Superficial and emotional subject might sway undecided voters.

Public sentiment is everything, said Lincoln. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

The mid-19th century was noted for a partisan, rather than a consensus press, but this partisanship was able to turn out voters consistently.

Lincoln said his spiky hair had "a way of getting up in the world".

We need to know not only what is done but what is purposed and said by those who shape the destines of states and realms." Horace Greeley

Only a writer "with Bennett's craft and brass could manage to praise and insult his readers at the same time.