1860 Democratic Convention
The 1860 Democratic Convention was a pivotal event in American politics, held in Charleston, South Carolina. The convention was marked by deep divisions over the issue of slavery, leading to the split of the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions. This division ultimately contributed to the election of Abraham Lincoln as the first Republican president.
4 Key excerpts on "1860 Democratic Convention"
eBook - ePubThe Democratic Collapse
How Gender Politics Broke a Party and a Nation, 1856-1861
- Lauren N. Haumesser(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- The University of North Carolina Press(Publisher)
...4 A Social and Moral Contest THE DEMOCRATIC SPLIT AND THE 1860 CAMPAIGN By early 1860, the Lecompton debacle and John Brown’s raid had left the Democratic Party unsettled indeed. As Democratic partisans began preparing for the party’s national convention in Charleston, South Carolina, one Democratic editor brooded over “the troubles that are seething and boiling in the political cauldron.” 1 He was right to be concerned. Northern politicians were determined to push ahead with popular sovereignty and stave off a Republican insurgency. Southern men worried the national party could not protect southern slavery and southern homes from northern radicalism. Infighting even appeared in state organizations, as partisans divided over whether to send proslavery or pro–popular sovereignty delegates to Charleston. In January, Alabama’s Democratic convention instructed delegates to bolt the national convention if the platform did not include a federal slave code. Georgia’s Democrats sent delegates to Charleston with no platform statement on slavery at all. And both Illinois and New York sent rival pro–and anti–Stephen Douglas delegations to Charleston. With delegates like these—and in light of the events of the preceding four years—the die was cast for a fractious campaign season. At their national conventions in Charleston and Baltimore, northern and southern Democrats nominated and ran separate candidates. By splitting the vote, Democrats upset the electoral calculus and contributed to the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic Party collapsed over slavery, as the party’s discourse descended into a welter of accusations and counteraccusations in an atmosphere of suspicion and betrayal. Democrats expressed alienation from each other in highly gendered political language. Emphasizing as it did the social and cultural incompatibility of North and South, that language made Democrats’ disagreements seem more profound and compromise seem dangerous...
eBook - ePub- Brian Holden Reid(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It is a testimony of how much events had moved on since 1850 that his views appeared anachronistic and he resembled a dinosaur; nevertheless he did not lack support and would prove an embarrassment to both Republican and Democratic Parties. 4 The Democratic Convention The choice of Charleston, South Carolina, as the meeting place for the next Democratic Party convention was cruelly ironic. It was chosen originally in 1856 because it was calculated foolishly that it would be conducive to affable feelings and a sense of party unity. It was certainly indicative of the increasing southern domination of the Democratic Party. In the fevered atmosphere following John Brown’s ill-fated expedition to Harper’s Ferry, northern delegates received a hostile reception from the arrogant and provincial citizens of Charleston. This was not an atmosphere in which a harmonious compromise could flourish. The soporific and putrid (the temperature was already approaching 100°F) atmosphere of the city was increased by a lack of hotel accommodation which forced many delegates from the North and West to camp in great dormitories, which promoted neither rest nor hygiene among their inmates. In short a less appropriate place for the convention at this date can hardly be imagined. Certainly the disagreeable conditions seemed to breed bad temper and a disinclination to accept a contrary point of view. What concerned northern delegates more than any other matter was their failure to convince their southern colleagues of the need to unite behind one candidate who could win in the North. This was where the election would be won or lost. But the Democratic Party seemed unduly preoccupied with southern not northern interests...
eBook - ePub- A. James Fuller(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- The Kent State University Press(Publisher)
...Introduction The Election of 1860 Reconsidered A. James Fuller The most important presidential election in American history took place in 1860. The electoral contest marked the culmination of the sectional conflict and led to the secession of the Southern states and the beginning of the Civil War. Over the past century and a half, scholars have offered a number of different interpretations of the election, but surprisingly few works have been dedicated exclusively to the presidential contest itself. Most explanations of the campaign appear in general histories or in biographies of Abraham Lincoln or the other presidential candidates. Although nearly every succeeding generation of historians has managed to produce at least one full-length study, scholarship on the election of 1860 remains relatively rare. The sesquicentennial anniversary of the election offered an opportunity to fill this gap in the literature. Historians have taken up the cause, producing several new books on the subject, including this one. 1 This volume reconsiders the election and offers fresh insights on the campaigns for the presidency. In his concluding essay, Douglas G. Gardner examines the historiographical tradition regarding the election, noting that scholars across the generations have focused on Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, with scant attention paid to the other candidates or to other related topics. Two of the essays clearly fall into that scholarly tradition—Michael S. Green argues that Lincoln played the role of master politician during the campaign, and James L. Huston explores the significance of Douglas’s southern tour. The other chapters move in different directions, and even those chapters dedicated to the Rail Splitter and the Little Giant provide new interpretations of the two most famous presidential candidates. But this book breaks new ground by seeing the election as more than Lincoln’s victory and Douglas’s loss...
eBook - ePubCIVIL WAR – Complete History of the War, Documents, Memoirs & Biographies of the Lead Commanders
Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant & William T. Sherman, Biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis & Robert E. Lee, The Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Presidential Orders & Actions
- Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, James Ford Rhodes, John Esten Cooke, Frank H. Alfriend(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Madison & Adams Press(Publisher)
...Chapter XI Table of Contents The year 1858 is memorable alike in the career of Lincoln and in the political history of the country. It was distinguished by the joint discussions between the two great political leaders of Illinois, which rank among the ablest forensic debates that have taken place since the foundation of the republic. The occasion was one to call out the greatest powers of the two remarkable men who there contested for political supremacy. It was not alone that Lincoln and Douglas were opposing candidates for a high office — that of Senator of the United States: they were the champions and spokesmen of their parties at a critical period when great issues were to be discussed and great movements outlined and directed. It was naturally expected that the winner in the contest would become the political leader of his State. Little was it imagined that the loser would become the leader and savior of the Nation. On the 21st of April the Democratic convention of Illinois met at Springfield and announced Stephen A. Douglas, then United States Senator, as its choice for another term. June 16 the Republican convention met at the same place and declared unanimously that "Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term of office." For a number of days previous to the meeting of the Republican convention Lincoln had been engaged in preparing a speech for the occasion. It was composed after his usual method — the separate thoughts jotted down as they came to him, on scraps of paper at hand at the moment, and these notes were arranged in order and elaborated into a finished essay, copied on large sheets of paper in a plain and legible handwriting. This was the speech which afterwards came to be so celebrated as the "house-divided-against-itself" speech. Lincoln was gravely conscious of its unusual importance, and gave great care and deliberation to its composition...
