What principles should unite the country, according to the Constitutional Union Party Platform of 1860? What does the platform suggest about their view of secession? Slavery?
How do the Constitutional Union Party’s views on slavery and secession compare to the Alabama Democracy’s? Based on a comparison of these two documents, does the Constitutional Union Party’s goal of averting secession seem reasonable or possible? Why or why not?
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Four major candidates campaigned for the presidency in 1860. That simple statement shows the division in the country over the issues of slavery and secession. The Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) of Illinois for president. The Democrats split; northern Democrats backed Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861) of Illinois, while southern Democrats selected John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875) of Kentucky as their standard-bearer. A fourth party, the Constitutional Union Party, mainly comprised of conservative southern former Whigs who feared that electing a Republican or Democrat would lead to secession, nominated John C. Bell (1796–1869) of Tennessee as their candidate for president.
The Unionists did not expect to win a majority in the Electoral College. Instead, they hoped to win enough support to deny an Electoral College majority for Lincoln, Douglas, or Breckinridge and force a vote in the House of Representatives. A decision in the House, the Unionists hoped, would slow down the momentum for secession and the risk of civil war.
Whereas, Experience has demonstrated that Platforms adopted by the partisan conventions of the country have had the effect to mislead and deceive the people, and at the same time to widen the political divisions of the country, by the creation and encouragement of geographical and sectional parties; therefore,
Resolved, That it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to recognise no political principle other than THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNTRY, THE UNION OF THE STATES, AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS, and that as representatives of the Constitutional Union men of the country in National Convention assembled, we hereby pledge ourselves to maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly, these great principles of public liberty and national safety, against all enemies at home and abroad, believing that thereby peace may once more be restored to the country, the rights of the People and of the States re established, and the Government again placed in that condition, of justice, fraternity and equality, which under the example and Constitution of our fathers, has solemnly bound every citizen of the United States to maintain a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
*APP Note: The American Presidency Project used the first day of the national nominating convention as the "date" of this platform since the original document is undated. The spelling of "tranquillity" near the end of the second paragraph reproduces the spelling used in Greeley and Cleveland, A Political Textbook for 1860
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