This was the first time that Mr.Lincoln was conspicuously named outside of his own State.

He had been a member of the Thirtieth Congress, 1847-9, but being a modest man he had so little forced himself into notice that when his name was proposed for Vice-President, inquiries as to who he was were heard from all parts of the convention.
The principles enunciated by the Democratic and Republican parties on the slavery question formed the only subject for discussion during the canvass in the free States.

From the beginning no doubt was expressed that Mr.Buchanan would find the South practically consolidated in his favor.

Electoral tickets for Fremont were not presented in the slave States, and Fillmore's support in that section was weakened by his obvious inability to carry any of the free States.

The canvass, therefore, rapidly narrowed to a contest between Buchanan and Fremont in the North.