Questions about Presidential Candidate Deaths

I had an idea about Lincoln dying before the 1860 election, and it got me wondering about how the nation and the parties would react to a candidate dying in the antebellum US. How long would it take for news of the death to disseminate in the 1790s, 1810s, 1830s, and the 1850s? How would parties choose their new candidate? I presume it would be the running mate. How might voters react in specific cases like Lincoln or Quincy Adams dying in 1860 or 1824?
 
Guessing if Lincoln dies, then Hamlin would be the first choice as the VP candidate. Unless they decided to pick again and go with Seward or somehtig like that.

1824 would be interesting. Quincy adams dies and then the whole North-east is open. But the problem with that is that the New-England states were not particularly fond of the other candidates:
Calhoun will have no support except to remain as VP.
Crawford might be able to get some more votes in New York (courtesy of VanBuren) but not much else. He is too states-rights for the north.
Jackson is too backward and ungentlemanly for them.
As for Clay, the North-East distrusted him in general. But somehow i reckon that Clay would manipulate his way into their good graces to get the NE states to support him.
 
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The trans-continental telegraph was completed in 1861, so the entire nation would know very quickly, except for some outlying areas. In the 1850's, I think most of the USA east of the Mississippi would know very fast, since the telegraphs were going in so quickly.
 
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