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Abraham Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of the American Union and Slavery
Introduction
This lesson plan will explore Abraham Lincoln's rise to political prominence
during the debate over the future of American slavery. Lincoln's anti-slavery
politics will be contrasted with the abolitionism of William Lloyd Garrison
and Frederick Douglass and the "popular sovereignty" concept of U.S. Senator
Stephen A. Douglas. The views of southern Democrats like Jefferson Davis and
William Lowndes Yancey will also be examined to show how sectional thinking
leading up to the 1860 presidential election eventually produced a southern
"secession" and the American Civil War. In addition, the Republican Party platform
of 1860 will be compared with the platforms of the two Democratic factions and
the Constitutional Union Party to determine how the priorities of Lincoln and
his party differed from the other parties in 1860, and how these differences
eventually led to the dissolution of the Union.
Guiding Questions
- What were the political alternatives regarding the spread of slavery and
the preservation of the American union facing the American people in the decade
leading up to the 1860 presidential election?
- How did Abraham Lincoln's political views distinguish him from defenders
of immediate abolition, popular sovereignty, and national slavery?
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, students should be able to:
- explain how Abraham Lincoln's understanding of the federal union and the
Constitution led him to the conviction that Congress had the authority to
prohibit slavery in the territories
- show how Lincoln's moral beliefs led him to the conclusion that Congress
should use its authority to restrict slavery from the territories
- articulate the different solutions to the controversy over slavery in the
territories proposed by Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick
Douglass, Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and William Lowndes Yancey
- distinguish the priorities of the Republican Party from those of the two
factions of the Democratic Party and the Constitutional Union Party during
the 1860 election
- explain how the differing views regarding slavery in the territories eventually
produced a southern secession and a civil war
Background Information for the Teacher
What follows are brief descriptions of the key figures (and their related political
parties) leading up to the 1860 presidential election:
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was an abolitionist orator
and editor of The Liberator. He began as a moderate abolitionist, arguing for
gradual emancipation and somewhat open to colonization of black Americans. But
his association with Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy brought a greater urgency
and fervor to Garrison's abolitionism. He believed the U.S. Constitution was
more hindrance than help in the cause of emancipation because it tolerated slavery
in southern states and called it "a covenant with death and an agreement with
hell." By 1844, Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed disunion
so free states would not have to enforce the federal fugitive slave law and
no longer have to work with slaveholding states. He employed an inflammatory
rhetoric that made rebuke rather than persuasion the hallmark of his appeals
to the nation's conscience. "I have need to be all on fire," he once remarked,
"for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." Despite his militant abolitionism,
he was a pacifist who did not believe politics or any coercion could achieve
God's purposes on earth.
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an escaped slave who joined
William Lloyd Garrison as an abolition speaker and journalist. They eventually
parted ways when he rejected Garrison's pro-slavery view of the Constitution.
"I hold that in the Union," Douglass wrote in 1855, "this very thing
of restoring to the slave his long-lost rights, can better be accomplished than
it can possibly be accomplished outside of the Union." Douglass acknowledged
the constitutional compromises with slavery, at least in its application, but
he viewed it as a document that "leaned toward freedom." He argued that a pro-liberty
interpretation of the Constitution committed the federal government to no more
concessions to the southern slaveholding interest. That said, after Lincoln's
election, Douglass did toy with the idea of accepting southern secession so
that renegade runs into the South ("the John Brown way") could spur the liberation
of fugitive slaves, who would no longer be returned from the North. During the
Civil War, he was perhaps Lincoln's most famous loyal opposition, urging him
at every stage of the conflict to do more for emancipation and to arm the freedmen.
He eventually considered Lincoln the savior of both the Union and black Americans.
Stephen Douglas (1813-1861) believed that his "popular sovereignty"
policy, enshrined in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act see
Lesson Plan Three in this unit, (The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854), solved the slavery controversy by removing
it from national discussion and placing it in the hands of the territorial settlers
themselves. What could be more American, more democratic, than what he called
"the sacred right of self-government"?! He believed that this also positioned
him as the only truly national candidate for the presidency. After all, the
Republican Party stood with the abolitionists against slavery, which made them
a sectional (northern) party due to their anti-southern slave interest. Similarly,
southern Democrats sought stronger federal protection of slavery in all federal
territories, making them a sectional faction—a conviction that eventually
led to their bolting from the first national Democratic Convention in 1860.
In short, Stephen Douglas was a free-state Democratic senator and 1860 Northern
Democratic presidential nominee who believed the following about slavery and
the Constitution, and the American union: (1) neutral toward slavery, i.e.,
his "don't care," federal non-intervention policy toward slavery in the territories;
(2) pro-Constitution with a "popular sovereignty" interpretation of self-government
that applied at the territorial level as well as the state level, with Congress
leaving states and now territories to protect or exclude slavery as they sought
fit; and (3) pro-Union, as witnessed by his fervent campaigning on Lincoln's
behalf after he saw both that Lincoln's election was inevitable and that southern
states would use his election as reason to secede from the union.
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) and William Lowndes Yancey
(1814-1863) were southern, slaveholding, Democratic senators who believed in
a pro-slavery Constitution to the point of demanding in 1860 that Congress protect
by law the property right of a slaveholder to take his slaves into a federal
territory. In addition, they supported the Constitution, but believed that states
retained their sovereignty within a federal structure. This "states' rights"
view held that each state delegated only a portion of its powers to the national
government and thus could leave or "secede" from the union if it deemed that
sufficient violations of the federal compact were committed by other states:
for example, a few free states passed personal liberty laws to prevent local
enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) thought that the future of self-government
was at stake in how American citizens decided to resolve the slavery controversy.
Against the Garrisonian abolitionists, who hoped to purify the nation of the
admitted blot of slavery, Lincoln thought Americans should neither disparage
the rule of law nor encourage their erring southern brethren to "secede" from
or leave the Union. Nor should they adopt Stephen Douglas's "Don't Care" policy
of popular sovereignty, for this would teach them that there exist no principles
upon which to base their vote or their very constitutional regime. It would
turn republican self-government—which is based upon the natural equality
of human beings that gives rise to government by consent of the governed—into
crude majoritarianism, where the only principle of governance is mere self-interest.
In short, Abraham Lincoln was a former Illinois Whig congressman and 1860
Republican presidential nominee who believed the following about slavery, the
Constitution, and the American union: (1) anti-slavery in principle and in practice,
who argued against slavery's extension into federal territories but tolerated
it where it already existed in American states as a domestic (i.e., non-federal)
institution and one who hoped and worked for emancipation by state initiative
and eventually a federal amendment, but emphatically not an abolitionist because
they elevated emancipation above preserving the Constitution and the rule of
law; (2) pro-Constitution, which he saw as a pro-liberty document, and pro-Union
as long as it embodied and operated according to the principles of the Declaration
of Independence.
Against the view of southern Democrats like Jefferson Davis and William Lowndes
Yancey, Lincoln believed in restricting the extension of slavery in hopes that
this would put slavery "on the course of ultimate extinction." Specifically,
he supported Congress' right to do so under the federal constitution and made
this the newly formed Republican Party's reason for being, which he saw as the
linchpin that secured the various elements of the fusionist party of Free-Soilers,
former Whigs, and Nativists. But he acknowledged the legal right to own slaves
under state constitutions that already permitted it and which the U.S. Constitution
respected through compromises that helped produce "a more perfect union." To
this end, Lincoln recognized both the constitutional imperative to return fugitive
slaves to their claimants and the fractious condition of the country, and hence
did not seek the repeal of the notorious fugitive slave act of 1850, which was
part of the Great Compromise of 1850.
The future would show that as president, Lincoln attempted to preserve a constitutional
regime from the physical force of rebellious southerners, as well as the rhetorical
force of impatient abolitionists: the former were unwilling to obey a duly-elected
Republican administration, while the latter were unwilling to support a constitutional
union that respected the right of southern citizens to hold slaves.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
This lesson will feature Lincoln's rise to national prominence as the Republican
Party's preeminent anti-slavery spokesman. In the activities below, students will
contrast Lincoln's ideas with those of two abolitionists, two southern Democrats,
and a northern Democrat. They will also compare and contrast the platforms of
the Republican Party, the two branches of the Democratic Party, and the Constitutional
Union Party during the election of 1860.
Review the activities, then locate and bookmark websites and primary documents
(included in the PDF files
for this lesson) that you will use.
- Ten speeches (or excerpts) and writings by Lincoln, two abolitionists, two
southern Democrats, and a northern Democrat, located at the following EDSITEment-reviewed
weblinks and PDF files
for this lesson:
- Abraham Lincoln, Draft
of Speech on Popular Sovereignty (May 18, 1858), American
Memory: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
- Abraham Lincoln, Speech
delivered in Springfield, (1858), Gilder
Lehrman Center
- Abraham Lincoln, Address
at Cooper Institute (February 27, 1860), Douglass
Archives
- William Lloyd Garrison, To
the Public (January 1, 1831), Africans
in America: Judgment Day
- William Lloyd Garrison, "The American Union" (January 10, 1845), page
5 of PDF file
- Frederick Douglass, The
Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (July 5, 1852), Africans
in America: Judgment Day
- Frederick Douglass, "The Constitution of the United States: Is it Pro-Slavery
or Anti-Slavery?" (March 26, 1860), page
9 of the PDF file
- Stephen Douglas, Lincoln-Douglas
Debates (1858): Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois
(August 27, 1858), National Park Service:
Lincoln Home
- Stephen Douglas, "Letter to J.B. Dorr" (June 22, 1859), page
13 of the PDF file
- Jefferson Davis, Resolutions
on the Relations of States (page 15 of PDF file) (February 2, 1860),
American Memory:
Congressional Globe
- William Lowndes Yancey, "Speech of Protest in the Charleston Convention"
(April 28, 1860), page
17 of the PDF file
- Four national party platforms from the 1860 election, located at the following
EDSITEment-reviewed weblinks and pages
19-21 of the PDF file for this lesson:
- Republican
Platform (Abraham Lincoln, Chicago, May 16, 1860), American
Memory: An American Time Capsule
- Democratic Platform
(Stephen A. Douglas and the Northern Democrats, Baltimore Convention,
June 18, 1860), Avalon
Project at Yale Law School: Democratic Party Platform
- Democratic Platform (John C. Breckenridge and the Southern Democrats,
Richmond Convention, June 1860), page
20 of the PDF file
- Constitutional Union Platform (John Bell, Baltimore Convention, 1860),
page 21 of the PDF file
The PDF files created for
this lesson contain the text of speeches, writings, and platforms, as well as
textual analysis worksheets and compare-and-contrast matrices, which students
will use to help them understand and organize the material. The resources that
are contained in the PDF files
can be downloaded, printed, and given to students for use in the classroom or
as homework.
If your students lack experience in dealing with primary sources, you might
use one or more preliminary exercises to help them develop these skills. The
Learning Page at the American Memory Project
of the Library of Congress includes a set of such activities. Another useful
resource is the Digital
Classroom of the National Archives, which features a set of Document
Analysis Worksheets.
Suggested Activities
1. Comparing Abraham Lincoln with Philosophical
and Political Rivals in 1860
Divide the class into four groups. All groups (1-4) will read selections from
Lincoln's speeches and writings. Then each group will be given the writings
or speeches of one additional political or social figure to contrast with those
of Lincoln. The group assignments are as follows.
Group 1 |
Abraham Lincoln and William Lloyd Garrison |
Group 2 |
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass |
Group 3 |
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas |
Group 4 |
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis/William Lowndes Yancey |
Students will read the primary texts and then answer the questions for each
source. The questions are designed to show points of agreement or disagreement
between the two figures in regard to the federal union, the Constitution, and
the future of American slavery.
The task of each group will be to read the information in the documents, discuss
the questions, and come to a group consensus on the answers to the questions.
Each group will appoint one or two students to speak for the group. After they
have been given a sufficient amount of time, they will reassemble as a class
and each group will share what it has learned with the rest of the class.
Note: All of the speeches and writings used below are also available in the
PDF files, along with the
accompanying textual analysis
worksheets and compare-and-contrast
matrices, for downloading, printing and distributing to students.
All Groups (1-4)
1. Abraham Lincoln:
Political
Cartoon.
Have all students read the following documents and answer the corresponding
questions on pages 1-3 of the
PDF.
Group 1 Assignment: William
Lloyd Garrison: Have students read the following documents
and answer the corresponding questions on pages
4-6 of the PDF:
After Group 1 has completed the textual analysis worksheet for each of the primary
source documents, have them complete the Compare-and-Contrast
Matrix for Lincoln and Garrison, provided on page 7 of the PDF file.
Group 2 Assignment: Frederick
Douglass
Have students in Group 2 read the following documents and answer the corresponding
questions on pages 1-3 of
the PDF:
After Group 2 has completed the textual analysis worksheet for each of the primary
source documents, have them complete the Compare-and-Contrast
Matrix for Lincoln and Douglass, provided on page 11 of the PDF file.
Group 3 Assignment: Stephen
A. Douglas: Leader of the Northern Democrats
Political
Cartoon
Have students in Group 3 read the following documents and answer the corresponding
questions on pages 1-3
of this PDF.
After Group 3 has completed the textual analysis worksheet for each of the primary
source documents, have them complete the Compare-and-Contrast
Matrix for Lincoln and Douglas, provided on page 4 of this PDF file.
Group 4 Assignment: Southern Democrats: Jefferson
Davis and William Lowndes Yancey
Have students in Group 4 read the following documents and answer the corresponding
questions on pages 1-3 of
this PDF.
After Group 4 has completed the textual analysis worksheet for each of the primary
source documents, have them complete the Compare-and-Contrast
Matrix for Lincoln and Davis/Yancey, provided on page 4 of this PDF file.
2. Comparing the Republican Party Platform
with the Other Party Platforms of 1860
Groups 1-4 will now contrast the Republican Party platform with the platforms
of both factions of the Democratic Party and the Constitutional Union Party. Have
students read the platforms and answer the corresponding questions on pages
1-3 of the PDF:
Note: In the presidential election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln received
a clear majority of the electoral votes (180 out of 303)—all from northern,
free states. Although he won only 40 percent of the popular vote, this was due
in part because his name did not appear on the ballots of ten southern states.
Nevertheless, except for South Carolina every state of the Confederacy sent at
least one regiment of white soldiers to the federal army, totaling over one hundred
thousand southerners who fought for the Union.
Note: In the presidential election of 1860, Stephen A. Douglas
received the electoral votes (12) of the slave state of Missouri and a portion
of New Jersey.
Note: In the presidential election of 1860, John C. Breckenridge
received the electoral votes (72) of all of the slaveholding states south of the
Mason-Dixon line except for Tennessee.
Note: In the presidential election of 1860, John Bell received
the electoral votes (39) of the slaveholding states of Tennessee (his home state),
Kentucky, and Virginia.
Assessment
1. Students will use the matrix
provided on this PDF to demonstrate their knowledge of the differences between
Abraham Lincoln and the others in this lesson regarding the American union, the
U.S. Constitution, and slavery.
2. Have students write a paragraph explaining one of the following ironies
listed below:
- Stephen Douglas thought the idea of popular sovereignty, which referred
the issue of slavery to the local people's choice, positioned him as the one
candidate who had the best chance of winning the presidency in 1860. Yet,
his embrace of popular sovereignty caused the southern Democrats to bolt from
the national Democratic Party convention, thus splitting the party in two
before the election.
- Lincoln believed in the federal union and hoped to preserve it by upholding
a constitutional government with the authority to restrict the extension of
slavery into federal territory. Yet, his election as the Republican candidate
precipitated the secession of the southern states, severing the South from
the rest of the nation.
3. Ask students to grapple with the looming divide of the Union by giving a paragraph
answer to each of the following questions:
- Given the increasing American divide brought on by growing regional and
political differences, and the inability of the major spokesmen to arrive
at enough points of agreement, was the tragic break-up of the American union
inevitable?
- Did the irreconcilable differences held by the principal actors arise from
their political philosophies, their personal temperaments, their moral convictions,
or their vested interests, or some combination of the above? Be specific with
each character.
- To extend the lesson, do you see a way that these differences could have
been resolved through a compromise or policy not envisioned by the
parties of 1860?
Extending the Lesson
1. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) was a Supreme Court
decision that held that Dred Scott, a slave, was not freed by virtue of his
master taking him to reside for a while in the free state of Illinois and free
territory of Wisconsin. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney added that Congress had
no constitutional authority to enact the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which outlawed
slavery in federal territory north of the 36º30' parallel. This meant Congress
could not legislate regarding slavery in the territories, which raised a hue
and cry throughout the free states of the North.
For more details about Dred Scott's life and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's
reasoning in his majority opinion, see the EDSITEment-reviewed weblinks Africans
in America: Dred Scott's Fight for Freedom Decision
of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case at, and Africans
in America: Dred Scott case: the Supreme Court decision.
2. John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry (1859)
John Brown (1800-1859) was a radical abolitionist who took
the fight against slavery literally into his own hands. First, in retaliation
against slaveholders who terrorized settlers in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1855, he
and four of his sons and two accomplices killed five slaveholders in what became
known as "Bleeding Kansas." Second, he attempted to foment a slave insurrection
by seizing a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859. Col.
Robert E. Lee led a company of U.S. Marines to capture Brown, who was then tried
and eventually hanged on December 2. Frederick Douglass said of John Brown,
"His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine. I could live for
the slave, but he could die for him." For more details about how John Brown's
raid of the Harpers Ferry armory shaped American attitudes in the year before
the 1860 election, see the EDSITEment-reviewed weblink John
Brown and the Underground Railroad.
3. 1860 Platforms Compared: Additional, Specific Questions
(a) Have students read the Republican
Party Platform (Abraham Lincoln, Chicago, May 16, 1860) found in the PDF
for this lesson and at the EDSITEment-reviewed weblink American
Memory: An American Time Capsule, and answer the following questions, which
address primarily the first ten resolutions:
- How does the Republican Party's reaffirmation of the Declaration of Independence
(in Resolution #2) influence the other resolutions or "planks" of the party
platform? Which resolutions reflect the principles of the Declaration of Independence
most clearly?
- What is the Party's opinion of the Union as a help or hindrance to America's
political prosperity?
- What is the Party's opinion of secession or disunion?
- What is the Party's position on slavery where it already exists in the U.S.?
(Hint: Slavery is alluded to by the phrase "domestic institutions.")
- What is the Party's position on slavery in the federal territories?
(b) Have students read the Democratic
Party Platform (Stephen A. Douglas and the Northern Democrats, Baltimore Convention,
June 18, 1860) found in the PDF for this lesson and at the EDSITEment-reviewed
weblink Avalon Project
at Yale Law School: Democratic Party Platform, and answer the following questions:
- Because the Democratic Party is not united in its understanding of the respective
powers of Congress and a territorial legislature regarding slavery within
the territories, what does the platform decide about this issue?
- Speculate as to the reason why the platform calls for the federal acquisition
of Cuba.
- What is the platform's view of state laws that hinder the enforcement of
the federal fugitive slave law?
- Is there any limitation on the authority of a territorial legislature "over
the subject of the domestic relations," which includes slavery?
(c) Have students read the Democratic
Party Platform (John C. Breckenridge and the Southern Democrats, Richmond Convention,
June 1860), found in the PDF for this lesson, and answer the following questions:
- According to this platform, can a slaveholder move to a federal territory
with his slaves and be hindered by Congress or the territorial legislature
in the possession or use of his slaves?
- Does the federal government have the authority to protect slavery in the
federal territories?
- When can the people of a federal territory act to maintain or prohibit slavery
from their territory?
- What is the platform's view of state laws that hinder the enforcement of
the federal fugitive slave law?
- Speculate as to the reason why the platform calls for the federal acquisition
of Cuba as soon as possible.
(d) Have students read the Constitutional
Union Party Platform (John Bell, Baltimore Convention, 1860), found in the
PDF for this lesson (and in the Assessment for teacher
review), and answer the questions that follow:
- According to this platform, what are the two main problems with the other
national party platforms?
- What principles does the Constitutional Union Party promote?
- Compared with the other party platforms, is this platform a better or worse
effort to resolve the sectional crisis? Give reasons to support your answer.
4. Crittenden Compromise (1860)
The Crittenden Compromise (December 18, 1860), named for
Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden, was a last ditch effort to prevent state
"secessions" from the Union through constitutional amendments and resolutions.
These reinstated the 36º30' parallel by extending it formally to the California
border and guaranteeing slavery's existence below parallel while forbidding
slavery north of the parallel, and strengthened the federal government's authority
to return fugitive slaves to their owners. Lincoln opposed the compromise as
the incoming Republican president, and it failed to pass both the House of Representatives
and the Senate. For more details about the Crittenden Compromise, see the EDSITEment-reviewed
weblink Crisis
at Fort Sumter: Dilemmas of Compromise (click "December 18" on the calendar
for a brief description, and then click "compromise plan" for the text of Crittenden's
proposed amendments and resolutions).
5. Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
For Lincoln's explanation of his intentions as the incoming president of a
nation where seven states had already declared their separation from the federal
union, see the final printed version of Lincoln's First Inaugural Address at
EDSITEment-reviewed weblink The
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, and the EDSITEment lesson
entitled We
Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln's First Inaugural Address.
6. Frederick Douglass's 1876 "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln"
To read what is arguably the most astute appraisal of Abraham Lincoln's statesmanship
by a contemporary, have students read the following excerpt from Frederick Douglass's
"Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln" (April 16, 1876) found at the EDSITEment-reviewed
weblink, The
Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress (read page 42 of the
50-page document).
Have students answer the following questions:
- What does Douglass believe was Lincoln's two-fold mission?
- Whose support was necessary for Lincoln to accomplish this mission?
- Which objective of Lincoln's took priority over the other? Why?
- From an abolitionist's standpoint, how did Lincoln's actions regarding emancipation
appear?
- From a statesman's viewpoint, how did Lincoln's actions regarding emancipation
appear?
Related EDSITEment Lesson Plans
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Before Brother
Fought Brother: Life in the North and South 1847-1861
Families
in Bondage
From Courage
to Freedom: Frederick Douglass's 1845 Autobiography
Lincoln
Goes to War
Perspective
on the Slave Narrative
Spirituals
The Supreme
Court: The Judicial Power of the United States
We Must
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Who Was
Cinque?
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
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