . Do you really think youre going to sell that . You have him him the corrupt the sheen in new york. How can you pull that off . Another thing is wed had a bright idea. Get him out of the line of fire and so he went to europe into the grantor. And everyone else is trying to figure out how to be president and he is running around europe. He is not here to make sure that his forces will be ready and behind him. Then, the other most radical republican under consideration is chase, was a former democrat from ohio. And steward is a week who is a radical. Chase is a former democrat so the former whigs are not sure about him. And there is a political advisor to chase that says if you are not going to take seward, theyre not going to take you. So then, you go to the top of but chase and that is edward bs bates, who is a lawyer from missouri and a former know nothing and he didnt talk much about what he thought about slavery. And there is a group of republicans who say he is really conservative and we need a real conservative. You will scare away people if we nominate someone who has been vocal about being antislavery and it is better to slip someone in your. Back then you did not campaign and bait would not talk about that and getting him to do anything to help himself get elected was impossible, so he does not have any kind of organization to help them out. The rest of these people on here, john fremont is on here and there is an abolitionist and he is not going to get it and there is a Supreme Court justice, john mclean and there are favorite sons reach you someone from your state and pennsylvania has simon cameron, and down below just sort of hanging out and not saying or doing much we have a link and. He is on the periphery. Not exactly inyourface hes not getting in anyones grill. I dont want to think lincoln ever said im not in anybodys grow. Well, he is not in your face that he is circling you. Lincoln was plotting a lot from 185860 in terms of his possibilities running for president. Right after he lost the election to douglas, a couple of small newspapers, one in illinois, one in ohio, announced they supported him for president. And, lincoln called them off. No, no, i dont think it i am worthy of that, it is too early to talk about it. Supposedly he is on a train one time and he says, my wife thinks i am going to be president. Can you imagine a sucker like me being president . And people thought he meant, when they look back at it, sucker, someone who falls for something. Exit was a term used to describe illinois. It is not that he is easily taken, but he knew very well if he were to pull this off everything had to go right. And he does what he can to make it go right. That is the important thing here. Seward may have gone to europe, chase is trying to get everybody to support him. Bates is doing nothing, for his part, lincoln does a bunch of things. One of them is, he says to work making sure if volume of the debates is published. He wants a book out there with his name on it making his arguments. Have any of you ever noticed that almost everybody now who runs for president has a book out . That they did not write. I shouldnt say that. That they probably didnt write. And they are talking about how they were all born in a log cabin the bill by themselves, they walked 5 miles uphill both weighs in the snow to get to school, all the stuff you have to do to get elected. Lincoln isnt quite doing, but his name is going to get out there. He also spends a lot of 1859, granted he is practicing law, keeping busy, he goes around making speeches. Not overtly campaigning for president. Sometimes, not even overtly political. But, he is keeping himself out there. He is making sure people know who he is and he is a loyal republican. And he is the guy who almost beat douglas, and technically did if not for the gerrymandering. Occasionally he gets a request. Can you come speak here and he sends a public letter. They read and they all applaud it. But it is him, they know he is out there. And he is doing this, he gets an invitation to speak in brooklyn, new york in early 1860. He is going to speak at the Plymouth Church where administrator was henry ward beecher, a major figure at the time. As a minister, reformer, antislavery man. And he realized i am going to new york and i am going to be in the big city. He gets a new suit. He is going to be giving a speech. He didnt like to wing it too much, but he did write things out. He spends weeks in the state library in illinois, researching. And it turns out the speeches move to the Cooper Union Building in new york city. And he is now invited to speak by an organization of young republicans. Led, among others, by the editor of the new york evening post, a loyal republican named William Cohen brian, one of the young republicans there pictured next to lincoln. I guess republicans were older than. I dont know. Here is the thing. Bryant was involved, was really involved, there were young republicans involved. With the organization really should have been called was, the club to find a republican other than seward. Really, once been very close to seward, hated him because seward did not support his political ambitions. Bryant was a former democrat, didnt trust seward in the least. And other new yorkers who feel seward is too trump, fake radical, not really that antislavery. They are looking for a candidate. Lincoln goes to give a speech. And, Harold Holzer who i think is publishing about his 52nd book on lincoln, and i think i have most of them, i dont have room for anymore books, i dont have room for books by Harold Holzer, but he published a book on the cooper union speech, calling it the speech that made lincoln president. And there is a lot to be said for that. Hes on the national stage, new york, the biggest city then and now, and he makes a great impression. He is very literate, a historical speech. They look at him and say we thought he was this westerner who was ugly, sounded weird, didnt really know what he was talking about. He seems to have it together. It doesnt guarantee him the nomination, but it is an important step on that road. He goes on to speak in new england afterwards. And, he was actually visiting his son, robert, who was in school in new england. But he also was speaking there. And it is kind of funny. Allegedly, robert was nervous about his father being there. About him being cultured and cultivated in all his friends loved him. Hes a great guy what your problem, rob . He goes back home, he has had may be a moment in the sun there, but there are things going on to help him. And, yes, he does have somebody who thinks should be president and mary certainly encourages the idea. Im being ironic by putting the photo of norman judd next to her because she hated norman judd but he was the president of the Republican Party. And lincoln corresponds with judd, and he says, i appear to be a candidate, i am not too far in, not a lot of people are for me, but im getting there. And, it is my understanding that you are going to vote on where the convention will be. And i think it might help me if it is in illinois. And when they have the National Committee meeting, we still have democratic meetings they make decisions, it turns out chicago beat st. Louis by one vote to host the convention. It is judds vote. Where this will end up being valuable, first of all, if you go to a sports book, homefield advantage is worth a few points. Lincoln has homefield advantage. What it is going to do is stack the gallery as they call it. But they are going to do is give tickets out to people who will come yell for lincoln. The people on the floor of the convention or voting are like wow, listen to that. They love lincoln. It may have been judd, may have been somebody else but they hired a couple of professional screamers. Every now and then, if you got too quiet, somebody would hello lincolns name at the top of his lungs and everyone starts cheering for lincoln again. Like having a laugh track on a tv show. Something to remind you to laugh. And judd, having connections is able to get some discounts. To help people come to chicago. By the way it also turns out that the mayor of chicago hated judd. One of the problems lincoln runs into illinois is getting everybody on the same page. They all tend to like him be getting them around their own hatred is a bit of a problem. The mayor of chicago at the time of the convention, just to get at judd, ordered a raid of the local brothels. It is going to shock you to know that some of the delegates got into trouble. And we will leave it at that. First, lincoln needs to get through the state convention. And the goal is for the state of illinois to endorse lincoln. The meeting is held in decatur, illinois, in early may of 1860. And lincoln is at the convention. And you may have noticed this reference in Joshua Shanks book you are reading, about how he didnt seem that happy or excited. He was kind of melancholic at the time. Though things would change. One of the republicans decided if lincoln is going to win, he needs to appeal to the masses. She is now a lawyer, a middle class businessman. How do we make him look better . At the convention, they get a couple of people who come in and one is a distant cousin of lincoln named john hanks. Now at this convention, with an ounce lincolns name, they pick him up and hand him over one another, passing him above their heads which is why this is the marker in decatur. I dont know lincoln felt that comfortable, but okay. Anyway, he is upfront, here comes john hanks with somebody else carrying rails. And he is saying, lincoln split those rails. Now, lincoln is already known as an honest man, that is important to him. And he knows very well those rails could have come from anywhere. He says well, those look like some rails i might have split. And out of that experience with cousin john bringing in the rails he becomes known as the rail splitter candidate. Suddenly he is not just the rising lawyer, he is a laboring man. And laboring men have more appeal politically and guys who sit there doing wills and trusts and arguing cases. He gets the nomination of the state convention. They unanimously agree. Allegedly one guy stands up and yells for chase and they throw him out of the hall. They are not putting up with that. The following week, they are going to meet in chicago. In midmay, 1860. These are left to right. So at the top davis, left corner at the bottom field goals be, browning, herndon. There is no one guy who stands out for seward. Davis is essentially the manager. He was the judge in the eighth circuit. The most respected one. Both old whigs. Corner is a recent german immigrant. Remember we mentioned in connection with the know Nothing Party, the number of immigrants coming to the u. S. In the 1850s. Germans were among them. And lincoln in fact help to finance a german paper. For the Republican Party. And koerner is there to help them with the german delegates and delegates from areas where there is a significant german population. Oglesby is the guy who found the rail or found the guy who found the rail. He is going to be around. Orval browning, you remember the letter lincoln wrote about the woman he thought he might have been engaged you and might have married and all that, that was brownings wife to whom he wrote the letter. And browning is a conservative whig who in fact was supporting bates. When somebody said browning is for bates, lincoln said bates will have no show and orval will be for me. And when he is he will help us with the bates man, and he did. Herndon is lincolns law partner. And, have you ever had someone around you where you want to keep them quiet at a certain time. In my house it is usually me they want to keep quiet. That is herndon, an abolitionist. He is very opinionated. And he really wants to be involved. Lincolns responses, we have so much legal work really, do all the legal work for me. I have a law to do. In essence he puts herndon on the shelf. Yeah, herndon is riding to fellow abolitionist, yeah that helps lincoln. But, he doesnt want herndon out there making speeches at this time. So we may be in chicago in mid may, davis, in particular, is the leader of lincolns gaming. They meet in a building, expressly built for the convention called the whigwam. And it is a bit crowded and it is a bit busy and in the hall and in the hotel rooms nearby that is where the action is going to be where things are going to get done. Today, a nominating convention meets almost always, everything is in place beforehand. In 1860, it is a different matter. Most conventions went a few ballots. So when they meet, judd pulls off a wonderful maneuver. Back in 2008 when barack obama is nominated, im watching the daily show and they do a story, one of the networks to the story, that they showed about how the delegations are moved according to who the nominee is. I never realized until that moment. Obama is from illinois, they put the illinois delegation down front. Riding this from delaware, they put the jill wheeler did delegation down front. Turns out 2016 clinton this from your, they are from, trumps trumpets from your, mike pence from indiana down front. They organize the floor certainly. Judge organize the floor and he does it in a very interesting way. He puts illinois on one side, surrounded by all the States Lincoln needs to win and had a chance to win. Indiana doesnt have a favorite son. Pennsylvania is up in the air. Meanwhile, new york is in the other side of the hall surrounded by their own people. If there low wed wants to talk to the indiana delegation i dont know where they are in relation to this but basically he has to get from here down here. And meanwhile, before he can get there davis has them next to him. It matters its going to have a big impact they can be leaning over to each other, have you noticed so andso isnt doing think about it. Davis master plan was lincoln must establish himself as the challenger to seward. Seward, everybody knows, is the front runner. They dont think he has bows the to win another first ballot and he doesnt. Hes not even close. Make lincoln the obvious alternative. They sell the idea, lincoln is from the west, seward is from the east. What states do need to win . Illinois out west, out west. The indiana delegation includes a whig, caleb smith, who served with lincoln in congress. Davis wants to get another elevation. And indiana is the one he gets. So the first ballot he wanted lincoln to have 100 voids, he has 102. Seward is about 173. He is at least 100 short. And as they are doing this, they are all running back and forth in the claims being made, half are claiming lincoln has agreed to be Vice President , half are claiming lincoln has the nomination. Some of those who think he has the nomination agrees hes given up. They dont know what is going on. For the second ballot davis and Company Relies we need to make a big splash. And when they were going to the convention, lincoln stayed home. That is what you did. You didnt go if you are the candidate. Lincoln said something like, i am too much of a candidate to go and not enough of the candidate to stay home. But he stays home. And he says, for seward if anybody asks, i am with him on the irrepressible conflict but not the higher lot. Irrepressible conflict might sound a little like a house divided against itself. Thats okay. Higher lot, i am an old henry clay tariff men. He says make no contracts but bind me. And davis and swett get a hold of an old thank you seven from pennsylvania named joseph casey, works in the political operation of simon cameron. The states political boss. And they meet with him and what happens is not entirely clear. When the meeting was done, swett allegedly turned to davis and said lincoln said make no contracts that bind me. Davis said lincoln aint here. That is another reason you dont go. Your friends can make deals. Cameron may have been offered a cabinet seat. Pennsylvania definitely was. And that is not a big deal. Pennsylvania always got a cabinet seat in those days. To say pennsylvania is going to be in the cabinet is nothing. But clearly, some kind of deal was made when it was done, the meeting was over, davis came out and there were reporters. One of them said did you, what did you do . He said well we got them. How did you get them . By paying their price. Years later, davis was asked, they say you prevaricate it. He said we didnt prevaricate, we lied like if you look at prevaricate in the dictionary, which davis should have done, that is what he said. On the second ballot, lincoln is just a few votes behind seward. And on the third ballot, delegation start swinging over to lincoln. Until finally he is within a few votes of the ohio delegation , puts them over and one of sewards supporters moves to make it unanimous. And when they realized what has happened two men in the hall burst out crying. Thurlo weed, who realizes he has blown it for seward and david davis who cant believe he pulled it off. Help came from other directions. The guy on the left, joseph meadow the founder of the chicago tribune. On the right is Horace Greeley founder of the new york tribune. You will spend more time with greeley when dr. Borchard comes in here. They were riding editorials constantly saying lincoln is your man go with lincoln. Greeley, here is an example of how crazy things could be, really was can turn to get on the Convention Floor into everything he could to stop seward. He managed to get himself a delegate from oregon. Greeley is the guy who did not say but is credited with saying go west young man. For this convention he really went west. Not as far west as illinois and became an oregonian. As it turned out somebody put a seward button on him. He didnt realize he had on. That greeley is going to the crowd, working them up against seward and he is thrilled he has been able to help them. Medill and his people are thrilled they have been able to help their local guy. Now we have a candidate Abraham Lincoln, and he has to have a running mate and again usually the convention chose the running mate and balance, weve got Abraham Lincoln of illinois Hannibal Hamlin of maine. Cant get more balanced than that. Way out in new england. What is more, lincoln is a former whig, hamlin former democrat. Hamlin is close to being considered a wrap of cold republican if he isnt in fact one, lincoln the moderate. Almost a meal after the convention with Lincoln Lincoln rights to hamlin, i will take the first up and introduce myself. How does it look . The end of corresponding during the campaign. From the nomination in midmay of 1860, to november, there is a campaign. And lincoln is going out of his mind. First, because everybody wants a piece of him, he is getting letters by the bushel. He is getting requests to speak and he would love to but he knows he cant. He knows he is not supposed to. Now, maybe, they know he misspells they miss spell his name he got a kick out of that i have that hanging at home. People, get the guys name right. Abraham lincoln. Who . They also have him tilted. So as we consider here are the four, positions on slavery, weve been talking about that leave it alone, stop the spread of slavery, lincoln goes to work as a political manager and this is important to remember about him. He is a lawyer, that is how he makes his living. He is a politician. He has spent his life running for office. We have been studying that. Move for the fun of it he runs in 32, 34, 36, 30, 40, 42. Tries to get a way to congress, they work out the deal for rotation in office, help the morning 44, runs and 46, campaigning and 48. Not much happening in 50 and 52 suddenly 54 run for the legislature 55 run for the senate. 58 up for senate. He knows how to run for office. He has done it a lot. And from his little bivouac in springfield his Little Office in the state capital he is riding letters back and forth trying to gain support, find out what is going on, broker disputes. He is doing what he can to help himself. Now, it is a nasty campaign. It gets a little tiresome when we hear oh, gee, campaigns today are so nasty there are just more ways to see and hear the nastiness. They are all tearing at the fabric of the country. Democrats are claiming lincoln and the republicans believe in lack the quality and they even have a parade in new york city where they suggest Horace Greeley is basically close to having sexual relations with an africanamerican woman. On a parade float. We dont have photos of that. Now, the day he was nominated he was out playing in the form of handball. Since it is our national pastime, we have to have a word for baseball, but they are also very concerned about the skunk at the garden party. Lincoln is going to hit a homerun. There are people who are critical of stephen douglas, too. I dont want you to think douglas is just criticizing people. Lincoln is charging the castle and it is not clear here whether buchanan is pulling breckinridge and or wants breckinridge to pull him out. You know douglas is key blocking for him but during the campaign itself, one of the problems that comes up is there are four candidates. And in the course of the campaign, it becomes clear there are essentially two races going on. In the North Lincoln versus douglas. In the south it is breckinridge versus bell. Most southerners do not want douglas because they dont want popular sovereignty. They want protection for slavery. They dont want douglas because he is allowing a vote on slavery. They sure dont want lincoln. And the irony is, bill is from tennessee, upper south, breckinridge is kentucky, more and bill is one more for compromise or at the very least trying to tamp down the issue then breckinridge is. They do things in the campaign they can do to excite interest. There are songs. Each campaign has its songbooks. There are clubs. This organization, the wideawakes, was a group of young men who kinda formed a paramilitary organization, for lack of a better term, and they held meetings in uniforms or costumes and marched around. And their whole point was they were wideawake, they were young, they were active. As opposed to all these other people who when it came to the campaign were and they excite a lot of interest for the party. In the 1970 19 century politics was much more of a social activity then we think of it today. Today, so many other things people can do. Backbend no. Cant dvr the election or whatever. They go out and have fun. There was a guy riding about this subject and pointed out that if only we would have pizza parties, we might get more people interested in politics. I would be interested in the pizza party. I dont know about the politics. They are out getting people interested in the election of voting. Republicans also work very hard to lower the temperature where they can. What happened in illinois happened nationally. In illinois you had infighting in lincoln circle between old whigs and all democrats, northern illinois, southern illinois. They agreed on one thing they wanted to help lincoln. So they tried where they could to put that to rest. In other states there are fights going on. In new york, wed is battling greeley and vice versa. In pennsylvania, camerons political machine is trying to stop another group of republicans led by a guy named andrew curtin, running for governor. The cameron people have to stop with it. Lincoln and david davis and some of his allies are riding letters, davis at one point does a tour and meets with weed, other new yorkers, meets with these people, all in part of an effort to make sure they keep their eye on the ball the ball on this case is electing lincoln. And putting aside whatever their personal issues are. You knew this was the outcome, right . I was doing my best to keep the suspense going here. So lincoln wins. It does indeed end up being lincoln and douglas in the north, breckinridge and bell in the south. And breckinridge was the lower south with his argument for late code. L wins the upper software there is less of that commitment to protecting slavery at all costs. And lincoln just stops douglas across the country sort of. He easily beats douglas in the electoral college. Lincoln is up with 180 oleksuk volts, douglas is 12 but in fact in a lot of states they ran pretty close. A couple of things to think about in connection with this. One, if douglas, breckinridge and bell had gone together with they have been lincoln . The three of them together got 123 electoral votes to lincolns 180. Not enough. The wood the votes have gone to lincoln instead of two douglas or the fusion candidate as they were talking about . Hard to say. We really cant now. Here is pretty much what we do know. There were efforts for them to get together. There were efforts to get a coalition together. And the one who block it was douglas. He was not going to let the Democratic Party go in that direction. And at one point they said the election will be thrown to the house and douglas and i will help elect lincoln before let that happen. And when douglas realized he was going to lose, there were a few votes that let republicans way in october, lincoln is the next president im going to the south anyone south and he made speeches attacking secession. He was aware of what might come. Another way to look at this, the two candidates that got the most electoral votes with the two most radical candidates. The strongly antislavery guy, lincoln, and the strongly proslavery guy, breckinridge. We often hear about a desire for compromise. At one time it was easier to compromise. Those of the two ends of the spectrum. Not too easy to compromise. Well, lincoln wins when he finds out in springfield, in november of 1860 on a tuesday night he is very happy but he isnt jumping around all excited about it. Finally he says well, there is a little lady at my house, i better go tell her. He goes home and the rumor is because he got home after 10 00 he was locked out. Mary said 10 00 is the limit. That is debatable. Next day he saw some reporters and said well, boys your troubles are over. Mine have just begun. A few weeks later South Carolina seceded over the election of Abraham Lincoln. We know how thats going to come out too but we will still end up talking about it