While the times were much different, many parallels can be drawn between the elections of 1860 and 2024. One of the starkest such comparisons is the rhetoric among certain politicians regarding racial minority groups. Sally Heizel writes in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society how many people, such as Illinois senator Trumbull, were in opposition to the expansion of slavery but only out of a desire to prevent Black people from getting land that they believed should be given to white men. Specifically, antebellum Illinois Republicans opposed the free movement of Black people within the country. 

Just like in 1860, modern Republicans are opposing the free movement of Black people legally in the United States. The most timely and pertinent example of this is the recent events in Springfield, Ohio, where Haitian immigrants, legally in the U.S., are being falsely accused by the Republican Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees of being illegally in the country, stealing the jobs of locals, and eating people’s pets. This rhetoric, intended to sway national opinion in favor of stricter laws regarding immigration, is based on falsities, as was even admitted by Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance. However, it can still serve its purpose, as many took the implicit call to action and issued dozens of bomb threats that shut down schools and government buildings across Springfield, with some threats even being targeted specifically at the Haitian community. Some Haitians in the community have even had to consider moving, the ultimate goal of this strategy of 19th century racism.

Further similarities between the racial rhetoric of 1860 and 2024 can be seen by the use of false racial descriptors. In 1860, the Democrats called their opponents “Black Republicans”, among other, more vulgar terms, meant to negatively portray them as beholden by the supposed interests of Black people. Meanwhile, in 2024, The Republican presidential nominee frequently uses the term ‘Palestinian’ as a slur against his opponents he sees as too favorable towards Palestinian rights.

These ties between the rhetoric of the 1860s and 2020s illustrate the deeply fragile environment we live in today, as this rhetoric in the 1860s was a prelude to one of the deadliest race-centered conflicts in world history, and was at a time before the Constitution even recognized the rights of racial minorities to vote. While this is deeply concerning, hope is not lost, and if people can manage to fight off racial hatred in our country we can avoid the worst.