Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Who to Choose?

The election of 1860 was one of the most heated in American history.  Americans on either side of the slavery issue believed that they had so much at stake.

You are not expected to read the entire article, but to what extent do you feel that their fears were true.  Would Lincoln have ended the institution of slavery?  What were the alternatives?  Why was Douglas in the race?

12 comments:

  1. I do think that there was a lot at stake in this election. The tensions were so high that of course all of there fears were true to them. Obviously if you were pro slavery, you wanted a president who shared the same values as you and you feared not getting what you want. And the same goes for people who were against slavery wanted Lincoln as president because in the article it talks about how him and his republican party saw slavery as morally wrong. Also the north did not want to take a step backwards and elect a president who wanted slavery because maybe slavery would have lasted longer if a proslavery president had won. Douglas was in the race because he was seen as pro slavery and was nominated by the democratic party.

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  2. The Election of 1860 was a very significant event in U.S History. Not only did it mark the crystallization of two fully sectionalized parties but also it showed the nature of american "Hurrah" politics. The fact that the North intendedly assumed South's threat as a bluff and the fact that the parties have advocated their candidates by making a characteristics out of them(even though its not true). The fact that the Republicans advocated Lincoln as a "Honest Old Abe" examplifies the point. Therefore, to the South, the fear of having a abolitionist President was very significant and huge, however, for the North, they did not have any fear of Southern States' secession because the they brainwashed themselves that South was just bluffing.

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  3. The election of 1860 was a crucial election. Worried to see who would run the country Lincoln who was though on as the evil candidate. But he was what the country needed. The south was in fear that he would end slavery, but he just did not want it to spread no more. He knew that ending slavery would cause chaos. so he tried to get as much of the souths support because if he knew he had them on his side he would win. It is a big possibility that electing Lincoln caused the Civil War because it happened a year later but it was going to happen sooner then later.

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  4. The election of 1860 was definitely one of the most heated in history because there was so much at stake for the north and south when it came to who was going to be the new president. The north wanted Lincoln because we was against slavery, but the south thought if Lincoln was president he would completely abolish slavery (which wasn't true) so they didn't want him to win at all. Religion also played a big part in the voting, for example all German Catholics voted against Lincoln. while he had a lot of support from the protestants. Not to mention how Douglas was "in a year of his death " which also was a crucial part of looking at how he would be fit for presidency.

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  5. The reason why the election of 1860 was one of the most heated, intense, and nail biting elections was because of two main reasons: one it was about slavery vs. non slavery and second, that there were two different elections going on at the same time. Clearly, the North wanted to elect a president that was against slavery in order to move forward and the South a president who did not want slavery in order to keep their workers. This divided the nation, and was already a reason for people voting either in favor of the republicans or democrats. Secondly, the ballots were also divided even among the North and the South because there were two candidates of each. Lincoln easily stood out from the crowd because he did not even try appealing to the South, as stated in the reading this made the people in the South believe that he would quickly abolish slavery, even though he did not want to do that and instead wanted a more peaceful approach. Douglas was in the race almost to support Lincoln towards the end of his race once he realized he would lose to him, so he tried getting Lincoln on the good side of the South as well.

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  6. The election of 1860 was a very important and heated election in America. I believe that people's fears were not only true but also justifiable. Lincoln was not going to stop the institution of slavery; in fact, he said it was better to let it die without letting it expand more. Thus, in addition to gain the votes of the north since he was against slavery, Lincoln also gained some southerners' votes. Douglass, however, was in the race only because he was a proslaver and Democrats supported him. But everyone knew that Lincoln would be elected.
    I believe that there was no alternative since the war was going to explode very soon. Anyway, if the race to win the election would have been "exciting", the war could not have been avoided because if Douglass won, the North would had started the war because they wanted to stop slavery and if Lincoln won, the South proslavers, would have "burst" as it happened.

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  7. The 1860 election was so important because the outcome designated whether or not slavery would continue or not. Naturally the South wanted Lincoln no where near the presidential chair due to the pre notation that he did not approve of slavery. As Giselle said, the election was not only Douglas vs. Lincoln but it was slavery vs. non-slavery. This, as we know was a hugely controversial topic at the time. What i found interesting was that religion, on top of north south designation, also played a large role in the election. With the majority of German catholics voting for Douglas, and the majority of protestants voting for Lincoln, i found it interesting that religion was such a huge divide politically even at the time.

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  8. The election in 1860 was significant because the North and South were unsure on whether slavery would be expanded or not. Since Lincoln, didn't want slavery to expand, the South were not in favor him. However, many people in the South thought that Lincoln wanted to completely end slavery. In addition to the issue of slavery, religion played a big role in the election. Like Gwen said, the German Catholics seemed to lean more towards Douglas, while the Protestants leaned towards Lincoln. This election was very intense and created even more of a divide between the North and South.

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  9. The two candidates were looked as was like the pro-slavery candidate and anti-slavery candidate. Some people wanted one because that's what they believed and some wanted the other for the same reason. The tension that was building up was inevitable in a situation like this where whatever president was elected there are pros and cons for both sides. There was no intermediate decision that could've made both sides happy. I think that it was obvious that Lincoln would come into office because of the fact that he campaigned as the anti-slavery option and human nature is to look forward. No matter what the people of the time argued, slavery was somewhat hindering to america's progression regardless of the moral aspect or not. This election had a dramatic effect on not only the worsening divide but the fate of america as well.

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  10. Of course the fears of the people were true. Why else would there have been two simultaneous elections? The Republican candidates competed in the North and the Democratic candidates battled over Southern votes because each side had no hope of gaining a foothold in states in the opposite region due to the strong sectionalism. Most Southern states didn't even have Lincoln on the ballot.
    At the time of the election, I don't think that Lincoln would have abolished slavery. Although his administration was trying to denounce the Southerner's threats of secession, they knew very well that there was a strong risk of a split in the Union, and the abolition of slavery would have been the last straw for the Southerners. However, Lincoln would not let slavery spread West, thereby ending the future of slavery when the new free states would help to overpower the slave-states in Congress. So the Southerners seceded anyway after Lincoln's election.
    Stephen Douglass was in the race as a more moderate Republican candidate. He understood the severity of the Southerners' threats and the turmoil that would arise if the Southerners took their threats into action and seceded. So unlike the other Republicans, he tried to make compromises with the Southerners and he was running to keep the nation intact.

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  11. The reason that the election of 1860 was hated because there were two different candidates and each of them would change the states. Lincoln would eventually stop slavery and Douglas had different ways that he would go about things. This election was hated because if you voted for douglas you were voting against lincoln. Also, in some places, a name wouldn't even be on the ballot. For example, in the south, Douglas' name wasn't on the ballot, because they knew that Lincoln would be the one to eventually stop slavery.

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  12. the south did not want Lincoln to win the presidency because they knew if he had won then the future of slavery would be in the balance. it would be the end of the toxic spread of slavery. Lincoln knew if the country was to succeed and grow and it could no longer use free labor. the countries population was growing and those people needed jobs to create families. Lincoln was not on souther ballots and was heavily disliked in the south due to his anti slavery views. the war was inevitable the north and south had complete different views and interest on the path of the country.

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