Lincoln, the unknown

16Stephen A. Douglas did more than any one else to elevateLincoln to the White House, for Douglas split the Democraticparty and put three candidates in the field against Lincoln insteadof one.With the opposition hopelessly divided, Lincoln realized, earlyin the contest, that he would be victorious; but, nevertheless, hefeared that he would not be able to carry his own precinctor his home town. A committee made a house-to-house canvassin advance, to find out how the people in Springfield were goingto ballot. When Lincoln saw the result of this canvass, he wasastonished: all except three of the twenty-three ministers andtheological students in town were against him, and so were manyof their stanchest followers. Lincoln commented bitterly: "Theypretend to believe in the Bible and be God-fearing Christians;yet by their ballots they are demonstrating that they don't carewhether slavery is voted up or down. But I know God cares andhumanity cares, and if they don't, surely they have not readtheir Bibles aright."It is surprising to discover that all of Lincoln's relatives on hisfather's side, and all except one on his mother's side, votedagainst him. Why? Because they were Democrats.Lincoln was elected by a minority of the votes of the nation.His opponents had approximately three votes to his two. It wasa sectional triumph, for of his two million votes only twentyfourthousand came from the South. A change of only one vote113