When the Republican national convention came together in
Baltimore on June 7, 1864, it had very little to do, for its
delegates were bound by rigid instructions to vote for Abraham
Lincoln.
He was chosen on the first ballot, every State voting for him
except Missouri, whose representatives had been instructed to
vote for Grant. Missouri at once changed its vote, and the
secretary of the convention read the grand total of 506 for
Lincoln, his announcement being greeted by a storm of cheers that
lasted several minutes.
It was not so easy to choose a Vice-President. Mr. Lincoln had
been besieged by many people to make known his wishes in the
matter, but had persistently refused. He rightly felt that it
would be presumptuous in him to dictate who should be his
companion on the ticket, and, in case of his death, his successor
in office. This was for the delegates to the convention to
decide, for they represented the voters of the country. He had no
more right to dictate who should be selected than the Emperor of
China would have had. It is probable that Vice-President Hamlin
would have been renominated, if it had not been for the general
feeling both in and out of the convention that, under all the
circumstances, it would be wiser to select some man who had been
a Democrat, and had yet upheld the war. The choice fell upon
Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was not only a Democrat, but had
been appointed by Mr.
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