ough the vicissitudes of civil war" (Pitt 34). He joined the new Republican Party, "the coalition of former Whigs and Democrats who pledged themselves to resisting the spread of slavery" (Pitt 35). He became the leading Republican in Illinois and in 1856 he received 110 votes for vice-president at the Republican convention.
But when Lincoln ran against Stephen Douglas for the position of Illinois senator he lost. Even though he lost the election, the Lincoln-Douglas debates "electrified not only Illinois but the nation" and Lincoln became famous throughout the country (Davis 16). By the time of the 1860 convention he was considered a true presidential candidate by the Illinois Republicans but he was still a very distant second to John Seward of New York. Stephen Douglas had been nominated by the Democrats and the "hard pro-slavery Southern rights faction" were against him because "he was not solid enough on slavery extension" (Davis 19). This meant that the Southern Democrats were likely to nominate a candidate of their own and divide the Democratic vote. The Republican convention knew then that they were "faced with the probability that "they were not just choosing a nominee, but the next president" (Davis 19). In a famous speech at the beginning of the senatorial election race Lincoln had said in 1858 that he believed the nation could no
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