cept a similar national convention had
a right "to change or interpolate that platform, or to prescribe new
or different tests." By sound party doctrine the Lecompton
constitution ought to be "submitted to the direct vote of the actual
inhabitants of Kansas at a fair election."[679] Could any words have
been more explicit? The administration responded by a merciless
proscription of Douglas office-holders and by unremitting efforts to
create an opposition ticket. Under pressure from Washington,
conventions were held to nominate candidates for the various State
offices, with the undisguised purpose of dividing the Democratic vote
for senator.[680]

On the 16th of June, the Republicans of Illinois threw advice to the
winds and adopted the unusual course of naming Lincoln as "the first
and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States
Senate." It was an act of immense political significance. Not only did
it put in jeopardy the political life of Douglas, but it ended for all
time to come any coalition between his following and the Republican
party.

The subsequent fame of Lincoln has irradiated every phase of his early
career. To his contemporaries in the year 1858, he was a lawyer of
recognized ability, an astute politician, and a frank aspirant for
national honors. Those who imagine him to have been an unambitious
soul, upon whom honors were thrust, fail to understand the Lincoln
whom Herndon, his partner, knew. Lincoln was a seasoned politician. He
had been identified with the old Whig organization; he had repeatedly
represented the Springfield district in the State legislature; and he
had served one term without distinction in Congress. Upon the passage
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act he had taken an active part in fusing the
opposing elements into the Republican party. His services to the new
party made him a candidate for the senatorship in 1855, and received
recognition in the national Republican convention of 1856, when he was
second on the list of those for whom the convention balloted for
Vice-president. He was not unknown to Republicans of the Northwest,
though he was not in any sense a national figure. Few men had a keener
insight into political conditions in Illinois. None knew better the
ins and outs of political campaigning in Illinois.

Withal, Lincoln was rated as a man of integrity. He had strong
convictions and the courage of his convictions. His generous instincts
made him hate slavery,