The Origins of the American Civil War by Brian Holden Reid

Author:Brian Holden Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781317871934
Publisher: Routledge

The Republican Convention

The choice of Chicago as the venue for the Republican Convention in 1860 reflected the increased importance of the state of Illinois. The rise of Abraham Lincoln and the growth of the wealth and influence of Illinois coincided. Its population doubled in the decade 1850–60 from 851,470 to 1,711,951; most of this was concentrated in the northern counties which were less in thrall to pro-slavery arguments and which had backed Lincoln in the 1858 senatorial contest with Douglas. Illinois was a major producer of cereals. Corn growth had doubled and wheat trebled in the ten years before 1860; the Illinois Central Railroad bound the state together with a communications system which generated further economic and agricultural expansion. If the Republican Party was to win the presidential election in 1860 it had to win states like Illinois. Lincoln, who had not held any elected office since 1848, but had made a career out of opposing Senator Douglas at every turn, had secured the support of the Illinois Republican delegation at a state convention at Decatur in early May 1860. He had asked Norman B. Judd for the support of the Chicago Tribune in his ambitions to secure either the presidential or vice presidential nomination at Chicago. ‘I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me to not be nominated on the national ticket,’ he concluded realistically, ‘but I am where it would hurt some for me to not get the Illinois delegates’. Lincoln was successful in steering a course through the various factions of the Illinois Republican Party, a skill that he would be required to exercise on the national stage. As evidence of his own rise and the prominence of Illinois in Republican calculations, he received discreet enquiries from the managers of Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania as to his readiness to run as Cameron’s vice presidential running mate. Lincoln’s position was therefore strong, but not invulnerable within the state of Illinois, and he had to watch his flank against incursions from the camp of Lyman Trumbull who had denied Lincoln a senatorial seat in 1854. Lincoln obliquely warned Trumbull against issuing missives or statements that might be construed as critical of Lincoln or his nomination. ‘The taste is in my mouth a little. There are men on the watch for such things [hints of disaffection] out of which to prejudice my peculiar friends against you’. Unity was the key to successful political action.20

Lincoln benefited not only from the location of the Convention in his home state but also from the very careful preparation that was undertaken by his campaign manager, Judge David Davis. All of Lincoln’s close allies were closely organized and controlled from a headquarters. Davis placed himself behind a large table covered with paper, interrogated Lincoln’s allies, issued his orders, and importuned delegates, urging them to vote for Lincoln. David Davis was a large, corpulent, prosperous-looking man, determined, forceful and equipped with a strong temper. In his indefatigable efforts, shrewd appraisals

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