The Tennessee in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Party Registrations
In Response To: old party registurations ()

Everett --

That's a great question. Major parties in the 1860 election were the Constitutional Union Party, the National Democrats and the Southern Rights Democrats. I don't believe the Republican Party had anyone on the ballot in Tennessee.

Party registration for voters as we know it today was unknown in that time, so the kind of information you requested doesn't exist. You could check election returns for William Buchanan's home county for ideas about who he may have supported.

By the way, voting patterns in 1860 are difficult for people to understand today. For instance, we assume that most large slaveholders favored secession, when the opposite is true. Most large slaveholders were interested in market stability, which secession and the possibility of war would certainly disturb. For that reason, many Southern counties with large numbers of plantations often gave strong support to Bell and Everett, the Constitutional Union Party candidates.

Of course it didn't hurt that Bell was a 'favorite son' candidate from Tennessee!

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old party registurations
Re: Party Registrations
Re: Party Registrations
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Re: Party Registrations