Abraham Lincoln Picks a Vice President or Two

As I write this, Barack Obama’s Vice President Joe Biden is within days of picking his own vice presidential running mate, so it seems a good time to revisit the two vice presidents that Abraham Lincoln picked. Well, saying Lincoln picked his vice presidents isn’t quite accurate. In fact, he had nothing to do with picking the first one and likely not much more to do with the second one.

Presidents and their running mates back in Lincoln’s day were picked by the party’s nominating convention. Today we have what seems an endless campaigns and a series of state primaries and caucuses that drag on for months. The public votes for delegates who are supposed to carry that vote to the convention, which is more for show than it is for making any decisions on candidates. By the time the convention shows up we already know who is the nominee.

Not so in Lincoln’s time. The public had no say in who the party nominated. Nothing was secured in advance. When the date of the convention came each candidate would have his representatives in the smoke-filled rooms trying to persuade enough of the delegates to swing to them. There were usually several rounds of voting. In 1860, most people expected that New York Senator William Seward would get the nomination, and he led on the first ballot. But Lincoln was surprisingly close behind, closed the gap on the second ballot, and won on the third ballot. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for President.

Then the convention delegates went on to pick the vice president. Seward’s people, not happy that their man hadn’t won, blocked any choice from nearby states, insisting that the convention choose Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. As a former Democrat, Hamlin was considered a good balance with the former Whig Lincoln ideologically, as well as the geographical balance with the westerner from Illinois. Through all of this deciding, Lincoln was in Springfield waiting in the telegraph office for news. He had nothing to do with picking Hamlin.

In 1864 Lincoln was the sitting President in the midst of the Civil War. By the time of the nominating convention he had survived an attempted coup of sorts by his Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase. The Republican party, in an effort to secure all the pro-Union voters for Lincoln, opted to rename itself (for one election only) the National Union party. With this in mind the party operatives sought to balance the ticket more than the Mainer Hamlin could do, so they nominated Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as the vice presidential running mate. Johnson had been the only southern Senator that remained in the Union when their states seceded. Lincoln had appointed him as military Governor in those parts of Tennessee recaptured by the Union. He was a loyal Unionist, although he would have faults that would become all too evident.

Some have inaccurately argued that Lincoln forced Hamlin out and brought Johnson in, but that isn’t true. The delegates of the convention made the choices then, and they did in this case. When old friend Leonard Swett asked Lincoln about one particular candidate, Lincoln responded “Wish not to interfere about V.P. Can not interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself.”

All of this set the stage for endless “what ifs” when Lincoln was assassinated, making Andrew Johnson President instead of Hannibal Hamlin. Johnson went on to be impeached by the Republican Congress and lived in infamy as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history (usually just behind James Buchanan, who preceded Lincoln).

In Lincoln’s time and before, vice presidents had very little in the way of official duties. Essentially they sat around waiting to see if the President passed away in office, which had happened a couple of times before and caused problems as Whig Presidents were replaced by Vice Presidents with differing ideologies. In modern times the presidential nominee for each party picks their own vice presidential running mate. This makes it more likely that they will pick someone with whom they are more compatible ideologically and stylistically. Many more significant responsibilities are delegated to vice presidents today, so the selection of running mate is much more important than in the past.

[Since I mention Joe Biden’s imminent running mate pick, I’ll update this with the name after the announcement: It’s Kamala Harris!]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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