Front Porch Campaign
In the early- and mid-nineteenth century, tradition dictated that presidential candidates maintain a dignified silence in national elections because they supposedly were above the rough and tumble world of politics. Republican Party supporters delivered Lincoln’s message to the voters, and that message was to stop the spread of slavery in the Western territories. Great emphasis was also placed on Lincoln’s frontier experience, which showed that even the poorest citizen could work his way to the top. Republican Party offices throughout the North distributed thousands of campaign posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials. They did virtually no campaigning in the South, where Lincoln’s name did not even appear on a majority of the ballots.
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