experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before the convention—­I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated the platform, and, without unnecessary and unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted.  And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand.

A letter was then handed Lincoln containing the official notice, accompanied by the resolutions of the convention.  To this letter he replied, a few days later, as follows: 

     SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MAY 23, 1860.

SIR—­I accept the nomination tendered to me by the convention over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised in a letter of yourself and others acting as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose.  The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it, or disregard it in any part.  Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the convention, to the rights of all the States and Territories and people of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared by the convention.

In June Mr. Douglas was nominated for the Presidency by the Democratic convention, which met at Baltimore on the 18th.  Mr. Douglas made a personal canvass, speaking in most of the states, North and South, and exerting all the powers of which he was master to win success.  The campaign, as Mr. Arnold states, “has had no parallel.  The enthusiasm of the people was like a great conflagration, like a prairie fire before a wild tornado.  A little more than twenty years had passed since Owen Lovejoy, brother of Elijah Lovejoy, on the bank of the Mississippi, kneeling on the turf not then green over the grave of the brother who had been killed for his fidelity to freedom, had sworn eternal war against slavery.  From that time on, he and his associate Abolitionists had gone forth preaching their crusade against oppression, with hearts of fire and tongues of lightning; and now the consummation was to be realized of a President elected on the distinct ground of opposition to the extension of slavery.  For years the hatred of that institution had been growing and gathering force.  Whittier, Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow, and others, had written the lyrics of liberty; the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe, in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ had painted the cruelties of the overseer and the slaveholder; but the acts of slaveholders themselves did more to promote the growth of anti-slavery than all other causes.  The persecutions of Abolitionists in the South; the harshness and cruelty attending