A. James Fuller - The Election of 1860 Reconsidered

CIVIL WAR IN THE NORTH

Series Editor, Lesely J. Gordon, University of Akron

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John M. Belohlavek

Banners South: A Northern Community at War

Edmund J. Raus

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August Willichs Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry

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Meades Army: The Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman

Edited by David W. Lowe

Dispatches from Bermuda: The Civil War Letters of Charles Maxwell Allen, U.S. Consul at Bermuda, 18611888

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The Antebellum Crisis and Americas First Bohemians

Mark A. Lause

Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer

Paul Taylor

Northerners at War: Reflections on the Civil War Home Front

J. Matthew Gallman

A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and Wilhelm Stngel, 9th Ohio Infantry

Translated and Edited by Joseph R. Reinhart

They Have Left Us Here to Die: The Civil War Prison Diary of Sgt. Lyle G. Adair, 111th U.S. Colored Infantry

Edited by Glenn Robins

The Election of 1860 Reconsidered

Edited by James A. Fuller

Edited by A. James Fuller

The Kent State University Press Kent, Ohio

2013 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2012037934

ISBN 978-1-60635-148-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The election of 1860 reconsidered / edited by A. James Fuller.

p. cm. (Civil War in the North)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60635-148-2 (hardcover)

1. PresidentsUnited StatesElection1860. 2. United StatesPolitics and government18571861. I. Fuller, A. James.

E440.E45 2012

324.973dc23

2012037934

17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1

In the months surrounding the 150th anniversary of the election of 1860, scholars around the country gathered for conferences dedicated to analyzing this event. One such meeting was the third annual symposium of the Civil War Study Group on September 17, 2010. Hosted by the Institute for the Study of War and Diplomacy at the University of Indianapolis and funded by an Eli Lilly InQuery Grant, the symposium featured papers by four historians. More than twenty scholars offered their responses in the cordial discussions that followed each reading. Those papers became the foundation for this book. Charged with organizing the symposium and writing one of the papers, I saw the possibilities for something more and began to think about what a book-length reconsideration of the election of 1860 might include. I sought out other scholars who might be able to contribute. The result is a collection of essays, each of which stands on its own as an insightful study of the election.

The authors themselves deserve my thanks. Jack McKivigan participated in the symposium and graciously agreed to include his superb essay on Frederick Douglass, which reinforces his well-deserved reputation as a leading historian of abolitionism. Doug Gardner allowed me to conscript him into service for the meeting and applied his wit, insight, and elegant writing style to the historical literature. He learned the duties of friendship the hard way by agreeing to write on a subject outside the scope of his own immediate interests. Mike Green did an old friend a favor and, as usual, wrote a fine piece of scholarship. His essay here demonstrates that his work on Lincoln, the Republicans, and the politics of the 1850s is authoritative and groundbreaking. Jim Huston came on board and produced an excellent chapter on Stephen Douglas. His timely work and amiable attitude are models of professionalism, as is his essay. Tom Rodgers made such insightful comments at the symposium that I asked him to contribute to the book. He agreed to do so, although it was late in the process. Working under the looming shadow of a rapidly approaching deadline, he wrote a first-rate essay that is a tremendous addition to this volume. Larry Sondhaus was supportive of my ideas about the symposium and the book from the very beginning. When asked to contribute, he wrote about the European view of the election as only an accomplished and prolific scholar can. His exceptional chapter proves his dedication as a friend, a department chair, and a historian.

Joyce Harrison at Kent State University Press saw the value of this project and offered helpful guidance throughout the process. The series editor, Lesley Gordon, supported my idea for this collection; her insightful criticisms made this a better book. The two readers for the press offered excellent suggestions and constructive criticism aimed at improving the volume. Krista Kinslow is always willing to proofread and ask questions that make me write more clearly. I greatly appreciate her help and encouragement while I wrote my essays and during the revision process. My late wife, Brenda, displayed great patience with my work during her losing struggle with ovarian cancer and I regret that she did not live to see this project appear in published form. I also wish to thank my son, Carson, for sometimes managing, somehow, to contain his four-year-old enthusiasm while Daddy was trying to write and edit. I dedicate this book to the little band of scholars who make up the Civil War Study Group, founded in 2008 by Stephen E. Towne. Their friendly encouragement and willing participation have created an intellectual community that inspires each of us to undertake new projects in the field about which we all are so passionate.

A. James Fuller
Indianapolis, Indiana
Fall 2012

The most important presidential election in American history took place in 1860. The electoral contest marked the culmination of the sectional conflict and led to the secession of the Southern states and the beginning of the Civil War. Over the past century and a half, scholars have offered a number of different interpretations of the election, but surprisingly few works have been dedicated exclusively to the presidential contest itself. Most explanations of the campaign appear in general histories or in biographies of Abraham Lincoln or the other presidential candidates. Although nearly every succeeding generation of historians has managed to produce at least one full-length study, scholarship on the election of 1860 remains relatively rare. The sesquicentennial anniversary of the election offered an opportunity to fill this gap in the literature. Historians have taken up the cause, producing several new books on the subject, including this one.1

This volume reconsiders the election and offers fresh insights on the campaigns for the presidency. In his concluding essay, Douglas G. Gardner examines the historiographical tradition regarding the election, noting that scholars across the generations have focused on Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, with scant attention paid to the other candidates or to other related topics. Two of the essays clearly fall into that scholarly traditionMichael S. Green argues that Lincoln played the role of master politician during the campaign, and James L. Huston explores the significance of Douglass southern tour. The other chapters move in different directions, and even those chapters dedicated to the Rail Splitter and the Little Giant provide new interpretations of the two most famous presidential candidates. But this book breaks new ground by seeing the election as more than Lincolns victory and Douglass loss. Historiographical innovation appears in interpretations of the other candidates, the view from Europe, abolitionist perspectives, and close examinations of voter turnout and the presidential election at the state level.