Thurlow weed civil war timeline

The second Republican Party Presidential election was held in Working against Weed was the fact that the Republican convention was to be held in Chicago, Illinois, home state of Abraham Lincoln. Weed knew that his man, Seward, was far better known throughout the country. Senator and as a leading anti-slavery proponent he had received extensive publicity.

His biggest drawback was that he had been considered at one time to be the most radical anti-slavery member of the Senate. Pruyn and Ira Harris. Weed was a very experienced political operative.

After the Civil War, Weed and Seward allied with President Andrew Johnson and supported Johnson's approach to Reconstruction.

He was smart, controlled a large amount of funding and was a master at communicating with the right people and developing consensus. He had his own political philosophies, which he editorialized in his Albany Evening Journal , but within reason, he would move to the middle to satisfy a larger group, and work out arrangements to try to keep everyone happy.

Weed arrived in Chicago and went right to work, meeting with each contingent and trying to garner support for Seward. He offered the Illinois contingent the nomination for Vice-President for Lincoln if they would support Seward on the first ballot. Although Lincoln supposedly opposed it, the Illinois group fought back with their own efforts.

To prevent Weed from packing the convention, Lincoln supporters worked out special low railroad rates for Lincoln supporters to come from throughout Illinois. Both sides promised cabinet posts to key supporters if they could swing state votes. On the third ballot, Lincoln picked up almost all of the non-Seward votes and passed the needed for a majority.

Abraham Lincoln was now the nominated Presidential candidate of the Republican Party and the overwhelming majority of delegates had never even seen Abraham Lincoln.