Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Who to choose?

The election of 1860 was one of the most heated in American history.  Americans on either side of the slavery issue believed that they had so much at stake.

You are not expected to read the entire article, but to what extent do you feel that their fears were true.  Would Lincoln have ended the institution of slavery?  What were the alternatives?  Why was Douglas in the race?

9 comments:

  1. After reading this article, "Election of 1860" I believe that some of the fears that the people have are actually logical, and make sense. The fears of the people also were very big because of such extreme change that Lincoln presented: slavery or free. I believe that Lincoln would not have completely ended slavery but rather let it die out like he intended. He wanted to preserve slavery for the south's sake but did not want it to spread anymore than it had. The alternatives were to completely abolish slavery, although this would have had a very negative affect towards for the south and would have shocked many. If Lincoln could abolish slavery without having any extremes on the southern people I definitely believe he would have.

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  2. I think that their fears were true because the election of 1860 was a big event, or we should say it is vital because it would decide the future of the whole nation. Nobody was not concern about their lives in the future (change from slavery to free or change from free to slavery). Lincoln would have ended he institution of slavery, but what Lincoln wanted to do is not to be extreme. He preferred to solve the slavery conflict more rational, he limited the spread of slavery institution and gradually ended slavery. The alternatives, of course, slavery was ended, but it took some time. The reason why Douglas was in the race because he wanted to keep slavery and he actually got support from some states such as Illinois and he actually had debated with Lincoln, as a democratic man, he definitely was in the race.

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  3. I think the fears that these people had were completely justifiable. I believe Lincoln saw that completely ending slavery would be extremely detrimental to the South, so he probably just wanted to keep it from spreading to the new territories. The alternative would be to end slavery where it already existed.

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  4. The fears that many had were logical because of how possible they were. Slavery ending cold turkey or even just ending could have a huge deficit on society and the economy. Lincoln couldn't just end it with out having huge controversy with the south. He just prevented the spreading of slavery which is way better than stopping it because of the problems that could have came up. He wasn't as extreme as most think but he was also smarter for he knew that troubles would arise in the economy not just in the south. But the complete abolishment of slavery was the end goal, and he knew it would happen eventually.

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  5. The fears that the different sides had about slavery and sectionalism were all but false. The South clung to slavery because the dissolution of it would likely cripple there economy to the bone. The Union was trying to act like they were not afraid of the thought that they could possibly fall apart as well. They took the discussion of secession from the South as a joke, as in examples "The South could no more unite upon a scheme of secession than a company of lunatics could conspire to break out of bedlam" stated the New York Post. Lincoln would end the Institution of slavery in the south, but not immediately. Lincoln wanted slavery to die out on its own for the sake of the South's economy, but more the fact he didn't want the South to secede. Douglas had a foot in the door because of his position on the saving the Union. His followers, The "little giants" or "little Douglas's", were behind him because the agreed with his position on popular sovereignty in local territories in America.

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  6. After reading “ The Election of 1860,” I believe that the people’s fears were true. Lincoln, put on a front. In public, Lincoln was said to have not said anything on the topic of slavery. In private, “he expressed an insouciance.” A few years earlier, Lincoln believed that, “’ dissolution of the Union is humbug.” Unfortunately, Southerners strongly believed that, “slave power… [would] threat[en] to tear the Union to pieces.”’ Douglas’s followers were nicknamed “ Little Giants.” Douglas’s nasty feud with Buchanan stood in the way. The situation worsened when he,” denounce[ed] the Breckinridge democrats as disunionists.” Douglas also tried his best to focus his efforts on the danger to the Union while Lincoln wanted to prevent the spread of slavery.

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  7. I think that the peoples fears were justifiable because the fate of the country, in the slavery or free sense, depended on this election and who won. I think the people liked Lincoln because he wasn't so radical and he took more of an "just let it die out and stop the spreading of it" attitude. Douglas' support came from people who wanted to spread slavery and make the Illinois a central trade station by implementing the railroad that runs all the way to California. I don't think there were any alternatives because the war was going to happen either way because if Lincoln was elected the South would want to succeed, which they did, and of Douglas was elected Northerners would be pissed and would probably have an awful relationship

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  8. I believe the peoples fears were justifiable, however, that is not to say that the politicians didnt use the emotions of the people to swing in favor of a certain idea. People are more convinced by emotion than logic and reason. I don't think Lincoln would have ended the institution of slavery as he was not prepared to keep the south intact; he would have been powerless and at a total surprise if the South succeeded because he wasn't expecting it. Lincoln took a more moderate approach, coming as the issue from the middle instead of the stark left or right of the other candidates. Douglass was in the race to keep slavery alive but he only was mainly supported by the south, causing tension and more division.

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  9. After reading this article,"Election of 1860", the fears of the people seemed logical. Abraham Lincoln's intention was not to stop slavery but to only keep it in the south and stop it from spreading in America. The south was scared that if Lincoln won slavery would be gone and their economic system would go down, this is why in some of the voting ballots down in the south, Lincoln was not even an option in the ballot.

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