What made Lincoln a viable candidate for president?

Answer 1

He had made a reputation for himself as an advocate of Unionism and racial equality in his bid for the Senate seat from Illinois during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and during speeches at the Coopers Union, and elsewhere.

NEW RESPONDENT

Although known outside his State, Lincoln was not a prominent personality.

Once elected to Congress ten years before and then not reelected ever again, was essentially a provincial politician. Popular in the Middle West, there he seemed the most appropriate to deal with Stephen Douglas, who was an Illinoisan like him.

Furthermore, as born in Kentucky, he didn't appear too "Northerner, but apt to compete against Breckenridge.

It was known that he condemned slavery on moral grounds but he was not an abolitionist and could win the sympathies of the moderate "freesoilers".

Friend of immigrants and simple man, he seemed the most suitable to overcome the distrust of the working class, and as a former "Whig", would not have aroused fears in conservatories.

In short, it seemed to be, especially for the Republican Party's establishment a figure not too marked, not to say dull, good only for the conquest of the electoral masses, and actually a straw man.

Indeed the astute politicians of the Republican Party thought they would have influenced and "directed" him to their liking.

But they seriously underestimated him.