he Republicans would never take up so slippery a
quantity as Douglas had proved himself. But Greeley--the all-important
Greeley--was lukewarm. "The Republican standard is too high," he told
Herndon. "We want something practical.... Douglas is a brave man.
Forget the past and sustain the righteous." "Good God, righteous, eh!"
groaned Herndon in his letter to Lincoln.

But though the encouragement which came to Lincoln from the East in
the spring of 1858 was meagre, that which came from Illinois was
abundant. There the Republicans supported him in whole-hearted
devotion. In June, the State convention, meeting in Springfield to
nominate its candidate for Senator, declared that Abraham Lincoln was
its first and only choice as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas. The
press was jubilant. "Unanimity is a weak word," wrote the editor of
the Bloomington "Pantagraph," "to express the universal and intense
feeling of the convention. _Lincoln!_ LINCOLN!! LINCOLN!!! was the cry
everywhere, whenever the senatorship was alluded to. Delegates from
Chicago and from Cairo, from the Wabash and the Illinois, from the
north, the center, and the south, were alike fierce with enthusiasm,
whenever that loved name was breathed. Enemies at home and misjudging
friends abroad, who have looked for dissension among us on the
question of the senatorship, will please take notice that our
nomination is a unanimous one; and that, in the event of a Republican
majority in the next Legislature, no other name than Lincoln's will be
mentioned, or thought of, by a solitary Republican legislator. One
little incident in the convention was a pleasing illustration of the
universality of the Lincoln sentiment. Cook County had brought a
banner into the assemblage inscribed, 'Cook County for Abraham
Lincoln.' During a pause in the proceedings, a delegate from another
county rose and proposed, with the consent of the Cook County
delegation, 'to amend the banner by substituting for "Cook County" the
word which I hold in my hand,' at the same time unrolling a scroll,
and revealing the word 'Illinois' in huge capitals. The Cook
delegation promptly accepted the amendment, and amidst a perfect
hurricane of hurrahs, the banner was duly altered to express the
sentiment of the whole Republican party of the State, thus: 'Illinois
for Abraham Lincoln.'"

On the evening of the day of his nomination, Lincoln addressed his
constituents. The first paragraph of his speech gave th