The 1860 Republican Convention The 1860 Republican Convention was held in Chicago and began on May 16. Balloting for the presidential nomination took place on May 18. It took 233 votes for a candidate to receive a majority. On the first ballot, Seward had 173 votes, Lincoln 102, and most of the rest were scattered among several favorite sons. The Seward campaign managers had counted on all ten of the New Hampshire votes, but seven of New Hampshire votes went to Lincoln on the first ballot. On the second ballot, nine of the ten New Hampshire votes went to Lincoln. The whole Vermont delegation switched from favorite son Jacob Collamer to Lincoln. And a large percentage of the Connecticut and Rhode Island delegates switched to Lincoln. The whole Pennsylvania delegation also switched to Lincoln. At the end of the second ballot, Seward had 184-1/2 votes and Lincoln had 181 votes (Van Deusen 1967, 223). On the third ballot, Massachusetts changed four votes to Lincoln, Ohio gave twenty-nine of its forty-eight votes to Lincoln, and Maryland swung all its votes to Lincoln. The result was Seward 180 and Lincoln 231-1/2. Lincoln was just 1-1/2 votes short of a majority (King 1960, 141). Before the results of the balloting were even announced, the chairman of the Ohio delegation rose to announce a shift of four votes to Lincoln. Others then rose to shift their votes to Lincoln, and finally, the chairman of the New York delegation rose to ask that the nomination be made unanimous. So on the third ballot, Abraham Lincoln became the Republican nominee for President (Van Deusen 1967, 224-225).
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:31:01 +0000
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