In the Chicago mayoral election of 1861, Republican

Julian Sidney Rumsey Julian Sidney Rumsey (April 3, 1823 in Batavia, New York – April 20, 1886 in Chicago, Illinois) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1861–1862) for the Republican Party. Career Rumsey arrived in Chicago on July 28, 1835, to work in a ship ...

defeated People’s nominee

Thomas Barbour Bryan Thomas Barbour Bryan (December 22, 1828 – January 26, 1906) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. Born in Virginia, a member of the prestigious Barbour family on his mother's side, Bryan largely made a name for himself in Chi ...

by a ten-point margin. The election took place on April 16, 1861. The election was the first of four Chicago mayoral elections which took place during the course of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Campaign

The municipal election season came on the tail of the fall of Fort Sumter. Both parties referred to their tickets as “Union”. On April 15 the Democrats held a meeting where they urged the election of their ticket to maintain the union. Both parties adopted strong support for the union and its cause in the war. Democratic nominee Thomas Barbour Bryan was a Chicago business leader. Bryan was seen to be a far more prominent figure than Rumsey at the time of the election. Bryan had been drafted for mayor by a number of acquaintances to run on what the being dubbed "The People's Ticket". Unaware at the time that he'd be running in opposition to the Republican Party, Bryan reluctantly accepted. He was reported to, ultimately, have seemed somewhat relieved by his ultimate defeat in the polls. He did not desire to be mayor of the city, nor did he want to cause disarray or fractures in the Republican Party at the time that the civil war was beginning. Rumsey was also a largely unwilling candidate, and did not desire to be mayor. Republicans primarily took issue not with the Democratic nominee for mayor, who many Republicans saw to be a unionist of strong character, but rather with the overall Democratic ticket for the municipal elections. Many Republicans felt uncomfortable with the fact that the Democratic ticket was strongly supported by the

Chicago Times The ''Chicago Times'' was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'', to become the ''Chicago Times-Herald''. The ''Times-Herald'' effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the ''Chicago Record' ...

Results

Despite the unusual times in which the election was held, much of the city voted along its typical party lines.

References

{{Illinois elections Mayoral elections in Chicago

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

1860s in Chicago