was impossible, the convention proceeded to vote. Douglas was unanimously declared to be the regular candidate of the Democratic party for President, and Herschel V. Johnson [Ga.]' its candidate for VicePresident. Of course the regularity of the nominations was denied by the anti-Douglas Democrats.

Douglas had demanded assertion of the principle of Popular Sovereignty in the Territories, and this was incorporated in the platform. An article was added declaring it the duty of citizens, legislators, and executive officers to submit to the Supreme Court's decisions, future as well as past, with respect to the authority of the people in the Territories over slavery. This declaration, though at variance with his doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, was accepted by Douglas, evidently as a sop to the South; he did not even attempt to harmonize it with the preceding declaration by any device similar to his Freeport Doctrine of "unfriendly legislation"—indeed, in this omission he seemed to abandon the Doctrine finally and absolutely.

The seceding Democratic delegates from this convention with those chosen by South Carolina and Florida for the Richmond Convention (which was not held) met in a convention of their own in Baltimore on June 28. They chose Cushing for their chairman;

1 Herschel Vespasian Johnson was a Senator from 1848 until 1849; a judge of the Superior Court of Georgia from 1849 to 1853, when he was elected Governor, an office which he held until 1857. He opposed secession until it was accomplished, and then accepted election to the Confederate Senate. In 1866 he was chosen to the United States Senate, but the seat was refused him on the ground that Georgia had not complied with all the terms of readmission to the Union. In 1873 he became a judge on the circuit court of his State, and held the office until his death in 1880. He held high rank as an orator, a constitutional lawyer, and a jurist.

unanimously adopted the Charleston platform presented by a majority of the committee on resolutions; and nominated Vice-President John C. Breckinridge [Ky.]' for President, and Joseph Lane [Ore.]2 for VicePresident.

The influence of the Buchanan Administration was exercised in behalf of Breckinridge, and his electors were nominated in nearly every free State with the evident purpose of defeating Douglas, since it was impossible to win any Northern State for the Southern candidate. However, a coalition of the anti-Lincoln forces was made in several Northern States, although

I

John Cabell Breckinridge was a grandson of John Breckinridge, the Republican leader of the Senate in Jefferson's administration. He was educated in the classics at Danville College, Ky., and in law at Transylvania University in his home town of Lexington. He was a major of volunteers in the Mexican War, and on his return was elected to the legislature. He was a Representative in Congress from 1851 to 1855. From 1857 to 1861 he was Vice-President. In March, 1861, he entered the Senate, but was expelled as a secessionist on December 4 of that year. While in the Senate he was an eloquent opponent of the Administration. In August, 1862, he entered the Confederate army as a major-general, and took part in the leading battles of the West from Shiloh to Chattanooga, and in the battle of Cold Harbor, Va., battles in the Shenandoah valley, and at Nashville, Tenn. He was the Confederate Secretary of War in 1865. With other Cabinet officers he fled to Europe at the close of the war. Returning in 1868 under amnesty, he refused to reenter politics and devoted himself to law. He was the youngest of our Vice-Presidents, being thirty-five years of age, the constitutional minimum, when elected to the office.

2 Lane was a native of North Carolina, who, moving to Indiana, had served in the legislature there. Enlisting as a private in the Mexican War, he won the commission of major-general by gallantry in action. At the end of the war President Polk appointed him Governor of Oregon Territory, where he distinguished himself by suppressing hostile Indians. On the admission of Oregon into the Union he was chosen one of her Senators; Edward D. Baker, opposed to him in politics, being the other. His defeat for the Vice-Presidency ended his political career, and he died a poor, forgotten old man in a remote region of his State in 1881.

this precluded any assertion of principles by the Democratic campaign speakers, who were forced to confine themselves to personal abuse of "Old Abe," and to the prediction that disunion would follow his election. Nowhere in the South would the Breckinridge party combine with the Douglas party, and this refusal was certain to cause the election of the Bell ticket in a number of Southern States.

With all these odds against him Senator Douglas made a "whirlwind" campaign, speaking with remarkable force in nearly every free State and in many slave States. Lincoln remained at his home in Springfield, making no speeches, and writing little besides an autobiography,' copies of which, with his speeches on the slavery question, were widely circulated, as campaign documents, thus acquainting the people with his homely and simple and strong personality, and the clear honesty of his principles. Many of the Northern States held elections for State officers in September and October, and the almost unvarying success of the Republicans in these showed the certainty of Lincoln's election in November.

The election was held on the 6th of this month, and before midnight it was known that Abraham Lincoln was chosen chief magistrate of the nation, having received the votes of every free State except New Jersey (which gave him four of her seven votes). His total in the Electoral College was 180 votes, against 123, which were cast, 72 for Breckinridge, 39 (Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee) for Bell, and 12 (Missouri and 3 votes from New Jersey) for Douglas. Of the popular vote (4,645,390), however, Lincoln received only 1,857,610, which was 930,170 less than a majority; 'At the request of a friend, Jesse W. Fell.

Douglas received 1,291,574 votes, Breckinridge 850,082 votes, and Bell 646,124 votes.1

1 Chapter xii. in Volume I. forms the historical climax of the subject of Slavery as well as of the doctrine of State Rights, and may be read here in the former connection.

INDEX

For comment on the purpose of this index and an explanation of
abbreviations in it see the Index in Volume I. Also look there for
biographical and historical data when such are not given in the case of
persons, States, etc., here listed.