Guide to Lecture 21 (Election of 1860)
The Candidates
Four major contenders
Abraham Lincoln—Republican—opposed to extension of slavery
Democratic Party split along sectional lines
Stephen Douglas—Northern Democrats—popular sovereignty
John Breckinridge—Kentucky—Southern Democrats—federal slave
code for western territories
John Bell of Tennessee—Constitutional Union Party—preservation of the
Union above all—primarily Southern Whigs
The Results
Totally sectional—two separate races
Lincoln vs. Douglas—Lincoln with 39.5% (all free states) to 29.5%
(only Missouri in Electoral College)
Breckenridge vs. Bell—Breckenridge earned 18% (most of South) to
Bell’s 13% (Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee—Unionist strength in
Upper South.
Southern Reaction
Lincoln’s victory intolerable—secession the only answer
March 4, 1861—7 states left Union (S.C., Ga., Fla., Ala., Miss., La.,
Tx.). Why when Lincoln said would allow slavery to continue?
Didn’t believe him
Understood logic that stopping expansion of slavery ultimately kills
it
Lincoln believed secession illegal—Union eternal, created by “one
people”
Half of South still in Union—can’t strike first blow against the South—
Fort Sumter, S.C.—South fired the first shot April 12, 1861
75,000 volunteers to stop the rebellion—Va., N.C., Tenn., Ark.
seceded
Border States remained in Union for time being—Ky., Md., Missouri,
Del.—crucial to the Union cause.