Page "Abraham Lincoln" Paragraph 38

On May 9 – 10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur.

Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement to run for the presidency.

Exploiting the embellished legend of his frontier days with his father, Lincoln's supporters adopted the label of " The Rail Candidate ".

On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln's friends promised and manipulated and won the nomination on the third ballot, beating candidates such as William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase.

A former Democrat Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice President to balance the ticket.

Lincoln's success depended on his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for Whiggish programs of internal improvements and the protective tariff.

On the third ballot Pennsylvania put him over the top.

Pennsylvania iron interests were reassured by his support for protective tariffs.

Lincoln's managers had been adroitly focused on this delegation as well as the others, while following Lincoln's strong dictate to " Make no contracts that bind me ".