Mr. Lincoln was thus elected by a plurality of the popular vote, which secured for him the electoral votes of eighteen States. These States were entirely north of the sectional line, and he received not a single electoral vote from a Southern State. The States which cast their electoral votes for Breckinridge, Bell, and Douglas, were entirely slaveholding. The division thus made was alarming. It was the first time in the history of the republic that a President had been elected by the votes of a single section of the Union.

The eighteen States that voted for Mr. Lincoln, under the plurality count of the popular vote, were Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Oregon. The eleven that voted for Mr. Breckinridge were: Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. The three that so voted for Mr. Bell were: Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee; and the one that so voted for Mr. Douglas was Missouri. Mr. Lincoln did not receive the majority of the popular vote in but sixteen of the thirty-three States then constituting the Union; so he had been constitutionally elected, without having received a majority of the popular vote of the States or of the people.

ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.

March 4th, 1861-April 15th, 1865.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington on the 4th of March, 1861. As it was feared that an attempt would be made to prevent the inauguration, the city was held by a strong body of regular troops, under General Scott, and the President elect was escorted from his hotel to the capitol by a military force. No effort was made to interfere with the ceremonies, and the inauguration passed off quietly.

The new President was in his fifty-third year, and was a native of Kentucky. When he was but eight years old his father removed to Indiana, and the boyhood of the future President was spent in hard labor upon the farm. Until he reached manhood he continued to lead this life, and during this entire period attended school for only a year. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Illinois, where he began life as a storekeeper. Being anxious to rise above his humble position, he determined to study law. He was too poor to buy the necessary books, and so borrowed them from a neighboring lawyer, read them at night, and returned them in the morning. His genial character, great good nature, and love of humor, won him

the friendship of the people among whom he resided, and they elected him to the lower house of the legislature of Illinois. He now abandoned his mercantile pursuits, and began the practice of the law, and was subsequently elected a representative

to Congress from the Springfield district.

He took an active part in the politics of his State, and in 1858 was the candidate of the Republican party for United States senator. In this capacity he engaged in a series of debates in various parts of the

State with Senator Douglas, the Democratic candidate for re-election to the same position. This debate was remarkable for its brilliancy and intellectual vigor, and brought him prominently before the whole country, and opened the way to his nomination for the Presidency. In person he was tall and ungainly, and in manner he was rough and awkward, little versed in the refinements of society. He was a man, however, of great natural vigor of intellect, and was possessed of a fund of strong common sense, which enabled him to see at a glance through the shams by which he was surrounded, and to pursue his own aims with singleness of heart and directness of purpose. He had sprung from the ranks of the people, and he was never false to them. He was a simple, unaffected, kind-hearted man; anxious to do his duty to the whole country; domestic in his tastes and habits; and incorruptible in every relation of life. He was fond of humor, and overflowed with it; finding in his "little stories" the only relaxation he ever sought from the heavy cares of the trying position upon which he was now entering. He selected his cabinet from the leading men of the Republican party, and placed William H. Seward, of New York, as Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the

Interior; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Post master-General; and Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney-General.

The Great Civil War was the all-important event of Mr. Lincoln's administration.

In 1864 the next Presidential election was held. The Republican National Convention met at Baltimore, June 7, and adopted a platform declaring war upon slavery, and demanding that no terms but unconditional surrender should be given to the rebellious States. It nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President.

The latter was a United States Senator when his State allied itself to the Confederacy. He, however, continued to hold his seat, and was the only Senator from any of the States, who did so after the withdrawal of their States from the Federal Union.

The Democratic Convention met at Chicago August 29, and nominated for the Presidency General George B. McClellan, of the Federal army, and for the Vice-Presidency, George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. The result was Messrs. Lincoln and Johnson carried the electoral votes of every State except three, to wit: New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky; of the popular vote the Democratic ticket received 1,802,237, against 2,213,665 cast for Lincoln and Johnson.

Abraham Lincoln having been duly elected was