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 16 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1856

As the presidential year of 1856 came on, the old line Whigs and anti-Nebraska men were fused into the new Republican party through spontaneous conventions held in the different northern states. In Illinois, "People's" conventions assembled in the counties and named delegates to a state convention which was held in Bloomington in May, representing "those regardless of party who oppose the further extension of slave territory and who wish to curb the rising pretentions of the slave oligarchy." Among the prominent men present was Abraham Lincoln, who spoke at the close of the convention. Reporters afterward testified that the spell of his simple oratory was so entrancing that they forgot their tasks and the speech went unreported. In later years it was written out from memory by one of the hearers and became known as "Lincoln's lost speech," being the subject of no little controversy.

[Illinois Journal, Springfield, June 3, 1856]

HON. A. LINCOLN

In the Democratic national convention which met at Cincinnati, June 2, 1856, Douglas on one ballot received