Friday, April 15, 2016

In 1860, what did the south call the election of Abe Lincoln without having a single southern vote?

The South called the election of Lincoln a farce.  Lincoln got so little support in the South that he was not even on many Southern ballots.  Southerners saw the election of Lincoln as proof that the North was growing more powerful and at some point in the future would vote to do away with slavery.  Even Southerners who did not personally own slaves had bad feelings about this because there was the question of what to do with all of the freed slaves.  Tensions were quite high in 1860, and part of the campaign to elect Lincoln was quite militant in nature--the Wide-Awakes held military-style torchlight parades at night.  While this was meant to excite the electorate, some radical Southerners feared that the North would seek to create a tyranny over the South and change its longstanding institutions if Lincoln were elected.  It should also be remembered that Lincoln was elected with a minority of the popular vote.  While this has happened before in American history, Southerners pointed out that this only proved that an abolitionist minority was gaining power in America.  Of course, Northern congressmen had complained that Southern congressmen had too much power in relation to their congressional districts.  

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