| Just a Few More Years | |
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 Anti-Lincoln cartoon attacks the republican platform on slavery. | |
| Timeline | |
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(1860-1900) (1900-1940) (1940-1980) | |
| Topic | |
| Slavery | |
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Civil war List of Presidents (1860-1980) |
Intro[]
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln managed to win a four way race to become the first Republican president. His presidential run was overviewed by the American Civil war, which was triggered by the South attempting to secede due to Lincoln's stance on slavery. He would go on to be assassinated two months before the end of the war, ending his presidency five years in. But what if someone else took the reigns of president in the 1860 election. One man would take that role and head the government during America's turbulent history in the 1860's.
Basic Overview[]
In 1860, the US presidential election was four weeks away from occurring, with the South Democratic nomination process over and John C. Breckinridge became the nominee. He quickly took the slavery debate and used it to his advantage. He was all for the continuation of slavery which is one of the reasons he entered against the republican nominee, Abraham Lincoln. This allowed him to gain major support in the southern slave states. With major support in these states, he turned to the northern states, where slavery had been abolished years before, so his views were going to be less credible and gain less votes. So on the 30th of October, while in Washington, Breckinridge spoke to a crowd exclaiming that the northern states could be kept free states, while the slave states, due to the lowering of popularity of slavery, could keep the slaves while the government slowly removes it from society. He ended the speech with "slavery shall disappear in just a few more years". When the voting began many news papers claimed that Lincoln would win in a major landslide. It was the opposite, Lincoln came up second to Breckinridge, and on the 23rd of January 1861, Breckinridge became the 16th president of the United States of America.