Mr. Lincoln was in the office of the Springfield Journal when he received the first notification of his nomination. After allowing the assembled people to congratulate him, he said, “There is a little woman down at our house that would like to hear the news,” and he started at once for home.
IV
HOW LINCOLN WAS FIRST ELECTED
Not long after the nomination I went to Chicago and thence to Springfield. When I called at the modest Lincoln home, in order to offer my congratulations, I found him eager to obtain every ray of light upon the prospects of the coming campaign.
“What are the chances of my election?” he asked, as he took my hand.
“You are going to get the entire North,” I replied, “on account of the Democratic division between Breckenridge and Douglas.”
“That is my own way of calculating,” he assented, “but I am glad to get the views of everybody of experience in political matters.”
“Mr. Dittenhoefer is absolutely correct in his figuring,” put in a bystander, and the glimmer of a smile of satisfaction passed over Mr. Lincoln’s rugged countenance. I stepped back and stood looking and wondering. Typically Western he seemed to be in face, figure, and dress. How would he bear himself if called upon to direct the destinies of the Republic? Let me say frankly that, at this early day, no suspicion of his real greatness had ever entered my mind. I knew he was an able man, and I was content to hope that he might be strong enough to cope with the coming crisis in national affairs.
The Republican campaign, which began in earnest by the middle of June and lasted until the night before election day in November, differed in many respects from any other in my recollection.
I believe that there was more sincerity of soul put into the efforts to win by fair means than has appeared in more recent national contests.
A few days before the election of 1860 I made a speech at Cooper Institute, which began as follows: