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The Great Match at Baltimore
This cartoon highlights the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861) in the tumultuous 1860 presidential election. The contest -- portrayed as a cockfight -- is between the Democratic Party's southern and northern branches. Douglas, from the North, stands on former president Buchanan, crowing that he can beat Abraham Lincoln and "Old Kentucky too." Vice President John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875), a Kentuckian who represented the South, is being placed into the ring. The Pennsylvania-born president James Buchanan (1791–1868 ) sided with Southern Democrats and excluded Douglas -- the only man who might have avoided the party's rupture -- from his cabinet. Buchanan had hoped to defuse sectional tensions; instead, his failures intensified animosities and split the Democratic Party. At the 1860 Democratic convention in Charleston, South Carolina, Buchanan supporters joined with southerners to prevent Douglas's nomination, and instead selected Breckinridge. Northern delegates bolted and held a convention in Baltimore, nominating Douglas. With the Democrats divided, the Republican Lincoln won the election.
Currier & Ives Lithography Company, 1860 |