of this committee notified Lincoln in a brief speech, to which he
responded with equal brevity. Even these few words impressed his
hearers with a sense of dignity and manliness which they were only too
glad to perceive. Said Mr. Boutwell: "Why, sir, they told me he was a
rough diamond. Nothing could have been in better taste than that
speech."

One who had opposed Lincoln in the convention said: "We might have done
a more daring thing [than nominate him], but we certainly could not
have done a better thing." Carl Schurz evidently shared this feeling.

Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania was a very tall man and was proud of the
fact. During the brief ceremony he and Lincoln had been measuring each
other with the eye. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the President-
elect demanded:

"What's your height?"

"Six feet three. What is yours, Mr. Lincoln?"

"Six feet four."

"Then," said the judge, "Pennsylvania bows to Illinois. My dear man,
for many years my heart has been aching for a President I could _look
up to_, and I've found him at last in the land where we thought
there were none but _little_ giants."

The general feeling of the committee was that the convention had made
no mistake. This feeling quickly spread throughout the entire party.
Some of Seward's friends wanted him to run on an independent ticket. It