Chapter 4: Fractured Democrats vs. Republicans  

The seeds of America’s Fourth Political System lie in Northern opposition to Stephen Douglas’ 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the South’s growing distrust of his leadership in guaranteeing that slavery will be sanctioned in the west.

Fourth Political System: 1857-1885

As the 1860 race approaches, opponents of the Republican’s commitment to ban slavery in the west search for options.

This effort intensifies with the collapse of the Democrat Party coalition at the May 1860 Charleston Convention. Jefferson Davis calls for a Constitutional Amendment protecting the South’s rights to slavery. Then Southerners led by Fire-eaters like William Yancey and Robert Rhett refuse to back Douglas for President and nine states exit the hall. After 57 ballots, he fails to carry the 2/3rds voter threshold and calls for a second convention in Baltimore in June.

Despite two months’ worth of efforts to heal, the Baltimore session also breaks up, and a final schism ends with separate tickets: Douglas for the Northern Democrats and John C. Breckinridge for the new Southern Democrats.

This Democrat collapse, along with the Republican ban on expanding slavery, alarms a sizable number of older politicians who fear that the Union is about to end. In response, they rally around their leader, John J. Crittenden, and form the Constitutional Unionist Party. Their platform simply calls for “reliance on the Constitution,” and their nominee is John Bell of Tennessee. They propose extending the old 36’30” boundary line all the way to California as the best way to accommodate the South and the North.

Fourth Political System Comparisons

The Republicans are now confident of victory. As its 1860 convention opens in Chicago, Henry Seward appears to be the font-runner. But two of his prior speeches – referencing a “higher law” than the Constitution and the coming of an “irrepressible conflict” – peg him as too “radical,” and Abraham Lincoln is nominated on the third ballot.

With Lincoln’s name not even appearing on Southern ballots, the election outcome hinges on whether or not Douglas can carry enough of the 183 Electoral Votes in the Free States to deny a Republican majority. The answer is that he cannot, and Lincoln rides to victory, albeit with only 39.8% of the popular vote.

Before the new President is even inaugurated, however, the Confederate States of America are officially formed by seven break-away states.

The Republican’s triumph in 1860 results in a complete and lasting break-up of the original Union, something its politicians, including Lincoln, never thought would happen.

It also leads to the tragedy of the Civil War – lasting four years, costing some 750,000 casualties (3% of the total population), destroying homes and even entire cities, driving the national debt to over $5 Billion, provoking an assassination, and leaving the nation with untold emotional scars.