When the Democrats convened to nominate their candidate in 1860, Stephen Douglas was a clear favorite among Northern men, but he had alienated the Southern wing of the party by refusing to vigorously support slavery. At their first convention in Charleston, South Carolina, some Southerners walked out over a platform dispute, and the convention could not agree on a nominee. Meeting later for a second time in Baltimore, Southerners again bolted and the convention nominated Stephen Douglas.
In 1860, as a Democrat, Douglas found himself in a difficult place. The Democratic Party dominated the South, and Douglas had alienated many Southern Democratic slaveholders.
In their opinion he was not a strong enough advocate of the extension of slavery into the territories, a move which Abraham Lincoln strongly opposed. Thus in 1860 the Democratic Party split, with the Northern Democrats nominating Douglas for president, and the Southern component of the party nominating John C. Breckenridge. Abraham Lincoln, of course, was the Republican candidate.
The Southern wing reconvened and nominated John C. Breckenridge and demanded federal protection for the ownership of slaves in the territories. A fourth party, the Constitutional Union party, nominated John Bell of Tennessee.
The Republican Party, meeting in Chicago, nominated Abraham Lincoln on a free-soil position and a broad economic platform. The nominating process centered on several strong candidates. New York Governor William Seward, the pre-convention favorite, was too radi-cal—too close to being an out-and-out abolitionist. As a senator and governor of New York, he had had time to make enemies. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was also considered too radical. Edward Bates of Missouri was too weak on the slavery issue. Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania had little support outside his own state.
Lincoln men worked to get him in the position of being "everybody's second choice." He won the nomination on the third ballot on the strength of his clear but moderate views, as he had laid them out in his famous debates with Douglas. It helped that Lincoln was from Illinois, home to the convention, and that he was not as controversial as other Republican leaders. Lincoln's chief rivals, Seward, Chase, Bates and Cameron all eventually became members of Lincoln's cabinet. (See the 1860 Republican Platform, Appendix. Also, for a fascinating account of the Republican Convention and the workings of Lincoln's administration, see Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York, 2006.)
The Election divides the Union. The campaign was fought out in the South between Bell and Breckinridge, although neither had much chance of victory, as the majority of electoral votes were in the North.86 Lincoln and Douglas fought it out in the North. Although Lincoln won only 40 percent of the total popular vote, he swept the North for a majority (180 out of 303) of the electoral votes and election as president. He received no Southern votes in the electoral college, and in some Southern counties, he did not receive a single vote. He was not even on the ballot in ten Southern states. Breckinridge came in second with 72 electoral votes; Douglas gained only 12. Douglas realized early in the race that he had no chance to win. Nevertheless he campaigned courageously throughout the South. His message to the Southern people was a plea not to destroy the Union over the results of a presidential election. In that effort he failed, of course, as the election of Lincoln immediately led to the secession of seven Southern states. Stephen Douglas died in 1861.
World History
