The 1860 Presidential Electionin Missouri

Road map The 1860 election in Missouri: teaching opportunities

The European Context A diverse state: no easy conclusions

Missouri splits the nation in half Comparisons that work:

Missouri Democrats: moderate, war, peace, copperhead, “States-Rights,” conservative Germans ….

Missouri Republicans: radicals, moderates, former Whigs, anti-Catholic Nativists, German wide-awakes, …

The Election: national contest, local politics

Europe, 1848

Berlin Uprising, 1848

The crisis of democratic revolutions: the “forty-eighters”

Unrest throughout Europe caused the Revolutions of 1848

Middle-class liberals desired greater political participation

Nationalities demanded independence Conservatives manage to put down rebellions,

remain in place; punitive aftermath

Missouri: A Diverse PeopleBefore statehood: French, Spanish, Native American

residents, as well as Indian and African slaves

1830s: German Catholics from the wine regions 1840s: radical Germans fleeing from political

oppression 1840s: Irish immigrants fleeing poverty and famine About 114,000 slaves

Opposing viewpoints; two thirds were foreign-born

Germans in Missouri: wine regionsAugusta

Herrmann

Ozark Highlands

Ozark Mountain

Southeastern Missouri

Central Missouri

Western Missouri

Americans move to Missouri Settlers from the upper south: Virginia,

Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee

Pro-slavery (though most did not own slaves)

Democrats

The Missouri Compromise

1824 Freedom Law Provided that slaves who had resided in a free

territory or state could sue for their liberty About 300 known suits; at least 2/3 were

successful Most of the successful suits were brought by

female plaintiffs Rachel v. Walker, 1834 Dred and Harriet Scott, 1846 - 1857

Missouri before the war

Slavery in Missouri, 1860

German Wide-Awakes, 1856

The Scott family sues for freedom 1846 - 1857

Trouble on the Western Border

Panic of 1857Bank run, 1857 The price of peanuts

John Brown, 1800 - 1859

Harper’s Ferry, October 16-18, 1859

The Gateway: St. Louis in 1859

The Prize: The St. Louis Arsenal,1860

Democratic Nominees John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois

Constitutional Union Party John Bell, Tennessee

Political Convention Debacle: The Democrats storm out – across the street in Charleston

Charleston, SC, April 23, 1860 Baltimore, MD, June 18, 1860

A few Republican Nominees: May 1860, Chicago clockwise: Simon Cameron, Salmon P. Chase, Wm. Henry Seward

… and a few more Republican nominees Edward Bates, MO Abraham Lincoln, IL

Election politics: section and race

1860 cartoon lampooning Democrat party divisions

The Democrats were divided into 3 races and 2 parties

The Republicans supported Lincoln because:

He was moderate on slavery Famed for Lincoln-Douglas

debates Would win Illinois (Western

state, important swing state)

The main issue in 1860: the extension of slavery

Lincoln and Republicans barely campaign in the South; do not appear on any southern ballots except border states

Missouri is the only state in the Union to carry all 4 candidates in its slate

1860: Two momentous decisions for Missouri

The Governorship: Claiborne Jackson vs. Gov. Robert Stewart (August 1860) – CFJ was a “Douglas” Democrat, secretly pro-secession

The Presidency: Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell (November 1860)

Governor Claiborne F. Jackson1805 - 1862

Runs against Sample Orr, a Constitutional Union candidate

… and against Gov. Hancock Lee Jackson, a Breckenridge Democrat

… and also against James Gardenhire, a Republican

Missouri 1860 gubernatorial results Claiborne Fox Jackson (SAD): 46.9 %

Sample Orr (CU): 41.9 %

Hancock Lee Jackson: (BD) 7.2 %

James Gardenhire: (Rep.) 3.8 %

Presidential Running mates

1860 Presidential Electionin Missouri Counties

1860 Presidential election results in Missouri, by county

  

1860 Election Results

Bell wins three states (Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee)

Breckenridge carried the South

Lincoln carried the Northern states and won theelectoral vote, though earning less than 40% of all votes cast: Douglas won two states

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union

Causes of the Civil War

The Unfinished Capitol, 1861

James Buchanan, 1791 - 1868

Inaugural, March 4, 1861In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-

countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."34  I am loath to close. 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 battlefield 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.

Camp Jackson "Oh! Oh! Oh! Ah! Ah! Ah!—

The time of our glory is a-coming.

We yet will see the time, when all of us will shine,

And drive the Hessians from our happy land of Canaan."

Walnut Street riot, 1861

Two paths to radicalism:Politics and the Home Front Loyalty Oaths Forced enrollments Punitive fines Exiling dissidents Democrats: what

about a loyal opposition?

The radicals have the floor!

Women have to take over men’s work at home

Dissident women are silenced or exiled

New opportunities for a diverse people