In 1860 the presidential election was held on November 6th. One of the Headlines from The New-York Times. that day sure sounded ominous:
Immediate Secession Recommended by the Governor of South Carolina.
The Times carried a lot of news from around the South that day. Not by any means were all Southerners in favor of secession, but the fire-eaters were sure fired up. Here’s just one example (The New-York Times. November 6, 1860):
A letter written by Senator IVERSON, of Georgia, is being extensively circulated here and hereabouts. In
it he denies that he ever recommended the slaughter of every man who should accept office in the South under LINCOLN’S Administration, but explains that any Southern man who would accept office from a Repubican President would be no better than a Black Republican, and ought to be condemned and ostracised by universal public sentiment, C.M.
Earlier C.M. started his post his way:
JACKSON, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 27.
I write this in one of the high places of the fire- eaters; hear their boastings of independence in trade and commerce, and listen to their threats directed against the much-belied Northern States, and
yet, around us, while these very boasts are uttered and threats are fulminated, there are direct evidences in the want of pecuniary assistance, in the scarcity of food and in the low price of cotton and negroes, to the contrary of them all.
Business has already received a severe shock caused by the speculations of sharpers upon the exaggerated fears of their fellows. A majority of the banks of the South are now advancing upon cotton bills due North after the day of election. Cotton is piled up on the
river bank all the way from Memphis to Vicksburg. In some instances much cotton remains unpacked in the field, and this in a season of short crop, because the owners will not invest in more slaves than they now own. Add to all this the fact that in the gulf
States, as I am told, there is not enough corn or bacon for the slave population beyond March 1st. Then must be noticed the fact that the State government and the agricultural associations are the one by furnishing arms and the other by the offer of prizes, endeavoring
to excite the military spirit of the young men among country, and a still more disenheartening condition of things is presented.
This C.M. correspondent is basically previewing one of the major themes of the Civil War: Southerners were eager to defend their sense of honor and their states, but the underlying weakness in their economy eventually caught up with them. Maybe the cotton laying along the river was caused by the uncertainty over the election and its aftermath. Maybe once the Confederacy was established with its own currency things got better for awhile. I don’t know. It’s remarkable that the agricultural associations were offering prizes to excite the military spirit in young men if cotton was laying in the fields and along the river. You might think they needed to get the cotton to market.
Of course, we’ve got the advantage of 150 years worth of hindsight.
More
One of the things I learned at Seven Score and Ten is that political parties handed out election ballots before the 1880’s. The November 6, 1860 issue of The New-York Times. shows this was true for Northern Republicans:
The “night before election” was actively spent
at the Republican Central Campaign Head Quarters,
not in making or hearing Speeches, but in distributing
Tickets for deposition in the ballot boxes to-day.
From an early hour the crowds dropped in by scores,
fifties, and hundreds, procured their tickets and departed, and till about midnight, they still continued to call on the same great errand, as they esteemed it, for their country’s good.
Thanks for any comments.
