We got them movedd around and elected to office and got them married. It is time to elect him president. Going to look at elec the election of 1860 and using the term everybodys second choice, at the National Convention that year in 1860 a r lincoln supporter sent a wire that said, i think hes going to win the nomination. Hes the second choice of everybody. Well lincolnth himselfe seco ha, my name is new in the field. And i suppose im not the first choice of a very great many, ou. Policy there is to give no offense to others, leave them i a mood to come to us if they u should be compelled to give up their first love. I know, it kind of gets you yo right there. Ere. Giving up your first love. Okay. Y. So so the themes were going to be talking about and im also going to explain why there is suddenly a book cover in the upper per corner, but first of all republicans showed they were no the whig party. They actually ran a very wellorganized campaign. At the same time there is an oll saying ind politics, if your opponent in imploding, dont do anything to stop them. In this case, there were some implosions on the part of the other parties involved. Ed. And we will get to those as we i goll along. Ball do a little bit of the backgroundck leading up to the 1860 election and well talk a bit more about why slavery was a key issue both leading up to the election and then in the outcome. Now,this this next one kind ofi make you stop and think for a second. Well, yeah, he was the guy that won the nomination in the g a election and shouldnt he be doing a lot to win it. And the answer is yes. But at the same time remember in the 19th century you did not openly campaign. A few people did. Ople and it caused them problems. They were not supposed to do to that. Well lincoln was not open about it. Or at least too open about it. So he has to be careful. Ful and he has to make sure this doesnt look like hes too far out in front. He cant afford to get out over his skis. I know the thought of lincoln o skiing really has some appeal. And finally its a modern election and a premodern election. Its modern in the sense that were going to see the kinds ofh things that are designed to get people out to vote, advanced activities and so on, youre e going to see the media play an important role. At the same time, here is a way to think about it. We expect, in president ial elections these days, that itss possible there is a Third Party Candidate who might get a little traction. But for the most part we dont inpect that. In 1860, we end up with four parties, basically. And all four are in one way or another viable. Its possible any of them could pullpu this off. Thats not unusual. If you think back to the elections weve talked about a where in 1824, ford is a populai election the way we see in 1860. There is more than two candidates. Whigs had put three candidates in the field hoping for lightning to strike. And you get in 1844 and 48 u thirdparty candidates and then again in 1856 where they do havn an impact. Pa soct. Today, if a Third Party Candidate suddenly ran in 2020, well we would think, wow, this is different. Back then, oh, this is a Third Party Candidate,e, big deal. Thi weve been through this. S this is boring. Lets move on. So in the spirit of what they were saying, lets move on. I have put this book cover up here in bold faced 1860 because a century later a reporter named theodore h. White did a book rei called the making of the the president 1960, and today when you watch and read about about politics and all of the personalities play such a role and you often hear donald trump does he loves fast food. Or barack obama ate a lot of salad the kind of things we find out r about candidates are tributable to white treating this as a tra novelistic story. Its nonfiction. But he wrote it beautifully. Won the pulitzer prize. There is an element to this in 1860 as well. So well look at the making of the president in 1860. There are plenty of books on on this subject and most of them t have come out in the last few tr years. Now, there could be a joke to be done here about whether my ethe favorite historian is on the he screen, and he is. Yeah. There are other historians here, and i was thinking of some guys joke, a Country Singer who said youre asking who my favorite is, and didnt put any taters on my plate. Somebody did obviously. Se but in this case there is more attention with the centennial back in 2010 so suddenly there is more attention to how did this happen. Becaus because lincoln was a most m unlikely victor. Republican party in the second election. Hes neverer been on thehe national ballot. Hes had oneseco term in the ho how does he get there . He so, these books have tried to oy address that. Some more successfully than others. Im not too sure about this one. And well try to address that today. So a little background. Some reminders. The first time the Republican Party put a candidate in the field was in 1856 with john c. Fremont for whom almost everything in las vegas iss namd as we know. Named, or if it is a name for him, he named it. James bu well James Buchanan won and the key for republicans was that buchanan carried illinois, indiana and pennsylvania. Were they were thinking, all right, fremont didnt. If we could get those three states in particular, they like to spread out beyond that, but those three in particular beingl swing arstates, if they could g the right man in 1860, they have a chance. Theres also the third party, the nonothings, can republicans outpace them . Find a way to cut them off. And the answer is the nonoings kind of cut themselves off. Their antiimmigrant but ery. Fighting over slavery. The northern know nothings have a different position thanan the southern no nothings. And James Buchanan was elected. And one of the books about his administration suggestedd that e didnt do too well. The book when the book is called the id worst anpresident and people s well, gee. People in pennsylvania who are in buchanan country would argue about this probably and i couldl get into an argument about itd y myself. But buchanan had a tough four years. The dred scott decision was incredibly controversial as we s know and there are divisions i the Democratic Party from kansa and the dread stott decision where steven douglas, that little giant who believes in popular sovereignty, takes the stand that popular sovereignty still stands despite dred scott. And what is going on in kansas, where there is out and out warfare is counter to what theyre supposed to do in connection with popular sovereignty and buchanan and douglas dispute over it. Soon after buchanan takes office, a panic breaks out. Depri there is an economic depression or downturn. And lets face facts. The president who is in office when the economy goes south, eh usually getse a lot of the bla for it. Well, buchanan had just been in office a little bit. Ce you cant say he had done that much that quickly. But hes going to pay the price as well. Its also the case, there is a bookok based on the old claim tt the people who led to the civil war were the blundering generation. Blun generation in this story, buchanans buchan administration was incredibly mt corrupt. The culmination of itraas is ins when he has cabinet officials who are southern sympathizers, southerners themselves sending money and goods and arms into the south or helping the south get ready for the war. For but there are a lot of questions about federal contracts, payoffs, that sort of thing. And buchanan and the Democratic Party face a lot of allegations that theyre up to no good. Ar theyre crooked. And then, as were going to see the slavery issue does not go away with the dred scott decision. John browns attempt to take over Harpers Ferry and start a slave rebellion or insurrectione doesntll exactly work but it a rtainly upsets a lot of people and gets a lot of people talkinn about theg slavery issue. If they hadnt been already. And, frankly, they should have been. Theyre certainly talking about it inthrtainl illinois in 1858. Douglas was running for his third term in the senate. Ird te hes a national figure. And the Republican Party in illinois did something that traditionallyy parties in nally illinois didnt do. At the state convention, they r endorsed their own candidate for the u. S. Senatee and it was s lincoln. Douglas knew from 20 Years Experience how tough it was going to be to take on lincoln. And the debates result when lincoln just starts following lw him around illinoisin talking whenever douglas finishes es sp speaking andea finally they agr to a set of seven debates, and in the course of the debates lincoln is already getting some traction nationally. There are people who know him. Hes gotten some votes in the 1856 Republican Convention for l viceic president. Bu but in 1858 suddenly hes rocketed to stardom. Ardom hes taking on douglas. Doug douglas, for his part, wins reelection, thanks to something weve all heard plenty about. Gerrymandering. The 18 the 1850 legislative districts were still in effect in 1858, 5 despite a lot of growth in illinois. To win far more seats than he technically should have to get elected. It turns out lincoln won more legislative seats than douglas in 1858, remember u. S. Senators were elected by the legislature and lincoln won 5446 but douglas had enough seats there to be able to hold on to his senate seat. After one night after the election, lincoln is walking along and lincoln could be a bit of a klutz, i guess, one of the things i have to admire about him as a klutz. And as hes walking along and he tripped and had trouble getting himself under control and he thought to himself, it is a slip, not a fall. He well, he slipped. Himsel he didnt win this election. He was proud that he had taken a stand and he was impressed thatn he didd as well as did he. He felt he made a contribution to the debate. There is a debate among historians as to how much much lincoln was targeting 1860. And its not just the question of could he get elected president. That really wasnt thetion key c thing. Could he headpr off douglas whom seemed likely to be the democratic nominee. Ng well, during the debates, said douglas said almost in so many words, it is popular sovereignty and dred scott doesnt really matter. And for southerners and southerners dominate the no Democratic Party, this is not tooand hear and it iss going to hurt douglas ut nationally. And sometimese attribute to lincoln the extra amotive that n he wasess going to cripple dou and his chances of win in 1860. Well, hmm. I know that we all get tired of endless elections. It like they never end. The campaign for 2020 began the night after the 2016 election and so on. Its always been that way. And there is plenty going on in 1856, considered an offff year, and as were going to see n lincoln is up to a few things, well get to that. T. But there is a wllot going on i6 nationally to where hes saided in 1860. Nsas john brown had been in kansas t and he goes to virginia, attacks the Harpers Ferry arsenal or takes it over, is thrown back p out and put on trial for treaso against the state of virginia, convicted and sentenced to be g hanged. And southerns are convinced this is all a republican plot. A the parties behind this. And there are a few republicans and some areresome abolitionis affiliated with the republicans and not from the standpoint of being members of the Republican Party any way, who did help brown. But most republicans are taking the position, no, we dont go for the violent result. For we are not in favor of what this guy did. Anybody here who has lived up i the bay area . Lake merced gets its moment in the sun. David brodderic was a senator from california. And a douglas man. Big douglas supporter, big believer in popular sovereignty. Now, remember when california ca came in the union,li the idea w it was a free state, vote with thewo northern free states. In fact, there were southerners who came to california, big surprise, the gold rush is just going to attract people from one part of the world. No. Theyre coming from everywhere. And there were plenty of southern politicians in the area and one of them was a lawyer named david terry. And terry and brodrick were rivals for power in California Democratic politics. And remember there is apoliti b that southern honor code and the code duel and lincoln almost got into a duel and jacks fought a duel every second tuesday of thy month. And they fight a duel at lake merced and terry shoots brodricu and kills him. A lot of the country has no idea. Coun its out in california. There is no tv coverage. Nobody texts from the duel. Did you see what terry . But it is certainly noticeable s to politicians. And opinionmakers. And it reminds them, just like the beating, the caning of charles sumner, this is a issue. Violent issue. And by the way, since were in nevada i have to mention this. Me david terry later is still practicing law in california and he ends up in a case against a mining and banking magnate named William Sharon who controlled the com stock load. And sharon had had a mistress and there was a big legal fight over whether he agreed to marry the mistress and they wind up in court. Cour and the first time the ruling goes against the mistress she g pulls aag gun. The next time the ruling is against her she pulls a knife d and her attorney terry pulls the gun. Later, after theyve lost the case and on the train, bump inti then judge, a Supreme Court justice hearing the case, and terry punches the justice. The justices bodyguard shoots and kills terry. And there were people in at california at the time that said it took 25 years but david brodderic finally got even. Ou well, i dont know if mr. But brodrick would have been that thrilled butut at the very least here it was a violent year. Doing okay . We okay. What were going to do is take a look at the other campaigns and candidates, then well get to o thewi republicans, what lincolns up to. Logically, 1860 is going to be tough year nor the democrats. S. Ja is not wildly popular. An northern and southern democratsd are divided. Douglas is the clear frontrunner. There are a few other people th whose names pop up but its douglas, and hes controversial. Hes bound to run into some problems and he did. So, we have the one real candidate. His real problem at the convention is that under the rules, twothirds of the the delegates needed to vote for him. Or for any other nominee. Where this gets kind of weird, if you think about it, is that douglas considers himself the ideal democrat. Lower case d. Popular sovereignty, vote on slavery. Well even lincoln makes a comment at onea point along thehe lines of twothirds doesnt really sound all that democratic. Shouldnt. It be like 50 plusd one. Well, yeah, and it is designede to unite the party. As it turns out it is going to help divide the party. So the democrat has a problem with democracy. And the other problem they run into, there are plenty, but the convention is held in charleston, South Carolina. How many of you have been to charleston, South Carolina . Le okay. Ston . Have you been in the late spring, early summer . Humid, just a little. Just a little. Or as somebody said of a Southern City that gets human, the bugs are twin engine jobs. It gets a little warm. It is warm and sticky. There is no airconditioning. Co it is 1860. There is no deodorant, nothing like that. Everybody is hot and unhappy. Whm whats more, the south does not have as much railroad Rail Construction as the north. Getting to charleston requires a bunch of changes of train. So it is a tough trip. It is hard for them to get there. So then theye. Finally get ther its warm and humid and then theyre going to fight over whoy theyre going to nominate. So theyre in trouble. Now, lincoln has a theory. And his idea is here what ish what the douglas. Nominate him on the platform he opposes. Were for dread scott and we nominate douglas. Then douglasasuglas has to say for it or against it. He has to take a position. If he has any principlprinciplet run on that. If he has no principle, he will offend everybody. Lincoln once said of douglas something along the lines of, he does seem to lie more than just about any other man i know. He is not a fan of his. Douglas is not a fan of lincoln, but he is an admirer. Douglas wants the nomination. The convention divides. It finally breaks up. So they try again. And this time they try it in baltimore, which is a little easier to get to. No offense to charleston, South Carolina. Its a lot easier to get to today. The northern democrats get get together there. The southern democrats will have nothing to do with this. Anr the most part. And they nominate douglas. And the Convention Ends up choosing as his running mate a guy from georgia named herschel johnson. Many years agoo when i had no life, as opposed to now when i o have no life, i memorized the vicepresident s. What else did i have to do . Do. Johnson didnt get there. Not many people really wanted to be vicepresident. In this case, douglas choice was alexander stevens. Exan who wasder a far more prominenn politician, like johnson, a georgian. Stevens did not want to be vicepresident. And he proved how much he hated the vice presidency by becomingc the vicepresident of the ng confederacy and spending four years fighting withco jefferson davis. Fferson stevens might have been fun as e vicepresident for the union, too. Whatever it was, he was going to be in a fight about it. So the idea is, okay, douglas is the northern popular sovereignty guy. Johnson is willing to accept it hes a southerner. So it balances the ticket. Tick today we dont think much about that. In terms of geographic balance. In the 19th century in matt particular, it mattered a lot. The southern democrats say, okay, were not no, maam nay g nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. O, maam nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. , maam nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. am nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. M nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. Nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. Nominating douglas. They go with john breckenridge. Trivia break. He was 35. Youngest man elected to the vice presidency. If he had