Medill, of the Chicago
Tribune
, Davis is alleged to have said that he got the Pennsylvanians “by paying their price.” It may not have been that simple. A century later Davis’s biographer, Willard King, after an exhaustive study, concluded that the bargain was not made. Davis and Swett, he believed, said only that Pennsylvania certainly was entitled to a place in the cabinet and that they personally would recommend Cameron; when Casey refused to accept this, they added that they would get every member of the Illinois delegation to endorse Cameron’s claim. They agreed, also, thatCameron would, on their word, have access to Lincoln immediately-after the election. With this, Casey finally was content. 5
However it was done, it was done. When delegates and spectators elbowed their way into the Wigwam, the Pennsylvania delegation was committed to vote for Lincoln on the second ballot.
There had been other things to do. On this day when the names would be formally placed in nomination and the votes would be counted, the pressure of the galleries would be extremely important. There were many delegates outside of the wavering Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey groups who were ready to desert Seward and go with a winner if they saw the actual victory taking shape before their eyes and within sound of their ears. Vermont and Virginia would break away with suitable incentive, and even Chase’s Ohio delegation contained men who knew Chase could not win and were looking for a place to light. Persuasive men from Illinois would work on all such groups. Also, certain political realists would make certain that the Wigwam was as full as possible of men who would cheer for Lincoln whenever the occasion offered.
The Seward people this morning were as confident as they had been the night before. More than a thousand leather-lunged rooters from New York were ready to make a cheering section, and these were marshaled in front of the Richmond Hotel with a brass band to play them down to the convention. It took time to get these people assembled, and the march was not brisk—and when the procession reached the Wigwam, every empty seat (aside from the section reserved for accredited delegates) was occupied by a man from Illinois, ready to yell his head off for the home-state favorite. The Seward rooters were frozen out. It was rumored afterward that Davis’s cohorts had had a print shop run off fake admission tickets, although this apparently had not been necessary; but whether outright fakery was employed or not, the galleries and aisles were crammed almost to suffocation with Lincoln men. The gallery at Charleston had helped to kill Douglas; now Seward would be killed with the help of the gallery at Chicago. 6
When the Friday session opened, there was not in the Wigwam room for one more man, and thousands of people, some of them doubtless cursing vigorously, jammed the streets outside. In the hall there was a tense hush; then the roll was called, and the states puttheir candidates in nomination. The modern custom of thirty-minute nominating and seconding speeches did not then prevail, fortunately for the tempers of all concerned, and the nominations were made quickly. Evarts put in Seward’s name, Judd offered Lincoln’s, Francis P. Blair nominated Bates, and others put up Chase, Cameron, and such outside contenders as Justice John McLean, of Ohio, and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey. Most of the applause, it was noticed, came for the names of Seward and Lincoln; and when Caleb Smith, of Indiana, rose to second Lincoln’s nomination, and Austin Blair, of Michigan, seconded Seward, Halstead wrote that “the shouting was absolutely frantic,” so that some delegates stopped their ears in pain, and hundreds of hats, tossed toward the ceiling by enthusiastic delegates, filled the air like a swarm of hornets. The loudest shouting, Halstead said, came for Lincoln: “Imagine all the hogs ever slaughtered in Cincinnati giving their
Tribune
, Davis is alleged to have said that he got the Pennsylvanians “by paying their price.” It may not have been that simple. A century later Davis’s biographer, Willard King, after an exhaustive study, concluded that the bargain was not made. Davis and Swett, he believed, said only that Pennsylvania certainly was entitled to a place in the cabinet and that they personally would recommend Cameron; when Casey refused to accept this, they added that they would get every member of the Illinois delegation to endorse Cameron’s claim. They agreed, also, thatCameron would, on their word, have access to Lincoln immediately-after the election. With this, Casey finally was content. 5
However it was done, it was done. When delegates and spectators elbowed their way into the Wigwam, the Pennsylvania delegation was committed to vote for Lincoln on the second ballot.
There had been other things to do. On this day when the names would be formally placed in nomination and the votes would be counted, the pressure of the galleries would be extremely important. There were many delegates outside of the wavering Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey groups who were ready to desert Seward and go with a winner if they saw the actual victory taking shape before their eyes and within sound of their ears. Vermont and Virginia would break away with suitable incentive, and even Chase’s Ohio delegation contained men who knew Chase could not win and were looking for a place to light. Persuasive men from Illinois would work on all such groups. Also, certain political realists would make certain that the Wigwam was as full as possible of men who would cheer for Lincoln whenever the occasion offered.
The Seward people this morning were as confident as they had been the night before. More than a thousand leather-lunged rooters from New York were ready to make a cheering section, and these were marshaled in front of the Richmond Hotel with a brass band to play them down to the convention. It took time to get these people assembled, and the march was not brisk—and when the procession reached the Wigwam, every empty seat (aside from the section reserved for accredited delegates) was occupied by a man from Illinois, ready to yell his head off for the home-state favorite. The Seward rooters were frozen out. It was rumored afterward that Davis’s cohorts had had a print shop run off fake admission tickets, although this apparently had not been necessary; but whether outright fakery was employed or not, the galleries and aisles were crammed almost to suffocation with Lincoln men. The gallery at Charleston had helped to kill Douglas; now Seward would be killed with the help of the gallery at Chicago. 6
When the Friday session opened, there was not in the Wigwam room for one more man, and thousands of people, some of them doubtless cursing vigorously, jammed the streets outside. In the hall there was a tense hush; then the roll was called, and the states puttheir candidates in nomination. The modern custom of thirty-minute nominating and seconding speeches did not then prevail, fortunately for the tempers of all concerned, and the nominations were made quickly. Evarts put in Seward’s name, Judd offered Lincoln’s, Francis P. Blair nominated Bates, and others put up Chase, Cameron, and such outside contenders as Justice John McLean, of Ohio, and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey. Most of the applause, it was noticed, came for the names of Seward and Lincoln; and when Caleb Smith, of Indiana, rose to second Lincoln’s nomination, and Austin Blair, of Michigan, seconded Seward, Halstead wrote that “the shouting was absolutely frantic,” so that some delegates stopped their ears in pain, and hundreds of hats, tossed toward the ceiling by enthusiastic delegates, filled the air like a swarm of hornets. The loudest shouting, Halstead said, came for Lincoln: “Imagine all the hogs ever slaughtered in Cincinnati giving their
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