GDG- Road to Emancipation

[Smith David]

Dennis--

Thanks for these regular updates.  Just to clarify for members who may
not be savvy in the arcane minutiae of antebellum politics:

"exhortation to Fillmore men" means that Lincoln was trying to appeal to
the supporters of the Know Nothing party, a new Northern political party
that was somewhat antislavery in many areas, but was also built on a
resentment of foreigners (including opposition to Roman Catholics) and a
criticism of "easy" immigration laws.  They were supporting Millard
Fillmore for President.  Lincoln wanted them to support John C. Fremont,
the Republican candidate for president, in the first presidential
election the Republicans were contesting. There is some debate that in
places like Pennsylvania, where the Fillmore vote apparently (but
probably not really) hampered Republican efforts to elect Fremont and
defeat Buchanan.

The problem for the Republicans turned out not to be attracting the
antislavery vote (there was an antislavery political party, the Liberty
party, whose remnants were largely absorbed into the Republicans by
1860).  It turned out to be attracting the rest of the Northern
electorate, including the bigoted (as a party) Know Nothings. Fremont's
wife was a Catholic, so Democrats charged that Fremont was a secret
Catholic, which helped keep Know-Nothing support away from the
Republicans.  They also played up Republican support for African
Americans and opposition to slavery, a largely successful strategy that
kept the border North, fearful of a rift with the South, from voting for
Fremont (Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania voted for Buchanan).   In
1860 the Republicans would nominate a better candidate (Lincoln) and
they would appear to moderate their antislavery positions slightly.
They also came out in support of a high tariff which would win them a
lot of support in manufacturing districts in critical states like
Pennsylvania.  The Know Nothing party was in decline, and in the later
1850s, had often fielded joint candidates with the Republicans.  By
1860, most Northern Know Nothings were willing to support the
Republicans.

How that complete non-entity of a President, Millard Fillmore (who
pledged vigorous enforcement of the fugitive slave law and whose
administration prosecuted the Christiana rioters - where a slaveowner
was killed) became the standard bearer for a major Northern political
party is an incredibly tangled story I won't get into. It's related to
how that other relative non-entity, Martin Van Buren, who had tried to
send back the Amistad prisoners (from a slave rebellion on a ship),
ended up representing the Northern abolitionist party, the Liberty
Party. Suffice to say it has a lot to do with New York state politics
where Fillmore and Martin Van Buren headed different politic factions
and were always jockeying for position.

David 

PS Owen Lovejoy was a Republican, antislavery Congressman whose brother
Elijah had been murdered in the late 1830s by a mob who did not want him
to print his antislavery newspaper.


Message: 2
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:40:33 -0600
From: Dennis Lawrence <denlaw at kc.rr.com>
Subject: GDG- Road to Emancipation - September 24, 1856
To: gettysburg at gdg.org
Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.0.20060924103719.02727ec0 at pop-server.kc.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Friday, September 24, 1858.
Urbana, IL

Lincoln's speech is exhortation to Fillmore men. This concludes outdoor
meeting. At candlelight at courthouse Republicans hear Lawrence Weldon
of Clinton, recent convert, and Owen Lovejoy. While he speaks, Democrats
throw eggs through windows

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  "If he (Lincoln) does not drive as fast as I would, he is on the right
road, and it is only a question of time." Owen Lovejoy, 12th June, 1862,

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlovejoyO.htm




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