Download The Campaign Strategies

Lincoln, Secession,
and War
Dred Scott Aftermath
James
John C.
Buchanan
Breckinridge
Abraham
Lincoln
Dred Scott
Stephen
Douglas
John Bell
Republicans in Chicago
“The Wigwam”
Chicago convention hall at it prepared to nominate Abe Lincoln
for president, from Harper's Weekly, May 1860
The Platforms--Republicans
Opposed expansion of slavery into the territories
Upheld the rights of slaveholders in the South—
no interference with slavery where it already
exists
Opposed the Dred-Scott decision
Homestead Act
Transcontinental railroad
Protective tariff
And the Nominees Are…
William Seward Salmon P. Chase
Edward Bates Simon Cameron
Four-Way Contest
Abraham Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Constitutional Unionist
Stephen Douglas
Northern Democrat
John Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
The Platforms--Democrats
Supported popular sovereignty
Attacked Lincoln’s supposed support
of social equality for African
Americans
Favored acquisition of Cuba
Condemned Personal Liberty Laws
as subversive to Constitution
The Platforms—National
(Southern) Democrats
Supported passage of a national slave code
Supported protection of slavery and
slaveholders’ property rights in the
territories
Attacked Lincoln’s supposed support of
social equality for African Americans
Favored acquisition of Cuba
Condemned Personal Liberty Laws as
subversive to Constitution
The Platforms—
Constitutional Union Party
Offered no well-defined
platform
Federal government should
support slavery and also defend
the Union
Appealed to adherence to the
Constitution, the Union, and the
body oftolaws
Pledge
maintain, protect, and defend, separately
and unitedly, these great principles of public liberty
and national safety, against all enemies, at home
and abroad
The Campaign Strategies-Lincoln
Focused on the northern and western states
Stayed away from the South
Thousands of young men turned out in "Wide
Awake" torchlight parades in support of Lincoln
Barbecues, picnics, rallies, rail-splitter battalions,
and marches composed of six-foot-four Lincoln
supporters listened to party celebrities extolling the
honesty of Old Abe, the "Woodchopper of the West“
Sympathetic voters were urged to "Vote Yourself a
Farm" by voting for Lincoln and his Homestead Act
platform
The Campaign Strategies-Douglas
Focused on all states
Became the first Presidential candidate in
American history to go on a national tour,
delivering campaign speeches himself
Warned that secession would cause a civil
war
Resorted to racial slurs
The Campaign Strategies-Breckinridge
Focused on the South
Stayed away from the northern and western states
Resorted to racial slurs
Made fun of Lincoln's limited experience as a
statesman and his "slang-whanging stump
speaker" style, which they said reflected a limited
intellect that would be an embarrassment to the
nation should he be elected President
The Campaign Strategies-Breckinridge
 The Charleston Mercury ridiculed his looks, depicting
him as a "horrid looking wretch . . ." unfit for office.
Cartoons showed Lincoln dancing with black women
and championing "amalgamation" and
"miscegenation" (mixing of the races)
 One widely distributed picture showed Lincoln steering
a ship with a thick-lipped black man embracing a
young white girl sitting at his feet on deckOne
secessionist in Georgia warned that Lincoln planned to
force the inter-marriage of black and white children,
and that within "ten years or less our children will be
the slaves of Negroes."
The Campaign Strategies-Bell
Win enough electoral votes to throw the
election into the House of Representatives
No strong position on the issues of slavery
or secession
Election of 1856
Election of 1856
Election of 1860
Candidates
Party
Electoral Vote
Popular
Vote
Abraham Lincoln (Illinois)
Hannibal Hamlin (Maine)
Republican
180
1,865,593
Stephen A. Douglas (Illinois)
Herschel V. Johnson (Ga.)
(Northern)
Democratic
12
1,382,713
John C. Breckinridge (Ky.)
Joseph Lane (Oregon)
Southern
(Independent)
Democrat
72
848,356
John Bell (Tennessee)
Edward Everett (Mass.)
Constitutional Union
39
592,906
The Union Collapses
The Union Collapses
State
South
Carolina
Mississippi
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Texas
Date of
Secession
December
20, 1860
January 9,
1861
January
10, 1861
January
11, 1861
January
19, 1861
January
26, 1861
February
1, 1861
Attempt to Save Union
Peace Convention (2/8-27/’61)
 Slavery in the territories would be dealt with by extending the Missouri
Compromise line to the Pacific coast with no provision for newly acquired
territory
 The acquisition of all future territories had to be approved by a majority of
both the slave states and the Free states
 A prohibition on Congress passing any legislation that would affect the status
of slavery where it currently existed
 A prohibition on state legislatures from passing laws that would restrict the
ability of officials to apprehend and return fugitive slaves
 A permanent prohibition on the foreign slave trade
 100% compensation to any master whose fugitive slave was freed by illegal
mob action or intimidation of officials required to administer the Fugitive
Slave Act
 Key sections of this amendment could only be further amended with the
concurrence of all of the states.
Attempt to Save Union
Crittenden Compromise
Amendmendments to Constitution
 Slavery would be prohibited in all territory of the United States
"now held, or hereafter acquired," north of latitude 36 degrees 30
minutes. In territory south of this line, slavery was "hereby
recognized" and could not be interfered with by Congress. Further,
property in slaves was to be "protected by all the departments of
the territorial government during its continuance." States would be
admitted to the Union from any territory with or without slavery as
their constitutions provided.
 Congress was forbidden to abolish slavery in places under its
jurisdiction within a slave state, such as a military post.
 Congress could not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so
long as it existed in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland,
and without the consent of the District's inhabitants. Compensation
would be given to owners who refused consent to abolition.
Attempt to Save Union
Crittenden Compromise
Amendmendments to Constitution
 Congress could not prohibit or interfere with the
interstate slave trade.
 Congress would provide full compensation to owners of
rescued fugitive slaves. Congress was empowered to sue
the county in which obstruction to the fugitive slave
laws took place to recover payment; the county, in turn,
could sue "the wrong doers or rescuers" who prevented
the return of the fugitive.
 No future amendment of the Constitution could change
these amendments, or authorize or empower Congress
to interfere with slavery within any slave state.
Attempt to Save Union
Crittenden Compromise
Resolutions
 That fugitive slave laws were constitutional and should be
faithfully observed and executed.
 That all state laws which impeded the operation of fugitive slave
laws, the so-called "Personal Liberty laws," were unconstitutional
and should be repealed.
 That the Fugitive Slave act of 1850 should be modified (and
rendered less objectionable to the North) by equalizing the fee
schedule for returning or releasing alleged fugitives, and limiting
the powers of marshals to summon citizens to aid in their c apture.
 That laws for the suppression of the African slave trade should be
effectively and thoroughly executed.
Attempt to Save Union
Crittenden Compromise
Disposition
 Vote was 25 against the compromise and 23 in favor of it
All 25 votes against it were cast by Republicans
Six senators from states that were in the process of
seceding abstained
 One Republican editorial insisted that the party "cannot
be made to surrender the fruits of its recent victory.“
 There would be no compromise; with the secession of
states continuing, America marched inexorably towards
civil war.
Fort Sumter