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Diogenes Campaigns for Lincoln?

The More things Change … We have mentioned that on November 2, 1860 there was a huge Republican rally in New York City. William H. Seward was the main speaker. The Wide Awakes were understandably a big part of the … Continue reading

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800 Irish Laborers Disappear!

There is an interesting post at Seven Score and Ten about possible fraud in Louisiana during the 1860 presidential election. The fire-eating “Yanceyites” were apparently trying to to fake-out supporters of Bell, the candidate of the Constitutional Union party. Similar … Continue reading

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Seward Refuses Obeisance to King Cotton

William H. Seward, a Republican U.S. senator from New York, was hitting the campaign trail hard during the week before the presidential election of 1860. On October 30th he spoke before 15,000 people in Lyons, New York, a small town … Continue reading

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Minute Men Proselytize Memphis

I’ve been learning how political groups were formed during the highly contentious election of 1860. Wide-Awakes for Lincoln; Little Giants for Douglas. Recently I posted an excerpt from The New-York Times. that described South Carolina’s Minute Men, who organized to … Continue reading

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Happy Halloween!

YouTube has a lot about Civil War ghosts. Here’s one at Manassas: There’s many more ghost videos to look at. Join the debate on whether the ghosts are real. See General Lee’s ghost at Gettysburg! Gee, I think I’m getting … Continue reading

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Fire-Eater Plays Lexington

William Lowndes Yancey was a well-known Fire-Eater. Fire-Eaters were a group of Southerners who strongly supported states rights, slavery and the resumption of the slave trade, and eventually secession. On October 23, 1860 (about two weeks before the presidential election) … Continue reading

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“A Fall in the Price of Cotton and Negroes”

Recently I posted an excerpt from the October 18, 1860 issue of The New-York Times. about the Minute Men in South Carolina. In the same issue The Times published more Southern reaction to the big Republican victories  in the state … Continue reading

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Abraham Lincoln Creates Fusion

Or, Anybody but Lincoln According to the October 24, 1860 issue of The New-York Times. there was a huge Fusion demonstration in New York the night before. 25,000 supporters of Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell-Everett marched through the city streets to … Continue reading

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The Mystery of The Little Giants

Meandering through the Seneca Fall (NY) public library recently I noticed a shelf filled with some interesting-looking notebooks (no, not laptops, actual old-fashioned three-ring binders). These binders contained archival material from the village historian. They were arranged by date from … Continue reading

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Minutemen Reprised: South Carolina 1860

With the presidential election less than three weeks away the tension in the country keeps on building: From The New-York Times., October 18, 1860: MINUTE MEN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. The Charleston Mercury thus notices a new movement in the “Carolina … Continue reading

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