{"id":2667,"date":"2024-01-21T16:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/?page_id=2667"},"modified":"2024-02-26T16:06:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T16:06:21","slug":"election-of-1860","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/election-of-1860\/","title":{"rendered":"Election of 1860"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1860<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Dred<\/a>The election of 1860 was unique in American history because it was the only contest (so far) where one of the losing parties refused to accept the results as legitimate. \u00a0There were actually four political parties vying for the 1860 victory. \u00a0Students in History 288 should be able to identify all four factions. \u00a0One way to do so would be to interpret the political cartoon on the right. \u00a0Who are the four candidates dancing to Dred Scott’s “quadrille”? \u00a0But students in History 288 also need to understand the issues at stake in 1860. \u00a0As the cartoon indicates, the legacy of the Dred Scott Decision still loomed large over the electorate, but another cartoon from the campaign also suggests that a different event was just as salient.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of HarpWeek<\/p><\/div>\n

The image to the left, entitled “Black Republican\u00a0Argument,” actually appeared in a Pennsylvania newspaper late in the campaign. \u00a0The stark image depicts the use of John Brown’s Raid<\/a> by southern Democrats. \u00a0Brown was an abolitionist originally from Connecticut who had become notorious because of his actions in the Kansas Territory. \u00a0Brown and his sons had been deeply involved in the battles of “Bleeding Kansas,”<\/a> and he stood accused of murdering at least five pro-slavery settlers in cold blood. \u00a0Brown, however, was a hero to many abolitionists and northern blacks who revered his fierce anti-slavery stance and his remarkably modern form of egalitarianism. \u00a0Brown was almost a romantic revolutionary in areas of the North, because of his bold plans of action. \u00a0Brown’s plans culminated at the end of the 1850s with a series of raids into southern territory, first in Missouri in 1858 and then at the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry<\/a> in what was then western Virginia (and what is now West Virginia). \u00a0 Brown was captured during his October 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry<\/a>, put on trial by the state of Virginia and then executed in December. \u00a0His execution for treason in 1859 marked an important bookend with the Christiana treason trial of 1851 and helps explain why the nation appeared closer to disunion at the end of the decade than at the beginning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Grace Bedell<\/p><\/div>\n

For most of the 1860 campaign, Abraham Lincoln himself was absent. \u00a0Like most (but not all) presidential candidates of that era, Lincoln did not campaign openly for the office. \u00a0According to his law partner, Lincoln was left feeling “bored –bored badly” by this tradition. \u00a0His boredom, however, might help explain a fascinating exchange candidate Lincoln conducted with an eleven-year-old girl from New York in October 1860. \u00a0Young Grace Bedell wrote Lincoln urging him to grow a beard because his face was “so thin.” \u00a0Lincoln responded asking whether or not such a move might appear as an “affectation,” but within days after his November victory, Lincoln began growing the beard. \u00a0Later, President-Elect Lincoln met the young girl and the two of them had an ongoing correspondence during the Civil War \u00a0–although this fact was not known to scholars until very recently. \u00a0The full story of the relationship is detailed here<\/a> at the Blog Divided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The election of 1860 was unique in American history because it was the only contest (so far) where one of the losing parties refused to accept the results as legitimate. \u00a0There were actually four political parties vying for the 1860 victory. \u00a0Students in History 288 should be able to identify all four factions. \u00a0One way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2667","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}