A Republican presidential candidate endangering democracy, threatening the Constitution and such a menace to America he could foment a civil war?
Yes, this is what Fire-Eater Southern Democrats said about former Congressman Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 presidential campaign. And their irrational fear of him winning the White House made all their dire predictions come true.
Lincoln, the so-called abolitionist ‘Black Republican,’ endured nonstop personal attacks. The Charleston, South Carolina, Mercury wrote, ‘a horrid looking wretch he is – sooty and scoundrelly in aspect – a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse-swapper, and the nightman [who empties the privies].’ He was ‘a creature, fit evidently, for petty treason, small stratagems, and all sorts of spoils.’
The Southerners were also terrified by the 1860 Republican Party platform, which they denounced in frenzied language similar to contemporary progressive critics of Project 2025.
The Tarboro, North Carolina, Southerner declared that ‘the Platform on which Abraham Lincoln was nominated… is tantamount to a declaration of War against Southern rights and institutions.’ If Lincoln took office the ‘Constitution would be a dead letter’ and attempts to resist would be a ‘signal for revolution.’
Democrats kept Lincoln off the ballots in the South, just as they’d later endeavor to deny former President Trump access earlier this year. But Lincoln won the four-way race regardless, and Republicans gained a majority in Congress. The worst fears of the Fire-Eaters were realized.
