Hannibal Hamlin

[kerry]

There were a few interviews with Hamlin late in life in which he briefly said that he was actually quite intimate with Lincoln, but few people knew it, and he was evidently not disposed to go into detail. I would guess that Lincoln's personal feelings toward Hamlin had little to do with his replacement -- it was probably all political maneuvering, and that's why no one has the story straight. Lincoln was intentionally vague at times and people go in circles trying to pin him down. From what I've read so far, he seems to have been an amiable, good man with good principles, who wasn't showy, but also wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right. He reportedly resigned his government position rather than work with Johnson, and argued with Hayes on Reconstruction, so he was definitely not a supporter of how things went.


According to Wikipedia, "In 1860, Hamlin was the Republican nominee for Vice President; selected to run with Abraham Lincoln, who was from Illinois, Hamlin was chosen in part to bring geographic balance to the ticket and in part because as a former Democrat, he could work to convince other anti-slavery Democrats that their future lay with the Republican Party." If that's accurate, it's not surprising the conditions of 1864 required someone else.