Republican Banner for 1860

In the 1860 presidential election, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated to run alongside Abraham Lincoln as the Republican Party's candidate for vice president. Ironically, in comparison to Lincoln's meager two-year experience as a U.S. congressman, Hamlin had served two terms in the House of Representatives and had been elected three times to the U.S. Senate. A staunch advocate of rights for black Americans, Hamlin proved to be a supportive vice president. In reality, however, he played no active role in the day-to-day business of the White House; at that time, executive protocol did not even include the vice president at routine cabinet meetings. Hamlin was content not to have been chosen to serve a second term, and he later described the vice presidency as a "nullity."