CHAPTER II.
THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856 [Sidenote] 1856.
In the State of Illinois, the spring of the year 1856 saw an almost spontaneous impulse toward the formation of a new party.

As already described, it was a transition period in politics.

The disorganization of the Whig party was materially increased and hastened by the failure, two years before, to make Lincoln a Senator.

On the other hand, the election of Trumbull served quite as effectively to consolidate the Democratic rebellion against Douglas in his determination to make the support of his Nebraska bill a test of party orthodoxy.

Many of the Northern counties had formed "Republican" organizations in the two previous years; but the name was entirely local, while the opposition, not yet united, but fighting in factions against the Nebraska bill, only acknowledged political affinity under the general term of the "Anti-Nebraska" party.
[Sidenote] 1856.
In the absence of any existing party machinery, some fifteen editors of anti-Nebraska newspapers met for conference at Decatur on the 22d of February and issued a call for a delegate State convention of the "Anti-Nebraska party," to meet at Bloomington on the 29th of May.
Prominent leaders, as a rule, hesitated to commit themselves by their presence at Decatur.