1860 Democratic Convention

The 1860 Republican Convention had gone rather smoothly in choosing Abraham Lincoln as the Republican candidate for president. However, the Democrats, divided over how to handle the issue of slavery, had a much harder time agreeing on a candidate. They, in fact, ended up having dueling conventions that nominated two different candidates, one factor in Lincoln's ultimate victory in the general election. Learn about the 1860 Democratic Convention, how the party split, and its ultimate results here.

The 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston, SC

The Democratic Party chose Charleston, South Carolina, to host the 1860 Democratic Convention. It convened on April 23, 1860.

At Charleston, a number of nominations were made, and voting took place to decide the presidential ticket. However, delegates, at logger heads over the issues of slavery, failed to successfully reach the 2/3 vote necessary to nominate a presidential candidate at the 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston.

Fig 1 - Delegates meeting at the 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston.

Democratic Convention Nominations

There were 6 men nominated as candidates for president at the 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston.

They were:

• Stephen A. Douglas
• James Guthrie
• Robert M. T. Hunter
• Joseph Lane
• Daniel S. Dickinson
• Andrew Johnson

Douglas was considered the front-runner, but many southern Democrats opposed him.

The 1860 Democratic Convention, Douglas, the Freeport Doctrine, and the Issue of Slavery

Much as the issue of slavery was dividing the country at large, it was also dividing the Democratic Party and the 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston.

Douglas was seen as a moderate on slavery. Pro-slavery southern politicians had, in fact, cheered Douglas's promotion of popular sovereignty to determine the slave holding status of new states.

However, in his debates with Abraham Lincoln for reelection to the senate in 1858, Douglas had essentially rejected the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision that protected slavery in all states when he elaborated his Freeport Doctrine, arguing that the people of a state could choose to accept or reject slavery through legislation.

Fig 2 - Portrait of Stephen Douglas in 1859.

For the more radical, pro-slavery politicians of the south, known as fire-eaters, this was unacceptable. They came to the convention ready to oppose Douglas.

For moderates and northern Democrats, the idea of endorsing the Dred Scott decision was also unacceptable. Not only was it deeply unpopular in the north, making it hard for politicians to endorse it, but northern democrats were aware that they needed to win at least a few northern states to win the presidency.

1860 Democratic Convention Results (or lack thereof) in Charleston

As a rule, a candidate had to receive at least a 2/3 majority to win the nomination. With the fire-eaters refusing to accept Douglas as a candidate, and the moderates refusing to endorse Scott, the 2/3 majority was effectively impossible for any candidate to achieve.

In fact, 51 southern delegates walked out of the convention entirely between April 30th and May 1st. However, the convention still ruled that a candidate needed votes from 2/3 of all members, not just those present, to receive the nomination.

The convention held a whopping 57 ballots. In all of them, Douglas received a significant majority. He never received fewer than 145.5 of the 253 (57.5%) but also failed to reach the elusive 2/3 (169 votes), with his largest totals being 152.5

Unable to break this impasse, on May 3, the convention voted to adjourn and reconvene in Baltimore six weeks later.

1860 Democratic Convention in Baltimore

On June 18, the 1860 Democratic Convention reconvened in the city of Baltimore.

The first item on its agenda was to decide if the delegates who walked out in Charleston would be readmitted or replaced. It opted to readmit some while seating pro-Douglas replacements for others. This decision prompted the remaining southern delegates and a handful of others to walk out.

On the first ballot, Douglas received 173.5 of the 203.5 votes cast. The convention now overruled the earlier decision that a candidate had to receive 2/3 of the ballots of all members to only require 2/3 of those present and voting. So, after a second vote in which Douglas received 190.5 of the votes, he was declared the nominee.

Dueling "Rump" Convention and Breckinridge Nomination

The delegates who had walked out held their own separate convention in Baltimore as well. There, they nominated John C. Breckinridge.

The Democratic Party now had two official nominees for the 1860 Presidential Election.

Fig 3 - Portrait of John Breckinridge in 1860.

1860 Democratic Convention Results

The ultimate result of the 1860 Democratic Convention was the virtual assurance that Abraham Lincoln would win the 1860 presidential election.

There were now officially 4 major candidates that would go on to receive significant numbers of votes and points in the electoral college in the general election:

• Lincoln
• Douglas
• Breckinridge
• John Bell, from the Constitutional Union Party, who ran on a platform of ignoring the issue of slavery.

Fig 4 - Results of the general election of 1860 where Lincoln won the majority of the electoral college.

Some historians, including James McPherson, have argued that the radical fire-eater's intention at the convention was to intentionally divide the party to allow for a Republican victory in the general election and thereby provoke secession.

Actually, even if all the states won by Douglas, Breckinridge, or Bell had gone to just one of them, Lincoln still would have won the election. Still, the split Democratic ticket almost assuredly depressed turnout and played a factor in Lincoln's victory, whether assertions that this was the intended goal were true or not.

Lincoln's victory, of course, also led to secession and, eventually, the Civil War. The 1860 Democratic Convention can therefore be seen as a microcosm and representation of the division of the county over slavery.