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https://web.archive.org/web/20190710014557/https://civilwarscholars.com/2011/06/1253/
VIDEO: Dennis Frye – Did Raider John Brown Elect President Lincoln in 1860? TRT: 3:23
Did John Brown elect Abraham Lincoln? What an interesting phraseology. Did John Brown elect Abraham Lincoln? How could that be? John Brown’s dead by the time we come to the 1860 election. He’s been executed in December of 1859 and so Brown certainly didn’t elect Abraham Lincoln. But don’t be so literal. Don’t think of it like that. What you really need to do is look at what were the consequences of Brown and how did that affect the election of 1860. So hence, the question is a good one. Did John Brown elect Abraham Lincoln? What were the consequences? Well I’ll tell you the principle consequence; and that was that the democratic party fractured over, principally John Brown and the issue of slavery. There is no way Abraham Lincoln would have been elected in 1860, if there had been a unified united democratic party, but, instead of having two principal parties and two principal candidates, Lincoln, representing the republican party and some strong democratic candidate, we didn’t have that. Instead, we had four candidates, four people running for president in 1860.
Lincoln, of course being the Republican is the best-known, but three others:
two Democrats
John C. Breckinridge,
Stephen A. Douglas,
and an independent candidate, John Bell
es that occurred in these party politics; and so, there’s no way that Lincoln would have been elected had there been no John Brown. Probably in 1860 the republican and democratic candidates would have certainly argued over slavery, but Lincoln and the republicans are a brand-new party. Remember, their very first presidential election is 1856; so this is their only their second go-round. Lincoln’s well-known. He certainly politicked and did well in getting the nomination, but he is a northern candidate. He is not a southern candidate, nor is he a border state candidate; and so, although it’s likely that, even if there had only been a republican and democratic candidate and not four people on the slate, it’s likely that Lincoln would have done well in the north, but in states where the split occurred for the democrats – like in Virginia, like in Maryland, like in Tennessee, like in all of the other southern states, and what would be called the border states, and the states out to the territories – even the fact that there were these split candidates, these split opportunities, and these split electoral votes – ultimately gave lincoln enough to be the winner. So did John Brown elect Abraham Lincoln literally? Absolutely not. A dead man can’t vote figuratively. Symbolically – indirectly – Lincoln can owe his election to John Brown.
Main References:
John Brown (abolitionist). Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
“United_States_presidential_election,_1860.” Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
Video:
Frye, Dennis. “Did John Brown Elect Abraham Lincoln President?.” American Military University Civil War Scholars. 14 April 2011. Web. 2 May 2011.
Flickr Set:
File:JohnBell.png. Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
File:John C Breckinridge-04775-restored.jpg.
Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
File:John_Brown_daguerreotype_c1856.png.
Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
File:StephenADouglas.png. Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.
File:Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Helser, 1860-crop.jpg.
Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011.