May 16, 1860: The Republican National Convention began in Chicago. By the time if finished two days later, Abraham Lincoln was the Republican presidential nominee. His main rival at the convention was New York Senator William Seward. After the third ballot, Seward had 180 votes to Lincoln’s 231 and a half. Lincoln only needed one and a half additional votes to secure the nomination. After some discussion the Ohio delegation switched its remaining votes and others followed, making Lincoln the Republican nominee. The New York Times reported: “The work of the Convention is ended. The youngster who, with ragged trousers, used barefoot to drive his father’s oxen and spend his days in splitting rails, has risen to high eminence, and Abram [sic] Lincoln, of Illinois, is declared its candidate for President by the National Republican Party. The result was effected [sic] by the change of votes in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts Delegations. Mr. Seward’s friends assert indignantly, and with a great deal of feeling, that they were grossly deceived and betrayed.”
Citations: Michael S. Green, Lincoln and the Election of 1860 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011), 53, 56, 61-62, https://archive.org/details/lincolnelectiono0000gree; “THE REPUBLICAN TICKET FOR 1860,” New York Times, May 19, 1860, 1, https://nyti.ms/3J6Gmyr; Harper’s Weekly, “The Republicans in nominating co[nv]ent[ion] in their wigwam at Chicago, May 1860,” illustration (May 19, 1860), https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652565.
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