Hurrah, for the choice of the Nation!
Our chieftain so brave and so true
We'll go for the great Reformation
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
We'll go for the Son of Kentucky
The Hero of Hoosierdom through
The Pride of the Suckers so lucky
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
They'll find what by felling and mauling
Our rail-maker statesman can do
For the People are everywhere calling
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
Then up with the banner so glorious
Our Star-Spangled Red, White and Blue
We'll fight till our banner's victorious
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
Our David's good sling is unerring
The Slavocrat Giant he slew
Then shout for the freedom preferring
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
We'll go for the Son of Kentucky
The Hero of Hoosierdom through
The Pride of the Suckers so lucky
For Lincoln and Liberty too!
-Lincoln and Liberty
__________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 10: The Revolution of 1860
The Republican National Convention was an event of unprecedented energy, which was carried into the campaign season. Following Senator Lincoln’s nomination, the Party drafted the Plank, which outlined the ideals they would fight for. The Party Plank maintained the strong anti-slavery convictions of the 1856 Plank, but to appeal to moderates it denounced the John Brown raid as the “gravest of crimes”. Most importantly, the Plank pledged to abolish the Fugitive Slave Act and replace it with an “humane” measure which would recognize the right of a fair jury trial and the habeas corpus principle; to protect all territories from the attacks of the Slave Power (a direct rebuke to the admission of Kansas as a slave state); and to “reconstitute” the Supreme Court, setting the path for an overturn of
Dred Scott v. Sandford. The biggest sign of this intent was how Lincoln selected former Justice John McLean as his running mate.
McLean was famous for his strong-willed dissent in the Dred Scott case, which basically became the basis of the Republican position on the issue. Another notable action of his was convincing Justice Curtis, the other dissenter, to remain in the Court, after Curtis considered resigning in protest. Curtis and McLean were basically both waiting for Lincoln’s election, so as to deny Buchanan the chance to appoint yet another Southern Democratic Justice.
Aside from those points, the Republican Platform focused on economic issues as a way of uniting the different factions of the Party. Its Whig-Progressive origins, and their ideology of Free Labor showed on their pledges in favor of internal improvements, a Homestead Act, a Transcontinental Railway, and a “readjustment” of the tariff to encourage and protect industry. These measures were in part a response to the Panic of 1857, an economic downturn caused by massive speculation on western lands, lower levels of European investment, and a bubble that formed around the price of bonds and bank notes. They were also designed to appeal to Lower North voters who didn’t care for slavery but would be attracted by the economic potential of these pledges, such as Pennsylvanians who would benefit from a greater tariff or Midwesterners who wanted a Transcontinental Railway.
Most of these points were however eclipsed by a single sentence that vowed to “limit slavery like the Founders intended”, and take all necessary measures to “prevent its expansion”, while at the same time promising to not “interfere in places where slavery already existed” unless it was “by means of constitutional compromise”. This single point was hotly debated. Radicals insisted on leaving out “by means of constitutional compromise”, likening it to a surrender to conservatives, slavers and “other doughfaces”. Moderates were dismayed that such a point was even added. The Blairs of Missouri threatened to leave the party, lamenting a “Jacobin take-over”, while some moderates denounced it as a point that “would hand the national government to the Democrats”.
Some historians have agreed with them. Many Northerners expressed their disgust with the Plank in editorials and diaries. “I will not stand for a government controlled by the Negro”, wrote a New York man, while an Indiana Republican confessed to his diary that he “felt threatened by the Radicals who have taken over the Party”. From Ohio, a voter said that though he personally didn’t “give a damn” about the “N---ers”, such a sentence was paramount to “Civil War”. Democrats and National Unionists ran away with the Plank, telling every Northerner that a vote for Lincoln was a vote for “pestilence, war and famine.” Southern Democrats were likewise terrified by the implication, and the already existing fear and hostility that dominated the section before the election seemed to increase even more. “Should Lincoln win the election”, a Missouri Democrat said, “we would have no other option but to risk disunion.” A similar opinion was shared by a Virginia lawyer, who wrote to a diary announcing that “the whole South ought to stand up to this blatant act of aggression.”
But perhaps these historians are overstating their points. This point probably did more to scare the South away than to scare moderates away. Republican moderates were mollified enough by the specification that the measures would only be adopted through compromise. Most did agree with the vital points that slavery was seen as an evil by the Founders, and that it should be put on the road to extinction. And a very significant part of voters was more attracted to the economic measures adopted than the slavery question.
Other voters found themselves back into the Republican folds, even if reluctantly, for there was no other option. Douglas had tried to nominate himself as a desperate last measure, but the Little Giant was unable to mount a campaign, and his whipped men did only a feeble effort. Breckinridge, the Southern Democrat, was anathema to every northerner, as a New York Democrat said: “A vote for the Southern candidate would mean four more years of humiliation. I will not accept that,
even if it means risking treason.” The other option, the Constitutional Unionist, had revealed themselves to be as pro-South as Breckinridge, so they weren’t even considered by most. Even those who contemplated Black equality with disgust settled on Lincoln as the lesser of two evils. “At least he’s not Seward”, commented wryly a disappointed Pennsylvania voter who nonetheless voted Republican in the election.
The Republicans carried energy and enthusiasm h into the election, bringing with them youth, dynamism, and new ideas. Thousands of young men joined “Wide Awake” clubs, which were magnified by the South into a red of militias ready to take over their land. Songs and campaign pamphlets filled the presses. From every corner of the North, the popular song “Lincoln and Liberty” seemed to echo. The Republicans represented change, high expectations and a new future, which contrasted with the old and tired Democratic banner, sullied more than ever by corruption.
The Buchanan administration was revealed in several House investigations to have siphoned money into Party coffers by means of graft, bribery and contracts awarded without competitive bidding. This sorry record caused even more outrage when it was revealed that Buchanan had bribed congressmen to vote in favor of Kansas’ admission as a Slave State. Secretary of War John Floyd was singled out due to his corrupt business deals, such as padded government payments, and an infamous order that transferred 125 cannons from Pittsburg to the South, an order Buchanan refused to countermand when the Southern members of his Cabinet convinced him that they were needed to defend against slave uprisings.
“The old sinner”, an Iowa newspaper proclaimed, “had proven himself to be yet again a hireling of the Slave Power.” Republicans stumped about these issues, demanding a “complete change of administration”. Charles Francis Adams denounced this as proof that the Slavocrats were bribing “the people of the Free States with their own money”, while Horace Greeley wrote of "not one merely but two Irrepressible Conflicts—the first between… Free Labor… and aggressive, all-grasping Slavery propagandism… [the second] between honest administration on one side, and wholesale executive corruption, legislative bribery, and speculative jobbery on the other; and we recognize in Honest Abe Lincoln the right man to lead us in both."
But slavery remained the focus of the election. Some moderates took pains to describe themselves as the true Party of the White Man, in response to attacks by moderates and Democrats, especially over that contentious part of the Plank, and other events such as a ballot measure in New York that would enfranchise Blacks. The New York measure would manage to pass, even if barely, due to united Republican support and disarray in the conservative ranks. But before that it provided abundant fodder for race-baiting attacks.
Still, radicals and abolitionists stumped fervently for the Republicans, believing them to be a step into the right direction, and an “anti-slavery triumph”, according to Frederick Douglass. Southern despondency and fear only increased as election day approached. Lincoln, in their eyes, was "a relentless, dogged, free-soil border ruffian… a vulgar mobocrat and a Southern hater… an illiterate partisan… possessed only of his inveterate hatred of slavery and his openly avowed predilections of negro equality." Odd feelings of disappointment and excitement mixed as both Union men and secessionist anticipated Southern Independency.
A drought that withered several corps and rumors of Yankee ruffians attacking plantations and inciting slave uprising created panic. R. S. Holt, a prominent planter, reported the “discovery of poison, knives & pistols distributed among our slaves by emissaries sent out for that purpose”, and Lawrence Keitt, infamous for his role in the canning of Charles Summer, wrote: " I see poison in the wells in Texas—and fire for the houses in Alabama. How can we stand it?" Most of these reports were grossly exaggerated, if not outright falsehood. But they helped to fan a flame of fury and fear that resulted in vigilante lynch mobs: "It is better for us to hang ninety-nine innocent (suspicious) men than to let one guilty one pass."
Conservatives and the few surviving Douglas democrats seemed to capitulate, instead warning that a Lincoln victory would mean secession. "Let the consequences be what they may—whether the Potomac is crimsoned in human gore, and Pennsylvania Avenue is paved ten fathoms deep with mangled bodies… the South will never submit to such humiliation and degradation as the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln", declared a Georgia newspaper. In Louisville an editor claimed he received thousands of letters "all informing us of a settled and widely-extended purpose to break up the Union" if Lincoln was elected. John J. Crittenden, denounced the "profound fanaticism" of Republicans who "think it their duty to destroy… the white man, in order that the black might be free… [The South] has come to the conclusion that in case Lincoln should be elected… she could not submit to the consequences, and therefore, to avoid her fate, will secede from the Union." Even Breckinridge himself talked of an "endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of personal freedom." Nonetheless, he said that if the North forced the Deep South to secede, he would “exchange six years in the US Senate for the musket of a soldier.”
Northerners refused to listen to these proclamations. They had listened to them time and time again, and every time they proved fruitless. Furthermore, there was nothing Lincoln or the Republicans could do to mollify the South, for the very existence of the Republican Party was considered an insult by them.
When the fateful day came, Lincoln had not only carried a Solid North, he had also managed to take California and Oregon. Breckinridge won a Solid South, the only state he failed to carry being Missouri, carried by Bell instead. Lincoln had not only won a majority of the popular vote, but also 180 electoral votes, a comfortable margin. In the Upper North, Lincoln won more than 70% of the popular vote, losing less than two dozen counties. In the North as a whole Lincoln won almost 60% of the vote, which handily overcame Breckinridge's 52% of the Southern vote.
Furthermore, Republicans won 133 of the House's 238 seats, annihilating the Northern Democracy and the National Union, who would hold only 14 Northern seats. Of the Democrats' 105 seats, 91 were in the South. In the Senate, the Republicans also had a net gain of 5 seats, taking the plurality. The Democrats only won one seat, at the expense of a Douglas man in Kansas. They lost their plurality, having only 28 seats.
Red - Republican, 33 seats.
Blue - Democrat, 28 seats.
Purple - American, 4 seats.
Cyan - National Union, 2 seats.
This landslide victory proved ominous for the South, which saw the North as a united force against them. “The die has been cast”, declared a Virginia newspaper, “we must act now against this revolutionary party, or else we risk the destruction of everything we hold dear”. In the North, many were overjoyed. Charles Francis Adams declared that "The great revolution has actually taken place… The country has once and for all thrown off the domination of the Slaveholders." In Springfield, joyful celebrations "went off like one immense cannon report, with shouting from houses, shouting from stores, shouting from house tops, and shouting everywhere." "We live in Revolutionary Times", wrote a Northern man, "and I say, God bless the Revolution!".
Lincoln - 187 electoral votes, and around 2,410,000 votes (49.8%).
Breckenridge - 111 electoral votes, and around 1,300,000 votes (26.9%)
Bell - 9 electoral votes, and around 930,000 votes (19.2%)
Douglas - no electoral votes, and around 200,000 votes (4.1%)
However, while the Revolution of 1860 was being celebrated in the North, down at Columbia, South Carolina, a Counterrevolution was being planned.
__________________________________________________________________________________
AN: The title "The Revolution of 1860", is taken from the title to one of the chapters of McPherson's
Battle Cry of Freedom. All credit goes to McPherson.
