In 1860, Abraham Lincoln sent a most curious message to Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. It was a letter of introduction. Lincoln, the Republican nominee for president, was reaching out to his running mate! In it Lincoln wrote, “It appears to me that you and I ought to be acquainted…” Hamlin had learned of his nomination just two months earlier.
When Lincoln of Illinois won the nomination, delegates at the party convention in Chicago needed a candidate to balance the national ticket. Hannibal Hamlin, a Radical Republican from the East, fit the bill perfectly. And he hadn’t attended the convention, so he couldn’t say no.
Republican campaign banner, 1860
Who Was Hamlin?
Hannibal Hamlin was born in Paris Hill, Maine, in 1809, when the state still belonged to Massachusetts. He left school early to help with the family farm, and he later studied law. Hamlin began his political career as an anti-slavery Democrat, serving in the Maine House of Representatives and later two terms in Congress. He served as U. S. senator from 1848 until 1857, when he resigned to become Maine’s governor.
Hamlin broke from the Democratic party in 1856, troubled by its increasingly pro-slavery policies. He especially opposed the party’s support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which let the territories decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. In a speech announcing his leaving, Hamlin declared, “I love my country more than I love my party.” He returned to the Senate after a short stint as governor. This time he represented his state as a Republican, the new political party opposed to the spread of slavery.
The Wigwam in Chicago, site of the 1860 Republican National Convention
Hamlin’s act of bravery in publicly breaking with his life-long party didn’t go unnoticed to the convention delegates searching for a candidate for the number-two spot. Without his knowledge, his name was entered for the Republican vice-presidential nomination. Hamlin reluctantly accepted the nomination, loath to give up his seat in the Senate. But he felt it was his duty to do so. He would loyally serve the administration throughout Lincoln’s first term.
Telegram to Abraham Lincoln announcing Hannibal Hamlin as vice presidential nominee
Hamlin as Vice President
At this point in the nation’s history, vice presidents were not considered part of the president’s cabinet. They primarily served a legislative function as the president of the Senate. Hamlin’s initial role in the Lincoln administration, however, was more central than most previous vice presidents. Lincoln sought Hamlin’s opinion in creating his cabinet. He also played a key role in persuading William Seward to accept the post of secretary of state. But, for the most part, he had little interaction with Lincoln or the cabinet, spending much time home in Maine. He described the vice presidency as being a fifth wheel.
Vuce President Hannibal Hamlin
Throughout his term, he remained true to his Radical Republican beliefs. He urged Lincoln to arm Black soldiers, and he strongly supported the Emancipation Proclamation. And, like his fellow Radicals, he railed against appeasing the rebellious states and their leaders. In addition, Lincoln’s conciliatory approach toward Reconstruction troubled him. Despite these differences, he assumed he would be renominated as Lincoln’s running mate.
The Republican Convention of 1864
When the Republicans met in Baltimore in June 1864 to nominate a presidential ticket, the country was in a different place than it was 4 years earlier. The Civil War still raged, although signs of victory were emerging. There wasn’t much doubt that Lincoln would be renominated. Many wondered, though, given Lincoln’s moderate leanings towards Reconstruction, how the Radical Hamlin might fare. The party had renamed itself the National Union Party. It active tried to attract Democrats, both those who opposed the war (Copperheads) and those who supported it (War Democrats).
In addition to Hamlin, two others contended seriously for the vice- presidential nomination. Both were War Democrats: Daniel Dickinson of New York and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Delegates were in the dark about which one Lincoln preferred.
1860 campaign button for Hamlin
On the first ballot, two-thirds of the votes went to War Democrats. Only four states voted unanimously for Hamlin, including Maine. But he only had tepid support in the rest of New England, where he received a third of the votes cast. Connecticut went for Johnson unanimously, while Massachusetts gave strong support for Dickinson. Johnson led Hamlin after the first ballot by 50 votes. The other states, seeing the trend, fell in line and voted overwhelmingly for Johnson, giving him the nomination.
Hamlin’s place on the ticket might have been saved if Lincoln gave his vice president overt support, but he chose not to.
Citizen Soldier
Shortly after the Republican Convention, Hamlin found himself in a situation unique in U.S. history. At the beginning of the Civil War, Hamlin had enlisted as a private in the Maine militia, feeling it was his patriotic duty. In July 1864, Hamlin’s unit, Company A of the Maine State Guard, was called up for guard duty at Fort McClary in Kittery, which still stands at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.
On July 7, the 103 men of Company A, including 54-year-old Private Hannibal Hamlin, traveled by train from Bangor to Kittery to take up duty at the fort. For two months, the vice president of the United States, now a corporal, participated in drills, performed guard duty and later won promotion to company cook. He also found time to fish for cod and mackerel. As a concession, perhaps to his lofty position or advanced age, he quartered with the officers in the fort’s Block House. After he completed his service, he returned to Washington to serve out his term as vice president.
The blockhouse at Fort McLaren, Kittery, Maine
Aftermath
Hamlin felt ambivalent about the vice presidency. He never sought it to begin with and resented the powerlessness of the position. His heart was in the Senate, but not being retained for a second term did sting. He also had no prospect at the moment to get back into the Senate.
Hannibal Hamlin
In 1868, Hamlin’s name was floated as a possible vice-presidential candidate. In a letter to U.S. representative from Maine Sidney Perham, he wrote that he was dragged out of the Senate against his wishes, “and then unceremoniously ‘whistled down the wind.’” He added with some bitterness, “I do not want my name used to such an end again.” Hamlin’s great hope was met in 1869, when he was returned to the U.S. Senate by the Maine Legislature. He served two full terms.
Later generations are left to wonder what would have happened if Hamlin was renominated in 1864 and ascended to the presidency upon Lincoln’s assassination. Andrew Johnson was a disaster as president. Although pro-Union, he was decidedly racist and sought to undermine Reconstruction every inch of the way. He gave blanket pardons to former high ranking Confederates. He also vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the bill creating the Freedman’s Bureau. In the words of Frederick Douglass, “he certainly is no friend to our race.”
Andrew Johnson
Hamlin, as a determined Radical Republican, would have approached Reconstruction with the support of the Radicals remaining in Lincoln’s cabinet. He possibly could have prevented the re-emergence of segregationist Democrats that dominated the South for nearly 100 years after the Civil War. Perhaps the greatest “what if” in U.S. history.
End Notes
Sources: Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, H. Draper Hunt, Syracuse University Press, 1969; The Impeachers, Brenda Wineapple, Random House, 2019; “The Making of a Myth: Lincoln and the Vice-Presidential Nomination in 1864,” Don E. Fehrenbacher, Civil War History, Vol. XLI, No. 4, 199, accessed via Project Muse, Feb. 11, 2026. The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Eugene Hamlin, Riverside Press, 1899, accessed through Internet Archive, Feb, 5, 2026.
Photo Credits: Campaign Banner, 1860, Currier & Ives Lithography Company, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, CC0; VP Hamlin, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.04944; Wigwam, author: TonyTheTiger, source: http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/S/Sauganash4.html, {{PD-US}}; telegram, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Abraham Lincoln Papers, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms000001.mss30189a.0272900; Hamlin campaign button, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.31541; Block House, author: petersent, self-photograph, {{PD-US}}; Hamlin standing, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.00990; Johnson, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.00050.
James F. Lee, the author of this story, is a freelance writer and blogger whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and AAA Tidewater Traveler Magazine. He can be reached at www.jamesflee.com.
