several speeches, all of which were received with more than ordinary
favor. By the time he returned home he was no longer an unknown man. He
was looked on with marked favor in all that portion of the country
which lies north of Mason and Dixon's line.




CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NOMINATION OF 1860.


The subject of this chapter is the republican convention that nominated
Lincoln for the presidency. But for an intelligent narration of this,
it is necessary to give a brief account of at least one of the three
other important political conventions that were held that year. That
one was the regular democratic convention at Charleston. And certain
other facts also must be narrated.

Leaven was working in two respects. The first is that the plan of
secession and of setting up a Southern nation founded upon slavery, was
not a sudden or impromptu thought. The evidence is conclusive that the
plan had been maturing for years. Recent events had shown that slavery
had reached the limit of its development so far as concerned the
territory of the United States. The plan to annex Cuba as a garden for
the culture of slavery, had failed. California had been admitted as a
free state. Slavery had been excluded from Kansas, although that
territory had for two years been denied admission to the sisterhood of
states.