United States presidential election, 1860

The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, these issues finally came to a head. As a result of conflicting regional interests, the Democratic Party broke into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. In the face of a divided and dispirited opposition, the Republican Party, dominant in the North, secured enough electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House with very little support from the South. Within a few months of the election, seven Southern states, led by South Carolina, responded with declarations of secession, which was rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln. Four additional Southern states seceded after the Battle of Fort Sumter.

Background

The origins of the American Civil War lay in the complex issues of slavery, competing understandings of federalism, party politics, expansionism, sectionalism, tariffs, and economics. After the Mexican-American War, the issue of slavery in the new territories led to the Compromise of 1850. While the compromise averted an immediate political crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of The Slave Power (the power of slaveholders to control the national government).

Amid the emergence of increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in national politics, the collapse of the old Second Party System in the 1850s hampered efforts of the politicians to reach yet another compromise. The result was the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which alienated Northerners and Southerners alike. With the rise of the Republican Party, which appealled to both Northeast and Western states, the industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism.

Nominations

Northern Democratic

Northern Democratic candidates:

• Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois
• James Guthrie, former Secretary of the Treasury from Kentucky
• Robert M. T. Hunter, Senator from Virginia
• Joseph Lane, Senator from Oregon
• Daniel S. Dickinson, former Senator from New York
• Andrew Johnson, Senator from Tennessee

Democratic Party candidates gallery

At the Democratic convention in Charleston's Institute Hall in April 1860, 51 Southern Democrats walked out over a platform dispute. The extreme pro-slavery "Fire-Eater" William Lowndes Yancey and the Alabama delegation first left the hall, followed by the delegates of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, three of the four delegates from Arkansas, and one of the three delegates from Delaware.

Six candidates were nominated: Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, James Guthrie of Kentucky, Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia, Joseph Lane of Oregon, Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Three other candidates, Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, James Pearce of Maryland, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi (the future president of the Confederate States) also received votes. Douglas, a moderate on the slavery issue who favored "popular sovereignty", was ahead on the first ballot, needing 56.5 more votes. On the 57th ballot, Douglas was still ahead, but still 50.5 votes short of nomination. In desperation, the delegates agreed on May 3 to stop voting and adjourn the convention.

The Democrats convened again at the Front Street Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 18. This time, 110 Southern delegates (led by “Fire-Eaters”) walked out when the convention would not adopt a resolution supporting extending slavery into territories whose voters did not want it. Some considered Horatio Seymour a compromise candidate for the Democratic nomination at the reconvening convention in Baltimore. Seymour wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper declaring unreservedly that he was not a candidate for either spot on the ticket. After two ballots, the remaining Democrats nominated the ticket of Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for president. Benjamin Fitzpatrick was nominated for vice-president, but he refused the nomination. That nomination ultimately went to Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia.

Constitutional Union

Constitutional Union candidates:

• John Bell, former U.S. senator from Tennessee
• Sam Houston, governor of Texas
• John J. Crittenden, U.S. senator from Kentucky
• Edward Everett, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts
• William A. Graham, former U.S. senator from North Carolina
• William C. Rives, former U.S. senator from Virginia

Constitutional Union candidates gallery

Die-hard former Southern Whigs and Know Nothings^[2] who felt they could support neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party formed the Constitutional Union Party, nominating John Bell of Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice-president at the convention in Baltimore on May 9, 1860 (one week before Lincoln was nominated).

John Bell was a former Whig who had opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution. Edward Everett had been president of Harvard University and Secretary of State in the Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union, with the slogan "the Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is."^[3]

Republican Party

Republican candidates:

• • Abraham Lincoln, past U.S. representative, Illinois

• • William H. Seward, U.S. senator, New York

• • Simon Cameron, U.S. senator, Pennsylvania

• • Salmon P. Chase, Governor, Ohio

• • Edward Bates, past U.S. representative, Missouri

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.

Republican candidates gallery

The Republican National Convention met in mid-May, after the Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and with a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans were confident going into their convention in Chicago. William H. Seward of New York was considered the front runner, followed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates.

As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of the Republican Party. Delegates were concerned that Seward was too closely identified with the radical wing of the party, and his moves toward the center had alienated the radicals. Chase, a former Democrat, had alienated many of the former Whigs by his coalition with the Democrats in the late 1840s, had opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania, and critically, had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. Bates outlined his positions on the extension of slavery into the territories and equal constitutional rights for all citizens, positions that alienated his supporters in the border states and Southern conservatives. German Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know Nothings.

Since it was essential to carry the West, and because Lincoln had a national reputation from his debates and speeches as the most articulate moderate, he won the party's nomination for president on the third ballot on May 18, 1860. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice-president, defeating Cassius Clay of Kentucky.

The party platform^[4] clearly stated that slavery would not be allowed to spread any further, and it also promised that tariffs protecting industry would be imposed, a Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a transcontinental railroad. All of these provisions were highly unpopular in the South.

Southern Democratic

Southern Democratic candidates:

• John C. Breckinridge, U.S. Vice President from Kentucky
• Daniel S. Dickinson, former U.S. senator from New York

Southern Democratic candidates gallery

Led by Yancey, a remnant of Southern Democrats from Maryland Institute Hall, almost entirely from the Lower South, reconvened on June 28 in Richmond, Virginia, where the "Fire-Eater Robert Rhett had been waiting. Less than half the Southern delegates in Baltimore gathered to re-nominate the pro-slavery incumbent vice-president, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, for president.^[6] They had nominated Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice President in Baltimore.

Campaign

The contest in the North was between Lincoln and Douglas, but only the latter took to the stump and gave speeches and interviews. In the South, John C. Breckinridge and John Bell were the main rivals, but Douglas had an important presence in southern cities, especially among Irish Americans.^[8] Fusion tickets of the unionist non-Republicans developed in New York and Rhode Island, and partially in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Before 1860 "people saw candidates in the flesh less often than they saw a perfect rainbow".^[9] Lincoln followed the longstanding tradition of almost every presidential candidate since George Washington. During his front porch campaign, Lincoln made no new speeches and did not leave his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Although he met with hundreds of visitors, Lincoln answered all political questions by advising listeners to read his published speeches, such as those from the debates with Douglas in 1858; even an August crowd of 30,000 that marched in a parade eight miles long in front of his home failed to cause Lincoln to speak more than a few words.^{[10]:41-43[11]}

Douglas, in contrast, was the first presidential candidate in American history to undertake a nationwide speaking tour. In July he left New York City to Ontario County in upstate New York, allegedly to visit his mother. Republicans and newspapers mocked Douglas' trip, which required two months and lengthy detours through New England, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. While "in search of his mother", Douglas could not resist the demands of the many crowds that met him at train stations and asked him to make speeches. After finally meeting his mother, Douglas traveled to North Carolina, allegedly for family legal issues, but with more lengthy detours throughout the South.^[10]:42 He did not expect to win many electoral votes there, but he spoke for the maintenance of the Union. The dispute over the Dred Scott case had helped the Republicans easily dominate the Northern states' congressional delegations, allowing that party, although a newcomer on the political scene, easily to spread its popular influence.

In August, mirroring Douglas’ stumping throughout the South, William Lowndes Yancey made a speaking tour of the North. He had been instrumental in denying the Charleston nomination to Douglas, and he supported the Richmond Convention nominating Breckinridge with his Alabama Platform. Venues in Boston, New York, and Cincinnati that hosted Emerson and Thoreau opened their doors to the "Fire-Eater". He claimed that Lincoln’s restricting slavery would bring an end of Union, and pleaded that a Northern voter could save the Union voting for anyone but Lincoln. ^[12]

Because Lincoln did not campaign or give speeches, state and county Republican organizations worked on his behalf to sustain party enthusiasm and thus obtain high turnout. There was little effort to convert non-Republicans, and there was virtually no campaigning in the South except for a few border cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, and Wheeling, Virginia; indeed, the party did not even run a slate in most of the South. In the North, there were thousands of Republican speakers, tons of campaign posters and leaflets, and thousands of newspaper editorials. These focused foremost on the party platform, but also drew attention to Lincoln's life story, making the most of his boyhood poverty, his pioneer background, his native genius, and his rise from obscurity. His nicknames, "Honest Abe" and "the Rail-Splitter," were exploited to the fullest. The goal was to emphasize the superior power of "free labor," whereby a common farm boy could work his way to the top by his own efforts.^[13]

The 1860 campaign was less frenzied than in 1856, when the Republicans had crusaded zealously, and their opponents counter-crusaded with warnings of civil war. In 1860 every observer calculated the Republicans had an almost unbeatable advantage in the Electoral College, since they dominated almost every northern state. Republicans felt victory at hand, and used para-military campaign organizations such as the Wide Awakes to rally their supporters (see American election campaigns in the 19th century for campaign techniques).

Results

The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. The 1860 election was noteworthy for the exaggerated sectionalism of the vote in a country that was soon to dissolve into civil war. In the eleven states that would later declare their secession from the Union, ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia,^[14][15] where he received only 1.1 percent of the popular vote.^[16][17] In the four slave states that did not secede (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware), he came in fourth in every state except Delaware (where he finished third). Within the 15 slave states, Lincoln won only two counties out of 996,^[16] both in Missouri.^[18] (In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes at all in 13 of the 15 slave states).

The split in the Democratic Party was not a decisive factor in Lincoln's victory. Lincoln captured less than 40% of the popular vote, but almost all of his votes were concentrated in the free states, and he won every free state except for the electoral split in New Jersey. He won outright majorities in enough of the free states to have won the presidency by an Electoral College vote of 169-134 even if the 60% of voters who opposed him nationally had united behind a single candidate.

In New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, the anti-Lincoln vote did in fact combine into fusion tickets, but Lincoln still won a majority in the first two states and four electoral votes from New Jersey.^[19] The fractured Democratic vote did tip California, Oregon, and four New Jersey^[20] electoral votes to Lincoln, giving him 180 Electoral College votes.^[21] Only in California, Oregon, and Illinois was Lincoln's victory margin less than seven percent. In New England, he won every county.

Breckinridge, who was the sitting vice-president of the United States and the only candidate later to support secession, won 11 of 15 slave states, finishing second in the Electoral College with 72 votes. He carried the border slave states of Delaware and Maryland and nine of the eleven states that later formed the Confederacy, losing Virginia and Tennessee. Breckinridge received very little support in the free states, showing some strength only in California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

Bell carried three slave states (Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia) and finished second in the other slave states, but gleaned only tiny shares of the vote in the free states. Douglas had the most geographically widespread support, with 5-15% of the vote in most of the slave states and higher percentages in most of the free states, where he was the main opposition to Lincoln. With his votes thus scattered around the country, Douglas finished second in the popular vote with 29.5%, but last in the Electoral College, winning only Missouri and splitting New Jersey.

In 1860, for yet another presidential election, no party found the key to popular-vote majorities. All six Presidents elected since Andrew Jackson (1832) had been one-term presidents, and of the last four, only Franklin Pierce had achieved a statistical majority in the popular vote (50.83%).^[22]

Voting in the South was not as monolithic as an Electoral College map appears. Economically, culturally, and politically, the South was made up of three regions. In the states of the "Upper" South (also known as "border states"), unionist popular votes were scattered among Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell to form a majority in four of the four (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri). In four of the five "Middle" South states, there was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist vote approached a majority. Texas was the only Middle South state that Breckinridge carried convincingly. In three of the six "Deep" South, unionists won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana or neared it in Alabama. Breckinridge convincingly carried only three of the six states of the Deep South (South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi).^[16] These three Deep South states were all among the four Southern states with the lowest white populations; altogether, they held only nine-percent of Southern whites.^[23]

The voter turnout rate in 1860 was the second-highest on record (81.2%, second only to 1876, with 81.8%).^[24]

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1860 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005). Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).

^(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.

Results by state

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• Electoral history of Abraham Lincoln
• History of the United States (1849–1865)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• John Hanks
• Third Party System
• United States House of Representatives elections, 1860
• United States Senate elections, 1860
• Wide Awakes

Notes

1. ^ In Pennsylvania, votes for Breckinridge were in support of a group of electors who promised to fully support either Breckinridge or Douglas if one man could gain an electoral majority with Pennsylvania's votes and split their support otherwise.^[25]

References

Bibliography

• Carwardine, Richard (2003). Lincoln. Pearson Education Ltd. ISBN 9780582032798. 
• Donald, David Herbert (1996) [1995]. Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684825359. 
• Egerton, Douglas (2010). Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War. Bloomsbury Press. 
• Foner, Eric (1995) [1970]. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195094978. 
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2005). Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684824906. 
• Grinspan, Jon, "'Young Men for War': The Wide Awakes and Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign," Journal of American History 96.2 (2009): online.
• Harris, William C. (2007). Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700615209. 
• Holt, Michael F. (1978). The Political Crisis of the 1850s. 
• Holzer, Harold (2004). Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780743299640. 
• Johannsen, Robert W. Stephen A. Douglas (1973), standard biography
• Luebke, Frederick C. (1971). Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln. 
• Luthin, Reinhard H. (1944). The First Lincoln Campaign. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780844612928. along with Nevins, the most detailed narrative of the election
• Mansch, Larry D. (2005). Abraham Lincoln, President-Elect: The Four Critical Months from Election to Inauguration. McFarland. ISBN 078642026X. 
• Nevins, Allan (1950). Ordeal of the Union; Vol. IV: The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War, 1859–1861. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 9780684104164. 
• Nichols, Roy Franklin . The Disruption of American Democracy (1948), pp 348–506, focused on the Democratic party
• Parks, H. John Bell of Tennessee (1950), standard biography
• Potter, David M. (1976). The impending crisis, 1848–1861. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061319297. 
• Rhodes, James Ford (1920). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=72303423.  vol. 2, ch. 11. highly detailed narrative covering 1856–60

External links

• 1860 election: State-by-state Popular vote results
• 1860 popular vote by counties
• United States Presidential Election of 1860 in Encyclopedia Virginia
• Election of 1860
• Electoral Map from 1860
• Lincoln's election - details
• Report on 1860 Republican convention
• Overview of Constitutional Union National Convention
• How close was the 1860 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Presidential Election of 1860: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress