text: Pennsylvania put him over the top, led by the state's iron interests who were reassured by his tariff support.Lincoln's managers had focused on this delegation while honoring Lincoln's dictate to "Make no contracts that will bind me".As the Slave Power tightened its grip on the national government, most Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party.Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln had doubted the prospects of civil war, and his supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession.When Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats, delegates from eleven slave states walked out of the Democratic convention; they opposed Douglas's position on popular sovereignty, and selected incumbent Vice President John C.Breckinridge as their candidate.A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee.Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in the North, while Bell and Breckinridge primarily found support in the South.Prior to the Republican convention, the Lincoln campaign began cultivating a nationwide youth organization, the Wide Awakes, which it used to generate popular support throughout the country to spearhead voter registration drives, thinking that new voters and young voters tended to embrace new parties.People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Lincoln and rallied supporters for Lincoln.As Douglas and the other candidates campaigned, Lincoln gave no speeches, relying on the enthusiasm of the Republican Party.The party did the leg work that produced majorities across the North and produced an abundance of campaign posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials.Republican speakers focused first on the party platform, and second on Lincoln's life story, emphasizing his childhood poverty.