The Evolution of Elections
From gunshots to bloody battles, who knew this could happen all because of one election. How could one election cause the start of one of the most profound events in US history? The Civil War took place between 1861 to 1865, but what started it, is pretty shocking. The election of 1860, sparked the start of the Civil War. During the election of 1860, men from different areas from both the South and the North came together for one of the most significant elections of all time. Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States won the election, but it didn’t come that easy. Feuds between Abraham Lincoln, John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas slowed down Lincoln’s victory dramatically. (Dow, paragraph
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The main difference in the elections back then and the elections today are the political parties. In the election of 1860 and 1864, there were three main parties. There were the Republicans, Democrats, and the new party, the Constitutional Union party. In our most recent election, we had two main parties, the Democrats and the Republicans same parties as 1860. In 2016, we also had the Libertarian party. As shown, there were not a lot of differences.
Why was the election of 1860 so important after all? The election of 1860 was very momentous. (Schlesinger jr., 17) On November 6, 1860 Lincoln won the election with 180 electoral votes and 1.8 million popular votes. Lincoln was the strongest candidate and had the higher chance of winning. (Schlesinger jr., 17) After Lincoln won the election, South Carolina seceded from the Union after hearing about this news. After Abraham Lincoln won, South Carolina feared that Abraham Lincoln would abolish slavery completely. Obviously South Carolina didn’t want that to happen since they supported slavery. After South Carolina’s secession, more and more states started seceding, following their “president”, Jefferson Davis to make their own country, the Confederate States. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “We can not have free government without elections…” (History.com Staff, paragraph 5) At this time, there were now two countries with two different presidents all in one country.
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As it was stated, Lincoln’s victory was a hard one. With all his feuds with John C.
Breckinridge, Stephen Douglas, and John Bell over their individual thoughts on slavery. Since each candidate was from a different area, such as the North and South, each candidate had their own thought on slavery. For example, Abraham Lincoln was a northern Republican who disliked slavery and thought it shouldn’t be expanded furthermore. Stephen Douglas was a Democrat who thought slavery should be limited. John C. Breckinridge had the exact opposite thoughts as Lincoln which is why they had the most arguments, John was a southern Democrat who wanted slavery to expand everywhere. John Bell was from the Constitutional Union and he thought that the issue over slavery could be ignored. In the election of 1860, 25 states were involved. (Ground, Each candidate had their own thoughts and would argue over whose thinking was the correct thinking. Although, the election of 1860 was a huge argument, the election of 1864 was way more different. In the election of 1864, there were only two candidates, Abraham Lincoln, our previous winner and George B. McClellan. McClellan and Lincoln’s thoughts were quite similar. Because of that, there were limited arguments between the two. Abraham Lincoln won this election with 212 electoral votes and 2.2 million popular votes. Two different elections, one same winner. Today, we have elections that
The factors that allowed Abraham Lincoln to capture the election of 1860 with only 39% of the popular vote was the fact that he was able to win every state in the North except for New Jersey. The other candidates were not able to gather the large amount that Lincoln did. Breckinridge for example was only to win some states in the north which were North Carolina, Arkansas, Delaware, and Maryland. In the south he was able to win Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Another candidate, Bell was only able to win Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The election of 1800 would go down as being the election that proved the new government could withstand differences in opinion in a diverse country. With the first two elections being dominated by the Federalist Party, the election of 1800 was a change in the status quo because the new Democratic - Republican Party would take office. This change in power showed that a change in leadership could happen in this government and the country would still be able to go on. The election realigned the nation and ushered in an era of Democratic-Republican Party rule and the eventual downfall of the Federalist Party. It was a rematch of the election of 1796 and pitted the pro-French and agrarian Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson and Aaron Burr against
Immediately after the election and inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the newly-established Republican Party’s presidential nominee, eleven states of the South seceded from the Union. These events marked the beginning of the Civil War and the war was a result of many political tensions that had emerged between the North and the South in the prior decades, all of which were associated with the institution of slavery installed in the Southern United States. President Lincoln began the Civil War with the South in response to states’ secession from the Union, and therefore, the war was not solely
The first election I would like to talk about is the 1860 election. This election was between four candidates but I’m only going to talk about two; Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was a U.S. politician and the leader of the democratic party. Douglas sparked popular sovereignty, which is the people who lived in the region should determine the nature of the government for themselves (and the question about slavery.)Douglas believed that the power should reside at a local level and should reflect the wishes of the people; even though he believed that, he opposed admission of Kansas as a slave state. Douglas also incorporated the doctrine in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise in 1820. In January of 1859, Douglas was re-elected senator for Illinois (Lincoln lost.) He further alienated the Buchanan administration and the South, was soon to be stripped of his power in the senate, and contributed to the division of the Democratic party.
During the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass were the main two people involved. Both of the candidates were at an equal chance of winning, now they just had to win the vote of the north or
To begin with, immediately after the election and inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the newly-established Republican Party’s presidential nominee, eleven states of the South seceded from the Union. These events marked the beginning of the Civil War and the war was a result of many political tensions that had emerged between the North and the South in the prior decades, all of which were associated with the institution of slavery installed in the Southern United States. President Lincoln began the Civil War with the South in response to states’ secession from the Union, and therefore, the war was not solely concentrated over the issue of slavery in American society. The North fought to preserve the Union while the Confederacy fought to
However, in the election of 1860, Lincoln won the presidency against Stephen Douglas, a democrat. President Lincoln was a new Republican, and his ambition for preserving the Union and keeping peace in the Nation led him to do wonderful things for the country, despite his horrible unpopularity from the bloodshed of the Civil War.
Before the start of the Civil War, conflict had been brewing between the states of the North and South. The election of Abraham Lincoln did not enhance the situation at all. Lincoln
The election of 1800 was a fight between the democratic-republicans and the federalists party for presidency. It also became the first time in American History where there was a peaceful shift in the political party, from the federalists party to the democratic-republicans party (Jeffersonians). The election of 1800 consists of five candidates, each believing that victory by the other side would ruin their nation. The candidates were, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson in the democratic-republican party, and John Adams, Charles Pinckney, and John Jay in the federalist party;
Enter the presidential election of 1860, which brought these problems to a collision with dramatic consequences. The Democratic Party split into three groups along their regional lines, with each one vying for control of the party and each holding different ideas about how to deal with slavery in the West. They camps consisted of John C. Breckinride, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas; their efforts would be worthless however, as Abraham Lincoln would win for the Republican Party. Lincoln stood on the grounds that the West should be absolutely free of slavery entirely; which apparently was enough as he won the election with less than forty percent of the popular vote. On a side note about the election, fifty-nine percent of the Electoral College did vote for Lincoln;
The presidential election that took place in 1960 was an interesting one. Newcomer, John F. Kennedy verses the Vice President, Richard M. Nixon. It was experimental with its trail of televised debates. It also marked the second in which a catholic had run for president and more importantly the first in which a catholic attained victory.
Political parties played active roles during the nineteenth century in the United States, which left a profound impact and ultimately led to one of the main causes of the Civil War. During the second party system, Andrew Jackson became the leader of the Democratic Party. The Whig Party was formed in 1834 in opposition to President Andrew and the Democratic Party. Whigs were united only by their opposition to the growing “kinglike” strength of the president. The tensions between North and South were growing in the nation’s political parties.
In November of 1860, the presidential election was one of the most momentous in the history of the United States. The land was split between North and the South and was smoldering for almost a decade. The candidates for the presidential election of 1860 were Abraham Lincoln, Republican, John Breckinridge, Southern Democrat, John Bell, Constitutional Union, and Stephen Douglas, Northern Democratic. Abraham Lincoln was against the increase of slavery into the new territories. Lincoln did not receive one vote from the south, but he did win over 50% of the Electoral College votes so Lincoln won the presidency to become the 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was known as one of America’s greatest heroes because of his inconceivable impact on our nation and his unique appeal. Lincoln was a captain in the military and a lawyer all before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was one of two U.S. presidents who was assassinated while in office. Lincoln was also the president during the roughest part of American history, the Civil War. Lincoln was heavily in favor of abolishing slavery and so most of the citizens in the northern states of the U.S... On the other hand, the south had large plantations and favored slavery because the slaves worked for free and made plantation owners and other farmers a staggering amount of profit. The slaves were not treated as human beings; therefore, the slaves were mistreated. Slave owners often beat their slaves
In 1860, the world 's greatest nation was locked in Civil War. The war divided the country between the North and South. There were many factors that caused this war, but the main ones were the different interpretations of the Constitution by the North and South, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the arrival of
During the Election of 1860, Lincoln ran for presidency for the Republican Party. “Lincoln’s nomination was due in part to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff” (“Abraham Lincoln Biography”). Running against him were better known candidates, representing the northern Democrats was Stephen Douglas, the southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge, and running for the “brand new Constitutional Union Party” (“Abraham Lincoln”) was John Bell. Because the Democrats had multiple candidates running, Lincoln won the election, on November 6, 1860, receiving “only 40 percent of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes – enough to narrowly win the crowded election. This meant that 60 percent of the voters selected someone other than Lincoln” (“The Election of 1860”). “Before his inauguration in March, 1861, seven Southern states