From 1860: Connecticut All Right!

This article is from about 150 years ago today, published in The Hartford Courant on April 3, 1860. Many of the articles about politics in The Courant that I have come across were far from neutral, they actually make Fox News and MSNBC seem impartial. The Courant strongly supported the Republican party and its nominee for President, Abraham Lincoln (when Lincoln won the election, the headline was "VICTORY, VICTORY, WE'VE GOT 'EM.").

The election described below was for state officials. William Alfred Buckingham was running for re-election as governor, having served 2 years. He was challenged by former governor Thomas Hart Seymour. The photo of Buckingham, is by Mathew Brady, the famous photographic documenter of the Civil War.

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We congratulate our readers upon the glorious results of yesterday's contest. It is the more glorious from the fact that the Republicans had to contend with the most formidable elements which could possibly be arrayed against them.

We have had to contend with the most unscrupulous papers and speakers, and with the most shameless corruption and bribery, and with the most popular and unexceptionable candidate which the Locofoco party could produce. The result has shown that the Republican party of Connecticut is capable of withstanding any and all assaults which the Shams can combine against them.

Our returns embrace Hartford, New Haven, New London, Tolland and Windham Counties, which give Buckingham 878 majority, leaving Middlesex, Fairfield and Litchfield Counties to swell the majority.

Hartford County gives 210 maj. for Seymour, and New Haven 978; Windham County gives Buckingham 1116 maj.; New London County, 600; and Tolland County, 350 maj. We cannot go into details or particulars this morning, but will only say that Tolland County has done nobly, and hte men who have worked so nobly to bring about the cheering result are entitled to the highest praise. She has largely increased her majority--has carried both Senators and gained 6 Representatives over last year. Windham County tells her own story.

We have carried both branches of the Legislature. Of the Senate, we hav the Second, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Sixteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-First Districts, (12.) [A dispatch from New Haven gives us the Sixteenth.] The Democrats have carried the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, and Eighteenth Districts, (6.) The Sixth is doubtful. The Fifteenth and Seventeens have not heard from.

The House is Republican by a heavy majority. We have made handsome gains upon our majority of last year.

The Twenty-First District has done nobly. We have gained in that small district five members of the House; and in Hartford County a net gain of two. In New Haven County there are 13 Republican Representatives chosen, and fifteen Democrats--three not heard from. In New London County, 23 Republicans to 5 Democrats. In Windham County, 20 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

The following are some of the reported majorities:

East Haven, Republican majority, 30
Meriden, " " 63
North Branford " " 4
North Haven, " " 20
Winchester, " " 128
Durham, " " 20
New Haven, Democratic majority 700
Old Saybrook " " 20
Hamden, " " 104
Middletown, " " 295
Portland, " " 379
Cromwell, " " 64

The election of Sheriff in Hartford County is doubtful, but is against Mr. Goodrich if the present figures are reliable. The Legislature will be called upon to examine the votes. His friends are satisfied that a number of votes cast for him in this city were not counted.

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The day of the election, the New York Times ran an editorial on the Connecticut election.

The election in Connecticut takes place today. It is an important contest, and efforts have been made by both political parties corresponding to the extreme interest felt in the result. The whole State has been canvassed with a degree of vigor, activity and enthusiasm seldom evinced in any State contest. Able men from both parties have been brought from other States, and have addressed public meetings day after day, in every part of the State; -- immense sums of money have been expended in the canvass, -- and no stone has been left unturned by either party to secure success to its candidate. ...

There is a good deal of conservatism in Connecticut, and a very large manufacturing interest which depends, more or less, upon the South for a market. Very earnest efforts have been made to alarm this interest by menaces of disunion and consequent ruin, and Mayor WOOD has presented to the mechanics of the State very startling pictures of the ruinous competition to which they would be subjected, when the abolition of Slavery shall turn the black mechanics of the South out of employment and send them to New-England to earn a living.

In mid-May of the same year, the Republicans at their national convention in Chicago, nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas for President at their convention in Baltimore on June 18. In the resulting 4-way general election (John Breckenridge on the Southern Democrat ticket, and John Bell on the Constitutional Union ticket), Lincoln won 54% of the popular vote in Connecticut.