Abraham Lincoln

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1

Cooper Union Speech

On February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union, Lincoln addressed a crowd of 1500 New Yorkers who had braved a snowstorm to hear him speak. The speech was sponsored by the Young Men's Republican Union, a group opposed to the radical antislavery views of U.S. Senator William H. Seward of New York. Seward was then the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Lincoln made a careful speech, moderate in tone and conciliatory to the South. He denied that the Republican Party was a Northern party alone, and he repudiated the violent abolitionist John Brown for his attempt to start a slave rebellion. He also denied that the Republican Party intended to interfere with the existing system in the South. “Wrong as we think slavery is,” he said, “we can yet afford to leave it alone where it is.”

It was one of his most stirring speeches, and was met with much applause and cheering. A reporter wrote, “No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.” As a result of this speech, Lincoln became a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

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2

Presidential Nomination

In 1860 the Illinois Republican state convention met and named Lincoln as its choice for president. In May the Republican national convention met in Chicago. The chief contenders for the presidential nomination were Seward, Lincoln, Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, and former congressman Edward Bates of Missouri. Because of their strong positions against slavery and the South, Seward and Chase did not have the support of the moderates. As a member of the American, or “Know-Nothing,” Party in earlier years, Bates had offended foreign-born Americans. Cameron was involved with political scandals in his home state. Only Lincoln was acceptable to all factions of the party.

On the first ballot, Seward led with 173-1/2 votes. Lincoln had 102, Cameron had 50-1/2, Chase had 49, and Bates had 35. On the second ballot, Cameron withdrew, and most of the Pennsylvania delegation switched to Lincoln. Seward now had 184-1/2 votes, Lincoln 181, Chase 42-1/2, and Bates 35. On the third ballot, four Ohio delegates changed their votes to Lincoln. This started a stampede on his behalf, and when his nomination was secure, the convention voted to make him their unanimous choice for president.

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To balance the ticket politically and geographically, the convention chose a former Democrat, Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, as its vice presidential candidate. The party's policies, or platform, included a moderate antislavery position designed to appease the South: slavery was not to be extended, but would not be abolished where it existed. Also included were a high tariff (tax on imports) to appeal to the industrial North, and the promise of free land for settlers to satisfy the West. California and Oregon voters were promised a railroad to the Pacific Coast, and support for river and harbor projects carried on the Whig tradition of internal improvements.

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3

Opposing Candidates

At the Democrats' convention, held in Charleston, South Carolina, the party was split into Northern and Southern factions over the slavery question. The convention nominated Stephen Douglas for president, and this so incensed the Southern delegates that many of them walked out. Later they held a separate convention and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. A fourth party, the Constitutional Union Party, nominated John Bell of Tennessee on a brief platform calling only for the preservation of the Union.

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4

Election Returns

Following the custom of the day, Lincoln remained in Springfield while other Republicans campaigned on his behalf. With the Democratic Party split, his victory was virtually assured. He received 180 electoral votes, a majority. Breckinridge, who carried the entire Deep South, was second with 72. Bell received 39 and Douglas 12. However, Lincoln won only 40 percent of the popular vote. Of the total votes cast, he won 1,865,593, Douglas 1,382,713, Breckinridge 848,356, and Bell 592,906. Lincoln failed to win a single electoral vote in ten Southern states.

IV

President of the United States

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First Year in Office

Even before election day, Southern militants were threatening to secede from the Union if Lincoln was elected. In December, with the Republican victory final, South Carolina seceded. By February, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed. These states joined together to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. President Buchanan did nothing to stop the secessionist movement, and President-elect Lincoln was not yet in a position to intercede. Lincoln remained silent on the issue, believing that, in time, Union sentiment would reassert itself in the South and the secession of the seven states would come to an end.

On February 11, 1861, Lincoln bade farewell to his neighbors in Springfield and set out for Washington, D.C. He now had a beard, which he had grown at the suggestion of a young girl during the campaign. Alluding to the troubled days ahead, he told his friends, “Today I leave you; I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon General Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him, shall be with and aid me, I must fail. But if the same omniscient mind, and almighty arm that directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, I shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now.”

On the way to Washington, Lincoln made many short speeches, but he did not commit himself to a specific policy regarding the South. Because of a rumor of an assassination plot against him in Baltimore, he was secretly spirited through that city and into Washington by night. The opposition press ridiculed this undignified entry of the president-elect into the capital.

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