Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 65

Thus the election of 1860 had four candidates, each appealing to the voters as the only true defender of the Union. The Democrats spent a great deal of effort attacking each other. The well-financed Republicans spent their money on large and enthusiastic demonstrations on behalf of their candidate. This left Lincoln to say very little at all, in spite of Southern Democrats decrying Lincoln as an enemy of the South. At this time, Lincoln might have been able to calm fears and explain his views, but he decided not to, thinking that the South would not believe anything he said. At any rate, the Republican strategists had written off the South and concentrated on the populous states in the Midwest where the electoral votes were concentrated. Of course, presidents are not elected by popular votes (individual votes cast by citizens), but electoral votes.

Electoral votes are a number value assigned to each state based on its population. Whoever wins the greatest number of popular votes in a state wins those electoral votes; whoever wins the most electoral votes wins the election.

The Republican strategy worked. Lincoln won every state in the North except New Jersey. Oregon and California joined to give the Republicans 180 electoral votes and the presidency. Breckinridge won most of the South with 72 electoral votes. Bell captured 39 electoral votes with Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Douglas took 12 electoral votes in two states, New Jersey and Missouri. Although the aggregate popular vote didn’t count, a breakdown of these votes is instructive. The three other candidates received 1 million more popular votes than Lincoln did. In the popular vote, interestingly, Lincoln received no votes at all in ten Southern states. In the rest of the South, he had a negligible tally. Another interesting fact emerges about Southern voting. The popular vote in the South was split between the three other candidates, indicating no agreement about the future of the nation, except to prevent Lincoln’s election.

One of the interesting quirks of democracy that fascinates and puzzles the nondemocratic world is the way that the voters whose candidate does not win accept the judgment of the majority, allowing the business of the nation to go on. In reality this unstated agreement is a very fragile condition, which forms the base of the democratic process. In November 1860, that base was shattered. For the first time in American history, the voters of the losing party refused to accept or abide by the results of an election.