May 18 Illinois History Minute

It’s May 18th, and on this day in 1860, delegates at the Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for president on the third ballot.

William Seward, Salmon B. Chase and Edward Bates were considered the frontrunners. But each had made too many enemies within the party, while Lincoln had positioned himself as everyone’s second choice.

After his election, Lincoln put Seward, Chase and Bates in his cabinet, creating what historian Doris Kearns Goodwin called his “team of rivals”. 

Science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen was born in Chicago on this day in 1930. Saberhagen is best remembered for his Berserker series, in which the galaxy’s intelligent life forms battle murderous self-replicating machines … and a series of vampire novels in which Dracula is the good guy.