Rarely has a deliberative body met under circumstances more exciting than did this one.  The Congressional debates at Washington and the civil war in Kansas were each at a culmination of passion and incident.  Within ten days Charles Sumner had been struck down in the Senate Chamber, and the town of Lawrence sacked by the guerrilla posse of Atchison and Sheriff Jones.  Ex-Governor Reeder, of that suffering Territory, addressed the citizens of Bloomington and the earliest-arriving delegates on the evening of the 28th, bringing into the convention the very atmosphere of the Kansas conflict.

The convention met and conducted its work with earnestness and dignity.  Bissell, already designated by unmistakable popular indications, was nominated for governor by acclamation.  The candidate for lieutenant-governor was named in like manner.  So little did the convention think or care about the mere distribution of political honors on the one hand, and so much, on the other, did it regard and provide for the success of the cause, that it did not even ballot for the remaining candidates on the State ticket, but deputed to a committee the task of selecting and arranging them, and adopted its report as a whole and by acclamation.  The more difficult task of drafting a platform was performed by another committee, with such prudence that it too received a unanimous acceptance.  It boldly adopted the Republican name, formulated the Republican creed, and the convention further appointed delegates to the coming Republican National Convention.

There were stirring speeches by eloquent leaders, eagerly listened to and vociferously applauded; but scarcely a man moved from his seat in the crowded hall until Mr. Lincoln had been heard.  Every one felt the fitness of his making the closing argument and exhortation, and right nobly did he honor their demand.  A silence full of emotion filled the assembly as for a moment before beginning his tall form stood in commanding attitude on the rostrum, the impressiveness of his theme and the significance of the occasion reflected in his thoughtful and earnest features.  The spell of the hour was visibly upon him; and holding his audience in rapt attention, he closed in a brilliant peroration with an appeal to the people to join the Republican standard, to

    Come as the winds come, when forests are rended;
    Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded.

The influence was irresistible; the audience rose and acknowledged the speaker’s power with cheer upon cheer.  Unfortunately the speech was never reported; but its effect lives vividly in the memory of all who heard it, and it crowned his right to popular leadership in his own State, which thereafter was never disputed.

  [Sidenote] 1856.