What happened when the Democratic Party attempted to choose a candidate for the presidency in 1860?

Answer 1

Answer

It's not that the Democrats were unable to nominate their own candidate - it's that they chose not to. Ulysses S. Grant had been president for four years already and the Republican party was split over the question of a second term. His first four years were marked by corruption, incompetency, and nepotism. A group of Republicans split off from the main party and formed their own branch, called the Liberal Republicans. They formed a platform which spoke of ending Reconstruction and was thus appealing to the weakened Democratic party. Party leaders approached the Democrats and struck a deal with August Belmont, chairman, and John R. Doolittle, president, to unite the two parties beneath the Democratic ticket. This action is often construed by historians as a desperate move by all involved to defeat the highly popular hero of the Civil War - the Democrats simply didn't believe they could defeat him on their own, so they didn't try. They hoped that by uniting with the Liberal Republicans they could garner enough support to remove Grant from office. It may have worked, if only their choice of candidate had been more opportune. Horace Greeley, a well known and popular newspaper editor, had spent his entire career harpooning the Democratic party in his paper, calling then liars, murderers, thieves, alcoholics, and just about anything else insulting he could come up with. Many Democrats simply couldn't stomach voting for a man who had dedicated his life to insulting them, and either turned to Grant or abstained from voting all together.

Answer 2

When the Democratic Party attempted to choose a candidate for presidency in 1860 the delegates from the South split in two and backed either John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky or John Bell of Tennessee. The strongest Democratic candidate, Senator Stephan A. Douglas was considered a "Northern candidate" so pro-slavery voters shunned him. The result of all this splitting was the election of the man the Democrats both North and South despised was Republican Abraham Lincoln. He won 31% of the 1860 votes but had a huge majority of Electoral College votes. The South lost their chance to have a Democrat as the US president. With a Democrat as president, the chances of session were slim.