For the time, however, these well-rounded phrases were especially convenient:  first, to prevent any schism in the Cincinnati Convention itself, and, secondly, to furnish points for campaign speeches; politicians not having any pressing desire, nor voters the requisite critical skill, to demonstrate how they left untouched the whole brood of pertinent queries which the discussion had already raised, and which at its next national convention were destined to disrupt and defeat the Democratic party.  For this occasion the studied ambiguity of the Cincinnati platform made possible a last cooeperation of North and South, in the face of carefully concealed mental reservations, to secure a presidential victory.

It is not the province of this work to describe the incidents of the national canvass, but only to record its results.  At the election of November, 1856, Buchanan was chosen President.  The popular vote in the nation at large stood:  Buchanan, 1,838,169; Fremont, 1,341,264; Fillmore, 874,534.  By States Buchanan received the votes of fourteen slave-States and five free-States, a total of 174 electors; Fremont the vote of eleven free-States, a total of 114 electors; and Fillmore the vote of one slave-State, a total of eight electors.[4]

In the campaign which preceded Mr. Buchanan’s election, Mr. Lincoln, at the head of the Fremont electoral ticket for Illinois, took a prominent part, traversing the State in every direction, and making about fifty speeches.  Among the addresses which he thus delivered in the different counties, it is interesting to read a fragment of a speech he made at Galena, Illinois, discussing the charge of “sectionalism,” the identical pretext upon which the South inaugurated its rebellion against his Administration four years afterwards: 

You further charge us with being disunionists.  If you mean that it is our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself answer that it is untrue; for those who act with me I answer that it is untrue.  Have you heard us assert that as our aim?  Do you really believe that such is our aim?  Do you find it in our platform, our speeches, our conventions, or anywhere?  If not, withdraw the charge.

But you may say that though it is not our aim, it will be the result, if we succeed, and that we are therefore disunionists in fact.  This is a grave charge you make against us, and we certainly have a right to demand that you specify in what way we are to dissolve the Union.  How are we to effect this?

The only specification offered is volunteered by Mr. Fillmore in his Albany speech.  His charge is that if we elect a President and Vice-President both from the free-States it will dissolve the Union.  This is open folly.  The Constitution provides that the President and Vice-President of the United States shall be of different States; but says nothing as to the latitude and longitude of those States.  In 1828 Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee,