By Ryan Reed
During the next four years, hopefully, Rolla Preservation Alliance will
document daily events occurring in Rolla and the surrounding region during the
Civil War.
The day to day activities
documented through primary resources such as newspapers, correspondence,
journals, military ordinances, etc will paint a picture of the effects of
national and statewide events on our community.
This week in 1860, a national election was held that placed an Illinois
lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, at the helm of our nation. This event served as the immediate impetus
for the outbreak of the Civil War.
During the 1850s, the nation became divided over questions surrounding
the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. These issues broke the Democratic Party into
two factions during the 1860 Democratic National Convention held in South
Carolina. Extreme pro-slavery delegates,
known as Fire-Eaters, demanded the adoption of an explicitly pro-slavery
platform. However, Northern Democrats refused to acquiesce. Southern delegates
including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, South
Carolina and Texas left the hall and formed the Constitutional Democrats. These
Southern Democrats nominated pro-slavery incumbent Vice President, John C.
Breckinridge of Kentucky. The National Democratic Party nominated Stephen
Douglas of Illinois.
A year prior to the Democratic division, ideologies and sectional
antipathies created the Constitutional Union Party. The party was formed by former Whigs, who
supported supremacy of the Congress, and members of the Know-Nothing Party, the
outgrowth of a strong anti-immigrant sentiment.
The party attempted to ignore the slavery issues which appealed to Border
States such as Missouri. The
Constitutional Unionist nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president during
the Spring of 1860.
The final contender in the race for the presidency was Abraham Lincoln,
nominated by the Republicans. Founded in
the 1854, the Republican Party was the main opposition to the Southern
Democratic Party. The main cause was the
opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska act which appealed the Missouri
Compromise. The latter was passed by
Congress in 1820 to regulate the western spread of slavery. The compromise prohibited slavery in the
former Louisiana Territory except within the boundaries of Missouri. The compromise was appealed in 1854 when the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, submitted by Stephen Douglas, became law. The act determined the expansion of slavery
in Kansas and Nebraska Territories through popular sovereignty. To be admitted as a slave state, white male
settlers in the territory would vote to either deny or allow slavery.
 |
| L to R - John Breckenridge, John Bell, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. |
