Poll Book from Southern Indiana Reveals Strong Support for Lincoln

[ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] 1860 Presidential Poll Book for Heth Township, Harrison County, Indiana, November 6, 1860, Mauckport, Indiana. 12 pp., 8.5ʺ x 14ʺ. Includes names of all voters. Some water stain on edges not affecting text; very good.

Historical Background:

Democratic President James Buchanan had pledged to serve only one term as president, so the field was open in 1860 for his chief rival, Senator Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois, to seek the Democratic nomination. However, the slavery issue that had been so divisive in 1856 became more so by 1860. Southern Democrats refused to support Douglas and broke up the Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, in early May. When it reconvened in Baltimore in mid-June, a majority nominated Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson (1812-1880) of Georgia as the Northern Democratic ticket. Some delegates broke away and nominated John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875) of Kentucky and Joseph Lane (1801-1881) of Oregon as the Southern Democratic candidates.

The Republican National Convention met in Chicago in May 1860. On the first ballot, delegates pledged to various opponents of William H. Seward voted for their favored candidates, denying the nomination to Seward. On the second and third ballots, many of them switched to Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) of Illinois, giving him the nomination. The Convention chose Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891) of Maine as their vice-presidential nominee.

The Constitutional Union Party Convention met in Baltimore in May and nominated John Bell (1796-1869) of Tennessee and Edward Everett (1794-1865) of Massachusetts as their candidates in an effort to bridge sectional divisions and avert conflict over slavery.

Although the election of 1860 was a four-way race among Douglas, Breckinridge, Lincoln, and Bell, sectionalism largely forced it into two parallel contests: one between Lincoln and Douglas in the North, and the other between Breckinridge and Bell in the South. Each man had a particular view on the expansion of slavery, which had become the dominant issue in American politics. Lincoln opposed slavery and especially its expansion; Douglas remained committed to “popular sovereignty,” his plan to let each state’s voters decide slavery’s status for themselves; Breckinridge was the unabashedly proslavery candidate; and John Bell ran on the single issue of preserving the Union above all else (with slavery).

In the election on November 6, 1860, Lincoln won a plurality of 39.8 percent of the popular vote to Douglas’ 29.5 percent, Breckinridge’s 18.1 percent, and Bell’s 12.6 percent. Lincoln carried 17 northern and western states and received a majority of New Jersey’s electoral votes. Breckinridge won 11 southern states with 72 electoral votes. Bell carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with their 39 electoral votes, while Douglas carried only Missouri and the rest of New Jersey for a total of 12 electoral votes.

Lincoln won Indiana’s 13 electoral votes with 51.1 percent of the popular vote, to Douglas’s 42.4 percent. Breckinridge trailed a distant third with 4.5 percent, and Bell received only 2 percent. In Harrison County, Lincoln carried Heth township with 221 votes (77.3 percent) to Douglas’s 64 votes (22.4 percent), and Breckinridge received 1 vote.

South Carolina seceded six weeks later, and before Lincoln was inaugurated, six more states followed and formed the Confederate States of America.

Heth Township is one of twelve townships in Harrison County, Indiana. It borders the Ohio River on the south and is approximately 45 miles downriver from Louisville, Kentucky. It was named for Harvey Heth (1770-1816), who surveyed much of Harrison County for the Territorial Legislature, including the new capital of Corydon. In 1860, the county had approximately 18,500 residents.

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