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Difficulty: MediumPolitical Realignment and the Election of 1860

"We tell you, gentlemen of the South, that if you slide this platform [requiring a federal slave code] upon us, we will be defeated in every Northern State... You have had the administration, you have had the laws, you have had the court, and now you demand of us that we shall declare that to be right which we have always declared to be wrong. We will not do it. If you force this, you split the party and deliver the government to the Black Republicans."
—Delegate George E. Pugh of Ohio, speech at the Democratic National Convention, Charleston, South Carolina, April 1860

Which of the following historical developments in the year 1860 is best explained by the speech excerpted above?

  1. The breakdown of the Democratic Party as a national coalition, which facilitated a Republican victory in the presidential election.Answer
  2. B
    The shift of Southern political campaigns to focus primarily on protective tariffs rather than the expansion of slavery.
  3. C
    The unified agreement among Northern Democrats that popular sovereignty gave Congress the power to outlaw slavery in the territories.
  4. D
    The revival of early Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian factions as the primary organizers of the new party system.

Answer

The breakdown of the Democratic Party as a national coalition, which facilitated a Republican victory in the presidential election.
The correct option is correct because the speech at the Charleston convention captures the division between Northern and Southern Democrats over whether to explicitly protect slavery in the territories. The resulting split led to two Democratic nominees, which divided the vote and paved the way for Abraham Lincoln's victory.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the speaker and context of the excerpt.
The speaker is George E. Pugh, a Northern Democrat from Ohio, addressing Southern delegates at the April 1860 Charleston convention.
Identifying the speaker and setting helps determine the political conflict taking place.
2
Interpret the debate described in the speech.
Northern Democrats refuse to adopt the Southern demand for a federal slave code in the territories, warning that doing so would split the party and guarantee a Republican presidential victory.
This reveals the core disagreement over the expansion of slavery that divided the party.
3
Connect the split to the outcome of the 1860 election.
The split led to separate nominations of Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat) and John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat), fracturing the party and allowing Abraham Lincoln to win the presidency.
This connects the immediate political realignment of 1860 to its electoral consequences.

Key Concept

The sectional split of the Democratic Party in the election of 1860
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Topics

Political Realignment and the Election of 1860

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