1860 Democratic National Convention - Charleston Convention

Charleston Convention

The 1860 Democratic National Convention convened at South Carolina Institute Hall (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1861) in Charleston, South Carolina on 23 April 1860. Charleston was probably the most pro-slavery city in the U.S. at the time, and the galleries at the convention were packed with pro-slavery spectators.

The front-runner for the nomination was Douglas. Douglas was considered a moderate on the slavery issue. With the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, he advanced the doctrine of popular sovereignty: allowing settlers in each Territory to decide for themselves whether slavery would be allowed - a change from the flat prohibition of slavery in most Territories under the Missouri Compromise.

But the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision declared that the Constitution protected slavery in all Territories.

In 1858, Douglas had narrowly won Senate re-election by professing the Freeport Doctrine, a de facto rejection of Dred Scott. Now militant Southern "Fire-eaters", such as William Yancey of Alabama, opposed him as a traitor. Many of them openly predicted a split in the party, and the election of Republican front-runner William H. Seward.

The "fire-eaters" demanded the adoption of an explicitly pro-slavery platform. They wanted endorsement of Dred Scott and Congressional legislation protecting slavery in the territories. Northern Democrats refused to acquiesce. Dred Scott was extremely unpopular in the North, and the Northerners said they could not carry a single state with that platform. The minority (Northern) report on the platform was adopted on 30 April by a vote of 165 to 138. 50 Southern delegates then left the convention in protest.

The departed delegates gathered at St. Andrews Hall on Broad Street, declared themselves the real convention, and awaited conciliatory action by the Institute Hall convention. That didn't happen. Instead, the Institute Hall convention proceeded to nominations. The dominant Douglas forces believed their path was now clear.

Six major candidates were nominated at the convention: Douglas, former Treasury Secretary James Guthrie of Kentucky, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon, former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, and Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee.

Douglas led on the first ballot, with 145½ of 253 votes cast. However, the convention rules required a two-thirds majority to approve a nomination. Furthermore, convention chairman Caleb Cushing ruled that two-thirds of the convention's whole membership was required, not just two-thirds of those actually present and voting.

Douglas thus needed 56½ more votes, or a total of 202, from the 253 delegates still present. The convention held 57 ballots, and though Douglas led on all of them, he never got more than 152 votes. On the 57th ballot, Douglas got 151½ votes, still 50½ votes short of the nomination, though far ahead of Guthrie, who was second with 65½. In desperation, on 3 May the delegates voted to adjourn the convention, and reconvene in Baltimore six weeks later.

Candidates receiving votes for president at the Charleston convention:

• Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois

• James Guthrie of Kentucky

• Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia

• Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon

• Former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York

• Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee

A few votes went to former Senator Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, Senator James Pearce of Maryland, and Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi (the future Confederate President), who received one vote on over 50 ballots from Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts. Ironically, during the Civil War, Butler became a Union general, and Davis ordered him hanged as a criminal if ever captured.