Constitutional Union Party

But you had Abraham Lincoln, the Republican, Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, and then John Breckinridge, a Southern Democrat, and the Democrats also disagreed about slavery, and that broke down their party's vote.

And then you had John Bell, the Constitutional Union Party.

So, yeah, very interesting.

In 1803, there was only 303 electoral votes, and so you needed half plus one.

But the crisis was so serious now with this Northern anti-slavery Free Soil Republican Party, two Democratic parties, one Southern, one Northern, splitting themselves, that a, a group of American politicos got together practically overnight, late that summer, eighteen sixty, and decided to run yet a fourth candidate.

His name was John Bell of Tennessee, and they called themselves the Constitutional Union Party.

They drew together some old Whigs.

The Whig Party doesn't exist anymore.

Fear that the war would actually happen, if there was war, on their soil.

You n-- You didn't have to be too bright to figure that out.

And many people in the upper South, some of whom had actually voted for, for Bell and the Constitutional Union Party, still had faith that somehow America would reach a compromise.

That the party system would somehow work this through.

The delegates who remained at Baltimore nominated Douglass and endorsed his doctrine of squatter sovereignty.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY While the Democratic Party was being disrupted, a fragment of the former Whig Party, known as the Constitutional Unionists, held a convention at Baltimore and selected national candidates, John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from Massachusetts.

A melancholy interest attached to this assembly.

It was mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and Webster, cherished leaders now dead and gone.

The delegates who remained at Baltimore nominated Douglas and endorsed his doctrine of squatter sovereignty.

The Constitutional Union Party While the Democratic Party was being disrupted, a fragment of the former Whig Party, known as the Constitutional Unionists, held a convention at Baltimore and selected national candidates, John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from Massachusetts.

A melancholy interest attached to this assembly.

It was mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and Webster, cherished leaders now dead and gone.

The northern wing of the party favored Stephen Douglas, but he was unacceptable to voters in the Deep South, so southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, making the Democrats the last remaining truly national party no longer truly a national party.

A third party, the Constitutional Union Party, dedicated to preserving the Constitution, quote, as it is, i.e. including slavery, nominated John Bell of Tennessee.

Abraham Lincoln received zero votes in nine American states, but he won 40% of the overall popular vote, including majorities in many of the most populous states, thereby winning the electoral college.

So anytime a guy becomes president who literally did not appear on your ballot, there is likely to be a problem.

The delegates who remained at Baltimore nominated Douglass and endorsed his doctrine of squatter sovereignty.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY While the Democratic Party was being disrupted, a fragment of the former Whig Party, known as the Constitutional Unionists, held a convention at Baltimore and selected national candidates, John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from Massachusetts.

A melancholy interest attached to this assembly.

It was mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and Webster, cherished leaders now dead and gone.

The delegates who remained at Baltimore nominated Douglass and endorsed his doctrine of squatter sovereignty.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY While the Democratic Party was being disrupted, a fragment of the former Whig Party, known as the Constitutional Unionists, held a convention at Baltimore and selected national candidates, John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from Massachusetts.

A melancholy interest attached to this assembly.

It was mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and Webster, cherished leaders now dead and gone.