Not the exact date, but today is election day… and on election day 150 years ago, in 1860, a good deal was at stake. So, who do you vote for? Strike that… who would get your ancestors’ votes? Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, or Bell… and why? Without looking, do you know their platforms? After all, a good number out there think they “know” why their ancestors went to war, some enlisting less than 6 months after this election. Let’s narrow it down to the South. Without looking, how many know the vote breakdown in the counties in which your ancestors lived? No need for exact numbers, just who came in first, second, and third. Who took the majority… and why? What local interests were reflected in the votes? Can you tell… do you care? If you are so enthusiastic about the history of your people in the Confederate army, and “know” what mattered to them when they went to war, shouldn’t you also be aware of what may have been on their minds when they voted for a candidate? What other factors may have influenced them just as they were about to vote? For example, were there ballot boxes or was it an open, oral vote?
So, based on the occupation and lifestyles of your ancestors, how would they have voted? If they were not yet old enough to vote, how would their fathers vote? There can really be no right or wrong answer, because odds are you won’t ever know the truth. This is merely an exercise in awareness; an attempt to think about those Southern ancestors just outside the scope of the war… on the brink, but perhaps, yet undecided on the idea of secession.
On one hand, you/we have your/our Southern ancestors, some who will, for one reason or another, end up as Confederate soldiers… but, “today”, they are civilians.
On the other hand, they had three candidates (Lincoln not being an option in the majority of counties in the South), with three distinct platforms. So, again, what platform(s) likely received the votes of your people?
If you’re going to suggest that you “know” why your people did what they did during the war, it’s useful to have some grasp on where they may have stood on things on this day, election day, 150 years ago.
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captainrlm
November 2, 2010
It’s a good question I have thought about some, but, honestly, have not researched local returns
My dad’s family was in Northern Kentucky at the time, where Union support had the majority of interests, but not overwhelmingly so. Southern sympathy was not uncommon in this area. In Campbell County, I believe Union support was a bit stronger than in a couple of neighboring counties, but based on geography alone, I do not know. (My ancestors who lived at the time were all farmers. )
My mom’s family was in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, where support for both north and south was strong. At least one of my ancestors did own slaves, so perhaps he opposed Lincoln, but one of his grandsons ended up joining the Union army. I have found no evidence yet of any of my family joining the Confederate cause. That does not mean they did not support the Confederacy or vote that way, and perhaps the Union soldier was the exception to what the family felt, but I simply do not know. (And, again, census records show “farming” as the occupation of choice for this branch of my family as well.)
I’ve also wondered how I would vote in that time. In current times, I do admire Lincoln, but if someone campaigned today on an “Internal Improvements” type of platform, I’m not sure I would support that type of government intervention. I also like to think I would have opposed slavery at the time, but had I lived with my Eastern Kentucky ancestors, I may have supported it.
Perhaps that’s the unique part of having my ancestors in a border state like Kentucky at the time. Lincoln was not at all popular, but there was a lot of support for the Union. It was also a slave state that had a lot of support for that viewpoint as well. Maybe a “keep it like it is” candidate like Bell would have made sense to my ancestors.
Robert Moore
November 2, 2010
Richard,
I find Kentucky a tough egg to crack when it comes to kin from Hardin and Breckinridge counties. I have two distant uncles there who ended up in the Union army, but I think my family there may have been split, even in the same county.
Craig Swain
November 2, 2010
Can I play curmudgeon here?
Does it really matter how my ancestors voted? My ancestors, as with the majority of people out there, were just common folks. They had no sway on the big issues facing the country. Perhaps they were more concerned about the harvest that fall. After all, the president would be determined by electoral vote. And the electors from their state were already pinned to a specific candidate even before the election.
In that regard, were they not like the grass standing tall in the wind?
Robert Moore
November 2, 2010
Craig,
Aren’t you just the stick in the mud?! Sounds like you may be deserving of a sign… not “doesn’t play well with others”, but just “outright won’t play!” 🙂
Actually, while all may have been said and done, reflecting on the popular vote IS actually interesting. The county by county vote does reflect some division even within the counties themselves. I too had some common laborer ancestors from that time, but I think they could smell the smoke, so to speak, if things went a certain way. Did they all vote? Maybe not, but it’s worth time mulling over, especially when some seem to think it was “secessionitis” from the get-go.
Ann McMillin
November 2, 2010
Great question! Even if your ancestors lived in the North, how did they vote? What was on their mind when they went to the polls?
My great-great-great Grandfather was an illiterate farmer in central New York. In 1860, he was married with 3 small children. He had no intentions of going into the army, and probably would not have, had his wife not died in early 1864 in an influenza epidemic. I’ve never thought about how he would have voted in this, the most famous election of his lifetime…
Another point to ponder… will our grandchildren wonder what we were thinking as we went to the polls? And, if we are still alive to answer their questions, what will we tell them? Will we be proud of our voting record, be able to tell them why we chose one person over the other? Or will sit there, and wonder if we even made it to the polls that year?
Thanks for making me think about this!
Robert Moore
November 2, 2010
Hi Ann,
Thanks so much for reading and taking time to comment. The one thing that I think a number of folks don’t consider is that all Northerners didn’t vote for Lincoln. I think it is a general assumption because it just fits. I loved finding what I did in Hagerstown about the strong Bell vote there… understanding that a good number of those folks in that area, some of my people included, ended up wearing blue.
Unlike the North, the South was so incredibly splintered over who got the votes. I’ll have to re=post a map I found about two years ago.
Sherree
November 3, 2010
Robert, you are on a roll. This is another fascinating post.
I know who the secession delegate for my county was and how he voted, yet I have no way of knowing how my ancestors voted, or if they voted. I know the legacy that they left, however. I will be interested in seeing the map when you repost. Thanks for another great post.