1860 Republican National Convention

The 1860 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that met May 16–18 in Chicago, Illinois. It was held to nominate the Republican Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1860 election. The convention selected former representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for president and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice president.

Convention

May 16–18, 1860

Chicago, Illinois

The Wigwam

Abraham Lincoln of Illinois

Hannibal Hamlin of Maine

William H. Seward

Entering the 1860 convention, Senator William H. Seward of New York was generally regarded as the front-runner, but Lincoln, Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, former representative Edward Bates of Missouri, and Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania all commanded support from a significant share of delegates. Seward led on the first ballot but fell short of a majority, while Lincoln finished in a strong second place. Cameron's delegates shifted to Lincoln on the second ballot, leaving Lincoln essentially tied with Seward. Lincoln clinched the nomination on the third ballot after consolidating support from more delegates who had backed candidates other than Seward.

Hamlin was nominated on the second vice presidential ballot, defeating Cassius Clay of Kentucky and several other candidates.

The ticket of Lincoln and Hamlin went on to win the 1860 general election. After taking office in 1861, Lincoln appointed all four of his major opponents to his cabinet: Seward for secretary of state, Chase for secretary of the treasury (and later for chief justice), Bates for attorney general, and Cameron for secretary of war.

Former Representative
Abraham Lincoln
of Illinois

Senator
William H. Seward
of New York

Senator
Simon Cameron
of Pennsylvania

Former Governor
Salmon P. Chase
of Ohio

Former Representative
Edward Bates
of Missouri

State Attorney General
William L. Dayton
of New Jersey

Associate Justice
John McLean
of Ohio

Senator
Hannibal Hamlin
of Maine

Former
State Representative Cassius M. Clay
of Kentucky

Representative
John Hickman
of Pennsylvania

Former Governor Andrew H. Reeder
of Pennsylvania

Governor
Nathaniel P. Banks
of Massachusetts

1860 Democratic National Convention

1860 United States presidential election

History of the United States Republican Party

List of Republican National Conventions

U.S. presidential nomination convention

Wide Awakes

— Chicago venue for the 1860 convention.

Wigwam

Abbott, Richard (1986). . University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807816809.

The Republican Party and the South, 1855-1877: The First Southern Strategy

Casdorph, Paul Douglas (1962). "The Bogus Texas Delegation to the 1860 Republican National Convention". . 65 (4): 480–486. JSTOR 30237786.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Curry, Earl R. (1973). "Pennsylvania and the Republican Convention of 1860: A Critique of McClure's Thesis". . 97 (2): 183–198. JSTOR 20090731.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Ecelbarger, Gary (2008). . New York: St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0312374136.

The Great Comeback: How Abraham Lincoln Beat the Odds to Win the 1860 Republican Nomination

Egerton, Douglas (2010). Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War. New York: Bloomsbury. 978-1596916197.

ISBN

(1970). Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195013522.

Foner, Eric

Foner, Eric (1980). . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195027817.

Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War

Grinspan, Jon (2009). "'Young Men for War': The Wide Awakes and Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign". . 96 (2): 357–378. doi:10.1093/jahist/96.2.357. JSTOR 25622297.

Journal of American History

Johnson, Charles W., ed. (1893). . Minneapolis, MN: Harrison and Smith, Printers.

Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions of 1856, 1860 and 1864: Including Proceedings of the Antecedent National Convention Held at Pittsburg in February, 1856, as Reported by Horace Greeley

(1942). "Indiana and Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency". Indiana Magazine of History. 38 (4): 385–405. JSTOR 27787334.

Luthin, Reinhard H.

Kellogg, Amherst W. (1921). "The Chicago Convention of 1860". . 5 (1): 99–104. JSTOR 4630342.

Wisconsin Magazine of History

Roll, Charles (1929). "Indiana's Part in the Nomination of Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860". . 25 (1): 1–13. JSTOR 27786367.

Indiana Magazine of History

Shutes, Milton H. (1948). "Republican Nominating Convention of 1860: A California Report". . 27 (2): 97–103. doi:10.2307/25156091. JSTOR 25156091.

California Historical Society Quarterly

Temple, Wayne C. (1999). "Delegates to the Illinois State Republican Nominating Convention in 1860". . 92 (3): 289–298. JSTOR 40193228.

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

Van Deusen, Glyndon G. (1947). "Thurlow Weed's Analysis of William H. Seward's Defeat in the Republican Convention of 1860". . 34 (1): 101–104. doi:10.2307/1895998. JSTOR 1895998.

Mississippi Valley Historical Review

Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, and Company, 1860.

Proceedings of the Republican National Convention held at Chicago, May 16, 17 and 18, 1860.

at The American Presidency Project

Republican Party Platform of 1860

Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, www.cprr.org/ —Digital image of printed campaign flyer.