|
CAMPAIGN OF 1860
“Prominent Candidates for the Democratic Nomination At Charleston, South
Carolina,” in Harper’s Weekly,
April 1, 1860.
“Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, President Elect of the United States of
America, With Scenes and Incidents in his Life, Phot. By P. Butler,
Springfield, Ill.” in Frank Leslie’s
Illustrated Newspaper, March 9, 1861.
[Alexander Hesler’s photograph, misattributed to Preston Butler.] The new president is portrayed here as a free soil exemplar, surrounded
by vignettes showing his rise from laborer to middle- class professional
to President of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln, Platinum Print, 1895, by George B. Ayres, from 1860 negative by Alexander Hesler.
Progressive Democracy—Prospects
of a Smash Up. Lithograph
(New York: Currier & Ives, 1860). The divided Democrats face a united Republican opposition on its way to
certain victory.
“The Nigger” in the Woodpile. Lithograph (New York: Currier & Ives, 1860). Abolition of slavery and equal rights for blacks is the Republican’s hidden
agenda, charges this pro-Democratic cartoon.
The Great Issue to be Decided in
November Next! Shall the Constitution
and the Union Stand or Fall, Shall Sectionalism Triumph? Lincoln and His Supporters (Washington:
National Democratic Executive Committee, 1860).
Abraham Lincoln’s Record on the
Slavery Question. His Doctrines
Condemned by Henry Clay. The
Mass of Lincoln’s Supporters Hostile to the Constitution. Lincoln’s Course in Congress on the Mexican War. The Homestead Bill—“Land for the Landless,”
Lincoln, Douglas, and Hamlin (Baltimore: Murphy & Co., 1860). The “Black Republicans” were disunionists and abolitionists who in their
repudiation of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott decision defied
the law of the land and sneered at the Supreme Court, charged the Democrats. Republicans’ constant condemnation of southern
slave society could only lead to the dissolution of the Union.
Illinois Republican State Central Committee, Political Record of Stephen A. Douglas on the Slavery Question (Chicago,
1860).
Carl Schurz, Speech of Carl Schurz,
at Cooper Institute, New York, September 13, 1860. Douglasism Exposed and Republicanism Vindicated
(Albany: Albany Evening Journal, 1860).
Lyman Trumbull, The Campaign in
Illinois. Speech of Senator
Trumbull, at Chicago. His Private
Opinion of Douglas Publicly Expressed (Chicago, 1860).
“Grand Procession of Wide-Awakes at New York on the Evening of October
3, 1860,” in Harper’s Weekly,
October 13, 1860.
The Wide-Awakes. (New York: H. De Marsan, 1860). The Wide-Awakes were local political clubs organized by the Know-Nothing
movement in the mid-1850s. Turned
Republican in 1860, their function was to raise campaign hoopla and
enthusiasm through torch light parades and mass meetings.
Wide-Awakes were well organized in New York, several New England
cities, and Philadelphia. The adjacent song sheet denounces the Wide-Awakes and Republicans as abolitionists
who favor black equality and “amalgamation”—i.e. racial intermarriage.
It echoed the constant race baiting by Democrats that was an
integral part of the political discourse of these times.
David W. Bartlett, The Life and
Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln . . . To Which is Added a Biographical
Sketch of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860).
Elbridge Gerry Spaulding, The Republican
Platform. Revised Speech of
Hon. E. G. Spaulding, of New York, Delivered at Buffalo and Washington,
At Meetings Held to Ratify the Nomination of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal
Hamlin . . . (Washington: Republican Executive Congressional Committee,
1860). The proslavery Democrats are the sectional party, Spaulding charged in this
speech presenting the Republican platform. As in 1856, the platform affirmed freedom in the territories, support for internal
improvements, tariffs, and the trans-continental railroad. Added was a repudiation of the Supreme Court’s
Dred Scott decision; denunciation of recent southern efforts to reopen
the slave trade; and specific support for homestead legislation giving
land to actual settlers as a matter of right.
Abraham Lincoln, The Address of
the Hon. Abraham Lincoln in Indication of the Policy of the Framers
of the Constitution and the Principles of the Republican Party, Delivered
at Cooper Institute, February 27th, 1860, Issued by the Young
Men’s Republican Union (New York: George F. Nesbitt, Co., 1860). In his most famous campaign speech, Lincoln sought to portray the Republican
Party as a responsible national political party dedicated to Union and
the protection of liberty as well as the containment of slavery. He assured his listeners that Republicans would
not threaten slavery in the South.
“For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know there
is a Republican Party.”
Homestead. The Republicans and Settlers Against Democracy
and Monopoly. The Record (Washington:
Republican Congressional Committee, 1860). The new Republican Congressman from western Pennsylvania, Galusha Grow,
was a prime mover behind Republican legislation in the House of Representatives
granting land in the territories to actual settlers. Democrats, at the behest of southerners, killed the measure, which
disallowed grants to land speculators and large tracts to planters seeking
to establish new slave plantations.
“The so-called Democratic party is false to its name, and favors
land monopoly and speculation, and is hostile to the settler,” Republicans
charged.
The Lincoln and Hamlin Songster,
Or, the Continental Melodist (Philadelphia: Fisher & Brother,
1860.)
The Little Giant; His Life, Travels
and Death (Chicago: 1860.) This scurrilous little pamphlet celebrates Stephen Douglas’s defeat with
repeated doggerel verse references to “his ass.” Was Douglas’s ass the prototype of the Democratic Party donkey?
To The Citizens of Philadelphia
(Philadelphia: 1860). In conservative and generally pro-southern Philadelphia, the Republicans
became the People’s Party. Their
election day ballot leaflet emphasizes Republican support of tariffs,
a homestead act, and fiscal responsibility.
The silk campaign ribbon shows the party reaching for the issue
dearest to Pennsylvania — “Protection to American Industry.”
Campaign envelopes, above, by S. Raynor, New York; below, by Carpenter
& Allen, Boston.
“The Rising of the Afrite,” in Vanity
Fair, January 19, 1861. A monster in the form of a black genie emerges from the uncorked bottle
of “Secession.” With South Carolina
out of the Union and other southern states soon to follow, the period
after the election saw intense efforts to reach a compromise to check
secession, a period dubbed by historians as Secession Winter.
South Carolina Convention, Declaration
of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South
Carolina from the Federal Union; And the Ordinance of Secession
(Charleston: Evans & Cogswell, Printers, 1860).
Confederate States of America, Constitution
of the Confederate States of America. Adopted Unanimously by the Congress of the Confederate States of
America, March 11, 1861 (Montgomery, Shorter & Reid, Printers,
1861). South Carolina fulfilled its threat to secede if the Republicans won the Presidency. It issued its Declaration to proclaim its separation from the Union and induce other southern states to follow. Within a few months, six other southern states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas – joined with South Carolina to form
the Confederate States of America.
Its Constitution was nearly identical to the United States Constitution
same for limiting the President to one six-year term, and guaranteeing
the security of slavery.
Copy of the Proposed Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States (Annapolis: 1861). How much was Lincoln prepared to compromise to check the secession movement?
This is a copy of the proposed 13th Amendment guaranteeing
constitutional protection to slavery in the South, drafted under Buchanan
and transmitted by new President Lincoln to the several states. This
copy was issued by the Maryland House of Delegates.
Republican Propositions in the Peace
Congress, Offered by Mr. Tuck, of New Hampshire, In behalf of the Commissioners
from that State, and after consultation with others (Washington,
1861). At a conference called by Virginia to attempt to find a compromise to avoid
secession, some Republicans were prepared to accept a Constitutional
Amendment to secure slavery in the Southern states; and agree to revise
state laws that the South found offensive, such as the personal liberty
laws passed in several northern states to counter the Fugitive Slave
Act.
Henry Wilson, The Crittenden Compromise
— A Surrender. Speech of Henry
Wilson, of Mass., Delivered in the Senate, February 21st,
1861, On the Resolutions of Mr. Crittenden Proposing Amendments to the
Constitution of the United States (Washington, 1861). Compromise proposals by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden included ceding to slavery all the country south of the old Missouri Compromise line – which could have entailed the north-south division of California into a free and a slave state. Congress was also to abandon any efforts to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and surrender its power to regulate the interstate slave trade. Speaking for a majority of Republicans, Wilson denounced the measures as a surrender of the Republican electoral victory
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston
Harbor. 12th &
13th of April, 1861. Colored
lithograph (New York: Currier
& Ives, 1861). Lincoln hoped to avoid war, but was prepared to fight one if it came.
Some historians regard his decision to resupply Fort Sumter in
Charleston Harbor – the heartland of the secession movement – as a deliberate
provocation. Whatever the case, the firing on Fort Sumter meant compromise efforts
were over and war had begun. “The Cabinet at Washington,” in Harper’s Weekly, July 13, 1861. Lincoln’s Cabinet was a balancing act of the political variety and geographical
range of the Republican Party. Lincoln
conceded economic and domestic policy issues to the Cabinet while guarding
for himself the war-making policy.
Victorious Bombardment of Port Royal,
S. C. Nov. 7th 1861.
Colored lithograph (New York: Currier & Ives, 1861). The conquest of the Sea Island region of South Carolina planted the Union
flag in the deep South and set the stage for the Port Royal experiment
that mobilized slaves to work toward their own freedom and the Union
cause.
The Battle of Antietam, MD. Sept. 7th 1862. Colored lithograph (New York: Currier & Ives, 1862). This much-needed Union victory bolstered northern confidence and encouraged
Lincoln to issue his preliminary emancipation proclamation on September
22, to take effect on January 1, 1863.
The Battle of Gettysburg, PA. July
3d, 1863. Colored lithograph
(New York: Currier & Ives, 1863). The Union victory at Gettysburg, along with the fall of Vicksburg on the
Mississippi River, were the turning points of the war.
Emancipation. Lithograph (Philadelphia: John L. Magee, 1865). Both the black slave and the southern poor white are elevated by emancipation
in this Republican vision of a free labor America.
“A Typical Negro,” in Harper’s Weekly,
July 4, 1863. Much of the northern press
was transfixed by a new American drama, the transformation of the southern
slave into freedman, soldier, and citizen, as in the case of the Mississippi
slave Gordon, shown in his ragged clothes, displaying his whip-scarred
back, and finally dressed in the Union uniform.
New York Draft Riot Scenes, in The New York Illustrated News, July 25, 1863. The Draft Law permitted draftees to avoid service by purchasing a substitute, helping make the conflict “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” There were protests across the North, but none as violent as the working-class uprising in New York in July, 1863. Initially attacking targets of privilege, wealth, and authority, the rioters quickly turned their attention to murderous assaults on New York blacks.
Freedom to the Slave. Colored Lithograph (n. p., 1863?) The reverse of this depiction of black soldiers fighting for freedom is
a recruiting poster for black troops.
“All Slaves were made Freemen.
By Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, January 1st,
1863. Come, then, able-bodied
Colored Men, to the nearest United States Camp, and fight for the Stars
and Stripes.” Twelve Chromolithographed Cards by James Queen after Henry Louis Stephens
(Philadelphia: William A. Stephens, 1863). As thousands of white New
Yorkers rioted to stay out of the Army, thousands of African American
struggled to get in. Over 186,000
blacks would serve in the Union army.
This card series shows a slave’s life from bondage to his death
fighting for freedom in the Union Army. |