Lincoln Chosen President--The Election of 1860--The Waiting-time at Springfield--A Deluge of Visitors--Various Impressions of the President-elect--Some Queer Callers--Looking over the Situation with Friends--Talks about the Cabinet--Thurlow Weed's Visit to Springfield--The Serious Aspect of National Affairs--The South in Rebellion--Treason at the National Capital--Lincoln's Farewell Visit to his Mother--The Old Sign, "Lincoln & Herndon"--The Last Day at Springfield--Farewell Speech to Friends and Neighbors--Off for the Capital--The Journey to Washington--Receptions and Speeches along the Route--At Cincinnati: A Hitherto Unpublished Speech by Lincoln--At Cleveland: Personal Descriptions of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln--At New York City: Impressions of the New President--Perils of the Journey--The Baltimore Plot--Change of Route--Arrival at the Capital. The Presidential campaign of 1860, with its excitements and struggles, its "Wide-awake" clubs and boisterous enthusiasm throughout the North, and its bitter and threatening character throughout the South, was at last ended; and on the 6th of November Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.[A] His cause had been aided not a little by an unexpected division in the Democratic party. Douglas had been nominated for the Presidency by this party in its convention at Baltimore on the 18th of June; but he was bitterly opposed by the extreme slavery element of the Democracy, and this faction held a convention of its own at Baltimore ten days later and nominated for President John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. There was still another party, though a very minor one, in the field--the "Constitutional Union Party," based chiefly on a desire to avoid the issue of slavery in national politics--which on the 9th of May had nominated John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate for the Presidency, with Edward Everett of Massachusetts for the Vice-Presidency. There were thus four tickets in the field--the Republican, including if not representing the anti-slavery element in the North; the Democratic, which was pro-slavery in its tendencies but had so far failed to satisfy the Southern wing--now grown alarmed and restless at the growth and tendencies of the Republican party--that this element nominated as a third ticket an out-and-out pro-slavery candidate; and (fourth) a "Constitutional Union" ticket, representing a well-meant but fatuous desire to keep slavery out of national politics altogether.