No two men could be more unlike than Lincoln and Davis. The groundwork of Davis’ nature was an intense pride. A friend described him as “as ambitious as Lucifer and as cold as a lizard.” He was cold in manner and seldom laughed. Lincoln was entirely humble-minded, full of passionate longing to help the weak. To Lincoln what was common was therefore precious. Jefferson Davis said the minority, and not the majority, ought to rule. And their looks were as unlike as their minds. Jefferson Davis, with his beautiful proud face, as cold and as handsome as a statue, expressed the utter contempt and scorn of the aristocrat for everything and every one beneath him. When the Democratic party met at Charleston to nominate their candidate for the presidentship, they were hopelessly divided. Douglas’s Freeport speech had set the South against him. For the last four years there had been a growing section which said that, as long as the South was fastened to the North, slavery was not safe. Now seven states, led by South Carolina, left the Democratic meeting and nominated Davis as their candidate. The Republican party met at Chicago. There was only one man strong, reasonable, and sane enough for every section of the party to accept. This was Abraham Lincoln. At the time of his nomination, Lincoln was playing barnball with his children in the field behind his house. When told that he had been chosen, he said, “You must be able to find some better man than me.” But he was ready to take up the difficult task. He knew that he could serve his country, and he was not afraid. He had a clear ideal before him--to preserve America as one united whole. He saw that war might come. As he had said, five years before, America could not endure for ever half slave and half free--it must be all free: and the South would not let slavery go without war. The election came in November. The result was that Lincoln was elected President. For four years the destiny of his country was in his hands. CHAPTER VI THE NEW PRESIDENT AND SECESSION LINCOLN’S election was a thunderbolt to the South. It meant that the great question of slavery would have to be decided one way or another. Lincoln was a man who had opinions, and opinions in which he believed, for which he would fight; he would not let things drift as Buchanan did. Buchanan’s policy would have ended in allowing the South to separate itself from the North; the Southern politicians knew this, and they wanted Buchanan’s policy carried on, so as to make that separation possible.