Life imitates art, and history repeats itself. As time goes on, if we don't learn from the past, then it is said we are doomed to repeat it. The Election of 2016 holds strong similarities to the Election of 1860, in ideals, principles, and candidates.

Its nearly impossible for the general public to not be aware of the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in this year's upcoming election. Although, many do not know much about the past of these candidates, and may not understand their reasoning or beliefs, because of this, I find it very important to include a background on Clinton and Trump before getting into the possibility of historic significance in this years election.

Hillary Clinton

• Got her start in 1970 when she began studying Law at Yale, and began her relationship with Bill Clinton, who at the time was also a Law student. She interned at the law firm of Treuhaft, Walker, and Bernstein, which, at the time, was known for its support of constitutional rights.
• For a while, Hillary was known for her scholarly article, "Children Under The Law" where she claimed that children from infancy to 18 years of age should not be considered incompetent.
• During her husband's term in office, she was known as the most empowered first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, though many thought it was inappropriate for the first lady to have direct involvement in the country's politics. She was also known for her creation of a healthcare plan, and as a women's rights activist.
• In 2000, She became the first, first lady to have been elected and won a spot in the Senate. She served on the Committee of Budget, Committee of Armed Services, Committee on Environmental and Public Works, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Special Committee on Aging, and was a member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
• Clinton has been preparing to be a US Presidential Candidate since 2003. The biggest threat to her campaign being her support of the Iraq War, which Obama has opposed since the beginning.
• On April 12th, 2015, Hillary Clinton announced her intent to run for President in 2016, her focuses including raising middle class incomes, establishing better education for young children, making college more affordable, and improving the Affordable Health Care Act.

Donald Trump

• Trump graduated from the New York Military Academy and later earned a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.He began helping his father expand his business well before he had graduated from college, and he quickly became largely involved in business and became the chairman of the Trump Organization after his father died in the 90's. He expanded his business to luxury care, opening up casinos, plazas, skyscrapers, golf courses, and numerous other buildings.
• Though he has never filed for personal bankruptcy, several of his businesses have declared themselves bankrupt 4 times .
• From 1996 until 2015 Trump owned part or all of Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA Pageants.
• Trump has a net worth of over 10 billion dollars.
• Trump's political party affiliation has changed multiple times through out his life. He has been a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent in the past 30 years. Before the 2016 election Trump and the Clintons' were known friends, Trump even funded Bill's campaign and said he would much rather have a Clinton in office then one of the Bushes.
• Trump announced that he would run for president on June 16th, 2015. He addressed immigration, the US national debt, Islamic Terrorism, as well as job opportunities for Americans.

The Election of 1860.

Simply put,1860 was a very stressful election. The South had been threatening to split for quite sometime, and although Henry Clay had mended the unity in the 1830's with the Missouri Compromise, after territories were won in the Mexican-American War, the dispute over whether these states should be slave states or free states couldn't be compromised over, basically it was only a matter of time until the South would leave the union; there is not a way the Civil war could have been avoided at this point in American history, and at the time, political leaders were having difficulty speaking on the topic of slavery, as their opinions had a very large effect over the nation's voters. Many of those in the government avoided the topic completely, and only talked about it when it was absolutely necessary. Andrew Jackson, for instance, never once mentioned the issue in his campaign, and talked very seldom of his opinion during his time in office.

From 1776 to 2016, America has been known for its outbursts of nativism. Irish, Germans, Asians, Africans, Italians, Hispanics, Latins, and even the natives have all been degraded at some point in American History. Not to mention several Red Scares, and formation of groups such as the KKK to minimize the Black American's say.

It definitely made for a very interesting election since Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglass were complete opposites, with complete opposite supporters.

Trump v. Douglass

Douglass was a US Representative, and US Senator, and had previously beat out Lincoln for his seat in the Senate. Small in stature, but large in his opinions, Douglass was known for telling the people exactly how he felt about every political situation. He strongly agreed with slavery, and advocated expanding slavery into all territories of the United States. He also was known for endorsing the Dredd-Scott Decision, and broke from the Democratic party over the Lecompton Constitution.

Douglass and Trump have similar ways of speaking to an audience and ways of engaging their viewers. Emotion is the easiest way to get a crowd to listen, and they we're both very skilled in using this to their advantage.

In the Lincoln-Douglass debates of 1858, Douglass said, "I do not question Mr. Lincoln's conscientious belief, that the negro is his equal, but I do not regard the negro as my equal."

At a Trump Ralley held in Iowa in 2016, Trump said,"There may be somebody with tomatoes in the audience. If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell -- I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees."

Similarly, Douglass and Trump are known for being the most ruthless figures of their time. They gained popularity by playing to the crowd. They are both publicly racist, and appeal to the darkness of the American people.

Clinton v. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is easily the 2nd best president to most Americans. Not only was he President when the Union won the Civil War, he gave citizenship and the right to vote to Black Americans, creating a turning point in American history. Honest Abe would be considered a role model to many, and most say they wish they could go back to this time when politics were so simple.

Many don't realize how many controversies took place in Lincoln's political career. He held prisoners with out giving them a trial date, or a reason for their arrest, in turn suspending the Wit of Habeus Corpus, and during his second campaign for president, he payed Union soldiers to stand at attention with loaded muskets at voting places to ensure his second win.

Clinton and Lincoln, like many other politicians, have done things they aren't exactly proud of, and things that were definitely not lawful. Most people fear Clinton taking office in 2016 because they believe she is a criminal, although she definitely would not be the first criminal we have allowed into office. Bush, for example was a convicted felon.

Similarly, Lincoln and Clinton rarely mention the nativist, or angry comments coming from their opponents. Instead, they focus on bettering the nation in ways such as the economy, and expanding jobs, they understood that what their opponents were saying had been an issue, Lincoln understood the South would at some point succeed, and Clinton understands that something needs to be done regarding the war on terror, and immigration, but both would rather keep the peace among their viewers. They delicately handle matters regarding immigration in comparison to their opponents, leading many to think they simply don't care.

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In the end

In the case of 1860, no one believed that Lincoln had it. Douglass was strong, and full of titanic ambition, he desperately wanted to win the presidency and the people seemed to like him for it. But after the Democratic party split, his campaign weakened, but even still, Lincoln was afraid. The South was ready to split, the American people were scared, Douglass had put his life on the line to win the Presidency, and he had given a last minute speech right before the election saying that he was only running in regards of maintaining the union.

The election of 1860 had one of the highest turn outs in votes at that point in American history, since voters feared that this would be the last election as a United States of America. The race for the presidency is a devious one, and even though Douglass had plenty of supporters, America simply couldn't get on board with his brutality, thus Abraham Lincoln would become the 16th president of the United States of America, and the first Republican president elected into office.

As for the 2016 election, that's for America to decide.

Citations:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/Donald-Trump/ss...

"Race for the Whitehouse" Douglass v. Lincoln. CNN.

Bulk of historic information used from notes taken from

David M. Kennedy. "The American Pageant" 12th Edition