both regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men.  Of the two, Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, New England, and the Northwest.  Cautious politicians doubted seriously whether Seward, to whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly given the reputation of a reckless radical, would be able to command the whole Republican vote in the doubtful States.  Besides, during his long public career he had made enemies.  It was evident that those who thought Seward’s nomination too hazardous an experiment would consider Chase unavailable for the same reason.  They would then look round for an “available” man; and among the “available” men Abraham Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost.  His great debate with Douglas had given him a national reputation.  The people of the East being eager to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, he had been induced to visit several Eastern cities, and had astonished and delighted large and distinguished audiences with speeches of singular power and originality.  An address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, before an audience containing a large number of important persons, was then, and has ever since been, especially praised as one of the most logical and convincing political speeches ever made in this country.  The people of the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively Western great man, and his popularity at home had some peculiar features which could be expected to exercise a potent charm.  Nor was Lincoln’s name as that of an available candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery.  It is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a Presidential possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the senatorship.  As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had approached him on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the Presidency.  The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambition.  But some of his friends in Illinois took the matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, after some hesitation, then formally authorized “the use of his name.”  The matter was managed with such energy and excellent judgment that, in the convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival.  A large majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham Lincoln, and gave him the nomination on the third ballot.  As had been foreseen, Douglas was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party at Baltimore, while the extreme proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as its candidate.  After a campaign conducted with the energy of genuine enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges.