Very nice, but you left out the name of the one person most responsible for the civil war. Hint: who was the Al Gore of 1860?
Hint2: Who was President Buchanan’s Vice President?
How is John C. Breckinridge the single person most responsible for the Civil War?
1: Breckinridge split the democrat party into two parties.
- Instead of going into the 1860 election united, and thereby easily improving their performance in the election and maintaining their National dominance, the democrats split into 2 parties. Douglas leading the Northern faction and the original party. Breckinridge leading the Southern faction and splitting States. A good leader here would have United the party knowing that a split party spelt electoral doom.
2: Breckenridge won the southern states. Every one of Breckenridges strong states would soon secede. A strong leader would have convinced his followers to remain in the Union and engaged in a more measured method of secession.
3: Breckenridge next got appointed to the US Senate. He did not use his leadership position in the Senate to preserve the Union. Eventually, he gets expelled for treason and becomes a general with the Confederates.
Side point: Breckenridge did not make a good general. He loses his attack on Baton Rouge.
4: Eventually Breckenridge becomes Secretary of War for the Confederates. He tried to help the Confederate government escape, but loses them to Union troops. However, he escapes and flees the country.
This one man, had he not been a traitor, was in the best, most influential, position of any in the Democrat party.
He was the Al Gore of his day, but instead of a legal challenge, he instigated a civil war while pretending to be otherwise.
Breckinridge was one of the leaders of the Democrat Party in the 1850’s. Like Jefferson Davis and others he was a secessionist but he was far from the only one. Many of the leading secessionists were part of the Pierce and Buchanan administrations.
1: Breckinridge split the democrat party into two parties.
Caleb Carr, Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin and several others split the Democrat Party in 1860. Southern Democrats walked out of the 1860 convention.
2: Breckenridge won the southern states. Every one of Breckenridges strong states would soon secede. A strong leader would have convinced his followers to remain in the Union and engaged in a more measured method of secession.
Breckinridge did not win Tennessee or Virginia. He did win Maryland and Delaware. Breckinridge wanted secession. He did not want the southern states to remain in the union.
3: Breckenridge next got appointed to the US Senate. He did not use his leadership position in the Senate to preserve the Union. Eventually, he gets expelled for treason and becomes a general with the Confederates.
Breckinridge was part of the confederate inner circle even when he was in the Senate.
Breckinridge was just one of several leading Democrats involved in the secession. But you are right. He was one of the leaders.