Rate Stephen Douglas as the 1860 nominee

[NoPasaran]

[JVS]

1. Where is the I'm voting for Lincoln button

[NoPasaran]

2. Well, he's really not a Democrat, is he?

[JVS]

3. So the hell what? In 1860, I vote for Lincoln

[NoPasaran]

4. I'm a Seward man myself

Backwoods lawyers just aren't electable.

[imenja]

5. Definitely

No contest. You had to vote for Lincoln in 1860. The Republicans were the good guys then.

[WI_DEM]

6. F*CK Lincoln he didn't deliver one southern state

and he was born in Kentucky!! Thank goodness for his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine that we won the East.

[skygazer]

7. Well

Stephen Douglas shot himself in the foot when he debated Lincoln for his Senate seat and got backed into a corner on the question of extending slavery into the territories. He had no credibility in the south and very little in the north and his party had split into a number of factions so his chances of winning were nil.

As far as my opinion of him, I wouldn't have liked to see him in office as President. I think he would have continued with a conciliatory policy that would have extended the life of slavery and possible allowed it to spread into the territories. Although the Civil War was a catastrophic event, I think a stand needed to be taken on the issue of slavery - it should have been taken at the time of the Constitutional Convention but it was not.

Douglas was quite ill during the campaign and died shortly after the election so it's just as well he was not elected.

[Lavender Brown]

8. he had some nice sideburns

[NoPasaran]

9. Kick for disunion

:kick: