n any Territory in the United States."

Lincoln of Illinois, Seward of New York, Chase of Ohio, and Cameron
of Pennsylvania were the principal candidates for nomination, but
the contest turned out to be between Lincoln and Seward, each of
whom was regarded eminently qualified for the Presidency and an
especial representative of his party on the slavery issue.

Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot, and Hannibal Hamlin, a
sturdy New England statesman, was nominated for Vice-President.

Slavery, with its tri-cornered issues, was the sole absorbing
question discussed in the campaign. In the South, the Breckinridge
wing assailed the Douglas party, which combated _it_ there in turn.
In the North, the Republican party attacked furiously both the
Douglas and Breckinridge wings of the Democratic party; they, in
turn, fighting back and fighting each other.

The Bell and Everett party, though it claimed to be the only party
of the Constitution, fell into ridicule, as it really advocated no
well-defined principles on any subject whatsoever. Bell and Everett,
however, carried Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Lincoln carried
all the Northern States, save three of the electoral votes in New
Jersey.

Of the 303 electoral votes, Lincoln had 180, Douglas 12 (Missouri
9 and New Jersey 3), Breckinridge 72, and Bell 39, thus giving
Lincoln 57 over all. He was the first and only President elected
on a direct slavery issue.

The slavery question, thus sharply presented, was decided at the
polls by the people, and their verdict was for freedom in the
Territories. No more slave States; no more dilution of slavery by
spreading it (as was once advocated by Clay and others) for its
amelioration.

It must live or die in States wherein it was established. Neither
successful secession, state-rights, nor accomplished disunion could
extend it. Like all wrong, it could not stand still; to flourish,
it must be aggressive and progressive. To limit it was to strangle
it. This its votaries well understood.

In the history of the world there never were more brilliant, more
devoted, more earnest, more infatuated, and yet more inconsistent
propagandists of the institution of human slavery than in our
Republic during the period of the agitation of nullification--state-
rights--secession--disunion lines. They were of the Calhoun school.
They declaimed in halls of legislation and on the stump and rostrum
for "Liberty," and hugged close