against the advance of slavery were instinctively foreseen by these men, and they cannot be blamed for shrinking from them.  Yet the historian now, knowing that those consequences exceeded in terror all that could have been foreseen, can only agree with the judgment expressed by Lincoln in one of his Kansas speeches:  “We want and must have a national policy as to slavery which deals with it as being a wrong.  Whoever would prevent slavery becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields to a policy which treats it either as being right, or as being a matter of indifference.”  The Republican party had been founded upon just this opinion.  Electoral victory was now being prepared for it, not because a majority was likely yet to take so resolute a view, but because its effective opponents were divided between those who had gone the length of calling slavery right and those who strove to treat it as indifferent.  The fate of America may be said to have depended in the early months of 1860 on whether the nominee of the Republican party was a man who would maintain its principles with irresolution, or with obstinacy, or with firm moderation.

When it had first been suggested to Lincoln in the course of 1859 that he might be that nominee he said, “I do not think myself fit for the Presidency.”  This was probably his sincere opinion at the moment, though perhaps the moment was one of dejection.  In any case his opinion soon changed, and though it is not clear whether he encouraged his friends to bring his name forward, we know in a general way that when they decided to do so he used every effort of his own to help them.  We must accept without reserve Herndon’s reiterated assertion that Lincoln was intensely ambitious; and, if ambition means the eager desire for great opportunities, the depreciation of it, which has long been a commonplace of literature, and which may be traced back to the Epicureans, is a piece of cant which ought to be withdrawn from currency, and ambition, commensurate with the powers which each man can discover in himself, should be frankly recognised as a part of Christian duty.  In judging him to be the best man for the Presidency, Lincoln’s Illinois friends and he himself formed a very sensible judgment, but they did so in flagrant contradiction to many superficial appearances.  This candidate for the chief magistracy at a critical time of one of the great nations of the world had never administered any concern much larger than that post office that he once “carried around in his hat.”  Of the several other gentlemen whose names were before the party there was none who might not seem greatly to surpass him in experience of affairs.  To one of them, Seward, the nomination seemed to belong almost of right.  Chase and Seward both were known and dignified figures in that great assembly the Senate.  Chase was of proved rectitude and courage, Seward of proved and very considerable ability.  Chase had been Governor of Ohio, Seward of New York State;