Joseph Lane, December 14, 1801 (Buncombe County, NC) – April 19, 1881 (Roseburg, Ore.)
VP candidate for Constitutional Democratic Party 1860
Running mate with nominee: John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875)
Popular vote: 848,019 (18.10%)
Electoral vote: 72/303 (Ala.,Ark.,Del.,Fla.,Ga.,La., Md., Miss., NC, SC, Tex.)
The campaign:
What can you say about an election that was followed by a bloody Civil War?
Simply put, the Constitutional Democratic Party was a classic splinter third party, formed by a bloc of delegates who were not satisfied with the mainstream nominee (Stephen Douglas). The pro-slavery Southern Democrats placed third in the popular vote but second in the electoral tally. Of the 11 states they took, only two of them had all four of the major parties on the same ballot. The Republicans were not offered as a choice in Dixie. Breckinridge/Lane nearly won Virginia, Tennessee and Oregon and also were the runner ups in Kentucky.
A longshot "Fusion" scheme in New York by Democrats would have resulted in the election being deadlocked in the Electoral College and through a complicated series of political acrobatics, Lane would be elected President by the US Senate.
Election history:
1822-1823 - Indiana House of Representatives (Democratic Party)
1830-1833 - Indiana House of Representatives (Democratic Party)
1838-1839 - Indiana House of Representatives (Democratic Party)
1839-1840 - Indiana State Senate (Democratic Party)
1844-1846 - Indiana State Senate (Democratic Party)
1851-1859 - Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives (Oregon Terr.) (Democratic Party)
1859-1861 - U.S. Senate (Oregon) (Democratic Party)
Other occupations: flatboat pilot, militia captain, US Army Brigadier General, appointed Governor of Oregon Territory 1849-1850, Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Acting Governor of Oregon Territory for three days 1853,
Buried: Roseburg Memorial Gardens, Roseburg, Ore.
Notes:
Served in the US-Mexican War and was wounded.
Wounded in conflicts with Native Americans in Oregon.
Baptized as a Catholic in 1867 but apparently renounced the faith shortly before his death.
Supported the Confederacy but remained in Oregon, ending his political career.
His son Lafeyette Lane served in the US House (D-Ore.) 1875-1877 and his grandson Harry Lane
was Mayor of Portland and a US Senator (D-Ore.) 1913-1917
Cousin to David Lowry Swain (1801-1868) who was born in the same log cabin and served as
Governor of NC as a Whig (1832-1835)
Said to have continued to have kept slaves even in Oregon and after the Civil War.
His son John Lane served in the Confederate military forces.
Lane had made some movement after his 1860 loss to help establish a pro-slavery Pacific Republic in
Oregon and north California that would expand the concept of legal human bondage to Asians,
Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders as well as African Americans.
