The third day of the convention (Friday, May 18) found the doors besieged by an excited multitude.  The preliminary business was disposed of,—­the platform was made,—­and every one knew the balloting would begin.  The New York delegation felt assured of Seward’s triumph, and made an effort to have its march to the convention, with banners and music, unusually full and imposing.  It proved a costly display; for while the New York “irregulars” were parading the streets, the Illinoisans were filling the wigwam:  when the Seward procession arrived, there was little room left except the reserved seats for the delegates.  New York deceived itself in another respect:  it counted on the full New England strength, whereas more than half of it had already resolved to cast its vote elsewhere.  This defection in advance virtually insured Seward’s defeat.  New York and the extreme North-west were not sufficiently strong to nominate him, and in the nature of things he could not hope for much help from the conservative middle and border States.  But this calculation could not as yet be so accurately made.  Caucusing was active up to the very hour when the convention met, and many delegations went to the wigwam with no definite programme beyond the first ballot.

What pen shall adequately describe this vast audience of ten thousand souls? the low, wavelike roar of its ordinary conversation; the rolling cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favorites; the solemn hush which fell upon it during the opening prayer?  There was just enough of some unexpected preliminary wrangle and delay to arouse the full impatience of both convention and spectators; but at length the names of candidates were announced.  This ceremony was still in its simplicity.  The more recent custom of short dramatic speeches from conspicuous and popular orators to serve as electrifying preludes had not yet been invented.  “I take the liberty,” said Mr. Evarts, of New York, “to name as a candidate to be nominated by this convention for the office of President of the United States, “William H. Seward.”  “I desire,” followed Mr. Judd, “on behalf of the delegation from Illinois, to put in nomination as a candidate for President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.”  Then came the usual succession of possible and alternative aspirants who were to be complimented by the first votes of their States—­“William L. Dayton, Simon Cameron, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, Jacob Collamer, John McLean.  The fifteen minutes required by this formality had already indisputably marked out and set apart the real contestants.  The “complimentary” statesmen were lustily cheered by their respective State delegations; but at the names of Seward and Lincoln the whole wigwam seemed to respond together.

  [Sidenote] Halstead, “Conventions of 1860,” p. 145.