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Alachua County Returns for Presidential Election of 1860
(From: Office of Secretary of State, Election Returns by County, 1824-1926,
Series S21)
The long sectional crisis of the 1850s
culminated in the presidential election of 1860, which precipitated the secession
of eleven states from the Union. In this critical election, Floridians could
choose between John C. Breckinridge, the Southern Democratic candidate; Stephen
A. Douglas, who represented northern Democrats, and John C. Bell, candidate
for the newly-organized Constitutional Union Party. Breckinridge supported the
Dred Scott Decision and the expansion of slavery into the territories, while
Douglas supported the concept of Popular Sovereignty, by which the citizens
of a territory could decide for themselves as to the status of slavery within
their borders. John Bell's strongest support came from moderates in the Border
States. He hoped to keep any candidate from winning a majority of electoral
votes, thereby throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where
a Union-preserving compromise might yet be reached.
Significantly, Floridians could not vote
for Republican Abraham Lincoln, who was not on the ballot in any of the Deep
South slave states. The hated "Black Republican" Party was believed by most
southerners to advocate abolition and black equality, although Lincoln and his
party were primarily interested in restricting the expansion of slavery in the
territories.
Reproduced here are the 1860 presidential
returns for Alachua County, which voted overwhelmingly for southern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge. He would also win the statewide totals, with Bell a respectable
second and Douglas a very distant third. Within days of the election of Lincoln,
South Carolina called for a Secession Convention, and by the end of the year
that state had left the Union. Florida was not far behind--in early January
1861 it became the third state to secede from the Union.
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We the undersigned E.H. Jordan, Judge of Probate, and A.A. Maulden and
J. C. Gardner Assistants
do hereby Certify that the following is a correct list of votes received
in the County of Alachua
on the 6th day of November AD 1860 at an Election held for Electors of
president and
Vice President of the United States was as follows
For Geo W. Call, J.P. Anderson and J.M. Gorrie Presidential Electors for
Breckinage & Lane received the
number of Five Hundred and Twenty Seven votes
(527)
For I.H. Landrum, Wilk Call, and R.H. Hall Presidential Electors for Bell
& Everett received the number
of One Hundred and Ninety five (195)
For Philip Turner, I.W. Culpepper and C.W. Jones Electors for Douglas
& Johnson received the number
of Five votes (5)
E.H.
Jordan, Judge of Probate,
Gainesville Alachua County November 9th 1860 J.C.
Gardner Assistants
A.A. Maulden
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