ty in the near future. It required the wisdom of
the statesman to divine that the public opinion which would direct
how these votes were to be cast, could most surely be created by an
appeal to those generous "central ideas" of the human mind which
favor equality against caste and freedom against slavery. Perhaps
the most distinctively representative quality these addresses exhibit
is the patriotic spirit and faith which led him to declare so
dogmatically in this campaign of 1856, what the nation called upon
him a few years later to execute by the stern powers of war, "We do
not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not."

----------
[1] For David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, 43; Preston King, of New York,
9; Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, 36; Thomas H. Ford, of Ohio, 7;
Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, 3; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, 15;
William F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania, 2; Nathaniel P. Banks, of
Massachusetts, 46; Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, 7; William
Pennington, of New Jersey, 1; ---- Carey, of New Jersey, 3; S.C.
Pomeroy, of Kansas, 8; J.R. Giddings, of Ohio, 2. The vote in detail
for Lincoln was: Maine, 1; New Hampshire, 8; Massachusetts, 7; Rhode
Island, 2; New York, 3; Pennsylvania, 11; Ohio, 2; Indiana, 26;
Illinois, 33; Michigan, 5; and California, 12.

[2] Mr. T.S. Van Dyke, son of one of the delegates, kindly writes
us: "Nothing that Mr. Lincoln has ever written is more characteristic
than the following note from him to my father just after the
convention--not for publication, but merely as a private expression
of his feelings to an old acquaintance:

"SPRINGFIELD, ILL.,
"June 27, 1856.
"Hon. JOHN VAN DYKE.

"MY DEAR SIR: Allow me to thank you for your kind notice of me in
the Philadelphia Convention.

"When you meet Judge Dayton present my respects, and tell him I
think him a far better man than I for the position he is in, and
that I shall support both him and Colonel Fremont most cordially.
Present my best respects to Mrs. V., and believe me,

"Yours truly,

"A. LINCOLN."

[3] On the sixteenth ballot Buchanan received 168 votes, of which 121
were from the free-States and 47 from the slave-States; Douglas
received 122 votes, of which 49 were from the free-States and 73 from
the slave-States; Cass received 6 votes, all from the free-States;
Pierce had been finally dropped on the previous ballot.--"Proceedings
of the Cincinnati Convention," p. 45.