The party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states, but opposed slavery in the territories. The platform promised tariffs protecting industry and workers, a
Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a
transcontinental railroad. There was no mention of Mormonism (which had been condemned in the Party's 1856 platform), the
Fugitive Slave Act, personal liberty laws, or the
Dred Scott decision. While the Seward forces were disappointed at the nomination of a little-known western upstart, they rallied behind Lincoln, while abolitionists were angry at the selection of a moderate and had little faith in Lincoln.