NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
May/June 1860
From The Missouri Democrat, Saturday, May 19, 1860.
THE CHICAGO NOMINATION.
It was hardly a disappointment but rather an agreeable surprise, yesterday, when the telegraph brought us the news of the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, at Chicago. We were quite prepared to hear of the defeat of Judge Bates as an individual, but are consoled by the knowledge that Judge Bates’ principles have triumphed, and that the patriotism and conservatism embodied in him has been recognized by the assembled Convention of the great party of the country. We only echo the general sentiment of the Opposition of this city and State in regretting that Judge Bates was not nominated. His popularity at home and wherever known has become so fervid, that the personal disappointment is deeply regretted. With his name to head our ticket we sincerely believe that Missouri could be carried against the sham Democracy, and it was relied on in all parts of the State to give strength and vitality to measures calculated to serve the best interests of the West. Our gallant old pioneer, however, was not the choice of the majority, and, as always willing to yield to that majority, there is nothing for us to do but to hope that he may again be pressed for the nomination, and next time have better luck.
The name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN will thrill the Union, and if he lives till then, will be as certainly elected next November as the sun rises and sets upon the day of the election. In Illinois, where he has already fought the combined hosts of the Douglas and Administration Democracy, and achieved a popular victory over each, his nomination will create the greated enthusiasm ever known in the West. His selection by the Convention is a defiance to Douglas, and although beaten for the Senatorship from Illinois by a corrupt apportionment of the State, the Northern States will take good care to see that he is placed beyond peradventure in the Presidential Chair, within the year. In Pennsylvania, the conservative element will rally to his support, and a clean record upon all the important questions of the day, will win him the most enthusiastic, unwavering support from every lover of his country and opponent of the present profligate Administration. New England will be in 1860 as in 1856, a unit for the nominee; New York, though decidedly attached to Mr. Seward, will roll up a majority of thousands; Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, will vie with each other in doing honor to the nominee, while the four States in the Northwest-Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, will follow New York, and youthful Kansas, if admitted, will send up her voice also for “old Abe;” New Jersey on the Atlantic will increase the Republican majority, and distant Oregon, “where the ceaseless billows roll,” will redeem herself from the clutches of the Slave Democracy which she came so near throwing off (lacking only 16 votes) last year; and so the entire North in harmony will unite in honoring the choice of the Chicago Convention.
The platform adopted is faultless. It concedes everything to the conservative sentiment of the country that is consistent with a just appreciation of its true interests. It is a positive declaration of principles; not like that of Baltimore, a senseless mass of words, but a plain, direct enunciation of well defined principles. We regard the movement to nominate Judge Bates as the foundation of the Chicago platform. It certainly developed the necessity of moderation, and an avoidance of radical views or hair splitting abstractions like those on which the National Democracy divide. Had a different course been taken, the nomination of Seward or Giddings would have been inevitable, and we set it down as evidence of great political wisdom, to respect the present conservative position of the country. It is safe to say that the policy of that Convention will be the policy of the party everywhere, including Missouri. Without it the Opposition would have been fierce and uncompromising, but with the ticket and platform given us at Chicago no fault can be found. It is a tower of strength, and it now behooves every man in the West to put forward his best endeavor to swell the required majority as many thousands as possible.
THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE.
Where Born-How he came to Illinois-Sketch of His Life.
Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was born on the 12th of February, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky. His family, although much respected, were not blessed with much of this world’s goods, and he was forced to fight his own way through the opening struggles of life’s campaign. In this way he became intimately acquainted with the industrial classes, and they now claim him as one of their number—“The Flatboatman!” Whether he was engaged in rural pursuits, or in piloting down the Mississippi boats laden with produce, he permitted no opportunity to escape for the improval of his mind. When he had thus, by his own exertions, been admitted to the bar, he settled in the pleasant town of Springfield, Ill., where he has since resided.
When the “Black Hawk War” broke out, in the spring of 1832, Mr. Lincoln was among the first to offer his services, and was elected Capt. of a Company of Illinois volunteers, at the head of which he distinguished himself during the [short] yet effective campaign. He was afterward elected to the State Legislature, taking decided ground as a Whig of the Henry Clay school. In 1846 he was elected a member of the XXXth Congress, where he acted with the Whig party; and at the National Convention which nominated General Scott for President, in June, 1852, he was elected to represent Illinois in the Central Whig Committee. Yeoman’s service did he render in that campaign.
In 1856 Mr. Lincoln entered actively into the Republican contest, and two years later the Convention of that party nominated him in opposition to Judge Douglas, as Republican Senator from the State of Illinois. He was defeated by the unfair apportionment of the Legislative districts of the State, and notwithstanding the members of the Legislature who voted for him represented a majority of the inhabitants and voters of Illinois. The popular majority of his friends over those who voted for Douglas was upwards of 5,000.
Hon. Abraham Lincoln will be inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th of March, 1861.