“I’m very glad you did, sir.” Douglass waited for the man to reveal his errand. He leaned forward. “I ain’t a talkin’ man, Mr. Douglass. I’m much more for doin’.” Douglass smiled his approval. The man lowered his tone. “More than once I took on goods for Reverend Rankin.” Douglass knew instantly what he meant. John Rankin was one of Ohio’s most daring Underground Railroad agents. Douglass’ face lit up, and for the second time he grasped his visitor’s rough hand. “Any Rankin man is a hundredfold welcome in my house! What can I do for you?” “Jus’ listen and think on what I’m sayin’. We got a man out our way we’re namin’ for president!” The unexpected announcement caught Douglass up short. “But I thought--” The man waved him to silence. “Yep! I know. You Easterners got your man all picked out. I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ ’bout Mr. Seward. I donno him. But the boys out West _do_ know Abe Lincoln--and we’re gonna back him!” “Abe Lincoln?” Douglass was puzzled. “I never heard of him.” “Nope? Well, it don’t matter. You will!” * * * * * He was gone then, leaving Frederick Douglass very thoughtful. The Westerner was right. Senator William Seward, a tried and true antislavery man, had been picked. The only question had been whether or not the entire party would accept such a known radical. Douglass reached Chicago the evening before the nominations were taken up. He found the city decked out with fence rails which they said “Honest Abe” had split. Evidently the people in the streets knew him, the cab drivers and farmers in from the surrounding country. They stood on street corners, buttonholed workmen hurrying home from work, and they talked about “our man.” Something was in the air. The convention was a bedlam. Even while the thunder of applause that had greeted the nomination of William Seward still hung in the far corners of the hall, Norman B. Judd, standing on a high chair, nominated the man who habitually referred to himself as a “jackleg lawyer.” The roar that greeted Lincoln’s name spread to the packed street outside and kept up until the Seward men were silenced. The cheering died away in the hall, as they began taking the third ballot; but the steady roar in the street found an echo in the chamber, when it was found that Lincoln had received two hundred thirty-one and a half votes, lacking just one and a half votes for nomination. Then Ohio gave its four votes to the “rail-splitter,” and Abraham Lincoln became the Republican candidate for President of the United States. Three candidates were in the field. Stephen A. Douglas, absolute leader of the Democratic party in the West, had been nominated at Baltimore after a bitter and barren fight at Charleston. The “seceding” Southern wing of the party had nominated John C. Breckinridge. Three candidates and one issue, _slavery_.