CHAPTER XXIX THE NOMINATION OF LINCOLN May, 1860 THE Convention that nominated Lincoln was the first to meet in a building erected especially for its own requirements. No American city at that time had a permanent structure known as a convention hall, or one intended for the particular use of great national gatherings. Up to that time in every city entertaining a national convention a theater or other hall, erected for local purposes, had been found sufficiently large to house any convention that was held within that municipality. When Chicago invited the Republican convention of 1860, it was with the knowledge that it would be necessary for the city to erect a building adequately to care for the gathering. If we were to depend entirely upon the press reports concerning "this gigantic structure, the largest audience-room in the United States," as the newspapers of the time truthfully described it, we might possibly exaggerate in our own minds the largeness of the building. If, for instance, it were to be compared with the Coliseum in which the Chicago conventions of recent years have been held, we should discover that the old Wigwam could have been lost almost anywhere inside of the Coliseum. It was just about the size of the Coliseum Annex which now serves for offices, restaurant and other adjunct uses of national conventions. The Wigwam stood at the corner of Lake and Market Streets near the fork of Chicago River. It had a frontage of one hundred eighty feet on Market Street and a depth of one hundred feet on Lake. Four hundred and sixty-six delegates and about sixty newspaper correspondents were seated upon an elevated platform, which, with a committee room at either end, occupied one entire side of the building. The rest of the structure was open to the public, the ladies and some delegations provided with tickets being seated in the gallery. Chicago announced that the building and the hospitality of the city were equal to taking care of all creation. Chicago at this time had forty-two hotels, all operated on the American plan. Their rates were from one dollar and a half to two dollars and a half per day for board and room, and the hotel proprietors then and ever since were accused of extortion. The number of visitors who came, however, was far beyond the ability of hotels to accommodate; private houses opened their doors, some for pay and others out of hospitality. The eastern railroads granted a special round-trip rate of fifteen dollars from Buffalo, and the western roads somewhat reluctantly followed their example. The railroad trains approaching Chicago took what now are known as straw-votes among their passengers bound for Chicago. On a Michigan Central train of twelve coaches, Seward had 210 votes against 30 for all other candidates. On a Chicago and Northwestern train Seward had 127 and all others 44. On a Chicago and Rock Island train Seward had 112 and the others totaled 41. On these three trains there appeared not to have been a single vote for Lincoln; but on a Chicago and Milwaukee train Seward had 368, Lincoln 93 and all others 46; while on a New Albany and Salem, Indiana, train Lincoln had 51, Seward 43, and the other candidates totaled 131.* Within the Wigwam on the morning of May sixteenth were crowded fully ten thousand persons. Four years before when the Republican National Convention met in Philadelphia, a hall *These figures are given by Professor P. Orman Ray, in an address before the Chicago Historical Society, from which I have obtained much valuable information. Professor Ray says of this vote on the Indiana train that it is the only one which he found mentioned in the newspaper reports or elsewhere in which Lincoln had more votes than Seward. seating two thousand people had been ample for both delegates and spectators. At this convention ten thousand people jammed the Wigwam, and twenty thousand stood with hardly less enthusiasm outside. The convention assembled at noon on Wednesday, May 16, 1860, Seward's fifty-ninth birthday. It was confidently expected that he would receive the nomination as a birthday present. Governor Morgan, of New York, Chairman of the National Committee, called the convention to order. David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, author of the famous Wilmot Proviso, was made temporary chairman and delivered the "key-note" speech. He was not a success as a presiding officer. A good deal of time was consumed discussing the question whether the convention would accept the invitation of the Chicago Board of Trade tc take a short excursion on the lake at five o'clock in the after At two o'clock the convention took recess for three hours and reconvened at five to effect its permanent organization. At the five o'clock session Honorable George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, was elected permanent chairman. He had a good voice, and his rulings were clear and just. His election was a relief after the indecision and feeble presiding of Wilmot. A committee on resolutions was appointed to draft a platform. The convention adjourned until ten o'clock next morning. The evening appears to have been spent by a considerable number of the delegates in a sail on Lake Michigan, but the politicians were otherwise engaged. On Thursday morning, the Seward men, all wearing badges, formed a large and picturesque procession in front of the Richmond House, and marched to the Wigwam preceded by a finely uniformed band playing in honor of Seward one of the popular airs of the day, entitled Oh, Isn't He a Darling. The forenoon of Thursday passed with no very exciting incidents. On Thursday afternoon the first excitement occurred. The Committee on Platform earnestly desired to present a safe and sane doctrine which would solidify all forces opposed to the Democratic administration. It therefore omitted from the first draft some of the more pronounced utterances of the Platform of 1856. Perhaps the most radical of the omitted affirmations was one quoted from the Declaration of Independence declaring that all men were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When the committee presented a Platform from which that affirmation had been omitted, Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, a white haired, battle-scarred veteran of the anti-slavery warfare, arose and moved its reinsertion. The convention voted his amendment down, and Giddings rose and indignantly started to walk out of the Wigwam, but was detained and took a seat in the rear of the room, refraining from participation in the proceedings until the vote was rescinded. A little later George William Curtis, one of the youngest of New York's delegates, rose, and in an earnest and tactful speech renewed Giddings' motion. His amendment prevailed, and Giddings returned placated, and the Platform was adopted amid tremendous enthusiasm. Thus the first threatened split was averted. This result was achieved with a suddenness that surprised the Convention, and brought it at an earlier hour than had been expected to the time for nominations. If printers invariably kept their promises, Abraham Lincoln would not have been president of the United States. If the convention could have got to balloting on Thursday night, William H. Seward would have been nominated. But the secretary was compelled to announce that the papers necessary for the keeping of the tally were not at hand, but would arrive in a few minutes. The convention was impatient at the delay, and a motion was made by some unknown delegate "that this convention adjourn until ten o'clock to-morrow morning." The motion to adjourn prevailed. If the unnamed delegate who made the motion to adjourn could be identified, he, perhaps animated by no higher motive than restlessness or the desire for a drink, |