Who did Unionists vote for in 1860?

leftyhunter

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
May 27, 2011
Location
los angeles ca
Has many of you know in 1992 or there about's there was a book published titled " Lincoln's loyal Unionists " about the approx 100k Unionists who joined the Union army and why they did so. I am willing to make a wager of say a round at happy hour that most Southern Unionists ( who we will define has those white men living in the 11 states that became part of the CSA) voted in 1860 not for Lincoln but more likely to vote in the majority for John Bell and in part some voted for Stephen Douglas. Perhaps less then 15% voted for Lincoln.

The only way we can prove my theory right or wrong would be if one us can determine how the majorities in counties in the 11 states that where mostly mountainous and poor voted. One of our posters a while back had a map that did show how each county in the US voted but I forgot the link to it and the colors blurred because after all even in the same county there where or course often subject to a close runoff between two or more candidates. Of course there are exceptions to the rule such has Jones County, Ms which is not mountainous per se but was strongly pro- Union.
Of course not all Unionists joined the Union Army some became pro-Union guerrilla's or helped hide deserters or just fled to Union lines and got jobs and paid tax's like any other Union citizen. My theory is most Unionists where not abolitionists and many really did not want to get involved in the CW. On the other hand they did not take kindly to being forced to fight for rich slave owners who always looked down on them and if they had to fight they might has well fight those who always spat on them rather then Uncle Sam.

My guess is in 1860 they just wanted to keep the Union together and they could of cared less about slavery but they knew a CW would be bad news all around.
My next question is did the Unionists favor McCllean or Lincoln? We will never really know since voting for the US presidential race did not occur in the 11 CSA states; however Ky where a majority of Ky young men did fight for the Union the majority of voters did vote for McCllean. Of course the same was true in Nj which is not a Southern state so I don't really know.
Leftyhunter
 
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