Team of Rivals_ The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin [162]
Recognizing that “it was part of the Seward plan to carry the Convention” by bringing more supporters to Chicago than any other candidate, Lincoln’s managers had mustered friends and supporters from all over the state. The nominations became the initial test of strength. New York’s William Evarts was the first to rise, asking the convention to place Seward’s name in nomination. His words were met “by a deafening shout.” The applause was “loud and long,” as supporters continued to stand, waving handkerchiefs in frenzied excitement. Lincoln’s man, Leonard Swett, confessed that the level of enthusiasm “appalled us a little.”
Nonetheless, Lincoln’s contingent was ready when Norman Judd placed the name of Illinois’s favorite son in nomination. “If Mr. Seward’s name drew forth thunders of applause,” one reporter noted, “what can be said of the enthusiastic reception of [Lincoln’s] name…. The audience, like a wild colt with [a] bit between his teeth, rose above all cry of order, and again and again the irrepressible applause broke forth and resounded far and wide.” To Seward’s supporters, this “tremendous applause” was “the first distinct impression in Lincoln’s favor.” Though Chase and Bates were also nominated to loud applause, the responses were “cold when compared” to the receptions for Seward and Lincoln.
When the seconding nominations proceeded, the “trial of lungs” intensified. Determined to win the battle, Seward’s adherents rallied when Austin Blair of Michigan rose to second his nomination. “The shouting was absolutely frantic,” Halstead reported. “No Comanches, no panthers ever struck a higher note, or gave screams with more infernal intensity.” Once again, the Lincoln men rose to the challenge. When Indiana’s Caleb Smith seconded Lincoln’s nomination, “five thousand people at once” jumped to their feet, Leonard Swett reported. “A thousand steam whistles, ten acres of hotel gongs…might have mingled in the scene unnoticed.” A voice rose from the crowd: “Abe Lincoln has it by the sound, let us ballot!” The efforts of Lincoln’s men to corral more supporters had paid off. “This was not the most deliberate way of nominating a President,” Swett later confessed, but “it had its weight.”
The convention finally settled down and the balloting began. Two hundred thirty-three votes would decide the Republican presidential nomination. The roll call opened with the New England states, which had been considered solidly for Seward. In fact, a surprising number of votes went for Lincoln, as well as a scattering for Chase. Lincoln’s journey through New England after the Cooper Union speech had apparently won over a number of delegates. As expected, New York gave its full 70 votes to Seward, allowing him to leap far ahead. The Seward men relaxed until Virginia, which had also been considered solid for Seward, split its 22 votes between Seward and Lincoln. Chase had assumed that Ohio, which came next, would give him its full 46 votes, but the delegation was divided in its vote, giving 34 to Chase and the remaining 12 to Lincoln and McLean. Perhaps the greatest surprise was Indiana, which Bates had assumed was his territory; instead, Lincoln gathered all 26 votes. “This solid vote was a startler,” reported Halstead, “and the keen little eyes of Henry S. Lane glittered as it was given.”
At the end of the first ballot, the tally stood: Seward 173½ Lincoln 102; Chase 49; Bates 48. The Bates managers were downhearted to realize, as the historian Marvin Cain writes, that “no pivotal state had gone for Bates, and the sought-after votes of the Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and Ohio delegations had not been delivered.” Disappointment was equally evident in the faces of the Chase men, for they were keenly aware that the division within the Ohio delegation was probably fatal. Lincoln’s camp was exhilarated, for with his total of 102 votes, Lincoln had emerged as the clear-cut