Life of Abraham Lincoln, by J. G. Holland.

228 LIFE OF ABRAHAMI LINCOLN.
cheers for Abraham Lincoln, the next President of the United
States;" and the call was boisterously responded to. He then
handed the dispatch to Mr. Lincoln who read in silence, and
then aloud, its contents. After the excitement had in a measure passed away from the little assembly, Mr. Lincoln rose,
and remarkingc that there was "a little woman" on Eighth
street who had some interest in the matter, pocketed the telegram and walked home.
As soon as the news reached Springfield, the citizens who
had a personal affection for Mr. Lincoln which amounted
almost to idolatry, responded with a hundred guns, and during
the afternoon thronged his house to tender their congratulations and express their joy. In the evening, the State House
was thrown open, and a most enthusiastic meeting held by the
republicans. At its close, they marched in a body to the
Lincoln mansion, and called for the nominee. Mr. Lincoln
appeared, and after a brief, modest and hearty speech, invited
as many as could get into the house to enter, the crowd responding that after the fourth of March they would give him
a larger house. The people did not retire until a late hour,
and then moved off reluctantly, leaving the excited household
to their rest.
On the following day, which was Saturday, Mr. Ashmun,
the president of the convention, at the head of a committee,
visited Springfield to apprise Mr. Lincoln officially of his
nomination. In order that the ceremony might be smoothly
performed, the committee had an interview with Mr. Lincoln
before the hour appointed for the formal call. They found him
at a loss to know how to treat a present he had just received
at the hands of some of his considerate Springfield friends.
Knowing Mr. Lincoln's temperate or rather abstinent habits,
and laboring under the impression that the visitors from Chicago would have wants beyond the power of cold water to
satisfy, these friends had sent in sundry hampers of wines and
liquors. These strange fluids troubled Mr. Lincoln; and he
frankly confessed as much to the members of the committee.
The chairman at once advised him to return the gift, and to