Election of 1860: How Could Lincoln Have Lost the Election

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Nikki G

4/24/06

American Government 7:30a MW

Election of 1860: How Could Lincoln Have Lost the Election

The election of 1860 brought a dramatic change to politics. The country had already been divided by the Northern states and Southern states. There were disagreements over whether the territories should be expanded and about each state entering the Union. In addition, slavery was also a major issue. Not only was Lincoln not even on the ballot in nine Southern states, he only won 2 of 996 counties in the entire south. Not only did Lincoln not having any southern support, but also he was apart of the Union and against slavery; his views could have seriously lost him the race. Along with this, other things could have cost him the victory at the end of the election such as more Southerners voting and if the Democratic Party outweighed the Republican Party. Lincoln’s candidates used different newspaper publishing to convince voters not to vote for him. Many of them dealt with him and his feelings of anti-slavery.

Although Lincoln was a good man, he was not favored in the South as much as he was by the Northerners. Abraham Lincoln was an abolitionist and wanted to better America as a whole and bring the North and the South together, which meant ending the very big issue of slavery. The South was totally against the idea of abolishing slavery and did not want to have any part of Lincoln’s attitude towards equality amongst all men. He had practically no support coming from the South. If more Southerners were to vote, he would have definitely lost the race. The Southerners used slaves to bring in the bulk of

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their income and with Lincoln wanting them to free their slaves, which would cause them to lose profit; the Southerners did not want him to win. Lincoln oversaw the Union in the American Civil War. The Union opposed slavery. If the Confederates won the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln would have definitely lost the race. The Confederates were completely about keeping slavery. They were supported by the Democratic Party, Lincoln’s main competition, who were also for slavery. The Confederates “King Cotton” (English reliance on Southern cotton) would prove a powerful economic incentive for the British government to recognize Confederate independence (http://lincolnandthecivilwar.com/SubLevelPages/IllusLondon.asp). If more citizens realized the importance of the cotton economy they would have voted for the Democratic Party, which meant slavery would not be abolished.

A Southern paper, The Liberator, was extremely displeased when Lincoln won the Republic nomination and its June issue featured an article entitled "Abraham Lincoln, the Slavehound of Illinois." It referred to a bill to arrest and deliver to their owners all fugitive slaves in the District of Columbia, which Congressman Lincoln had introduced on January 10, 1849(http://lincolnandthecivilwar.com/SubLevelPages/Liberator.asp). Ironically, The Liberator was an anti-slavery produced paper, but they still criticized

Lincoln’s beliefs. With this type of negative publicity, some of Lincoln’s supporters fled. Along with The Liberator, there were other publications being made by Lincoln’s competitors. The newspaper, Pennsylvania Statesman, was published in 1860 to dedicated to furthering the presidential candidacy of John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky (http://lincolnandthecivilwar.com/SubLevelPages/PennStatesman.asp). Breckinridge was the leading candidate in the South who wanted to keep slavery. Pennsylvania’s

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Statesman’s publishing never attacked Lincoln directly, but they did negatively describe the Republican Party as a group that gathered “under their black flag,” an assortment of “Abolitionists, Free Soilers, Factionists, and enemies of the Union and the Constitution” (http://lincolnandthecivilwar.com/SubLevelPages/PennStatesman.asp).