He is staring straight ahead, hurrying somewhere.
What is left for Seward, for his supporters? Virginia had been bought,
why didn't she deliver? Ohio was fingered for Seward. Why didn't Ohio
yield? Pennsylvania had taken quantities of Seward money. Why this
ingratitude? What nominated Lincoln? The Seward men have an answer.

The madness of the crowd for railsplitting! The log-cabin tradition!
Genius and statesmanship have been set aside for a popular symbol,
railsplitting. A party of moral ideas has reverted to claptrap. These
are the bitter comments of Seward's beaten army. Then there are curses
for Greeley. Greeley has avenged Seward's lifetime enmity. He has
slaughtered the great man of the party. Why? The old traitor wants
Douglas elected.

CHAPTER LXI

The press comments of the country on Lincoln's nomination were
exceedingly conflicting. He was written of as the man whom Douglas had
beaten two years before, and without other distinction; as lacking in
culture, in every way inferior to Seward; as a whangdoodle stump speaker
of the second class, and without any known principle. What is this talk
of Old Abe Lincoln, Old Uncle Abe, Honest Abe Lincoln? Was he not a log
roller in the Illinois legislature of 1836? Had he not been driven from
position to position by Douglas in the debates? What is honest about him
above other men? Why a nomination on the strength of a deceiving
nickname? Is he not for the tariff and loose construction? Has he not
been a Whig with all the humbuggery of that party, of log cabins and
imperial practices?

The Republican press was more favorable. He was hailed as a man of the
people, sprung from the people. On a hurried visit with Douglas, he told
me that Lincoln was as able as any man the Republicans had, abler far
than Seward; and of great integrity, though he loathed Lincoln's
political faith. "I'll carry nearly every northern state against him,"
said Douglas. "The Union must be saved. I know the South. They will
secede if Lincoln is elected. It's utter madness of them to think of
this; but mad they are. We must handle them accordingly. Wall Street,
New York, is afraid of Lincoln. They don't want their business disturbed
by secession or even by a hostile South. Cotton is that strong."

Douglas was full of fight and energy. He intended to canvass the entire
country. He was going into the South to point out the dangers of a
divided country. "They are terribly mad at me down there