1860 Republican National Convention

1860 Republican National Convention

1860 Presidential Election
Nominees Lincoln and Hamlin
Convention
Date(s)	May 16-May 18, 1860
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	The Wigwam
Candidates
Presidential Nominee	Abraham Lincoln of Illinois
Vice Presidential Nominee	Hannibal Hamlin of Maine
Other Candidates	William H. Seward of New York
‹ 1856  ·  1864 ›

The 1860 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States, held in Chicago, Illinois at the Wigwam, nominated former Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President. This was only the second national nominating convention for the Republican Party.

Other candidates at the convention included former New York Governor William H. Seward, U.S. Senator Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, former U.S. Representative Edward Bates of Missouri, and U.S. Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania.

This primary was notable as every candidate that ran for the Republican nomination eventually became a member of Lincoln's cabinet.

Seward had been the favorite going into the convention, and led on the first two ballots. His lead soon melted away to the dark horse Lincoln, who captured the nomination on the third ballot. Lincoln's campaign manager, David Davis, was credited with playing a substantial role in the convention outcome.

Lincoln-Hamlin went on to defeat three other major tickets that year, including Democratic nominee Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Ballot counts

The Republican National Convention met in mid-May, after the Democrats had been forced to adjourn the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina without a nominee and had not yet re-convened in Baltimore, Maryland. With the Democrats in disarray and with a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans were confident going into their convention in Chicago. William H. Seward of New York was considered the front runner, followed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates.

As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of the Republican Party. Delegates were concerned that Seward was too closely identified with the radical wing of the party, and his moves toward the center had alienated the radicals. Chase, a former Democrat, had alienated many of the former Whigs by his coalition with the Democrats in the late 1840s, had opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania, and critically, had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. Bates outlined his positions on extension of slavery into the territories and equal constitutional rights for all citizens, positions that alienated his supporters in the border states and southern conservatives. German-Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know-Nothings.

Since it was essential to carry the West, and because Lincoln had a national reputation from his debates and speeches as the most articulate moderate, he won the party's nomination on the third ballot on May 18, 1860. Lincoln associates Leonard Swett, Ward Hill Lamon, and David Davis helped engineer Lincoln's nomination, according to the 1949 doctoral thesis Ward Hill Lamon: Lincoln's Particular Friend, written by Lavern Marshall Hamand at the Graduate College of the University of Illinois.

Presidential Ballot
Nominee	Home State	1st	2nd	3rd	3rd "corrected"
William H. Seward	New York	173.5	184.5	180	111.5
Abraham Lincoln	Illinois	102	181	231.5	349
Simon Cameron	Pennsylvania	50.5	2	0	0
Salmon P. Chase	Ohio	49	42.5	24.5	2
Edward Bates	Missouri	48	35	22	0
William L. Dayton	New Jersey	14	10	1	1
John McLean	Ohio	12	8	5	0.5
Jacob Collamer	Vermont	10	0	-	-
Benjamin F. Wade	Ohio	3	0	-	-
John M. Read	Pennsylvania	1	0	-	-
Charles Sumner	Massachusetts	1	0	-	-
John C. Fremont	California	1	0	-	-
Cassius M. Clay	Kentucky	-	2	1	1

After seeing how close Lincoln was to the 233 votes needed, Robert K. Enos, an 1860 Ohio delegate, was responsible for getting 3 fellow Ohio delegates to shift their 4 votes to Lincoln. There is a 5/19/1860 Chicago Press and Tribune article - "The Four Votes" and other accounts proving that fact. This triggered an avalanche towards Lincoln with a final count of 364 votes out of 466 cast.

Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky.

Vice Presidential Ballot
Nominee	Home State	1st	2nd
Hannibal Hamlin	Maine	194	367
Cassius M. Clay	Kentucky	100.5	86
John Hickman	Pennsylvania	57	13
Andrew H. Reeder	Pennsylvania & Kansas	51	0
Nathaniel Banks	Massachusetts	38.5	0
Henry W. Davis	Maryland	8	0
Sam Houston	Texas	6	0
William L. Dayton	New Jersey	3	0
John M. Read	Pennsylvania	1	0

Platform

The 1860 Republican party platform was recommended to the convention by a committee chaired by Judge William Jessup of Pennsylvania, and was adopted unanimously.

The platform contained seventeen declarations of principle, of which ten dealt directly with the issues of free soil principles, slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, and the preservation of the Union, while seven dealt with other issues. Clauses 12 through 16 of the platform called for a protective tariff, enactment of the Homestead Act, freedom of immigration into the United States and full rights to all immigrant citizens, internal improvements, and the construction of a Pacific railroad.

In addition to the preservation of the Union, all five of these additional promises were enacted by the Thirty-seventh Congress and implemented by Abraham Lincoln or the presidents who immediately succeeded him.

Few of the delegates to the 1860 Republican National Convention were Southerners, and few of these provisions were drawn up so as to appeal to voters of the South.

Candidate gallery

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  Former Representative Edward Bates of Missouri

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  Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania

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  Former Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio

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  Former Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois

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  Senator William H. Seward of New York