Review - "He Has The People," Jonathan Earle

 It is extraordinary that the man generally considered the best President the United States has ever had was virtually unknown before being elected to the nation’s highest office. The last time he had won a race for elective office had been fourteen years earlier when he was elected to Congress. He served one term. Though he despised slavery, he did not campaign as a staunch abolitionist. He wanted to maintain the union. The fact that he was able to both abolish slavery and maintain the union – though at enormous cost – speaks to the greatness of the man. 

 

One of the best things about this book is that, including notes and index, it comes in at just over 200 pages – something appreciated by this aging octogenarian.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

He Has the People: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860, Jonathan Earle

September 19, 2026

 

“...the most transformative election in American history.”

                                                                                                                He has the People, Jonathan Earle

 

History gets a bad rap, as humanities have been closeted among the undesirables. Yet history informs us of the past so to better understand the future, and it teaches us that the “most interesting times” are not necessarily those of today. In 1860, the first U.S. election for President had occurred only 72 years earlier – recent enough that there would have been a few people who would have remembered the election of George Washington. 

 

In 1860 the most important subject was slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required escaped slaves be returned to their owners. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise by letting local settlers decide on slavery in territories. The Dred-Scott Decision of 1857 (overturned in 1865 and 1868 with ratification of the 13^th and 14^thAmendments) stated that slaves were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in federal territories. And John Brown, convicted of treason, murder and inciting a slave rebellion, was hanged in December 1859. 

 

Such was the setting, as the 1860 election got underway. Jonathan Earle, a professor of history at LSU, follows journalist Murat Halsted, editor-in-chief of the Cincinnati Commercial, as he attends all seven national political conventions in 1860. Mr. Halsted was also present at the hanging of John Brown. 

 

The political scene had been shifting. In the previous twenty-four years eight men had served as President. (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor both died in office.) The Republican Party, heirs to the Whigs and home to Abolitionists, had only existed since 1854; John Frémont had been the first Republican candidate in 1856, a race won by James Buchanan. The last two Presidents had been Northern Democrats. They prevented secession by emphasizing sovereignty of the states.

 

Today Lincoln is deemed among the best Presidents the country has had, but his selection in 1860 was by no means certain. Earle writes: “The fact is, no seasoned observer in any political party would have considered Abraham Limcoln a favorite for the presidency as the 1860 campaign began.” Either William Seward or Salmon P. Chase expected the nomination. But John Brown’s raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry hurt the chances of Seward and Chase, both northerners and tied more closely to the abolitionists’ movement. However, Lincoln’s speech at The Cooper Union in February gave confidence to a skeptical New York press and to “...Republicans [that] he would be a safe second choice.” He was nominated on the third ballot at the Republican convention. However, he had not won an election since 1846. 

 

Democrats split between Stephen Douglas (northern) and John Breckinridge (southern). Together they amassed as many popular votes as Lincoln, but fell behind him in the Electoral College, with a total of 84 votes. John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party (remnants of the Whigs) garnered 39 votes. Lincoln, with a minority of the popular vote, won in the Electoral College with 180 votes, or 59 percent.

 

As James McPherson’s blurb on the back cover reads, “...Jonathan Earle has written the best campaign account since Teddy White’s book on the 1960 election.”