c-span.n green teaches a class on abraham lincoln and the 1860 presidential election. he describes the political climate, background on other candidates, and the deliberations at party conventions. lincoln won the presidency over three candidates with over 40% popular vote. hour ands is about an 15 minutes. >> well, alright. we got lincoln's ancestors over here. we got him moved around, his married., he got we look at the election of 1860 and using the term everybody's

second choice at the national convention that year in 1860, a lincoln supporter sent a wire that said, "i think he's going to win the nomination. is the second choice of everybody." coln himself had online that says i suppose i'm not the first choice of the great many. our policy is to give no offense to others and they will be compelled to give up their first love. i know, it kind of gets you right there, giving up your first love. ok, so the things we are going to be talking about, and i'm going to explain why there's suddenly a book cover in the upper right-hand corner. first of all, republicans showed they were not that wig party. -- whig party. -- rentually organized a very organized campaign. at the same time, if your

component is imploding -- opponent is imploding, don't do anything to stop it. in this case, there were some implosions on the other parties involved. and we will get to those as we go along. we'll do a little bit of the background leading up to the election and talk more about why slavery was a key issue both leading up to the election and then in the outcome. now this next one kind of might make you stop and think for a second, he was the guy who won the nomination in the election. the answer is yes. but at the same time, remember, in the 19th century, you did not openly campaign. few people did and it caused

them problems. they were not supposed to do that. well, lincoln was not open about it, or at least too open about it, so he has to be careful and he has to make sure it doesn't look like he's too far out in front. he can't afford to get out over his skis. i know the thought of him skiing has some appeal. finally, it's a modern election and a premodern election. in the sense that we are going to see the kind of things that are designed to get people out to vote, advanced activities and so on. you are going to see the media play an important role. at the same time, here's a way to think about it. we expect in presidential elections these days that it's possible that there's a third-party candidate who might get a little traction.

but for the most part, we don't expect that. in 1860, we end up with four parties basically, and all four are in one way or another viable. it's possible any of them could pull this off. that's not unusual. if you think back to the elections we talked about, where in 1824, before it's a popular election the way we see in 1860, there's more than two candidates. whigs put three candidates in the field hoping for lightning to strike. 1848,u get, in 1844 and third-party candidates, and then again in 1856, where they do have an impact. if a third-party candidate suddenly ran in 2020, we would have been wow, this is different.

back then, oh, it's a third-party candidate. big deal. we've been through this. this is boring. let's move on. that's the spirit of what they were saying, let's move on. i have put this book cover up here in boldface 1860 because a century later, a reporter named theodore white did a book called the making of the president: 1960. and today, when you watch and read about politics and all of the personalities play such a role. and you often hear donald trump, does he love fast food? barack obama eight a lot of salad, or whatever. the kind of things we find out are attributable as to treating this as a novelistic story. it's nonfiction, but he wrote it beautifully, won the pulitzer prize. there's an element to 1860, as

well. 1860.re going to look at there are plenty of books and most of them have come out in the last few years. joke to becould be a done here about whether my favorite historian is on the screen, and he is. yeah. here are other historians and i was thinking of some guys joke, the country singer who said, you're asking who my favorite is. they didn't put any taters on my plate. they obviously did. suddenly, there's a lot more attention to how did this happen? because lincoln was a most unlikely victor. republican party's in its second election, he's never been on a national ballot, one term in the

house, how does he get there? so these books have tried to address that, some more successfully than others. i'm not too sure about this one. we'll try to address that today. so a little background, some reminders. the first time the republican party put a candidate in the field was in 1856 with john c fremont, for home almost everything in las vegas is named, as we know. it isn't named for him, he named it. james buchanan won and the key for republicans was that the canon carried illinois, indiana, and pennsylvania. they were thinking fremont didn't. if we can get those three states, in particular -- they would like to spread beyond that, but those particular three swing states, if they can get

the right man in 1860, they have a chance. there's also the third-party, the know nothings, the nativist parties. can republicans outpace them, find a way to cut them off? and the answer is the know nothings kind of cut themselves off. they're anti-immigrant, but they're fighting over slavery. the northern no nothings have a different position than the southern no nothings and the republicans are going to capitalize on that. james buchanan was elected. and one of the books about his it ministration suggests he didn't do too well. when his book is called, "the worst president," ah, gee. people in pennsylvania, buchanan country, might argue about this, but buchanan had a tough four years.

the dred scott decision was incredibly controversial, as we know. and there are divisions in the democratic party that result from bleeding kansas and the dred scott decision, where stephen douglas, that little giant who believes in popular sovereignty, takes the stand that popular sovereignty still stands despite dred scott. and what's going on in kansas, where there's out and out warfare, is counter to what they're supposed to do in connection with popular sovereignty. and buchanan and douglas split over it. and buchanan tries to get him defeated for reelection, without much success, obviously. soon after buchanan takes office, a panic breaks out. there's an economic depression, or downturn. the president who's in office when the economy goes south usually gets a lot of the blame for it.

well, buchanan had just been in office a little bit. you can't say he's done that much that quickly, but he's going to pay the price, as well. it's also the case, there's a book based on the old claim that the people who lead to the civil war were the blundering generation -- the blundering generation in this story, buchanan's administration was incredibly corrupt. the culmination of it is seen as when he has cabinet officials who are southern sympathizers, seven others -- southerners themselves, sending money and goods and arms into the south, or helping the south get ready for the war. but there are a lot of questions about federal contracts, payoffs, that sort of thing. and buchanan and the democratic party face a lot of allegations that they're up to no good. they're crooked. and then, as we're going to see,

the slavery issue does not go away with the dred scott decision. john brown's attempt to take over harpers ferry and start a slaver barely in or -- slave rebellion or insurrection doesn't exactly work, but it certainly upset a lot of people and got people talking about the slavery issue, if they haven't been already. and frankly, they should've been. they're certainly talking about it in illinois in 1858. douglas was running for his third term in the senate. he's a national figure. and the republican party in illinois did something that, traditionally, parties in illinois didn't do. at the state convention, they endorsed their own candidate for the u.s. senate and it was lincoln. douglas knew from 20 years experience how tough it was

going to be to take on lincoln. and the debates result, where lincoln just starts following him around illinois talking whenever douglas finishes speaking, and finally they agreed to seven debates. in the course of these debates, lincoln is already getting some traction, nationally. there are people that know him. he's gotten some votes in the 1856 republican convention for vice president. but in 1858, suddenly, he's rocketed to stardom. he's taking on douglas. douglas, for his part, wins reelection, thanks to something we have all heard the about, gerrymandering. the 1850 legislative district was still in effect in 1858, despite a lot of growth in illinois. and lincoln had to win far more seats than he technically should

have to get elected. won moreout, lincoln legislative seats than douglas. remember, they are elected by the legislature. lincoln won 54-46. but douglas had enough seats there to be able to hold on to his senate seat. one night after the election, lincoln is walking along. and lincoln could be a bit of a klutz, i guess. one of the things i have to admire about him. he as he was walking along, tripped and he had trouble getting himself under control. it's a slip, not a fall. well, he slipped. he didn't win this election.

he was impressed he did as well as he did. he felt he made a contribution to the debate. there's a debate among historians as to how much lincoln was targeting 1860. and it's not just the question of, could he get elected president? that really wasn't the key thing. could he had off douglas, who seemed likely to be the democratic nominee? well during the debate, douglas said, almost in so many words, popular sovereignty, you vote on slavery. dred scott doesn't really matter. and for southerners, and the southerners dominate the democratic party, this is not what they want to hear. and it is going to hurt douglas nationally. attributemes people lincoln the extra motive or the awareness that he was going to

cripple douglas and his chances of winning in 1850. well, mmm. i know that we all get tired of and less elections -- endless elections. it seems like they never end. the campaign for 2020 began the night after the 2016 election. it's always been that way. there's plenty going on in 1859, and lincoln is up to a few things. we'll get to that. but there's a lot going on nationally that's going to affect where lincoln is headed in 1860. the first, john brown had been in kansas. he goes to virginia, attacks the harpers ferry arsenal, or actually takes it over, is thrown back out, put on trial

for treason against the state of virginia, convicted, and sentence to be hang -- sentenced to be hanged. and southerners are convinced this is all a republican plot. the party's behind this, and there are a few abolitionists, not really affiliated with the republicans, or doing it from the standpoint of being with the republican party, but most republicans are taking the position no, we don't go for the violent result. we are not in favor of what this guy did. anybody here who has lived up in the bay area? lake merced gets its moment in

the sun. david broderick was a senator from california. and a douglas man. big douglas supporter, big believer in popular sovereignty. now remember when california came in the union, the idea was it was going to be a free state vote with the northern free states. in fact, there were southerners who came to california, big surprise. the gold rush is just going to attract one part of the world? no. they're coming from everywhere. and there were plenty of southern politicians in the area, and one of them was a lawyer named david carey. and teri and broderick were rivals. and remember, there's a bit of that southern honor code and the code well low. lincoln almost got into a dual.

andrew jackson fought a duel every second tuesday of the month or whatever he was doing. in this case, they fight a deal at lake merced and terry shoots broderick and kills them. a lot of the country has no idea. it's out in california. there's no tv coverage. duel. texts from the "did you see what terry did?" but it's certainly noticeable to politicians and opinion makers. and it reminds them of the beating of charles sumner. this is a violent issue. and by the way, since we're in nevada, i have to mention this. later, is still practicing law in california, and he ends up in a case against a mining and banking magnet who basically controlled the

comstock lode. and sharon have had a mistress and there was a big legal fight over whether he had agreed to marry the mistress,, or under common law what have you. they wound up in court. and the first time the ruling goes against the mistress, she pulls a gun. the next time, she pulls a knife, and terry pulls the gun. later, they bump into the judge on the train, the supreme court justice hearing the case, and terry punches the justice, so the bodyguard shoots and kills terry. and they say it took 25 years, but david broderick finally got even. i don't know if mr. broderick would have been that thrilled, but at the very least, it was a violent year. doing ok? ok. we're going to do is take a

look at the other campaigns and candidates. then we'll get to the republicans, what lincoln's up to. logically, 1860 is going to be a tough year for the democrats. buchanan is not wildly popular. northern and southern democrats are divided. douglas is the clear front-runner. there are a few other people whose names pop up, but it's douglas. and he's controversial. he is bound to run into some problems, and he did. so, we have the one real candidate. his real problem at the convention is that under the rules, two thirds of the delegates needed to vote for him .

or for any other nominee. where this gets kind of weird, if you think about it, is that douglas considers himself the ideal democrat. popular sovereignty, the classic case. vote on slavery. well, even lincoln makes a comment at one point along the lines of, two thirds doesn't really sound all that democratic. shouldn't it be like 50% plus one? well yeah, and it's designed to unite the party. as it turns out, it was going to divide the party. so, the democrat has a problem with democracy. and the other problem they run into, and there are plenty, by the convention is held in charleston, south carolina. how many of you have been to charleston, south carolina?

ok, have you been in the late spring, early summer? humid? >> a little bit. professor green: just a little, just a little. or somebody said of us some -- a city that gets humid, the bugs are engine jobs. it gets a little warm. it's warm and sticky. there's no air-conditioning. it's 1860. there is no deodorant, nothing like that. everybody is hot and unhappy. what's more, the south does not have as much railroad construction as the north. getting to charleston requires a bunch of changes of train. so it's a tough trip. it's hard for them to get their. so then they finally get there, it's hot and humid, and then they're going to fight over who gets nominated. so they're in trouble. so lincoln has a theory. here's what the democrats should

do if they really want to stick it to douglas. nominate him on the platform he opposes. we're for dred scott and we nominate douglas. and then douglas has to say he's for it or against it. he has to take a position. if he has any principles, he says i can't run on that. if he has no principles, he'll offend everybody. and lincoln once said to douglas he doesn't seem to lie more than any man i know. so he's not a fan of his and douglas is not a fan of lincoln, but he's an admirer. and douglas wants the nomination, the convention divides, and it finally breaks up. so they try again. it inis time, they try baltimore, which is a little easier to get to. no offense to charleston, south

carolina. it's a lot easier to get to today. the northern democrats get together there. the seven democrats will have nothing to do with it, for the most part. and they nominate douglas. and the convention ends up choosing, as his running mate, a guy from georgia named hirsh and johnson -- herschel johnson. now, many many years ago, when i had no life, as opposed to now when i have no life, i memorized the vice presidents. what else did i have to do? herschel johnson didn't get there, and not many people wanted to be vice president. in this case, douglas's choice

was actually alexander stevens, who was a far more prominent politician. and stevens did not want to be vice president. and he proved how much he hated the vice presidency by becoming the vice president of the confederacy and spending four years fighting with jefferson davis. so stevens might have been fun fighting with the union, too, whatever it was he was going to fight about. the idea is, douglas is the normal popular sovereignty guy. johnson is willing to separate -- settle with it. and balances the ticket. today we don't think much about that, in terms of geographic balance. in the 19 century in particular, it mattered a lot. so the seven democrats say ok, we're not nominating -- the southern democrats say ok, we're not nominating douglas. they go with the sitting vice

president of the united states, john breckenridge. trivia break. john breckenridge was elected vice president when he was 35, youngest man ever elected to the presidency or vice presidency, in this case the vice presidency. so if he had been elected, he would have been by far the youngest president ever. he was buchanan's vice president, so he was split with douglas, and had at once been a quasi-ally or if not an ally. and breckenridge runs on the platform of dred scott is fine. code for theve territory, bring your slaves. and the irony is breckenridge is from the upper south. he's from kentucky, where the feelings about slavery aren't quite so deep as they are in the lower self. -- in the lower south.

mate,eckenridge's running you want to talk about geographic diversity, they choose a guy named joseph lane, who's from south carolina and lives in oregon. they're getting everything in this one. they've got the south, they've got the upper south, they've got the far left. and by the way, there are only a few thousand value -- voters in oregon. but he's definitely from the lower south. he's definitely proslavery. they figure he's a good man to have on the ticket. he also does not look happy about being the vice presidential nominee. he wanted something better. if you like a party, we have

lots of parties. another party forms, and also in may, 1860, like the democrats, like the republicans, they have their conventions. and they call themselves the constitutional union party. , aot of old former whigs good number of no nothings, the no nothing party is pretty much collapsed 1860. where are they going to go now if they don't want to be a democrat or a republican? and you find a good number of southern and border in state, proslavery people, john bell, who's in the lower left, was one of the few southerners who opposed the kansas nebraska act. he's one of those rarities. he's a politician from tennessee

who was both close to andrew jackson, then an animate of andrew jackson -- enemy of andrew jackson, and didn't get shot for it. i don't know how jackson let him off the hook. sam houston, the governor of texas. a kentuckynden was politician, considered the protege of henry clay. we're looking for a compromise? we're looking for a way to meet in the middle? crittenden's your man. yes,he group included, other northern former whigs, not to decided about the slavery issue. everett had been a professor, a and aat, a u.s. senator, few years after this, he would become one of those great historical trivia questions.

they were dedicating this veterans cemetery in gettysburg. and they invited the man they considered the great orator of the era. he knew his latin, he knew his cicero, he knew his great romans and all this. and he gave a two-hour speech to hail the dedication of the veterans cemetery of gettysburg. and then somebody else got he is the one we remember. wrote to lincoln after this that if i could capture everything you captured in two minutes, i would have done a good job. both are in their mid-to-late 60's. i hope that you don't think i'm making fun of age.

aar in mind, let inspections desk life expectancy. bear in mind, life expectancy back then. platform was the union as it is and the constitution as it is. which i can call the "shh, don't talk about it." platform. if we don't talk about it, it will go away. to tell you the rest of the course, it did not go away. how this comes out. how do we get there? we have the northern and southern democrats.

lane, everettd and his. this is prominent candidates for the republican nomination from chicago. these are photographs by matthew brady. he is around before the war starts. they were coming to chicago for the republican convention in 1860, it was a great that the front runner was william henry seward. he has the biggest portraits of you must be the most important one. -- portrait so he must be the biggest and most important one. he has several problems. one of them is he is prominent. people know where he stands.

he is one of those guys who can't undo it. he can't say that he said something and meant it both ways. he has said there is a higher law then the constitution. southerners look at him as this radical, while dive guy who they can support. -- wild eyed guy who they can't support. there are moderate republicans who know that he is too far out there. he has another problem. we talked about his political manager. manipulatinged in the new york legislature. administration is known for corruption. republicans say they oppose corruption. democrats will say you oppose corruption? you think you will sell that?

how can you possibly pull that off? weed had ang is bright idea. get seward out of the line of fire and away from the issues. to do thet to europe grand tour. everyone else is here and he is in europe. the other most radical republican under consideration is salmon chase. he is a former democrat from ohio. .eward is a former whig -- a former whig. deo --s a former

democrat, so the whigs are not too sure. they go up to the top above chase. that is edward bates. he was a lawyer from missouri. whig and know nothing. he freed his slaves. he didn't talk much about what he thought of slavery. group of is a republicans who say he is really conservative. we need a real conservative. people ifare away somebody is nominated who has been vocal about anti-slavery. rather than just slip someone in there.

back then, you did not campaign. anything --s to do bates to do anything was impossible. the rest of his people on here, john fremont was on here. is an abolitionist, cassius clay. there is john mcqueen, there are some favorite sons. pennsylvania had simon cameron. out,below, just hanging not saying or doing too much is lincoln. he is on the periphery. in your face.tly he is not getting in anybody's grill. think thatt you to lincoln ever said i am not

getting in anybody's grill. not in your face but he is circling you. was plotting a lot. from 1858-1860, for his possibilities running for president. after he lost the election to douglas, a couple of small announced they supported him for president. called them off. he said i don't think i am worthy of that. it is too early to talk about it. supposedly he was on a train one time and he said my wife thinks i am going to be president. can you imagine a soccer --

me runningucker like for president? people thought that meant that he was easily taken. he knew very well that if he were suppose is, everything had to go right. agooes what he can to make -- it's go right. seward went to europe and let weed worry about things. bates is doing nothing. chase is trying to get everybody to support him. lincoln does a bunch of things. wants a book out there with his name on it, making his arguments. have any of you ever noticed

that almost everybody who runs for president has a book out that they did not write? that they probably did not write ? they're talking about how they were all born in a log cabin they built themselves. they walk five miles backwards and forth in the snow. lincoln is not quite doing that but his name will get out there. he spends a lot of 1859 practicing law and keeping busy and making speeches. not overtly campaigning for president. sometimes not even overtly political. he is keeping himself out there. he is making sure that people know who he is and that he is a low republican. beis the guy that almost

douglas and technically dead if not for the gerrymandering -- did if not for the gerrymandering. -- he is the guy that almost beat douglas and technically did if not for the gerrymandering. he is getting out there. anhe does this, he gets invitation to speak in brooklyn, new york. this is in 1860. he is going to speak at the plymouth church where the minister was enemy would be .heck -- henry ward beecher he was an anti-slavery man. realizes i'm going to new york. i'm going to be in the big city. gets a new suit.

he will be giving this speech. it toonot like to wing much. he likes things planned out. he researched. it turns out that the speeches moved to the cooper union in new .ork city to speak by aned organization of young republicans led by the editor of the new york evening post. he is one of the young republicans pictured their next to lincoln. i guess republicans were older than. i don't know. here is the thing, bryant was involved, horace greeley was

involved. what the organization should have been called was the club to find a republican other than seward. he hated him because seward did not support his political ambitions. bryant was a former democrat and did not trust seward in the least. other new yorkers thought seward was to corrupt and not really anti-slavery. they are looking for a new candidate. lincoln goes to give a speech. harold holzer is publishing his 52nd book on lincoln. i think i have most of them. i don't have any more room for books. he published a book on the speech that made lincoln president.

he is on the national stage in new york. he makes a great impression. he gives a very literate at historical speech. they look at him and said we thought he was this westerner who was ugly and did not know what he was talking about. he seems to have it together. it does not guarantee him the nomination but it is an important step on that road. to speak in new england afterward. he was visiting his son robert who was at school in new. he was speaking there. allegedly, robert was nervous about his father being there because he did not think that his father was that cultured. all of his friends loved him. what is your problem, bob?

there are things going on to help him. yes, he has somebody who thinks he should be president. mary encourages the idea and i am being a little ironic by juddng a bottle of norman next to her. she hated him. corresponds with the judge. he says i appear to be a candidate. i'm not too far in. not a lot of people are all out for me. i am getting there. that youunderstanding will vote on where the convention will be. i think it might help if it is in illinois. we still have democrat and national committees. and vote on these things

chicago beats st. louis. they host the convention. it was judd's boat. valuable, ifll be you go to a sports book, home-field advantage is worth a few points. lincoln has home-field advantage. they will stack the galleries. they will get tickets out to people who will come yell for lincoln. say listenare voting to all of that, they love lincoln. they hired a couple of professional screamers. every now and then, if it got a little too quiet, somebody would bellow lincoln us name the top of their lungs. everybody would start cheering lincoln again. it is like a laugh track on a

show. these people needed to know when to yell. get someble to discounts to help people come to chicago. by the way, it turns out the mayor of chicago hated judge. one of the problems that lincoln was into in illinois is getting everybody on the same page. they all tend to like him. getting around their own hatred is a problem. ordered aof chicago rate of the local brothels. just to get at judd. it will shock you to know that some of the delegates got into trouble. we will leave it at that. first, lincoln needs to get through the state convention. the goal is for the state of

illinois to endorse lincoln. illinoisng is held in in early may of 1860. lincoln is at the convention. you may have noticed this book aboutn joshua's how he did not seem that happy. he was melancholic at the time. things would change. one of the republicans decided that if lincoln will win, he needs to appeal to the masses. a lawyer, a middle-class businessman. how do we make him look at her? at the convention, a couple of people come in and one of them is the distant cousin of weakened. he is named john hanks. -- cousin of lincoln. his name is john hanks. pass themhim up and

above their heads. that is why this is the marker and indicator. i don't know that lincoln felt that comfortable. but ok. he is up front. your comes john hanks carrying some rails. he says lincoln split those rails. lincoln is already known as an honest man. he knows very well that those rails could have come from anywhere. those look like some rails i might have split. out of that experience with cousin john, he becomes known as the rail splitter candidate. some he is not just the rising lawyer, he is a laboring man. laboring men have more appeal politically then guys who set

their doing wills and trusts and arguing cases. wills andre doing trusts and arguing cases. one guy stands up and yells for shays and they throw him out of the hall. they're not putting up with that. the following week they will meet in chicago. mid-may, 1860. these are left to right. top, davis, in the corner. there is no thurlow weed in this group. he is not the one that stands out. davis is the manager.

he was the judge in the eighth circuit. he is the most respected one. swett is a close ally, it appears. they are both old whigs. corner is a recent german immigrants. they were mentioned in connection with the know nothing party. this is the number of immigrants coming in the 1850's. germans were among them. corner is there to help them with the delegates. here is the guy who found the rail. he is going to be around. orville browning, you remember the letter that lincoln vote

about the woman he thought he might have been engaged to and married and all of that, that was browning's wife. higwning is a conservative w who was supporting dates. --bates. that bates will do nothing. lincoln's law partner. have you ever had someone around you are you wanted to keep them quiet at a certain time mark -- certain time? in my house, it is usually made. that is this abolitionist. he is very opinionated. he really wants to be involved. response is that we

have so much legal work. do all of the legal work for me. i have a lot to do. in a sense, he puts them on the shelf. yes, he is writing to his fellow abolitionists but he doesn't want him out there making speeches at this time. when they meet in chicago in leader ofavis is the lincoln's gang. they meet in a building expressly dealt for the convention. it is a bit crowded. it is a bit dizzy. in the hall and the hotel rooms nearby, that is where the action is going to be. that is where things will get done. today, a nominating convention

mates and almost always, something is there beforehand. most conventions had a few ballots. off ahey meet, judd pulls wonderful maneuver. back in 2008, when barack obama was nominated, i am watching the daily show and they do a story. they show how the delegations are moved according to the to who the nominee is. out in 2016, clinton is from new york and came from virginia, they are down front. judd organizes the floor and he does it in an interesting way. on one side.ois

surrounded by all the states that lincoln needs to win. indiana does not have a favorite song. pennsylvania is up in the air. meanwhile, new york, they are on the other side of the hall, surrounded by their own people. wants to go talk to the indiana delegation, out of nowhere they are in relation to this but he has to get from here, down to here. meanwhile, before he can get there, davis is next to him. it matters. it will have a big impact that they can be leaning over to each other. so-and-so is not doing so well, you need to think about it. was lincolner plan must establish himself as the challenger to seward. seward isknows that

the front-runner. they don't think that he has the support. make lincoln the obvious alternative. lincoln is from the west, seward is from the east. what states do you need? the indiana delegation includes a whig who served with lincoln in congress. delegation wonders it would should put caleb up as a favorite son. at the end of the first ballot, he wanted lincoln to have 100 votes. lincoln has 102. seward is at about 173. he is at least 100 short. as he is doing this, there are both running back and forth.

claiming thatre lincoln has agreed to be vice president. half of them are claiming that lincoln howard has the nomination. some agreed that he is giving it up. they don't know what is going on. for the second ballot, davis and company realize we need to make a big splash. when they were going to the convention, lincoln stayed home. that is what you did then. you didn't go through the candidate. lincoln said something like i am too much of a candidate to go and not enough to stay home. he stays home. he says for seward, if anybody asks, i am with him on the irrepressible conflict but not the higher law. irrepressible conflict may sound like a house divided against itself. he says make no contracts that by me.

and swett get a hold of an hig named joseph casey. he works in the office of simon cameron, the states political boss. a meet with him. -- they meet with him. what happens is not entirely clear. done, swettting was said make no contracts that by me. davis said lincoln is not here. that is another reason you don't go, your friends can make deals. offered ay have been cabinet seat. pennsylvania definitely was. that is not a big deal.

pennsylvania always got a cabinet seat in those days. to say pennsylvania will be in the cabinet is nothing. clearly, some kind of deal was made when it was done. the meeting was over and some -- whats said did you did you do? he said we got them. he asked how. he said by plane -- paying their price. he said they say you the barricaded. --

prevaricated. said we did not. we lied. one of seward's supporters moves to make it unanimous. when they realized what has happened, two men in the hall burst out crying. realizes he has blown it for seward. david davis can't believe he pulled it off. help came from other directions. the guy on the left is joseph meadow. on the right is horace greeley. founder of the new york city in.

you will spend some more time with him when the doctor comes in here. he and his prof. green: here is an example of how crazy things could be at a convention. greeley was determined to do everything he could to stop seward. he managed to get himself made a delegate from oregon. is not credited with saying, go west, young man. he got as far west as illinois. somebody stuck a seward button on him. he did not realize he had it on. greeley is working the crowd up against seward and is thrilled he has been able to help. people are thrilled they have been able to help their local guide. -- guy.

so now we have a candidate, abraham lincoln, andy has to have a running mate, and the convention usually sews the running mate, and we have ,braham lincoln of illinois hannibal hamlin of maine. you can't get more balanced than that come away out in new england. , hamlinis a former whig is a former democrat peered hamlin is close to be considered a radical republican, and he is in fact one, lincoln moderate. almost immediately after the convention, lincoln writes, i will take the first step and introduce myself. how does it look? they end up corresponding during the campaign. and from the nomination in mid-may of 1860 two november, there is a campaign, and lincoln

is going out of his mind. first, because everyone wants a piece of him. he is getting letters by the bushel. speak,etting requests to but he knows he can't. he knows he is not supposed to. maybe he knows they just know spell his name, i don't know -- they just misspelled his name, i don't know. right, get the guys name and abraham lincoln. who? they also have him tilted. so as we consider here their positions on slavery, and we have been talking about that. work as aes to political manager, and this is important to remember about him.

he is a lawyer. that is how he makes his living. he is a politician. he has spent his life running for office. we have been studying that. for the fun of it, i'm just going to say it, he runs in 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42. they work out the deal for rotation and office. inhelps them in 1844, runs then campaigning in 1848, suddenly 1850 four, runs for the legislature, 1855, runs for the senate, 1858, he is up for the senate. he knows how to run for office. he has done it a lot. in springfield, a little office in the state capital, he is writing letters back and forth and trying to gain support, find out what is

going on, broker disputes. he is doing what he can to help himself. now, it is a nasty campaign. it gets a little tiresome when gee, theoh, campaigns today are some nasty. there are just more ways to see the nastiness. they are tearing at the fabric of our country. democrats are claiming lincoln and the republicans believe in black equality, and they even have a parade in new york city where they suggest horace basically close to having sexual relations with an african-american woman, on a parade float. we don't have photos of that. now, the day he was notified of winning the nomination, lincoln

was out playing a form of handball, and since it is our national pastime, we do have a word for baseball, but they are worried about the skunk at the garden party. lincoln is going to hit a home run. there are people who are critical of stephen douglas too. and, lincoln is charging the castle, and it is not clear whether buchanan is going breckenridge in. , oneg the campaign itself of the problems the comes up is that there are four candidates,

and in the course of the campaign it becomes clear there are two races going on. in the north, lincoln versus douglas. in the south, it is breckenridge versus bell. most southerners do not want wantas because they don't popular sovereignty. they want protection for slavery . let's face facts. if they don't want douglas, they sure don't want lincoln. irony is bell is from tennessee, which is in the upper south. breckenridge is in kentucky, which is more upper, and yet, , or is for compromise trying to tap down the issue, then breckenridge is. they do the things in the

campaign that they can do to excite interests. there are songs. .ach campaign has its songbooks there are clubs. this organization, the s, was a group of men who formed an organization and held these meetings dressed in uniforms or costumes and marched around, and they were wide-awake, young, active. as opposed to all these other people who when it came to the campaign were -- and they excite a lot of interest for the party. now in the 19th century, politics remember, was much more of a social activity than we think of it today. today, there are so many other things that people can do. back then, no, we can't dvr the

election or whatever. they will go out, do things, have fun. there is a guy writing about this subject, and pointed out that if only we would have pizza parties, we might get more people interested in politics. i would be interested in the pizza party. i don't know about the politics. they are at getting people interested in the election and voting. republicans also work very hard to lower the temperature where they can. illinoisened in happened nationally. in illinois, you had in fighting in lincoln circle -- lincoln's circle between old whig, democrats.

they agreed on one thing, they wanted to help lincoln. so they tried where they could to put that to rest, but in other states, there are fights going on. in new york, we'd is battling greedy, and vice versa. cameron's political machine is trying to stop another group of republicans led by andrew curtin running for governor, so they're going to put a stop to this. well lincoln and david davis and some of his allies, they are writing letters. and meets withur weed, other new yorkers, goes to pennsylvania, meets with those people, all part of their efforts to keep the eye on the ball. the ball is electing lincoln, and putting aside whatever their personal issues are. you knew this was the outcome,

right? yet. ah. ok, so lincoln wins. end up beingd lincoln and douglas in the north, breckenridge and bell in the south. breckenridge wins the lower south with his argument for a slave code. , wherens the upper south there is less of that commitment to protecting slavery at all costs. and lincoln just stops douglas across the country come a sort of. -- country, sort of. he easily beats douglas in the electoral college. 12,oln has 180, douglas has but in fact, in a lot of the states, they ran pretty close. a couple of things to think about in connection with this. douglas -- breckenridge

and bell had gotten together, would they had beaten lincoln? gotthree of them together 123 electoral votes to lincoln's 180, so that is not enough, but would the votes have gone to lincoln or douglas or the fusion candidate? hard to say. we really can't know. here is what we do know. there were efforts for them to get together and try to get a coalition together, and the one who blocked it was douglas. he was not going to let the democratic party go in that direction. and at one point they said the election could be thrown to the house. douglas said i will help elect lincoln before that will happen. when douglas realized he was going to lose, he said, lincoln is the next president. i am going to the south. and he went to the south and made speeches attacking the

secession. he was aware of what might come. the two candidates who got the most votes were the two most radical candidates. lincoln and breckenridge. we often hear about a desire for compromise. at one time it was easier to compromise. ds of the the two en spectrum. it is not too easy to compromise. wins.lincoln when he finds out in springfield in november 1860 on that tuesday happy, but heery is not jumping around and excited about it. little ladyre is a at my house who is more interested in this than i am. i better go tell her. he goes home, and the rumor is that because he got home after locked out.t

mary said 10:00 is the limit. the next day he's also reporters and said, well, boys, your troubles are over. mine have just begun. a few weeks later, south carolina seceded over the election of abraham lincoln. we know how that is going to come out too, but we will still talk about. we elected him today, the least we can do is secede next time, so we will see you next time. ♪ announcer: you can watch lectures in history every weekend on american history tv. we take you inside college classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the american revolution to 9/11. that it is saturday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern on c-span three. on q&a.r: sunday >> we are on the floor of the

u.s. senate. this is unprecedented. no one else has gotten an opportunity to do this. it is for a production on a documentary on the u.s. senate, on the floor before they begin. were going to get shots during the session, and then afterwards back down to the floor, so enjoy. announcer: c-span executive producer talks about his work on c-span's upcoming original production, "the senate, conflict and compromise." >> if mitch mcconnell suggested this, how much control did he have? >> zero. when we met with him for the first time, we had a couple of conditions. one, you have two the skids with the democrats, because if we want axis to the republicans, democrats. and two, you don't have any editorial control. they said, that is fine, but we

don't want you to focus on the acrimony. , you can ask, no us to do that because were not going to concentrate on it, but we cannot shy away from it. we have to come out with a product that we feel people on the journalism site and the people who watch the senate can say they did not give a big wet kiss to the senate and the but also say we didn't do a hatchet job either. onouncer: mark farkas c-span's original production, sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's turret -- q&a. announcer: next, recently retired architect of the capitol u.s.en ayers speaks at the capital historical societies 2018 freedom award ceremony, and his official portrait is unveiled. mr. ayers served as architect of the capitol from 2010 to