>1860 convention is held in Chicago >"Rivers have the consistency of pea soup and smell like rotted flesh">Lincoln lucks out as Illinois is his stronghold, yet nobody considers him for president>everybody considers him ugly and uncultured, Seward, the front-runner, treated him like a nobody to his face >His saving grace was that he was so unpopular that nobody knew his policies>His supporters hired "shouters" and stole staggered seats from seward aligned politicians so they could pretend like the convention supported lincoln>When seward was going to win during the second round of voting his supporters stole the voting sheets so that nobody could vote >During the third round of voting his supporters promised voters every position in his cabinet, selling the same seats to multiple people, as they put it "lying like hell">They told the know nothing aligned politicians he was an anti immigrant racist and the pacifist aligned politicians he was a peace advocate, both were lies>To top it off Horace Greeley, the largest republican mouthpiece in the US, mad at seward for not giving him a the governorship of new york, turned on him claiming he couldn't win a national election
In those days party conventions actually meant something and it wasn't just a campy circlejerk for the party faithful and donors. I guess the real need for conventions disappeared after the primary system became a thing in the early 20th century.
damn and I thought the Trumpists needed to get a life for still going on about the 2020 election
>>16886999The primary system only really became a huge thing post 1968, and with it came the demise of the party as a party. They've become resentment vehicles.
>>16887041right after JFK was shot and Nixon abandoned the gold standard, really makes ya think
>>16887047>These happened simultaneously
