1860 Presidential Election Stephen A.douglas Campaign Cover

Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861) was the Democratic Party nominee in the Presidential Election of 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln.
Douglas had defeated Lincoln two years earlier in the Illinois Senate election following a famous series of debates around the issue of extending slavery to the territories.



This 1860 Presidential campaign cover was sent in October, 1860 from New Philadelphia,
Ohio to Tecumseh, Michigan. It is franked with a Scott #26 Washington stamp.



Stephen Douglas had argued for allowing new states to vote to decide whether they
would allow slavery.

However when the Democratic Party refused to provide solid support for extending slavery
to the western territories, the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions.
John C. Breckenridge was nominated by the Southern Democrats.

Douglas' vice presidential running mate was H. V. Johnson. Johnson was the governor of
Georgia from 1853 to 1857 and was added to the ticket to try to regain support for Douglas
in the South.



Stephen A. Douglas carried only Missouri and part of New Jersey. The split in the Democratic
Party allowed the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to win without carrying a single
Southern state.

Tom,
That's a nice cover, normally you only see the winning candidates covers and not the losers. Imagine how different our country would be if Breckenridge or Douglas had won...

Thanks stamperdude! I have just started collecting 19th century presidential campaign covers. People tended to save the campaign materials from the winners and threw out the losers. Finding Bell and Breckenridge covers is going to be very tough. Even though they may be much rarer I expect the covers will be cheaper than Lincoln campaign covers.

Great cover Tom

I love learning new things, I had not heard of this guy until today.

Dianne

More great material from the vault....

Good luck trying to find a Bell and/or a Breckenridge cover.

I've been to the Stephen A. Douglas Tomb in Chicago , it's very rare in fact most people don't know where it is or who he is.

A great piece of history Tom but could you imagine the Douglas memorial instead of the Lincoln memorial .
It's a great cover Tom and thanks for sharing,

regards
Harry