Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/292

 280 Southern Historical Society Papers.

is that of freedom." It further declared that no legislative body could "give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States." This claim ignored, or rather set at defiance, the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, and indeed the personal lib- erty bills of many of the Northern States had already nullified that decision and the laws of which it was the interpretation.

The vote by which Mr. Lincoln was elected was a large minority of the popular vote nearly one million yet he had a considerable majority in the electoral college. In the Southern States he had no electoral ticket at all; and there, too, was food for grave thought. If, adhering to the mere forms of the Constitution, a man could be elected to the Presidency by a vote strictly sectional and upon one issue, avowedly sectional, why not upon any other, however regard- less of the rights and interests of another section ? Mr. Lincoln had three competitors for the office of President, and it has often been claimed that his opponents could have defeated him by com- bining upon a single candidate. This is a great error, and therein is the defect of the electoral system, and it was a threat to the Southern States. The Electoral College at that time consisted of 303 members, making 152 votes necessary to a choice. Mr. Lin- coln received 180 votes in all, though in a minority of nearly a mil- lion in the popular vote. But in fifteen of the Northern and Western States, having 167 votes in the Electoral College, he had also clear majorities of the popular vote over the combined votes of the three opposing candidates; so in any case he would have had a majority of fifteen in the Electoral College even if there had been but one competitor. Examination of the official figures will prove the cor- rectness of this statement.

[This statement having been called in question, Major Daves, in the Raleigh, N. C., Post of May 24, 1901, offered the following in proof of its correctness]:

STATE, Electoral Vote.

Connecticut, ^.;>. * . 10,238 4

Illinois, ....... . ,; \. 5> 6 39 n

Indiana,. . . . . 5>9 2 3 T 3

Iowa, ..... 12,487 4

Maine, ..... 27,704 8

Massachusetts, .... 43,891 13

Michigan, ..... 22,213 6

Minnesota, ..... 9>333 4