sentences:  He moved to Des Moines, Iowa in 1857 and commenced practice there.He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860, where he quickly rose to a position of great influence.Appointed as Iowa's representative on the platform committee, he was one of five delegates on the subcommittee responsible for reconciling competing resolutions into a coherent platform, and in the end was the principal draftsman of the final product, including the antislavery planks that were referenced by southern states as they seceded upon Abraham Lincoln's election.