ability, and character, were not to be overlooked. The election to the
senate of Lyman Trumbull as an anti-Douglas democrat had crystalized
this wing of the party. The fiasco of Lincoln's defeat when the whigs
were in a good plurality caused much discontent in that party. If the
anti-slavery men were to be united for efficiency in opposing Douglas,
it must be under another organization--a new party must be formed.

In this the newspapers took the initiative. A number of papers
editorially called for a convention, which was really a mass meeting,
for there were no accredited delegates, and could be none. This met in
Decatur on Washington's birthday, 1856. It was a motley assembly, from
a political standpoint. It included whigs, democrats, free-soilers,
abolitionists, and know-nothings. Said Lincoln: "Of strange,
discordant, even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds."
Politicians were conspicuously absent, for it would imperil their
political orthodoxy to be seen there. Lincoln was the principal one who
had anything to lose. He was consulted on all measures, and gave freely
of his counsel. The proceedings ended with a dinner, at which he made a
speech.

He was the most prominent man in the new movement, was popular
throughout the state, and was the logical candidate for governor. He
would have been highly gratified with the candidacy. But again he put
personal desires one side that the general good might not be
endangered. He therefore proposed, in his after-dinner speech, for
nomination a democrat who had a record of earnest opposition to the
slave power. Refusing the use of his own name, he added: "But I can
suggest a name that will secure not only the old whig vote, but enough
anti-Nebraska democrats to give us the victory. That man is Colonel
William H. Bissell." Bissell was afterwards regularly nominated and