Election of 1860 Lincoln Won at Time of National Crisis

The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 was perhaps the most significant election in American history. It brought Lincoln to power at a time of great national crisis, as the country was coming apart over the issue of slavery.   The electoral win by Lincoln, the candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party, prompted the slave states of the American South to begin serious discussions about secession. In the months between Lincolns election and his inauguration in March 1861 the slave states began seceding. Lincoln thus took power in a country which had already fractured. Key Takeaways: The Election of 1860 The United States was in crisis, and it was inevitable that the election of 1860 would be focused on the issue of slavery.Abraham Lincoln began the year in relative obscurity, but a speech in New York City in February helped make him a credible candidate.Lincolns greatest rival for the Republican Partys nomination, William Seward, was out-maneuvered at the partys nominating convention.Lincoln won the election by running against three opponents, and his victory in November prompted slave states to begin leaving the Union. Only a year earlier Lincoln had been an obscure figure outside his own state. But he was a very capable politician, and shrewd strategy and deft moves at critical times moved him into being a leading candidate for the Republican nomination. And the remarkable circumstance of a four-way general election helped make his November victory possible. Background to the Election of 1860 The central issue of the presidential election of 1860 was destined to be slavery. Battles over the spread of slavery to new territories and states had gripped the United States since the late 1840s, when the United States obtained vast tracts of land following the Mexican War. In the 1850s the slavery issue became extremely heated. The passage of the Fugitive Slave act as part of the Compromise of 1850 inflamed northerners. And the 1852 publication of an extraordinarily popular novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, brought the political debates over slavery into American living rooms. And the passage of the of the  Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854  became a turning point in Lincolns life. Following the passage of the controversial legislation,  Abraham Lincoln, who had essentially given up on politics after one unhappy term in Congress in the late 1840s, felt compelled to return to the political arena. In his home state of Illinois, Lincoln began speaking out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and particularly its author, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. When Douglas ran for reelection in 1858, Lincoln opposed him in Illinois. Douglas won that election. But the seven Lincoln-Douglas Debates they held across Illinois were mentioned in newspapers around the country, raising Lincoln’s political profile. In late 1859, Lincoln was invited to give a speech in New York City. He crafted an address denouncing slavery and its spread, which he delivered at the Cooper Union in Manhattan. The speech was a triumph and made Lincoln an overnight political star in New York City. Lincoln Sought the Republican Nomination in 1860 Lincoln’s ambition to become undisputed leader of the Republicans in Illinois began to evolve into a desire to run for the Republican nomination for president. The first step was to gain the support of the Illinois delegation at the state Republican convention in Decatur in early May 1860. Lincoln supporters, after talking to some of his relatives, located a fence Lincoln had helped build 30 years earlier. Two rails from the fence were painted with pro-Lincoln slogans and were dramatically carried into the Republican state convention. Lincoln, who was already known by the nickname â€Å"Honest Abe,† was now called the â€Å"rail candidate. Lincoln grudgingly accepted the new nickname of The Rail Splitter. He actually did not like being reminded of the manual labor he had performed in his youth, but at the state convention he managed to joke about splitting fence rails. And Lincoln did get the support of the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention. Lincoln's Strategy Succeeded at the 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago The Republican Party held its 1860 convention later that May in Chicago, in Lincoln’s home state. Lincoln himself did not attend. At that time it was thought unseemly for candidates to chase after political office, and so he stayed at home in Springfield, Illinois. At the convention, the favorite for the nomination was William Seward, a senator from New York. Seward was ardently anti-slavery, and his speeches against slavery on the floor of the U.S. Senate were widely known. At the beginning of 1860, Seward had a much higher national profile than Lincoln. The political supporters Lincoln dispatched to the Chicago convention in May had a strategy: they assumed that if Seward could not win the nomination on the first ballot, Lincoln might gain votes on later ballots. The strategy was based on the notion that Lincoln had not offended any particular faction of the party, as some other candidates had, therefore people could come together around his candidacy. The Lincoln plan worked. On the first ballot Seward did not have enough votes for a majority, and on the second ballot Lincoln gained a number of votes but there was still no winner. On the third ballot of the convention, Lincoln won the nomination. Back home in Springfield, Lincoln visited the office of a local newspaper on May 18, 1860, and received the news by telegraph. He walked home to tell his wife Mary that he would be the Republican nominee for president. The 1860 Presidential Campaign Between the time Lincoln was nominated and the election in November, he had little to do. Members of political parties held rallies and torchlight parades, but such public displays were considered beneath the dignity of the candidates. Lincoln did appear at one rally in Springfield, Illinois in August. He was mobbed by an enthusiastic crowd and was lucky not to have been injured. A number of other prominent Republicans traveled the country campaigning for the ticket of Lincoln and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin, a Republican senator from Maine. William Seward, who had lost the nomination to Lincoln, embarked on a western swing of campaigning and paid a brief visit to Lincoln in Springfield. Senator Stephen Douglas. Stock Montage/Getty Images The Rival Candidates in 1860 In the 1860 election, the Democratic Party split into two factions. The northern Democrats nominated Lincoln’s perennial rival, Senator Stephen A. Douglas. The southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge, the incumbent vice president, a pro-slavery man from Kentucky. Those who felt they could support neither party, mainly disaffected former Whigs and members of the Know-Nothing Party, formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. The Election of 1860 The presidential election was held on November 6, 1860. Lincoln did very well in the northern states, and though he garnered less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide, he won a landslide victory in the electoral college. Even if the Democratic Party had not fractured, it is likely Lincoln still would have won due to his strength in states heavy with electoral votes. Ominously, Lincoln did not carry any southern states. Importance of the Election of 1860 The 1860 election proved to be one of the most momentous in American history as it came at a time of national crisis, and brought Abraham Lincoln, with his known anti-slavery views, to the White House. Indeed, Lincoln’s trip to Washington was literally fraught with trouble, as rumors of assassination plots swirled and he had to be heavily guarded during his train trip from Illinois to Washington. The issue of secession was being talked about even before the 1860 election, and Lincolns election intensified the move in the South to split with the Union. And when Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, it seemed obvious that the nation was on an inescapable path toward war. Indeed, the Civil War began the next month with the attack on Fort Sumter.

Gold in the Yukon and Naturalism Jack London’s Novella...

Imagine this: Gold was just discovered in the Yukon Territory of Canada, and many gold miners rush to the North to see if they can strike rich. However, in order to do so, they need big, strong dogs with warm coats to protect them from the biting cold. As a result, a dog from the sunny state of California is dog napped and taken to be sold to anyone who is willing to buy him. When the dog is sold, he is shipped to the cold North. As he gets out of the boat, a chilling wind runs past him and, he realizes that he isn’t in California anymore. As the dog continues to live life with the other sled dogs, he realizes that in the North only the toughest can survive. The very same happens to Buck, a half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, in Jack†¦show more content†¦He explodes with rage and kills many of the Indians before he escapes into the wild and lives the rest of his life as the leader of a pack of wolves. Throughout the novella, many characteristics of Naturalism arise in cluding the time, the geographical location, and the concept of survival of the fittest. One characteristic of Naturalism in the novella is the time in which the story takes place. In the North, men begin to find gold in what is called the Klondike gold rush. Other men rush to the North in order to get rich. However, in order to travel throughout the land, they require many strong and furry-coated dogs to pull their sleds. This leads to Buck’s kidnapping and his adventures in the North. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator says, â€Å"...men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.† (1) This shows that time plays an important role in the novel because the gold rush requires many dogs like Buck since many men went up North to strike it rich and they needed a way i n which they could transport themselves and their supplies. Manuel kidnaps Buck because the gold rush offered him a chance to sell Buck and get money. Since Manuel sells Buck,

Buffer System Free Essays

Buffer systems * prevent major changes in pH of body fluids by removing or releasing H+ * act quickly to prevent excessive changes in H+ concentration. Body’s major extracellular buffer system is â€Å"bicarbonate-carbonic acid buffer system†. There are 20 parts of (HCO3) to one part of (H2CO3). We will write a custom essay sample on Buffer System or any similar topic only for you Order Now —- [20:1]. When the ratio is no longer maintained, it will result to acid-base imbalance. Carbon dioxide is a potential acid; when dissolved in water, it becomes carbonic acid. Lungs under the control of medulla control the CO2, and thus the carbonic content of ECF. They do so by adjusting ventilation in response to the amount of CO2 in the blood. A rise in PaCO2 is powerful response to stimulant. Respiratory Compensation * is a mechanism by which plasma pH can be altered by varying the  respiratory rate. * breathing  is altered to modify the amount of CO2  in circulation. Kidneys regulate bicarbonate level in the ECF; they can regenerate bicarbonate ions as well as reabsorb them from renal tubules. Renal compensation for imbalances is relatively slow (a matter of hours or days). The kidneys have two important roles in the maintaining of the acid-base balance: 1. to reabsorb bicarbonate 2. to excrete hydrogen ions into urine. Bicarbonate Buffer System * 2 components (H2CO3) carbonic acid, a weak acid and (NaHCO3) a weak base. * 1. If a potential pH change is created by a strong acid, the ff. takes place: HCL + NaHCO3 NaCl + H2CO3 (strong acid) (weak acid) 2. If a potential pH changes is created by strong base, the ff. reaction takes place: NaOH + H2CO3 H2O + NaHCO3 (strong base) (weak base) How to cite Buffer System, Papers

The Story Flight

Question: Did Pepe ever become a man in the story Flight written by John Steinbeck? Answer: The story Flight reveals the tale of Pepe who happens to be a happy teenager and is described as an easygoing person who generally remains lazy. His mother Mamma Torres waits for him to grow up and actually become a man. He commits a murder on one instance and as expressed by the narrator, he does become a man (Bloom). This particular murder was committed by him using the knife of his father. Mamma Torres often compares her son Pepe to her hardworking husband who is no more alive. When in the story Pepe wields his fathers knife, it symbolizes his completion of childhood and entrance into manhood. He made use of the knife in the same way as his father but the only difference was that he used the knife with intent to kill a person. In the initial part of the story, Pepes mother was represented as a total caregiver of Pepe who scolds him but at the same time also feeds him. She takes care of Pepe and looks after all his requirements. Steinbeck uses the maternal figure in the story to convey the idea that Pepe actually grew up to become a man. In spite of giving him all the care, when Pepe goes to the city all alone, his mother confers a greater sense of responsibility on him. She gives up her hold on the family and in order to transform her son to a man, she bestows greater responsibilities over him. Pepe on the other hand, uses this opportunity with full enthusiasm and rather than getting through a small journey, he is made to confront death (Steinbeck). Pepes mother had put in a lot of trust over him and ultimately he succeeds in keeping through that trust. He leaves his boyhood behind and makes his journey. Steinbeck has very judiciously used characterization in order to convey the reflective change that took place in Pepe. Pepe, who once happened to be a lazy, euphoric teenager, metamorphoses into an entirely different person. The narrator in the story clearly indicates that He was changed. He further continues to state that There was no laughter in them (eyes) any more or any bashfulness. They were sharp and bright and more purposeful (Steinbeck and Covici). Under the influence of this changed being, Pepe is forced by his instincts to leave his home, his dear siblings, brothers and sisters and most importantly he leaves his mother. He tries hard to keep up the light of manhood that radiates from him. After being left out in the world around him, he has a total absence of security that he used to get in his home. The outside big world extends no shelter to him. This instinct of self realization in the life of Pepe continues till the end of the narration of the story (Steinbeck and WikstroÃÅ'ˆm). It primarily focuses on the survival strategies which Pepe resorts to in his exposure to the outer world after he becomes a man. References Bloom, Harold.John Steinbeck. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. Print. Steinbeck, John, and Karin WikstroÃÅ'ˆm.Flight. [Covelo, Calif. (P.O. Box 156, Covelo, Calif. 95428)]: Yolla Bolly Press, 1984. Print. Steinbeck, John, and Pascal Covici.The Portable Steinbeck. New York: Viking Press, 1971. Print. Steinbeck, John.The Grapes Of Wrath And Other Writings, 1936-1941. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1996. Print.