“Lincoln and Liberty Too”(1860 Campaign Song)

Hurrah for the choice of the nation,Our chieftain so brave and so true,We'll go for the great reformation,For Lincoln and Liberty, too!

Chorus:We'll go for the son of Kentucky,The hero of Hoosierdom through,The pride of the "Suckers" so lucky,For Lincoln and Liberty, too!

They'll find what by felling and mauling,Our railmaker statesman can do;For the people are everywhere callingFor Lincoln and Liberty, too.

Chorus

Our David's good sling is unerring,The Slavocrat's giant he slew,Then shout for the freedom preferring,For Lincoln and Liberty, too.

Chorus

Then up with the banner so glorious,The star-spangled red, white, and blue,We'll fight till our banner's victorious,For Lincoln and Liberty, too.

Chorus

The Election of 1860, Secession, and

Fort Sumter

The ContestantsThe Contestants

Douglas Democrats and the Territories• Popular sovereignty in

Kansas-Nebraska not as a compromise (as in 1850), but as a core principle (“the idea which lies at the very basis of American freedom”)

• Charleston Democratic Convention: “Democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature, when applied to the same subject matters.”

Southern (Breckinridge) Southern (Breckinridge) Democrats and the Democrats and the TerritoriesTerritories

Baltimore platform: “it is the duty of the Federal Government . . . to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the Territories”

“all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Territory”

Protecting does not = interfering?

The Republican Platform

• “The normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom,” and thus “the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy”

• About defending the Declaration of Independence and state rights

• The territories: not abstract

The Constitutional Union Platform• “It is both the part of

patriotism and of duty to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws.”

• Overly vague and evasive, but channeled the popularity of Unionism– Everett’s “Character of

Washington” speech for the Mount Vernon Fund

There's right and wrong in parties,And the right is on our side;So mount the Fillmore wagon,And through the nation ride!

The Union is our wagon,The people are its springs;And every true A-mer-i-can,For Millard Fillmore sings!

Wait for the wagon,The Millard Fillmore wagon;Wait for the wagon,And we'll all take a ride!

Our wagon is a noble one,'Twas made in seventy-six;'Twas driven by George Wash-ing-ton,Through stormy pol-i-tics!

Palmetto, cypress, cottonwood,in spokes and wheels you'll find;Western oak and Eastern pine,and Northern ash com-bined!

Wait for the wagon,The Millard Fillmore wagon;Wait for the wagon,And we'll all take a ride!

Secession

Slavery and Secession• Secession a means

to an end, like state rights and federal power before it

• Slaves as a percentage of population in:• First wave – 46.0%• Second wave –

28.6%• Loyal slave states –

10.9%

Battleground States: The Upper South / Border States

• Just MD, KY, and MO would have added to the Confederacy:– 45% to the white population– 80% to manufacturing

capacity– 40% to supply of horses and

mules

• Kentucky: a vital highway

• Maryland and Virginia: location, prestige, commanders

Why War Rather than Compromise or Peaceful Secession?

• Crittenden Compromise– Guaranteed slavery in the states (The House

passed this as the 13th Amendment)– Extended the Missouri Compromise line to the

Pacific– Forbade Congress from abolishing slavery in DC

or federal property in South– Compensated slaveholders who lost fugitive

slaves to the North– Outlawed any amendment of these clauses

• But doughface-ism was dead in the North, as most Northerners thought secession was:

• Unconstitutional• A threat to popular government• A bad precedent

Lincoln and Fort Sumter• Uphold Union’s

authority, but make the rebels the aggressors

• Part of conciliating border states, Southern Unionists

• Second-wave secession only a start of disabusing him of this image of the South