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| Abraham Lincoln |
The election of 1860 is like no other in the history of
the American Republic. There is talk of
civil war if Lincoln’s Black Republicans take the election. Many newspapers predict an “irresistible conflict.” One
that will determine once and for all if
the country is to be “free labor” or “slave labor.”
For a while, the
South strutted after the Supreme Court decision handed down with Dred Scott.
The court ruled that slaves were property. “Protected by all the Constitutional
guarantees of property and went where the
Constitution went; neither a territorial legislature nor Congress could exclude slavery from a territory
because they could not exclude the Constitution therefrom.”
To many Southerners
and President Buchanan, it seemed as if the case was closed. Slavery was the law of the land. Nothing could stop it.
Not so for Abraham
Lincoln.
During the
Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Abraham Lincoln goaded Stephen Douglas until
he took the bait and acknowledged the decision meant nothing more than that black people, not being citizens, could not sue
in court. Nowhere in the case did it mention the territories. So, the decision
did not impact slavery in the territories.
“No matter what the
decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question,” Douglas told
the crowd. “Still, the right of the people to make a slave territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the
Nebraska bill.” And then, as if to make his point, Douglas added, “I hope Mr.
Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that point.”
Douglas’s decision
that day became known as the Freeport Doctrine (named after the Illinois town
that hosted the debate). It helped Douglas win the Senatorial election. But it
created a rift in the Democratic Party that lost him the 1860 Presidential
election.
Broaching the
subject was a significant risk for Lincoln,
but paid big dividends. John Nicolay and John Hay later said Lincoln told them,
“If Douglas answers, he can never be President.”
Truer words were never spoken.
The South could not
help but feel Douglas betrayed them.
The Democratic Candidates
Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April
1860 to select their candidate. The floor exploded in instant turmoil.
Delegates could not agree on a candidate, and eventually, the Southern
Democrats walked out rather than support Stephen A. Douglas, whom they
considered a traitor because he supported popular sovereignty.
In May, the Northern Democrats met again in Baltimore
and chose Stephen Douglas. The Southern Democrats held their convention in
Baltimore and selected the current Vice President, John C. Breckenridge.
A third splinter group, the Constitutional Union
Party, formed in response to the split in the Democratic Party. They
chose John C. Bell as their candidate.
Stephen A. Douglas
Abraham Lincoln was
not one to gloat, but when he reflected
on his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, it had to bring a smile to
his lips.
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| Stephen A. Douglas |
When Lincoln challenged Douglas about how the Dred Scott decision affected slavery in the territories, he told his secretaries that he could never be elected if Douglas answered. Now, that prophecy was coming true.
The Weekly Mississippian said Douglas could never be trusted
because of what transpired at Freeport. Douglas “saw Free-soil and Senatorial
honors on one side, and true Democracy and defeat on the other; he bent the
supple hinges of his knees to Free-soil and turned his back on true Democracy.”
In other words, he sold his principles for a Senator’s seat. As a result, he
was not to be trusted.
The Pointe Coupee Democrat poked fun at
Douglas’ “Squatter Sovereignty doctrines.” The paper emphasized that every
democratic state was for Breckenridge. Therefore, the only states Douglas and
Johnson could get votes in were the Black Republican States. “It will be so in
November, with this difference—the Douglas States will vote then for Lincoln
and Hamlin.” All Douglas was doing was ensuring more votes for Lincoln. He was
not helping the South.
In a speech at
Norfolk, Douglas said, “I think the President of the United States, whoever he
may be, should treat all attempts, to break up the Union, by resistance to its
laws, as Old Hickory treated the nullifiers in 1832.”
He ended that speech, saying secessionists, “Come forward and ask me if I will help them to dissolve the Union in the event of Lincoln being raised to the Presidential chair. I tell them no—never on earth. I am for putting down Northern abolitionism, but am also putting down Southern secessionists, and that, too, by the exercise of the same Constitutional power.”
After that, Douglas
could never be elected. Northerners would not support him, and Southerners
considered him a traitor to their cause. Stephen A. Douglas was as good as out
of the race.
Stephen Douglas
blamed Breckenridge should Lincoln be elected. He said Lincoln had no hope of
being elected before Breckenridge split the Democratic Party. “By dividing the
North, he gives every one of the states to Lincoln, thus allowing him to be
elected by popular vote.”
There would not be a Democratic president. Douglas and Breckenridge had splintered the party where neither man could gather most of the vote.
John C. Breckenridge
John C. Breckenridge did not attend the South
Carolina Convention. He did not want to run for President and asked his
supporters not to nominate him. What happened next came as a surprise to everyone?
Southern Democrats insisted on a platform that protected slavery and allowed
its extension into the territories. Northern Democrats refused to endorse the
platform. They preferred popular sovereignty in the territories.
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| John C. Breckenridge |
After several days of infighting, the Southern Democrats walked out without selecting a candidate. After they left, Douglas could not garner the two-thirds majority required by the convention, so a new convention was scheduled.
When the Southern Democrats reconvened in Baltimore,
they chose John C. Breckenridge, the current vice president. His running mate
was Joseph Lane, the Governor of Oregon. Lane had fought in the Mexican War and
served as an army general and a senator from Oregon.
This time Breckenridge accepted the nomination.
Breckenridge insisted he was running for president to preserve the Union.
After the Baltimore Convention in June 1860, he
acknowledged that “some persons occupying high positions entertain the belief
that the National Democratic Party is a ‘disunion party,” and intend to break
up the Union of these states.” To that, he answered, “Instead of breaking up
the Union, we intend to strengthen and lengthen it.”
After losing the election to Lincoln, Breckenridge
did everything he could to prevent the Civil War. He challenged Lincoln about
what right he had to suspend habeas corpus, declare war, or raise an army.
Later he served as a general in the Confederate army
and as the Confederate Secretary of War.
Constitutional Union Party
A third candidate
broke away from the Democratic Party and split the ticket further. The
Constitutional Union Party’s candidate was a former Speaker of the House and
Secretary of War, John C. Bell. For his running
mate, he chose Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Everett had served as a
Congressman, Senator, Governor, and Secretary of State under Millard Fillmore.
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| John C. Bell |
The Constitutional Union Party was a strange amalgamation of Whigs, Southern Democrats, and Know-Nothings who wanted to avoid secession. They did not support pro-secessionists like Breckenridge and did not approve of Douglas’ stance on popular sovereignty. Bell intended to compromise and do whatever it took to preserve the Union. The party did not take a stand on slavery.
From the start, the Constitutional Union Party knew it
could not win. They hoped to take votes in the Northern States away from
Lincoln. Instead, they took three
Southern states—Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia — from Breckenridge. The
Constitutional Union Party won 12.6 percent of the popular vote or 39 electoral votes.
In a funny twist of fate, after the Civil War
started, John C. Bell—the compromise
candidate who would do anything to preserve the Union, sided with the
Confederacy.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
desperately wanted to be president. In the mid-1850s, when the Whigs morphed
into the Republican Party, Lincoln positioned himself as a party leader. Then,
during John Charles Fremont’s presidential campaign in 1856, Lincoln was
discussed as a vice-presidential candidate.
But after he lost
the Illinois Senate election to Stephen Douglas in 1858, Lincoln was sure he
was washed up in politics.
When asked how he
felt about losing, Lincoln flashed a “good-natured
smile,” and said, “I am in the predicament of a tall young fellow I once heard
tell on, who in running uphill stumbled
and hurt his toe quite badly. Someone coming up asked him whether he was going
to cry or laugh about it. Well, said the tall youth, I suppose I am too big to
cry about it, but it hurts too awful bad to laugh.”
 |
| Abraham Lincoln |
Lincoln was a sly dog. He understood his chances of taking the nomination from New York Senator William Seward or Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase were slim. The thing that worked against them was their history. Seward was a known anti-slavery man. However, he had no support in three states John Charles Fremont lost in 1856—Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Chase was also against slavery, but the biggest impediment to his nomination was that he lacked support outside of Ohio.
Abraham Lincoln’s advantage going into the election was his obscurity. Outside of his Cooper Union speech, Lincoln was mainly known in Illinois and the West Because he had no history, he was indebted to no one. Lincoln did not have a past he needed to overcome. The Press and Tribune said, “He has no pledges to redeem, no promises to make.” He was his own man.
In political terms,
Abraham Lincoln was fresh clay, ready to be molded.
If anything, he was
known for his humor, such as this tidbit from the Hillsdale Standard. In describing the two political parties,
Lincoln said he was “much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men engage
in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight after a long and harmless
contest, ended in each having fought himself out of his coat into that of the other. If the leading parties
of this day are really identified with the two in the days of Jefferson and
Adams, they have performed the same feat as two drunken men.” It brought a
laugh from the audience and took their minds off the issues for a moment.
William Herndon
said Lincoln “was always calculating and planning. His ambition was a little
engine that knew no rest.” That’s the opposite of what most people believe. The
story commonly told is that Lincoln’s friends coaxed
him into running.
Nothing could be
further from the truth.
Early on, the
Illinois Republican State Central Committee determined to hide their candidate
in plain sight. Gustave Koerner said, “It was agreed that the best policy for
the party in our state was to keep Lincoln in the background for the present.”
That would give the front-runners a chance “to weaken under their meddling
managers.”
Lincoln kept
telling people, “I do not think myself fit for the presidency,” but it became
harder to believe each time he said it. Through 1859 and 1860, he kept in touch
with all the party leaders, expressing ideas on the day’s issues and
stabilizing the party. The only thing he would not do was come out as a
candidate.
He urged moderation
and advised the State Republican Committee not to get caught up in local issues
that could divide the party. He cautioned that people were smarter than that.
They would cast their votes based on significant
issues.
In short, he was
all about strengthening the party to increase its chances of success in 1860.
He kept his ambitions in the background, sidestepping any early attempts to
make him announce his candidacy.
During this period,
another issue on Lincoln’s mind was ensuring that the radicals did not destroy
the party’s chances in the election. One such challenge came from Ohio Governor
Salmon Chase. He asked Lincoln for advice on repealing the Fugitive Slave Law, which
allowed runaway slaves to be hunted down like dogs no matter which state they
were in. Lincoln was no fan of slavery, but he cautioned moderation. He was
convinced that if the Republicans made the Convention about slavery—they would
lose.
It was a good question and one that demanded answers. Lincoln explained that “the Fugitive Slave Laws allow slaveowners to reclaim their property if they escape to the North. If they become two countries, then what?”
After a pause, he asked, “Will you make war upon us
and kill us all?”
There it was. The “W” word (war) was on the table. Lincoln did not dare go any further. He broached the subject, then let it go.
In another talk he delivered that day, Lincoln told
the crowd he had no “inclination” to “interfere with the institution of slavery
where it now exists.” He closed that portion of his speech, saying, “I believe
we have no power to do so.”
Lincoln made that
speech to counter Douglas’ assertion he was an abolitionist.
His Cincinnati
speech centered on Stephen A. Douglas and his recently published article in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. He told
the audience Douglas was the only politician who had never taken a stand on
slavery.
The Cincinnati
speech was a game-changer for Abraham Lincoln. Where he had been considered a
radical, it positioned him more as a moderate with conservative views on
slavery.
The Cincinnati
speech firmly positioned Lincoln as a presidential candidate. Finally, it would
be safe to come out of the closet and announce himself to the world. Because of
the Cincinnati speech, The Illinois State
Journal called Lincoln the “giant killer.”
The reality for the
Republicans was that they would not win any Southern states. Because of that,
they needed to secure the five states John Charles Fremont lost in
1856—Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California. Strangely
enough, the state they figured Lincoln
was least likely to win was Illinois. They wrote it off because of the “Little
Giant’s” popularity there.
Going into the convention, Norman Judd focused on Indiana and Illinois. His primary goal was to keep them from declaring for Seward before the convention opened. He waited until the second ballot to chip away at Pennsylvania (Simon Cameron) and New Jersey (William L. Dayton).
But none of that
meant anything if William Seward took the nomination on the first ballot. If
they could get past an initial sweep for Seward, each succeeding vote would move Lincoln closer to the nomination as electors switched their
allegiance.
On the first ballot, Seward received 173 ½ votes (short of the necessary 233). Lincoln came in second with 102 votes. Pennsylvania threw 48 of its votes to Lincoln on the second ballot, assuring a third round of balloting. Again, Lincoln and Seward were neck and neck. Seward commanded 184 ½ votes, and Lincoln 181.
That was a good
sign for Lincoln.
As the third ballot
closed, Lincoln had 231 ½ votes (1 ½ short of winning), and William Seward had
180. Then, at the last moment, four delegates changed their ballots in favor of
Lincoln.
In three rounds of
balloting, Lincoln had gone from a long-shot
candidate to the Republican nominee for president.
The Press and Tribune said when Lincoln’s
nomination was announced at the Wigwam, crowds were “yelling and shouting at
once; the cannon sent roar after roar in rapid secession. The whole scene was
one of the wildest enthusiasms.”
Like any election,
there were a few sore losers. One Southern paper said, “The candidate of the
Black Republican Party for the Presidency is a recreant son of the South—a
traitor to the mother that bore him.” When he was twenty-one, Lincoln fought in
the Black Hawk War, “unfortunately for the country [he] escaped the tomahawk
and scalping-knife.”
Even closer to home, views on Lincoln’s nomination were mixed. In Galena, Illinois, “flags were flying,” and “33 guns were fired with a report that shook the foundation of our hills.” Across the river in Dubuque, Iowa, the Dubuque Herald said, “Abe Lincoln for President of the United States! Ye God!”
Abraham Lincoln
took forty percent of the vote or 180 electoral votes. Stephen Douglas won
thirty percent of the vote but only 12 electoral votes in Missouri. John C.
Breckenridge took 72 electoral votes; John Bell took 39.
For good or bad,
the Black Republicans had taken the vote, and the split in the Democratic Party
made the election of Abraham Lincoln possible. The South had shot itself in the
foot by rejecting Stephen A. Douglas.
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