The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-07-11
WHY HAMLIN WAS BEATEN
Col. A. X. Mcclure Tells the Sscret OF the
Baltimore Convention of 1864

Col. A. X. Mcclure Tells the Sscret OF the
Baltimore Convention of 1861.
PHILADELPHIA, July tn a leading
editorial entitled "LincIln and II lmlin,"
the Times makes the following import
ant statement regarding the defeat of
Hannibal Hamlln for the nomination of
Vlce-P President in 1868
1t is true that Hamlin, IN entirely un
Objectionable Vice President. and a
leader with peculiar claims upon the
Repu blican party, WAS rejected as Wee
President by the Republican convention
of1S64 to place Southern man in that
office, and it is equally true that it would
not and could not have been done had
President Lincoln opposed it. So fag
from opposing it, Lincoln discreetly
favored it; indeed, earnestly desired it.
The writer hereof was delegate at
large from Pennsy lvapIa IN the Balti-
more convention of 1864, and in response
from an invitation from the President to
visit Washington on the evening of the
meeting of the body conference was
had, in which Lincoln grave!y urged the
nomination of johnson for Vice Presi-
dent, 1t was solely III Difference to
Lincolu's earnest convictions as to the
national and international necessities
for the vice presidency that the writer's
vote was cast against Hamlin, and other
Pennsylvania delegates were influenced
to the same action by the confidential
assurance of Lincoln's wishes.
1t should not be assumed that Lincoln
was ambitious to play the role of p0liti-
cal master or that be was perfdIouS to
any. His position was not only one of
the greatest delicacy in politics, but he
was loaded with responsibilities to which
all former Presidents had been strangers.
His one supreme desire was the restora-
ton of the Union, and lie would gladly
have surrendered his own high honor,
and even his life, if thereby he restored
the discovered States. The one great
shadow that hung over him and Lis
power was the sectional character of the
ruling party aud the government. 1t
weakened his arm to make peace. 1t
strengthened European hostility to the
cause of the Union, and il lett the South
without even silver lining to the dark
cloud of subjugatiou. Lincoln firmly
believed that the nomination of johnson
an old Democratic Southern Senator,
who had been aggressively loyal to the
Union, and who was then the military
governor of his rebellious but destroyed
State, would not only desectionalizs the
party and the government. but would
chill and curb the anti Union sentiment
of England and France and inspire the
friends of the Union in those countries
to see leading statesmen from con-
quered insurgent State elevated to the
second Office of the republic.
Such were Lincoln's sincere convic-
tions and such his earnest arguments in
favor of the nomination of johnson in
1864, and but for Lincoln's convictions
on the subject Hamlin would have been
renominated and succeeded to the Presi-
deucy instead of Johnson. 1t is easy, in
the clear light of the present, to say that
the nomination of johnson was grave
misfortune and to speculate on the
countless evils which could have been
averted, but the one man who was most
devoted to the endangered nation, and
who could best judge of the sober neces-
not only wise, but an imperious need,
to take a Vice President from the South,
and that is why Hannibal Hamlin was
not renominated in 1864"