The Election of 1860: "A Campaign Fraught with Consequences"

American Presidential Elections

by Michael F. Holt

Because of its extraordinary consequences and because of Abraham Lincoln’s place in the American pantheon, the presidential election of 1860 is probably the most studied in our history. But perhaps for the same reasons, historians have focused on the contest of Lincoln versus Stephen Douglas in the northern free states and John Bell versus John C. Breckinridge in the slaveholding South. In The Election of 1860 a preeminent scholar of American history disrupts this familiar narrative with a clearer and more comprehensive account of how the election unfolded and what it was actually about. Most critically, the book counters the common interpretation of the election as a referendum on slavery and the Republican Party’s purported threat to it. However significantly slavery figured in the election, The Election of 1860 reveals the key importance of widespread opposition to the Republican Party because of its overtly anti-southern rhetoric and seemingly unstoppable rise to power in the North after its emergence in 1854. Also of critical importance was the corruption of the incumbent administration of Democrat James Buchanan—and a nationwide revulsion against party.

Grounding his history in a nuanced retelling of the pre-1860 story, Michael F. Holt explores the sectional politics that permeated the election and foreshadowed the coming Civil War. He brings to light how the campaigns of the Republican Party and the National (Northern) Democrats and the Constitutional (Southern) Democrats and the newly formed Constitutional Union Party were not exclusively regional. His attention to the little-studied role of the Buchanan Administration, and of perceived threats to the preservation of the Union, clarifies the true dynamic of the 1860 presidential election, particularly in its early stages.

Genres: History, American History, Civil War, American

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2017

About the author

Michael F. Holt is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He earned his B.A. from Princeton in 1962 and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1967.

Reviews

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a clinical history the 1860 election campaigns by the great Michael Holt. It is precise, wordy, and very good. The style and prose are not sparkling and in many ways thats ok. Holt's thesis--that slavery was not actually the biggest driving force behind the Republic victory--is proved. Instead the author argues ably that kicking the Democrats out of office after eight years of corruption proved to be the deciding factor for nearly 800,000 voters who in 1856 voted for Millard Fillmore instead of Republican candidate John C. Fremont. By 1860, they were sick enough to vote for the candidate most likely to unseat Buchanan and the Democrats even if that candidate was not their idea choice. The election in the North is what 1860 hinged on.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The presidential election of 1860 was unlike any other in American history. The product of the contentious and often violent politics of the 1850s, it saw no less than four candidates contesting for the White House. With the fracturing of the Democratic Party over the issue of slavery, the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was able to win with a only a plurality of the vote, thanks to the majority he won in the electoral college through his near sweep of the populous states of the northern United States. In response to his victory, seven southern states sought to break away from the Union, an action that led to the bloodiest war in the nation's history and the eventual abolition of slavery in the country.

Given its dramatic nature and the momentous events that followed, the election has never wanted for attention from historians. Yet Michael F. Holt argues that a number of misconceptions have accumulated around the election which have distorted our perception of it. His book offers a revisionist account of the campaign that highlights these obscured or distorted elements in an effort to gain a better understanding of the issues that defined it for the voters who participated. Foremost among them, he argues, is the idea that the election was primarily about slavery, which he sees as the view of the southerners who would subsequently seek to break away from the union. For most voters, though, the main issue was the corruption of the Buchanan administration. Holt shows how Republicans highlighted this in the months leading up to the election, making the case that what was needed was a clean sweep of the executive branch. As he explains this also played a key role in the selection of "Honest Abe" as the nominee, as Lincoln's profile was one better suited to make the case for the Republicans than that of his main competitors, William Seward and the corrupt Simon Cameron.

While the Republicans sharpened their arguments about Democratic corruption in advance of the election, the Democratic Party was plagued with infighting between the president, James Buchanan, and Stephen Douglas. Holt traces the origins of this to Douglas's refusal to admit Kansas as a state under the proslavery Lecompton constitution. As Holt points out, this coupled with Douglas's qualified acceptance of the Dred Scott decision also alienated him from the southern Democrats who increasingly dominated the party, setting the stage for the party convention in Charleston in 1860 at which the Democrats fractured into pro- and anti-Douglas factions. With a victory by the (at that point undecided) Republican candidate increasingly likely, a group of politicians organized a conservative alternative to Republicans in the form of the Constitutional Union Party, who selected the elder statesman John Bell as their presidential contender. With the nomination of Douglas and Vice President John Breckinridge by the separate Democratic factions, the stage was set for a chaotic contest.

In covering the campaign that followed, Holt pushes back against the traditionally narrow view of it as separate contests between Lincoln and Douglas in the north and Breckinridge versus Bell in the south. Though Breckinridge and Bell both refrained from electioneering, their campaigns sent speakers and mounted rallies in the northern states as well as the southern ones, while Republicans distributed ballots in the border slave states as well. Most dramatically Douglas undertook the then-unusual step of personally campaigning by making speeches in both the northern and southern states. Holt's chapter on the campaign itself is the best in the book, as he describes the myriad activities the parties adopted to turn out the vote. In this respect the Republican effort proved the most successful, as the dramatic appeals to young voters with the "Wide Awake" clubs and criticisms of Democratic corruption delivering them the victories they needed in the key swing states. As Holt points out, slavery was a salient issue only in the south, where arguments that Republicans were seeking outright abolition were so disconnected from Republican campaign goals that Republicans failed to take seriously the threats of secession by many southerners — a delusion that would quickly be dispelled in the weeks following Lincoln's victory.

As a longtime scholar of antebellum politics, Holt brings a lifetime's worth of learning to his subject. He wears this lightly, providing an accessible description of the election while making arguments that go far towards shaking up the traditional interpretation of the 1860 election. Yet Holt oversells the revisionist nature of his account. Though he performs a valuable service in highlighting aspects of the campaign that were obscured by subsequent events, as Holt himself acknowledges at the end, perceptions of Democratic corruption and "misrule" in the north were as much tied to the perception of the party's excessive deference to southerners' anxieties about slavery as it was the buying of votes or the favoring of Democrats in awarding contracts. Moreover, his account of the election itself only qualifies somewhat the view of it as separate contests, suggesting the misconception is more one of emphasis than detail. In the end, though, these are criticisms of degree rather than of substance. Overall, Holt's study of the 1860 election offers a refreshing reexamination of one of the truly pivotal moments in American history, and is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the election and how it led to the devastating conflict that followed.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this study of the Election of 1860 Holt argues that it wasn't the issue of slavery that led the Republicans to victory that year but rather the belief that the Buchanan administration was corrupt and dishonest at its core. Lincoln's election chances was also seemingly improved by the split in the Democratic party which was divided between backers of Stephen Douglas and those of James Buchanan. While Douglas was nominated by a mostly Northern State Convention, Buchanan's supporters nominated John Breckinridge in another convention held shortly after Douglas's nomination.

Holt also gives more coverage to the campaign of the Constitutional Union Party which nominated John Bell for president than has traditionally been written about. This 4 way race played out throughout much of the North while in the South the Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell camps competed for votes.

In the end Lincoln's victory was ultimately due to the strength of the Republican party at the local level as it surged to victory atvthe state level as well as nationally.

A most valuable addition to the momentous literature on this most consequential election in American history.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and readable history of the election that challenges some parts of the conventional narrative. Most books on the election focus on Lincoln, but Holt thankfully goes further and looks at parties and platforms.

Holt notes how the campaigns of the era differed from today’s identity politics, and how the party and platform was usually more important than the actual nominee. The Republicans mostly tried to avoid the slavery issue and focused on such things as corruption (which they successfully exploited and avoided on their own side by picking Lincoln over the other political hacks), while the Democrats split into northern and southern wings. Holt also devotes more attention to John Bell than previous books.

Holt’s narrative is nuanced and he does a great job describing the campaigns strategies of all sides, but the book can be a bit dry at times. Also, his argument that southerners’ harping on the territorial question was due to their hatred of Douglas isn’t all that persuasive.

[Bryan Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Election Of 1860 is a ver informative, descriptive and at times a little "entertaining" history of what occurred during the 1860.

To me this book felt like a documentary of the 1860 election.

The Election Of 1860, is aptly-timed for these days

I highly recommend this book.

[Bryan Ericson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise and well written analysis is of the 1860 election. Did drag a bit in spots.

[Jay Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much information- definitely will come back to it at some point!!