1860 Republican National Convention

Wood-frame "Wigwam" building specially designed for the 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago

By 1860 the dissolution of the Whig Party in America had become an accomplished fact, with establishment Whig politicians, former Free Soilers, and a certain number of anti-Catholic populists from the Know Nothing movement flocking to the banner of the fledgling anti-slavery Republican Party. While 1856 Republican presidential nominee John C. Frémont had met with failure, party gains were made throughout the Northern United States as the sectional crisis over slavery intensified.

Party leaders sought to hold their 1860 nominating convention in the burgeoning Middle Western trade center of Chicago, then a city of some 110,000 people. The city had no sufficiently large meeting hall, so an appropriation was made for a temporary wood-frame assembly hall – known as the "Wigwam" – to seat ten thousand delegates, guests, and observers.[1] The rapidly designed and constructed building proved well fit for the purpose, featuring excellent lines of sight and stellar acoustics, allowing even an ordinary speaker to be heard throughout the room.[2]

The Convention commanded the interest and attention of a multitude of curious citizens who crowded the "Wigwam" to the rafters. Delegations were seated by state and the gathering was virtually devoid of Southern participation, with no delegations attending from the slave states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida.[3]

Delegation voting strength was loosely based upon the size of each state's congressional delegation, subject to some modification by the Credentials Committee, with the Northeastern delegations of New York (70), Pennsylvania (54), Massachusetts (26), and New Jersey (14) constituting the largest regional block, surpassing the Midwestern states of Ohio (46), Indiana (26), Illinois (22), and Iowa (8).[4] Some 86 votes were apportioned to the six states of New England.[4] Slave and border states with substantial delegations under the rules (but with small actual party organizations) included Kentucky (23), Virginia (23), and Missouri (18).[4] The total of all credentialed delegate votes was 466.[5]

With the convention called to order on May 16, former U.S. Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania was elected temporary chairman of the gathering. He had been the author in 1848 of the Wilmot Proviso which would have banned slavery from new states incorporated into the Union.[2] Upon his election, Wilmot delivered the keynote speech to the Convention, in which he declared that:

A great sectional and aristocratic party, or interest, has for years dominated with a high hand over the political affairs of this country. That interest has wrested, and is now wresting, all the great powers of this government to the one object of the extension and nationalization of slavery. It is our purpose, gentlemen, it is the mission of the Republican Party and the basis of its organization, to resist this policy of a sectional interest.... It is our purpose and our policy to resist these new constitutional dogmas that slavery exists by virtue of the constitution wherever the banner of the Union floats.[6]

Organizational tasks filled the rest of the first day's activities, including the appointment of a Credentials Committee and a Resolutions Committee.[2] There were no contested seats although a delegation purporting to represent the state of Texas was ruled ineligible by the Credentials Committee.[2] A Platform Committee was also named, including one delegate from every state and territory in attendance.[2] This committee began its work at once and completed its task with a report on the evening of the second day, May 17.[2]

1860 Republican Platform

The reading of the platform, as drafted by the Platform Committee chaired by Judge William Jessup of Pennsylvania, was received with stormy applause and an immediate move followed to adopt the document unanimously and without amendments.[2] An effort followed to amend the platform after adoption with insertion of famous language from the Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal; and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights..."[2] This Amendment was initially rejected by the convention, prompting a walkout by its proposer, long time Ohio Congressman Joshua Reed Giddings.[2] The matter was hastily reconsidered by the Convention, and with the addition of the amendment the disgruntled Mr. Giddings returned to his seat, crisis resolved.[2]

The 1860 Republican platform consisted of 17 declarations of principle, of which 10 dealt directly with the issues of free soil principles, slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, and the preservation of the Union, while the remaining 7 dealing with other issues.

Clauses 12 through 16 of the platform called for a protective tariff, enactment of the Homestead Act, freedom of immigration into the United States and full rights to all immigrant citizens, internal improvements, and the construction of a Pacific railroad.[7]

In addition to the preservation of the Union, all five of these additional promises were enacted by the Thirty-seventh Congress and implemented by Abraham Lincoln or the presidents who immediately succeeded him.

• 
  Former Representative
  Abraham Lincoln
  from Illinois
• 
  U.S. Senator
  William H. Seward
  from New York
• 
  U.S. Senator
  Simon Cameron
  from Pennsylvania
• 
  Governor
  Salmon P. Chase
  of Ohio
• 
  Representative
  Edward Bates
  from Missouri
• 
  Associate Justice
  John McLean
  from Ohio
• 
  Cassius M. Clay
  from Kentucky
• 
  U.S. Senator
  Benjamin Wade
  from Ohio
• 
  U.S. Representative
  Jacob Collamer
  from Vermont
• 
  U.S. Senator
  William L. Dayton
  from New Jersey

Among other accounts, an article, entitled "The Four Votes", published in the May 19, 1860, edition of the Chicago Press and Tribune attests that after seeing how close Lincoln was to the 234 votes needed, Robert K. Enos, a member of the Ohio delegation, was responsible for getting three fellow Ohio delegates to announce after the close of the third ballot that they were shifting their four votes to Lincoln, giving him sufficient votes to win the nomination.[10] This triggered an avalanche towards Lincoln on the fourth ballot, with a final count of 349 votes for Lincoln out of 466 cast.[11]

• 
  1st Presidential Ballot
• 
  2nd Presidential Ballot
• 
  3rd Presidential Ballot Before Shifts
• 
  3rd Presidential Ballot After Shifts
• 
  1st Vice-Presidential Ballot
• 
  2nd Vice-Presidential Ballot

Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky.

• 
  Governor Nathaniel P. Banks
• 
  Anti-slavery planter Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky
• 
  Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine
• 
  Representative John Hickman of Pennsylvania
• 
  Supreme Court Justice John McLean of Ohio
• 
  Former Governor Andrew H. Reeder of Kansas
• 
  William L. Dayton
  Former U.S. Senator and 1856 vice presidential nominee, from New Jersey