But there was other capital
which obeyed the same law, and which had investments in the North;
and with this capital the Republicans had been trafficking. They had
succeeded in winning over the powerful manufacturing interests of
Pennsylvania, the pivotal State that had elected Buchanan in 1856.

The steps by which the new party of enthusiasm made its deal with the
body of capital which was not at one with Belmont and the Democrats are
not essential to the present narrative. Two facts suffice. In 1857 a
great collapse in American business--"the panic of fifty-seven"--led
the commercial world to turn to the party in power for some scheme of
redress. But their very principles, among which was non-intervention in
business, made the Democrats feeble doctors for such a need, and
they evaded the situation. The Republicans, with their insistence on
positivism in government, had therefore an opportunity to make a new
application of the doctrine of governmental aid to business. In the
spring of 1860, the Republican House of Representatives passed the
Morrill tariff bill, consideration of which was postponed by the
Democratic Senate. But it served its purpose: it was a Republican
manifesto. The Republicans felt that this bill, together with their
party platform, gave the necessary guarantee to the Pennsylvania
manufacturers, and they therefore entered the campaign confident they
would carry Pennsylvania nor was their confidence misplaced.

The campaign was characterized by three things: by an ominous quiet
coupled with great intensity of feeling; by the organization of huge
party societies in military form--"Wide-awakes" for Lincoln, numbering
400,000, and "Minute Men" for Breckenridge, with a membership chiefly
Southern; and by the perfect frankness, in all parts of the South, of
threats of secession in case the Republicans won.

In none of the States which eventually seceded were any votes cast for
Lincoln, with the exception of a small number in Virginia. In almost all
the other Southern States and in the slave-holding border States, all
the other candidates made respectable showings. In Virginia, Tennessee,
and Kentucky, Bell led. But everywhere else in the other slave-holding
States Breckinridge led, excepting in Missouri where Douglas won by a
few hundred. Every free State except New Jersey went for Lincoln.
And yet he did not have a majority of the popular vote, which stood:
Lincoln, 1,866,459; Douglas, 1,376,957; Breck