hose twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery."

The selection of a presidential candidate gave the delegates more
trouble. They wanted an available man who could carry Pennsylvania;
and between the supporters of John C. Fremont and the forces of John
McLean, for twenty-six years a member of the United States Supreme
Court, the canvass became earnest and exciting. Finally, on an
informal ballot, Fremont secured 359 of the 555 votes in the
convention. William L. Dayton of New Jersey was then nominated for
Vice President over Abraham Lincoln, who received 110 votes.

William H. Seward was the logical candidate for President. He
represented Republican principles and aims more fully than any man in
the country, but Thurlow Weed, looking into the future through the
eyes of a practical politician, disbelieved in Republican success. He
argued that, although Republicans were sure of 114 electoral votes, it
was essential to carry Pennsylvania to secure the additional 35, and
that Pennsylvania could not be carried. This belief was strengthened
after the nomination of Buchanan, who pledged himself to give fair
play to Kansas, which many understood to mean a free State. Under
these conditions Weed advised Seward not to become a candidate, on the
theory that defeat in 1856 would sacrifice his chances in 1860.

Seward, as usual, acquiesced in Weed's judgment. "I once heard Seward
declare," wrote Gideon Welles, "that 'Seward is Weed and Weed is
Seward. What I do, Weed approves. What he says, I indorse. We are
one.'"[480] On this occasion, however, it is certain Seward accepted
Weed's judgment with much reluctance. His heart was set upon the
nomination, and his letters reveal disappointment and even disgust at
the arrangement. "It is a delicate thing," he wrote, on the 27th of
April, "to go through the present ordeal, but I am endeavouring to do
so without giving any one just cause to complain of indifference on my
part to the success of the cause. I have shut out the subject itself
from conversation and correspondence, and, so far as possible, from my
thoughts."[481] But he could not close his ears. "From all I hear
'availability' is to be indulged next week and my own friends are to
make the sacrifice," he wrote his wife, on June 11, six days before
the convention opened. "Be it so; I shall submit with better grace
than others would."[482] Two days later he said: "It tries my patience
to hear what is said and to act as if I a