The 1860 Presidential Election Legacy Leaves Lessons for Barack Obama. The Question is How Much Will He Learn and How Much Will He Follow His New World Order Masters.

The 1860 presidential election was very different from current elections in the United States. Four candidates competed to become the 16th president. The winner was the gentleman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, who had grown up in rural poverty.

Lincoln, like Barack Obama, was certainly considered a long shot for the candidacy. They both were from the state of Illinois and were brought up outside of the halls of power. Lincoln, who ran on behalf of the young Republican Party, won a handy victory over his closest rival, Stephen A. Douglas, of the Northern Democrats, with 1,866,452 votes in the popular election.

Douglas received 1,376,957 votes. While Lincoln was the number one vote getter, he only garnered 40% of the popular vote. Nevertheless, Lincoln had enough votes (180) to win in the electoral college and would probably have won there even if the rest of the 60% of the electorate had supported one unified candidacy since he took the states with larger shares of electoral college delegates.

In many of the southern states, Lincoln was not on the ballot and he only carried 2 of the more than 960 counties in the south.

TWO PROMISES OF UNITING THE NATION

The 1860 presidential election had the issue of slavery on the agenda and indeed it was this electoral result that would soon spark the Civil War. This heated issue drew 81.2% of the electorate to the polls and would only be surpassed in 1876 with an 81.8% turnout.

In recent history the 2008 contest was the highest turnout rate in at least 40 years with 61.7% of the vote although some estimate 63%, which would make it the biggest vote since 1960 and the election of JFK.

Like Lincoln, Obama inspired the public with his message of changing and uniting the nation. Lincoln too, since his famous 'House Divided' speech when he accepted the nomination at the Republican Convention, talked of keeping the nation united. It would take the Civil War to do so.

A MAN OF PRINCIPLES?

Shortly after the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln was confronted with how to come up with the resources to build the northern army for the war looming with the south. He was offered loans by the already growing banking sector in the country.

The loans were halted when, in 1863, Lincoln created a national greenback currency in the interest of maintaining national sovereignty and preventing too much power from accumulating in the growing finance sector which he had warned against in Illinois politics as early as 1839. It was this move against the banking elite that many say caused his eventual assassination.

CHANCE FOR CHANGE SLIPPING AWAY

The 1860 presidential election is said to have elected a president that stuck to his principles at any cost. Little do we realize Lincoln was one of the great Constitutional rights violators of our nation's history. He was also a slave owner and only freed the slaves for political reasons.

In 2008, Americans hoped they were doing the same when they supported the message of change coming from the first African American to be elected to the White House. The first few months in office do not bode well. The banks have been given a massive bailout and continue to receive sumptuous salaries with U.S. taxpayers directly footing the bill.

A real opportunity for change does exist today thanks to the economic crisis. It would be a shame if Obama, beholden to corporate profits and the banking elite, continues to kowtow to the banks and large corporations that have consolidated their hold on U.S. politics in the interest of their private profits.

Maybe Obama and Lincoln have a lot in common, if so, it's not good for America.