HIST 103A Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: The Immediate, Upland South, Cornerstone Speech
29 Apr 2018
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Lecture 15.1: The Civil War
The Election of 1860
➢“Progressive Democracy; The Prospect of a Smash Up”
○Lincoln, as a VP, is steering the Republican train to smash up the Democratic
party, which is being led in two different directions- ineffectually trying to get
their team on the same page
➢Election of 1860 was not so much of an election between two parties as it is an election in
two different sections
○Ended in a 4 way split
➢Democrats
○John Breckinridge
■National slave code platform
●More aggressive pro slavery position
●Makes property of man a national well defined property
○Includes fugitive slave laws, etc
○Stephen A Douglas
■Presents himself as the only man that can save the Union and bridge the
gap between the North and the South
●Gets vague on how, when or by what means
➢Conservative Whigs/Constitutional Union Party:
○John Bell
■He took the votes of middle border states that wanted to bridge the divide
●Not very pro or anti slavery
➢Republicans:
○Abraham Lincoln
■Moderate, compared to Seward or Chase (the more extremist candidates)
■Gained a national following in his debates against Stephen A Douglas,
running for office in Ohio for a Senate seat (lost)
●Did get his message out broadly that the House of the US cannot
stand the divide between the North and South
○Need to limit the growth of slavery
●Not an abolitionist, though
○Not advocating for the immediate end to slavery
○Moderate view on slavery
■Exemplified the promise of antislavery ideology
●Established his own reputation from the ground up
■40% of popular vote and 108 electoral votes
●Southerners viewed his win as the “beginning of their end”
The Deep South Secedes
➢Secession Winter of 1860-1861
○7 states secede in reaction to Lincoln’s presidency, in fear of what the Republican
party is going to do to slavery
■Beginning with South Carolina in Dec 20, 1860
●Followed by Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi
and Texas
■They meet in Montgomery, AL in Feb 1861 to draft a constitution and
elect a new president
●Before Lincoln takes office
●Their Constitution protects slave property
●Jefferson Davis is elected President
○Prior Senator of Mississippi and leader of the War
Department
○Slaveholder-controlled states seceded because they wanted to protect slavery
■Wanted to continue their way of life and to continue own people
■Only human beings as labor was natural and right, and they would do
anything to keep that practice alive
➢“Declaration Of The Immediate Causes Which Induce And Justify The Secession Of
South Carolina From The Federal Union”
○“[a]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the
institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of
the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution.“
■South Carolina was seceding because the North elected Abraham Lincoln
as president and he means to destroy slavery
➢Alexander Stephens, CSA VP, “Cornerstone Speech”, March 21, 1861
○“The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Jefferson] and most of the leading
statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the
enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was
wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. … Those ideas, however,
were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of
races. This was an error..”
■Stephens regards the Founding Fathers as wrong in calling slavery wrong,
and the CSA were correcting their errors
■People seceding from the Union did so, because they were white
supremacists who believed in slavery for non-whites as being natural,
right, formal and true
Lost Cause Mythology
➢South’s cause was an honorable one, unrelated to slavery, and heroic besides its defeat
➢Post-war, prominent Confederates – like Alexander Stephens – denied their attachment to
slavery, and instead recast their rebellion as a heroic defense of liberty against tyranny:
○Ex: the Lost Cause Army of Northern Virginia’s “Battle Flag”
■Shorthand for Confederacy/Confederate values
■AKA the flag of the ”Lost Cause”
○This idea was not embraced by the Confederates until after
they lost the war
■After the war was over, prominent Confederates were not hanged for
being traitors (and were allowed to retire to private life)
●They claimed the war was not about slavery, but Constitutional
rights and the tyranny against the monopoly of power
➢By the 1890s, they & their heirs were (largely) successful in winning the battle over
whites historical memory of the conflict
○History is not written by the victors, but by historians
Secession Winter: Union Response
➢Outgoing President James Buchanan
○Northern man of Southern principles
○Argued that there was no right of secession but his hands were tied
○Paralyzes the federal government
➢Senator John Crittenden (KY)
○Proposed a compromise to keep the South in the Union
■Guaranteeing federal protection of slavery south of the new Missouri
Compromise line
■Forbidding Congress from being able to abolish slavery in DC and from
regulating interstate state trade
■Providing compensation for slave owners for fugitive slaves
➢Incoming President Lincoln
○Plans for war
■Trying to draw Confederates to draw first blood in war
Document Summary
Progressive democracy; the prospect of a smash up . Lincoln, as a vp, is steering the republican train to smash up the democratic party, which is being led in two different directions- ineffectually trying to get their team on the same page. Election of 1860 was not so much of an election between two parties as it is an election in two different sections. Makes property of man a national well defined property. Presents himself as the only man that can save the union and bridge the gap between the north and the south. Gets vague on how, when or by what means. He took the votes of middle border states that wanted to bridge the divide. Moderate, compared to seward or chase (the more extremist candidates) Gained a national following in his debates against stephen a douglas, running for office in ohio for a senate seat (lost)
