The promises of Democratic leaders had failed, their predictions had been falsified, and as a consequence their strength was shattered.

The Republicans of Pennsylvania, seeing their advantage, pressed it by renewed and urgent demands for a protective tariff.

On the other issues of the party they had been hopelessly beaten, but the moment the hostility to slave-labor in the Territories became identified with protected labor in Pennsylvania, the party was inspired with new hopes, received indeed a new life.
It was this condition of public opinion in Pennsylvania which made the recognition of the protective system so essential in the Chicago platform of 1860.

It was to that recognition that Mr.Lincoln in the end owed his election.

The memorable victory of Andrew G.
Curtin, when he was chosen governor by a majority of thirty-two thousand, was largely due to his able and persuasive presentation of the tariff question, and to his effective appeals to the laboring- men in the coal and iron sections of the State.