Lincoln supporter sent a wire that said i think hes going to win the nomination and he is the second choice of everybody. Well he said my name is new in the field and i suppose im not the first choice of a great many. Our policy is to leave them in a mood to come to us if they are compelled to give up their first love. I know, it kind of gets you right there. Giving up your first love. So the themes we will talk about and im going to explain why there is certainly a book cover in the upper corner, but, first of all, republicans showed they were not the week party. They actually ran a very well organized campaign. And at the same time there is an old saying in politics that if your opponent is imploding, dont do anything to stop him. In this case there were some implosions on the part of the other parties involved. And we will get to those as we go along. We will do a little bit of the background leading up to the 1860 election and we will talk more about why slavery was a key issue both leading up to the election and then in the out come. This next one might make you stop and think for a second that he was the guy who won the nomination and shouldnt he be doing a lot to win it . And the answer is, yes, but remember that in the 19th century you did not openly campaign. A few people did and it cost them problems and they were not supposed to do that. Well he was not open about that and so he has to be careful and he has to make sure it doesnt look like he is too far out in front and i know the thought of him skiing has some appeal. And it is a modern election and a premodern election and it is modern in the sense that we are going to see the kinds of things that are designed to get people out to vote and you are going to see the media play an important role. At the same time, heres a way to think about it. We expect in president ial elections that it is possible there is a thirdparty candidate who might get some traction. But for the most part we dont expect that. In 1860 we have four parties basically and all four are in one way or another viable. It is possible any of them could pull this off. That is not unusual. If you think back to the elections we talked about where in 1824 it was a popular election and there are more than two candidates. In 1836 the whigs put three candidates in the field hoping for lightning to strike and in 1844 and in 1848 you have Third Party Candidates and then again in 1856 with a do have an impact. So today if a thirdparty candidate suddenly ran in 2020, we wouldve been, well, this is different. Back then it was a thirdparty candidate. Deal. Weve been through this. This is boring. Lets move on. So in that spirit of what theyre saying, lets move on. Ive put this book cover up here in boldface 1860 because a century later a reporter named Theodore White wrote a book called the making of the president. And today when you watch and read about politics and all the personalities play such a role, and you often hear donald trump loves fast food and barack obama had a lot of salad or whatever, the kinds of things we now find out about candidates are attributable in part to him treating this as a novelistic story. It is nonfiction, but he would beautifully and won the pulitzer prize. There is an element to this in 1860 as well. So we will look at the making of the president in 1860. There are plenty of books on the subject and most of them have come out in the last few years. Now, there could be a joke about whether my favorite historian is on the screen and he is. There are other historians here and i was thinking about a Country Singer who said youre asking who my Favorite Singer is. But in this case there has been more attention, especially in 2010 with the selection that suddenly there is more attention to how did this happen. Because lincoln was most unlikely victim and the Republican Party in the second election and he has never been on the National Ballot and has one term in the house. How does he get there . So these books of try to address that, some more successfully than others. And we will try to address that today. A little background and some reminders. The first time the Republican Party put a candidate in the field was in 1856 with john fremont, for whom almost everything in las vegas is named, as we know. James buchanan won and the key for republicans was that buchanan carried illinois, indiana, and pennsylvania and they were thinking that tremont did not. And if we can get those three states in particular and they would like to spread out beyond that, but those in particular swing states, if they can get the right man in 1860, the have a chance. Theres also the thirdparty led by millard filmore. Can republicans outpace them and find a way to cut them off . And the answer is the know nothings cut themselves off and they are antiimmigrant but they are fighting over slavery. The northern know nothings have a different position than the southern ones. And James Buchanan was elect did and one of the books about his administration suggest he did not do very well. The book is called the worst president and people say people in pennsylvania were in buchanan country would argue about this and i could get into an argument about it by myself but buchanan had a tough four years. The dred scott decision was controversial and there are divisions in the Democratic Party that result from the dred scott decision where stephen douglas, that little giant who believes in popular sovereignty, takes the stand that popular sovereignty still stands despite the dred scott decision and what is going on in kansas, where there is out and out warfare is counter to what they are supposed to do in connection with popular sovereignty and buchanan and douglas are split and he tries to get seated for reelection without much success. Soon after he takes office, there is an economic depression , and less lets face the fact. The president who is in office when the economy goes south to the blame for its. Well, buchanan was in office a little bit and he is going to pay the price. It is also the case there is a book on the claims that the people who led to the civil war with the blundering generation. The blundering generation in the story, buchanans administration was incredibly corrupt and the combination is when he has cabinet officials who are southern sympathizers who sympathize secession, sending money and goods and arms into the south and helping the south get ready for the war, but there are a lot of questions about federal contracts and payoffs and the canon and the party faced allegations that they are up to no good and they are crooked. And then, as we are going to see, the slavery issue does not go away with the dred scott decision. John browns attempt to take over Harpers Ferry and start a slave rebellion does not exactly work, but it does upset a lot of people and gets people talking about the slavery issue. And, they should have been. There certainly talking about it in illinois in 1858. Douglas was running for the third term in the senate and he is national figure, and the Republican Party in illinois did something that traditionally parties to not do. At the state convention they endorsed their own candidate for the u. S. Senate and it was lincoln. Douglas new from 20 Years Experience how tough it was going to be to take on lincoln and lincoln starts following him around illinois when he finishes speaking and finally they agreed to a set of seven debates and in the course of these debates lincoln is already getting some traction nationally and he has gotten votes in the 1856 Republican Convention but in 1858 he has rocketed to stardom and is taking on douglas. Douglas, for his part, winds reelection thanks to something we have all heard plenty about. Gerrymandering. The 1850 legislative district were still in effect in 1858 despite growth in illinois and lincoln had to win far more seats than he technically should have to get elect did. It turned out that he won more legislative seats than douglas in 1858. Remember, senators are elected by the legislature and lincoln won 5446. But douglas had enough seats to be able to hold onto his senate seat. One night after the election lincoln is walking along and he could be a bit of a klutz, i guess, is one of the things i admire about him. And he tripped and had trouble getting under control and he thought to himself it is a slip, not a fall. He did not win the selection and he was proud that he had taken a stand and impressed that he did as well as he did and made a contribution to the debate. There is a debate among historians as to how much he was targeting 1860, and it is not just the question of could he be elected president. Could he had off douglas. And he seemed likely to be the democratic nominee. During the debates douglas said that you vote on slavery, dred scott matter. And for southerners, and southerners dominate the Democratic Party, this was not what they wanted to year. And it is going to hurt douglas nationally. And sometimes people attribute to lincoln the awareness that he was going to cripple douglas and his chances of winning in 1860. I know that we all get tired of endless elections. It seems like they never and. The campaign for 2020 began the night after the 2016 election. It has always been that way and there is plenty going on in 1859 and lincoln is up to a few things. But there is a lot going on nationally that will affect where he is heading in 1860. The first is john brown was in kansas and he goes to virginia and attacks the Harpers Ferry arsenal and takes it over and is put on trial for treason against the state of virginia and convicted and sentenced to be hangs. And southerners are convinced this is a republican plot and there are a few republicans and some are abolitionists and they are not doing this from the standpoint of being members of the Republican Party anyway helped brown. But most are taking the position no we dont go for the violent result and we are not in favor of what this guy did. Anybody here who has lived up in the bay area . David broderick was a senator from california and a douglas man and a big lever popular sovereignty. Remember when california came into the union the idea was it would be a free state and, in fact there were southerners that came to california, rick surprise. They are coming from everywhere. And there were plenty of southern politicians in the area and david terry and product were rivals for power in democratic politics. And there is a bit of that southern honor code and lincoln almost got into a dual and Andrew Jackson fought a dual every second tuesday of the month. In this case they have dual and terry should roderick. A lot of the country has no idea. This is out in california. There is no tv coverage, no one texts from the dual. But it is noticeable to politicians and opinion makers, and it reminds them like the caning of Charles Sumner that this is a violent issue. And, since we are in nevada, i have to mention this. David terry later is still practicing law in california and he ends up in the case against someone named William Sharon who controlled the comstock load and sharon had a mistress and there was a legal right over whether he agreed to marry the mistress or with a married under the common law, and they went up in court. And the first time the ruling goes against the mistress, she pulls a gun. And the next time she pulls a knife and the attorney pulls a gun. Later, after they lost the case, they were on the train and bump into the judge who is hearing the case and terry punches the justice and the bodyguard kills him and there were people in california that said that David Broderick only got even. So i dont know if you wouldve been that thrilled, but at the very least was a filing here. Doing okay . What we are going to do is take a look at the other candidate, and then we will get to the republicans and what lincoln is up to. Logically, 1860 is a tough year for the democrats. James buchanan is not wildly popular and northern and southern democrats are divided. Douglas is the front runner and there are a few of the people whose names pop up, but douglas is controversial. Hes bound to run into problems and he did. And we have the one real candidate. His rope problem at the convention is that under the rule, two thirds of the delegates needed to vote for him or any other nominee. Where this gets weird is that douglas considers himself the ideal democrat. Popular sovereignty is the classic case. Well, even lincoln makes a comment along the lines of two thirds doesnt sound that democratic. Shouldnt be like 50 1, and it is designed to unite the party and it divides the party. So the democrats have a problem with democracy and the other problem they run into, but the convention was held in charleston, South Carolina. How many of you have been to charleston . Okay. Have you been in the late spring and early summer . Humid . Just a little. As someone said about a southern city, the bugs have twin engines. Is warm and sticky and theres no air conditioning. There is no deodorant and everyone is hot and unhappy. Whats more, the south does not have as much Railroad Construction as the north. Getting to charleston requires a bunch of changes and it is difficult for them to get there. So they finally get there and it is warm and humid and they are went right over they will nominate. So they are in trouble. Lincoln has a theory and his idea is heres what the democrats should do if they want to stick it to douglas. Nominate him on the platform he opposes. And say we are for dred scott and we nominate douglas. And then douglas has to say he is for or against it and he has to take a position. And if he has no principal, he will offend everybody. And lincoln once said that he seems to lie with any other man i know, so he is not a fan and douglas is not a fan of lincoln, but he does admire him. And douglas once the nomination and the convention divides and it breaks up. So they try again and this time they try in baltimore, which is easier to get to. No offense to charleston, it is easier to get to today. The northern democrat get together there in the southern democrats will have nothing to do with it for the most part and they nominate douglas and the convention chooses a guy from georgia named herschel johnson. Many many years ago when i had no life as opposed to now, i memorized Vice President s. What else did i have to do. Not many people wanted to be Vice President and in this case his choice was Alexander Stephens who was a far more prominent politician and stevens did not want to be Vice President. He proved how much he hated the vice presidency by becoming Vice President of the confederacy and spending four years fighting with jefferson davis. So he may have been fighting for the union as well. So the idea is douglas is the northern popular sovereignty guy and johnson will accept it and he is a southerner and it balances the ticket. Today we dont think much about that. In terms of geographic balance. In the 19th century it mattered a lot. So the southern democrats say, okay, we are not dominating douglas. They go with the sitting Vice President of the united states, john breckenridge. Trivia break. John breckenridge was elected Vice President when he was 35, the youngest man ever elected to the vice presidency. If he had been elected he wouldve been the youngest president ever. He was buchanans Vice President and he was once an ally of douglas. And breckenridge runs on the platform of dred scott is fine. We want a slave code for the territory. And the irony is breckenridge is from the upper south, he is from kentucky, where the feelings about slavery are not quite so deep as they are in the lower south. For his running mate, you want to talk about geographic diversity, they chewed you guy name joseph lane. There getting everything in this one. They have the south and the upper south and have the far left. And, by the way, there are only a few thousand voters in oregon and they dont think he will carry a bunch of states for them. And he is definitely proslavery and they think hes a good man to have on the ticket. He does not look happy about being the Vice President ial nominee. He wanted something better. If you like a party, we have a lot of parties. Another party forms and also in may 1860, like the democrats and republicans they have a convention, and they call themselves the Constitutional Union party. A lot of old former whigs, a good number of know nothings, the know Nothing Party has collapsed by 1860. Where are they going to go now they dont want to be a democrat or a republican . And you find a good number of southern and border state proslavery people, john bell, was in the lower left was one of the few southerners that was unopposed to the kansas nebraska act. He is one of those rarities and he is a politician from tennessee who was closer to Andrew Jackson than an enemy of Andrew Jackson but did not get shot for. I dont know how he let him off the hook. Sam houston, the governor of texas, John Crittenden was a kentucky politician consider the protigi of henry clay and looking for compromise . For a way to meet in the middle . John crittenden is your man. And the group included other northern former whigs who were not excited about the slavery issue. Edward everett was a professor, a diplomat, a u. S. Senator, and a few years after this he would become one of those rate historical trivia questions. They were dedicating this Veterans Cemetery at gettysburg and they invited the man they considered the great oratory of the era. He new latin and the great romans and he gave a two hour speech to hail the dedication of th