I've always felt that he took it as a personal insult that the South was not even thinking he should be a cadidate. We've read the contradictions in the Lincoln Papers on his opinions on slavery. He took the expedient route for the vote. In some ways I do think he wanted to please a lot of the people but the biggest thing he was doing was covering his hind end. He was also looking at the budget without the revenue from the Southern exports and found a bit of a reduction. How do you conduct a policy that would increase military presence in the West to protect the new territories and to at least make an attempt at protecting the settlers if the federal budget is facing cuts? Oh he did do some fancy tap dancing and he did it so well it was difficult to tell if it was his opinion or the PC thing to do.

Pam