He Has the People - Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860

A gripping and granular look at how Abraham Lincoln got elected the 16th president of the United States.

>Using the writings and story of Murat Halstead, the nation's first campaign journalist, as well as previously unused documents from Lincoln's campaign manager, Jonathan Earle captures the full drama of the 1860 election. He shows how Lincoln, a one-time Congressman from Illinois, and a dark horse against the more established Stephen Douglas, the Democratic frontrunner, and William Henry Seward, the presumptive Republican nominee, got the people and votes he needed to win in a protracted yet furiously disputed election cycle.

Earle focuses on the chaotic campaigns themselves, as political bosses, candidates, and their self-appointed partisans took politicking in directions that at times resembled paramilitary exercises more than campaign events. In the end, Lincoln and his associates ran a brilliant campaign, leveraging Northern anger, growing antislavery sentiment, and divisions within both the Democratic Party and the nation as a whole. His platform was built on his speeches, which projected a vision for how the nation would persevere in the coming crisis. Behind the commanding rhetoric, however, was sophisticated and very modern political machinery. He Has the People provides an engaging historical narrative and a fresh appraisal of the most consequential of all presidential elections.

About the author

Jonathan Earle teaches history and politics at Louisiana State University, where he has been Dean of the Ogden Honors College since 2014.

Product details

• Authors: Jonathan Earle
• Publisher: Oxford Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 03.08.2026
• EAN: 9780195341652
• ISBN: 978-0-19-534165-2
• No. of pages: 320
• Weight: 5 g
• Series: Pivotal Moments in American History
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, General & world history, United States of America, USA, General and world history, History of the Americas