Two rails from a lot of
three thousand, made in 1830, by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose
father was the first pioneer of Macon county."
The effect of this contribution can well be imagined: at once it became
useless to talk in Illinois of any other man than Abraham Lincoln for
President.
On the 16th of May the National Republican Convention was called
together in Chicago. The convention met in a large building called the
"Wigwam," which had been constructed specially for the occasion. The
contest for the nomination lay between William H. Seward of New York and
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. On the third ballot, as we know, the latter
was nominated. I was but a youth on that memorable day, but I vividly
recollect that I was standing, with other urchins, nearly opposite the
"Wigwam," and was startled when a man stationed on top of the building
yelled out, "Fire: Lincoln is nominated!" Then followed the roar of
cannon and cheers upon cheers.
When the news reached Mr. Lincoln he was chatting with some friends
in the office of the "Sangamon Journal," in Springfield. He read the
telegram aloud, and then said: "There is a little woman down at our
house who will like to hear this. I'll go down and tell her." The
"little woman" was his wife, whom, as Mary Todd, he had won in 1842, and
he knew that she was more anxious that he should be President than he
himself was.
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