I’m the Mr. Beat dude who made a video about presidential election in American history
If you watched that series, (turns)
which you better have boy what the heck if you have not (turns)
Anyway, if you’ve watched that series, you know we’ve had so many exciting and crazy presidential
elections (turns) but my favorite to learn about is the presidential election of 1860.
Because it was effectively two elections in one, John Breckenridge versus John Bell in
the South and Abraham Lincoln versus Stephen Douglas in the north, four candidates all
had a chance to win. It had the highest voter turnout in American history up to that point,
and to this day only one other presidential election, the election of 1876, has had a
higher turnout. The guy who ended up winning the election (you may have heard of him) got
less than 40% of the popular vote and wasn’t even on the freaking ballot in ten Southern states.
It’s the only American election that directly resulted in a civil war, for goodness sake.
Now, if you know me, wait do you know me? (turns) Nice to meet you I’m Mr. Beat (turns) If you’ve
been watching me awhile you know I’m generally not a big fan of alternate history content. But one of
my favorite channels to watch over the years has been Alternatehistoryhub, and that channel is so
good that it has almost single handedly changed my mind about the genre.Not only has Cody,
the creator of Alternatehistoryhub, convinced me that alternate history doesn’t have to be all
bad, but he has convinced me to make my first alternate history video. (awkward
pause) This one. The video you’re watching right now.
Title card: What if Abraham Lincoln didn't win the election of 1860?
Instead, let’s say Lincoln’s old debating buddy, the Illinois U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas, won the
election. It’s not that wild of an idea, actually. See all those blue counties? He won those, but in
A LOT of those green, yellow, and red counties, I’d argue he was the second choice. In fact,
while he finished fourth in the electoral college, getting just 12 electoral votes,
he finished second in the popular vote. Now, while we don’t have definitive evidence that Douglas was
the second choice of a lot of voters in 1860, I can certainly infer based on that and other
evidence that he would have been a lot of people’s second choice. Now I’m a big fan of ranked choice
voting…if you don’t know how ranked choice voting works, I did make a video about it, which I’ve
linked below. But…simply put, it’s a way to rank ALL the candidates so you don’t just have a say on
ONE candidate but ALL OF THEM. With ranked choice voting, I think there’s a GOOD chance
Douglas would have won. He was likely the second choice to most Breckenridge and Bell supporters.
So let’s do this, partner.
Mr. Beat presents…
(sings) Alternate American History
Thanks to the newly-implemented ranked-choice voting, Stephen Douglas won the election,
becoming the 16th President of the United States. Southerners were generally not happy,
but at least that Lincoln dude didn’t get elected,
and no states seceded from the country after all. That said,
hardly anyone was happy. Douglas was a compromise candidate after all, although it was impressive
that he was the only candidate to win electoral votes from both free states and slave states.
At his inaugural address, President Douglas proclaimed, “We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. We must continue to
remember what we have in common…our love of liberty, justice, free enterprise,
and democracy.” In his first few months in office, Douglas continued to call for lower tariffs and
popular sovereignty as more Americans moved out west. He also supported the Homestead Act,
a bill which promised 160 acres of free land to any settler as long as they lived
on and improved that land for at least five years. However, most politicians in slave
states hated the bill since they viewed it as favoring free states over slave states.
In May, Douglas became sick with typhoid fever,
and never recovered. He died on June 3, 1861, on his deathbed at least thankful that he
had helped keep the country out of war. The Little Giant was just 48 years old.
Vice President Herschel Johnson was sworn in to take his place,
becoming the 17th President of the United States. A slave owner and former Governor of Georgia,
he was much more sympathetic to the Southern cause. After Congress passed the Homestead Act,
he vetoed it. Still, Johnson was similar to Douglas in that he was also a devout
unionist and for popular sovereignty. When Kansas became a state later that year as a free state,
violence there continued. Johnson sent federal troops to Kansas to tame the chaos.
For the rest of President Johnson’s term, Congress, as well as the country as a whole,
became further divided and radicalized. Congress had a hard time passing ANY bill,
even basic spending bills, as the extremes in both the Democratic and Republican parties gained power
and began blocking anything remotely resembling compromise. The extreme wing of the Democratic
Party was made up of “Fire-eaters,” not because they literally ate fire, but because they refused
to compromise on slavery to a point where they wanted to secede and start their own country.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s extreme wing was known as the “Radical Republicans,” because they
wanted to do “radical” things like end slavery and give full civil rights to former slaves.
By 1864, the Democratic Party was generally too upset over how moderate Herschel Johnson was,
and they voted to nominate John Breckenridge for President instead, who by this time was
extremely popular in the South, having almost a cult-like following there. Rather than run
for re-election for a third party, Johnson decided to quietly retire from politics after
the election. The Republicans, meanwhile, were also divided. The Radical Republicans
wanted Salmon Chase as their candidate…the moderates again wanted Abraham Lincoln, who
by now the U.S. Senator of Illinois. Ultimately, the Republican Party went with Lincoln, but only
because many Radicals were swayed to support since he changed his mind about slavery. Yep,
now, Lincoln wanted a constitutional amendment to abolish it outright, man..
There was no unified third party movement this time. Or fourth party.
The election of 1864 was just a rematch of two, seemingly opposite candidates,
Breckinridge and Lincoln. Tensions were never higher in the country,
with most Southern Democrats preemptively calling for their home states to secede should
Lincoln win. It’s worth noting that Breckinridge never expliciting called for secession, though.
Polling places on election day were even rowdier than 1860,
with violence erupting at many locations. Ultimately President
Johnson had to send in federal troops to keep order, especially in Kentucky.
Title: And here are the results…
Lincoln won, getting 194 electoral votes and Breckinridge getting 118.
This was the most regionally divided election in American history…I mean,
just look at that map…other than out west, it’s split between the North and South,
with Lincoln winning all free states and Breckinridge winning all slave states.
This election was a direct cause of southern states beginning to secede from the Union.
Immediately following the election results, a South Carolina convention declared “that the
Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of ‘United
States of America’ is hereby dissolved.” It was the first state to leave. By the
time Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, six more Southern states would follow,
forming a new country called the Confederate States of America.
Soon the country would find itself in what would become,
by far, the deadliest war in American history. Today it’s called the Civil War,
and the election of 1864 was a direct cause. Welcome to the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln!
Title card: I mean, really. What did you expect?
In other words, the American Civil War was inevitable. If it didn’t start in 1861,
it almost certainly would have started in 1865. Stephen Douglas winning instead of Lincoln in
1860 only kicked the can down the road. I’m sorry. There were just too many other causes.
But what about other presidential elections? Like, what if Henry Clay beat James Polk in
the presidential election of 1844? (turns) Well, as it so happens, Emperortigerstar
just released a video about that. (turns) Or, and this is just a CRAZY one, what if Herbert
Hoover ran for President in 1920 and and won that year instead of 1928? (turns) Well,
as it also so happens, Alternatehistoryhub just released a video about that. (turns)
You see, you’re not just getting ONE alternate
presidential election history video today. You’re getting three.
I normally don't eat that healthy and so I'm always on the lookout for supplements and
this video just so happens to be sponsored by Earth Echo and a popular thing that they sell
is Cacao Bliss the main ingredient in this is Cacao which if you don't know it's a superfood
that has antioxidants that can help neutralize free radicals in your body cacao Bliss is 100
organic ethically sourced it has Earth friendly packaging it has low carbohydrates zero white
sugar it's vegan friendly keto friendly kosher gluten free just gonna mix it together here
all right let's try this out
dang that's really good all right so you can try this stuff out for yourself go to the
link in the description of this video use code beats and you can save 15 off thanks
to Earth Echo for sponsoring this video Now, it’s time for my monthly shout out
to all my Patreon supporters who donate at least $15 or more each month to my channel. Starting
with my $20 a month donors in reverse order alphabetically, I’ve got Society’s Basement,
Sean Conant, Sami, Pat Iapicca, Owen, Osbers Gaming, Nik Everett, NeoR14, Matt Standish,
Isaiah Warfield, emptymachine, Dr. Paul J. Lilly, Douglas Martin, Corey Rieman,
Bill Dowd, Austin Siros, Anthony Beckett, Andrew B., Alicia Solberg, and Adam Luckey.
At the $15 a month level, Zachary F. Parker, Waterfort, Warren Jarog, Thomas Oppenheim,
Steve Bryan, Stacey, Samuel Striz, Naterade, LT Marshall, Oliver E., KZ210QB, IkkaSenjika615,
Joel Serrano Lozada, Jakob Birnbaum, Jack L, Ilan Capone, Ian Driscoll, Grant Hughes,
Andrew Schneider, and Adam Christians. Thank you all for your generous support!
Ok, so your homework assignment is to watch those other two videos. If you’re watching on YouTube,
they should be right up there. If you are NOT watching this video on YouTube currently, I’m
pointing at the spider web in the corner between your walls and ceiling. Leave it
there. That spider did nothing to you, and he’s keeping the other bugs out. Thanks for viewing.