is irrepressible-conflict idea, and in negro equality; but he is
opposed to Seward's higher law." The "irrepressible conflict" was the
exact counterpart of the "house divided against itself." "Negro
equality" marked a distinct advance since the Douglas debate two years
before, and such advance, gradual but steady, was characteristic of
Lincoln. It was no less characteristic of him to disclaim the "higher
law" doctrine,--an obligation recognized by the individual conscience as
paramount to all human enactments. Indeed Seward, though the phrase was
his, was as little an idealist of the individual conscience as was
Lincoln.

Of the circumstances just mentioned, a part belongs to the undercurrents
which few spectators at the time discerned. What the crowd and the world
saw was three successive ballots. First, Seward, 173-1/2; Lincoln, 102;
Cameron, 50-1/2; Chase and Bates following close. Then Cameron's name
was withdrawn, and Lincoln shot up abreast of Seward. A third ballot,
and Lincoln went up, up till he touched the line of a clear majority.
Then the Wigwam roared; the guns boomed; in the first subsidence of the
cheering Evarts gallantly moved that the choice be made unanimous,--and
the tall, homely Illinois lawyer was the Republican candidate for the
Presidency. If the result was not without its illustrations of his own
definition of politics--"the combination of individual meannesses for
the general good,"--he at least had sacrificed nothing of his
convictions, had not worked for his own elevation, or smirched his
hands. And, unproved though he was as to administrative power and
seamanship in a cyclone, there was yet a singular and intrinsic fitness
in his candidacy. His recognized quality was that which is basal and
dear to the common people, honesty; honesty in thought, word and act. In
his convictions, he was near to the great mass of the party of freedom
as it actually was; frankly opposed to slavery, but reverent and
tenacious of the established order, even though it gave slavery a
certain standing-ground. He had, too, that intimate sympathy with the
common people, that knowledge of their thoughts and ways, that respect
for their collective judgment and will as the ultimate arbiter--which
are the essential traits in a great leader of democracy.

In the four-sided canvass which followed, the lines were not strictly
geographical. The Republican party indeed took its Vice-Presidential
candidate from the North--Hann