Lesson 15.4: The Election of 1860

1. Lesson 15.4: The Election of 1860 Today’s Essential Question: What were the political parties, platforms, candidates, issues, and outcome in the election of 1860?

2. Vocabulary • political party – political group organized to gain political power by getting its members elected to office • platform – a political party’s statement of beliefs • candidate – person chosen by a political party as its contestant for a political office • issue – something people discuss or argue about • outcome – result; how an event or a contest turns out

3. What are the two major political parties today?

4. What is a platform? A platform is a political party’s statement of beliefs.

5. What is an issue people discuss or argue about today?

6. What We Already Learned The Republican Party was formed in 1854, and was dedicated to stopping the spread of slavery into the territories.

7. What We Already Learned His debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858 made Abraham Lincoln a popular figure in the Republican Party.

8. What We Already Learned After John Brown attacked a federal arsenal to get weapons to start a slave rebellion . . .

9. Southerners were horrified when some Northerners seemed to make him out to be a hero.

10. The Democratic Party Splinters • At the Democratic party’s convention, Northern and Southern Democrats disagreed over the party’s platform. • The Southerners wanted a defense of slavery, but Northerners supported popular sovereignty.

11. The Democratic Party Splinters • When the Northerners won the platform vote, 50 Southern delegates walked out of the convention. • Stephen A. Douglas was the leading contender for the party’s nomination as presidential candidate, but the remaining Southerners rejected him because he was so closely associated with popular sovereignty.

12. The Republican Convention • New York’s William Seward was favored to win the nomination.

13. The Republican Convention • New York’s William Seward was favored to win the nomination. • Abraham Lincoln, a lesser-known candidate from Illinois, won a surprise victory.

14. Democrats Still Divided • Northern Democrats nominated Douglas.

15. Democrats Still Divided • Northern Democrats nominated Douglas. • Southern Democrats chose Buchanan’s vice-president, John Breckinridge of Kentucky.

16. Democrats Still Divided • Northern Democrats nominated Douglas. • Southern Democrats chose Buchanan’s vice-president, John Breckinridge of Kentucky. • The Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee.

17. The candidates in the 1860 presidential election differed in their policies. • Lincoln opposed slavery’s expansion into the territories. • Breckinridge wanted the federal government to protect slavery in every territory. • Douglas wanted the slavery question settled through popular sovereignty. • Bell simply wanted to preserve the Union.

18. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

19. Why did the Democrats have two presidential candidates in 1860? • It was too difficult for one candidate to do all the traveling necessary to win votes. • Southern Democrats wanted a defense of slavery, but Northern Democrats supported popular sovereignty. • They hoped that one of the two candidates would appeal to enough voters to win. • Most Northern Democrats were abolitionists and couldn’t get along with the Southerners.

20. Lincoln defeated Douglas in the North; Breckinridge carried most of the South. The North had more electoral votes than the South, so Lincoln won the election.

21. A Republican Victory • Lincoln had promised that he would do nothing to abolish slavery in the South. • Southerners were sure that he would ban slavery, and saw the Republican victory as a threat to the Southern way of life.

22. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

23. What four parties had presidential candidates in the 1860 election? Northern Democrats Southern Democrats Know-Nothing Party Republicans Constitutional Union Party Free Soil Party Choose FOUR parties!

24. 22. Who were the four presidential candidates in the 1860 election? Stephen Douglas John Crittenden Abraham Lincoln John Bell John C. Fremont John Breckinridge Choose FOUR names!

25. Match the candidates in the 1860 presidential election with their policies. • Lincoln • Breckinridge • Douglas • Bell • Wanted to preserve the Union, regardless of slavery • Opposed slavery’s expansion into the territories • Wanted the federal government to protect slavery in every territory • Wanted to settle the slavery question through popular sovereignty

26. Why did the South secede? • There were many factors beyond slavery that led to the secession of the South. • Differences in culture • Differences in Economy • Differences in Political Philosophy • Diminished Influence • Overestimation of the South’s Importance • Lincoln’s Election

27. Differences in Culture Aristocratic and stratified in the South vs. democratic and fluid in the North

28. Differences in Economy Slave labor in the South vs. free labor in the North

29. Differences in Economy Agrarian South vs. industrial North

30. Differences in Political Philosophy Compact theory vs. permanent union

31. Diminished Political and Economic Influence The growing population & wealth of the North made the South feel less important than it once had.

32. Overestimation of the South's Economic Importance Belief that the North’s economy could not survive without Southern cotton.

33. Lincoln's election Viewed by Southerners as a threat to slavery

34. Southern States Secede • Secessionists argued that since the states had voluntarily joined the Union, they had the right to leave it. • This was the compact theory of government that had been supported by Southerners for generations.

35. Southern States Secede • On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. • Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida followed within six weeks.

36. The Confederate States of America Formed • February 1861 – Jefferson Davis elected president • The Confederate Constitution supported states’ rights and protected slavery in the Confederacy. • How would the Union government respond?

37. Jefferson Davis Abraham Lincoln

38. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

39. B ask A: Who was Jefferson Davis? Jefferson Davis was the first President of the Confederate States of America.

40. 23. How did white Southerners view Lincoln’s election as president?

41. 23. How did white Southerners view Lincoln’s election as president? They viewed it with laughter, since they had just seceded. They saw it as a as a threat to slavery and to their way of life. To them, it was an example of popular sovereignty. They saw it as a crooked election, with thousands of phony votes cast.

42. 24. How did the Southern states react to the election of President Lincoln?

43. 24. How did the Southern states react to the election of President Lincoln? They beginning impeachment proceedings immediately. They threatened to withhold their tariff duties until he resigned. They seceded from the Union. They refused to send their representatives to Congress that year.

44. 25. How did Southerners justify secession?

45. 25. How did Southerners justify secession? They had not voted for Lincoln, so they did not recognize him as president. Since the states had voluntarily joined the Union, they also had the right to leave the Union. Lincoln's election had been illegal, so they didn't have to accept the result. Lincoln had announced his plans to abolish slavery, so they had a right to secede in defense of their culture. The Crittenden Compromise had included a secession clause, which they now were fulfilling.

46. The Union Responds to Secession • Buchanan argued against secession: the federal government was sovereign, secession threatened majority rule. • Southerners complained that Northerners were antislavery bullies. • Northerners accused Southerners of ignoring the rules of democracy.

47. Efforts to Compromise Fail The Crittenden Plan: • re-establish Missouri Compromise line • permit slavery in the territories until statehood • other protections of slavery and the slave trade John J. Crittenden

48. Efforts to Compromise Fail Political leaders in both the North and the South worked on the Crittenden plan in the hope that it would keep the Union together, but it failed to pass in Congress.

49. Lincoln’s Inauguration Lincoln assured the South that he had no intention of abolishing slavery, but spoke forcefully against secession.

50. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”