The Presidential Election 1860

Stephen A. Douglas was the ablest man in the Democratic Party and had been passed over twice as its candidate for the presidency. The Northern Democrats felt that his turn had come in 1860, although the Southern Democrats were dissatisfied with him because of his insistence on local sovereignty in the Kansas dispute.

The convention of the Democratic Party was held in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 23, 1860. Douglas was far in the lead but could not obtain the necessary votes for nomination. Then a large number of the Southern delegates withdrew. After a stormy ten days, the convention was adjourned to meet on June 7 in Baltimore. The opposition to Douglas at the Baltimore gathering was even more bitter, and more of the Southern delegates withdrew, leaving the convention almost entirely in the hands of Douglas men. They nominated him for the presidency.

The seceders from the Democratic Convention met at once in Baltimore and nominated for the presidency John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, the incumbent vice-president under James Buchanan.

A group calling themselves the "Constitutional Union Party met in Baltimore on May 9 and nominated for the presidency John Bell of Tennessee.

The Republican Convention met in Chicago on May 16, expecting to nominate for the presidency William H. Seward of New York. In the early balloting Seward led, but it was decided that a younger man, less prominently identified with Abolitionist sentiments, would be easier to elect, so the convention chose Abraham Lincoln.

This put four national parties in the field, each having a different stand on the primary issue: (1) Northern Democratic (Douglas) held that the decision for or against slavery should be left to the local residents of each state or territory; (2) Southern Democratic (Breckinridge) advocated no restrictions on slavery, as described in the Dred Scott Decision; (3) Constitutional Union (Bell) included both North and South, advocating compromise on the slavery issue and preservation of the Union; and (4) Republican (Lincoln) opposed to additional slave territory.

During the presidential campaign, William H. Seward visited St. Joseph on September 22, 1860, during a speaking tour on behalf of the Republican candidate. Seward and his party stayed at the Patee House, and he was prevailed upon to speak to the assembled crowd from the balcony on the north side of the hotel. Seward spent the next day, Sunday, at the Patee House and saw the departure of a Pony Express rider.

The election in November resulted in these popular and electoral votes:

Lincoln secured less than a majority of the votes cast nationally, and only a little over ten percent of the votes cast in Missouri. Missouri was the only state to cast all its electoral votes for Douglas. Bell won the electoral votes of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Of the 452 votes in Buchanan County, 410 Lincoln votes came from the city of St. Joseph. Both Buchanan County and the state of Missouri favored the two 'middle ground' candidates, voting conservatively-for compromise on the slavery issue and for preservation of the Union.

Apparently very few realized the intensity of feeling aroused in the Southern states by the election of Lincoln. He was regarded as a 'sectional candidate' and after the many years of agitation of the slavery issue -- which the South regarded as destructive of their entire economy-the Lincoln election was the ‘flashpoint’ that set off the explosion.

South Carolina seceded on December 20 and was followed by six other states: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Representatives met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 7, 1861, to organize the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected president and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, vice-president. As is always true, no one wanted war. Various efforts at compromise were made, the best known being the proposals of Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. These were rejected by the U.S. Senate. A peace conference, called by the Commonwealth of Virginia, met in Washington in February. Horace Greeley, one of the founders of the Republican Party and publisher of the New York Tribune, expressed the views of many when he urged that the seceding states be allowed to 'depart in peace. William H. Seward and Senator Douglas were very active in their efforts to prevent the start of active hostilities. In Missouri, the presidential election had shown that popular sentiment was opposed to secession.

The General Assembly of Missouri met in Jefferson City on December 31, 1860. It included representatives of all four of the parties represented in the November election, none dominant. On January 4, 1861, Claiborne F. Jackson was inaugurated governor. He followed the views of Stephen A. Douglas on the question of extending slavery, but believed that the interests of all the states already holding slaves were identical and that if the Union were to be divided, Missouri should stand with the South. He favored Missouri's staying in the Union as long as there was any hope of maintaining the guarantees of the Constitution, but he was opposed to any coercion of the people. A Constitutional Convention of ninety-nine members met in Jefferson City on February 28. Sterling Price (an ex-governor, regarded as a Union man) was elected president, and Robert Wilson of Andrew County, vice-president.

This convention voted: ‘That at present there is no adequate cause to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection with the Federal Union. ... That the people of this state deem the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Hon. John J. Crittenden of Kentucky ... a basis of adjustment. That, in the opinion of this Convention, the employment of military force by the Federal Government to coerce the submission of the seceding states . . . will inevitably plunge this country into civil war. ... We earnestly entreat the Federal Government and the seceding states to withhold and stay the arm of military power. . . .”

The war began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The fort's capitulation on April 14 caused a profound sensation throughout the country. On April 15, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling upon the militia of the various states for 75, 000 men to put down the revolution of the seven seceding states. Missouri's quota was four regiments, and Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson's reply to the Secretary of War, dated April 17, 1861, was, in part: “There can be no doubt that these men are intended to form a part of the President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded states. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade.”

Virginia joined the seceding states on April 17, North Carolina on May 20, Arkansas on May 6, and Tennessee on June 24.