Excerpt from Lincoln's War CabinetThe Chicago Convention of May 1860 has been described as a loose aggregation of free thinkers, and It was indeed a collection of inde pendent, stubborn men, holding no general orthodox creed, agreeing only in opposition to slavery, and {{even on that topic entertaining a va riety of opinions. Nothing more suggestively emphasized discord than the unpopularity of the word Republican. In the minds of most Americans the term signified the same thing as abolitioni'sm, yet the majority of the new party members, including Lincoln himself, repudi ated that sect. From 1856 to 1860, there was a general shrinking from the name. The hosts assembled in the Chicago Wigwam had been or ganized under several designations. In Missouri they called themselves simply the Opposition. In that locality several of the factions which made up the anti-democratic forces refused to enter state and county conventions that had enrolled under the Republican banner. In Ohio and Pennsylvania the same forces chose to be known as the People's or the Popular Party. Union Party, anti-nebraska Party, Antislavery Party, free-soil Party, were a few of the other denominations which the enemies of slavery extension preferred to the newfangled standard. Even in 1864, when the clans assembled in Baltimore to nominate Lin coln for a second term, the gathering adopted the name of National Union Party. Not until 1868 did the word Republican definitely fix itself in the political glossary of the nation. Slavery had then been ex tinguished, new issues were claiming attention, and no fear any longer prevailed that to be called a Republican was to write oneself down as another John Brown or William Lloyd Garrison.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.