Election of 1860

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the
Voice of America.

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The American people faced the year eighteen-sixty with mixed
feelings of hope and fear. They had hope for the future, because
they would be electing a new president. But they were fearful that
even a new president could not hold the nation together. The states
of the south were very close to leaving the Union over the issue of
slavery.

I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I tell about the critical
election of eighteen-sixty.

VOICE TWO:

After four years as President,
James Buchanan decided not to run again. Buchanan was a Democrat.
His party, like the nation, was split over slavery. Southern
Democrats wanted the party to support slavery. Northern Democrats
refused.

The opposition Republican Party expected to gain votes from
dissatisfied Democrats. Republicans had become stronger since the
last presidential election in eighteen-fifty-six. They felt their
candidate would win in eighteen-sixty.

VOICE ONE:

The Democratic nominating convention opened in April in
Charleston, South Carolina. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois was
the leading candidate. He had the support of a majority of
convention delegates. But he did not have the two-thirds majority
needed to win the nomination.

Many southern Democrats did not like Stephen Douglas. Some did
not trust him. Others did not accept his policies on slavery.
Douglas did not oppose slavery or the spread of slavery. However, he
said no federal law could make slavery legal in a territory where
the people did not want it. This was his policy of 'Popular
Sovereignty.'

VOICE TWO:

The southern Democrats who opposed Stephen Douglas were led by
William Yancey of Alabama. Yancey wanted to get a pro-slavery
statement into the party's platform. He was sure Douglas would not
accept the nomination based on such a platform.

If Yancey failed to get the statement he wanted, he would take
southern Democrats out of the convention....and out of the party.

The Committee on Resolutions considered three platforms. One
platform declared that the people of a territory had the right to
decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The second declared
that the Supreme Court had that right. And the third declared that
no one did -- that slavery was legal everywhere.

VOICE ONE:

William Yancey spoke to the convention in support of the
pro-slavery platform. He said pro-slavery Democrats did not want to
destroy the Union. But he said someone had to make clear to
anti-slavery Democrats that the Union would be dissolved if the
constitutional rights of slave owners were not honored.

Yancey spoke of the danger of a great slave rebellion. He
described it as a sleeping volcano that threatened the lives,
property, and honor of the people of the south. He said the actions
of the north might cause that volcano to explode.

Another convention delegate answered Yancey's speech. He said
northern Democrats were tired of defending the interests of the
south. "Now," he said, "Yancey tells us we must agree that slavery
is right. He orders us to hide our faces and eat dirt. Gentlemen of
the south," he said, "you mistake us. We will not do it!"

VOICE TWO:

In this atmosphere of tension, it was clear that a pro-slavery
platform would not be approved. The Alabama delegationc announced
that, therefore, it must withdraw. The delegations from the other
six states of the deep south -- Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas -- did the same.

Those fifty men organized their own convention. They approved a
pro-slavery platform, but did not nominate anyone for president.
They agreed to meet again a few weeks later in Richmond, Virginia.

The northern Democrats postponed their nomination, too. They
agreed to meet again in Baltimore, Maryland.

VOICE ONE:

The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention
in Chicago, Illinois. There was no question who was the leading
candidate. He was the best-known Republican in the country at that
time: Senator William Seward of New York.

The Republican platform seemed to contain something for everyone.

For those opposed to slavery, the platform rejected the idea that
slave owners had a constitutional right to take slaves into new
territories. For foreign-born Americans, it supported their right to
full citizenship. For manufacturers, it proposed a new tax on
imports to protect American industry. And for those in the
northwest, it called for free land for settlers, and federal aid to
build roads and canals.

Delegates approved the platform with loud cheers. They would
return the next day to nominate their candidate for president.

VOICE TWO:

William Seward was sure he would win the nomination. If not on
the first vote, he thought, then on the second. But there was some
opposition to Seward. And his campaign organization failed to see
its strength.

The candidate of the opposition
was Abraham Lincoln.

The Republican convention voted three times. Lincoln gained
support on each ballot. But neither he nor Seward received enough
votes for the nomination. Then, before a fourth vote could be taken,
a delegate from Ohio asked to speak. The big room became silent.
"Mr. Chairman," he said, "I rise to announce the change of four
votes of Ohio to Mr. Lincoln."

That was enough to give Abraham Lincoln the Republican nomination
for president.

VOICE ONE:

One month later, the Democrats re-opened their nominating
convention. Most of the southern Democrats who walked out of the
first meeting came back. Many of their seats at the convention had
been given to new delegates. So a new dispute arose over which
delegates had the right to be there.

A compromise plan split the seats
between old and new delegates. But most of the southerners rejected
it. One by one, a majority of each southern delegation walked out.
The remaining Democrats then voted for a candidate. They chose
Stephen Douglas.

Southern Democrats nominated their own candidate, John
Breckinridge of Kentucky. And a group called the Constitutional
Union Party nominated John Bell.

VOICE TWO:

The election campaign opened in the summer of eighteen-sixty.
Lincoln was not well-known. So the Republican Party published many
books and pamphlets about him. They told the story of a poor farm
boy who educated himself and, through hard work and honesty, had
become a candidate for president.

Lincoln's supporters organized a loud and colorful campaign,
complete with marching bands and signs. Lincoln himself was silent.
He said, "It has been my decision since becoming a candidate to make
no speeches. I am here only to see you and to let you see me."

In fact, it was Lincoln's assistants who had advised him to say
nothing. They believed he had said enough in the past to make clear
his position on the important issues.

VOICE ONE:

Stephen Douglas, on the other hand, campaigned very hard. His
health was poor. And he had trouble getting money. But that did not
stop him from speaking in almost every state.

Within a few weeks, however, Douglas recognized that he had no
real hope of winning. His position on slavery had cost him all
support in the south.

Douglas believed that, of the other candidates, Abraham Lincoln
had the best chance of winning the presidential election. He also
believed pro-slavery extremists would use Lincoln's election as an
excuse to take southern states out of the Union. So he turned his
efforts to a campaign for the Union itself.

He said, "The election of a man to the presidency by the American
people, under the Constitution, is no reason for any attempt to
dissolve this glorious nation."

VOICE TWO:

Election day was November sixth. The popular vote was close
between Lincoln and Douglas. But the electoral vote was not. Lincoln
received one-hundred-eighty. Breckinridge received seventy-two. Bell
received thirty-nine. And Douglas received just twelve.

Abraham Lincoln would be the new President of the United States.

He would enter office facing the most serious crisis in American
history. For, before his inauguration, southern states finally acted
on their threats. They began to leave the Union. That will be our
story next week.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs.
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.