1860 United States presidential election

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United States presidential election, 1860

6 November 1860

File:BreckTT.jpg Nominee Abraham Lincoln John C. Breckinridge Party Republican Southern Democratic Home state Illinois Kentucky Running mate Hannibal Hamlin Joseph Lane Electoral vote 180 72 States carried 18 11 Popular vote 1,865,908 848,019 Percentage 39.8% 18.1%   Nominee John Bell Stephen A. Douglas Party Constitutional Union Northern Democratic (United States) Home state Tennessee Illinois Running mate Edward Everett Herschel Vespasian Johnson Electoral vote 39 12 States carried 3 1 Popular vote 590,901 1,380,202 Percentage 12.6% 29.5%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Lincoln/Hamlin, spring green denotes those won by Breckinridge/Lane, orange denotes those won by Bell/Everett, and forest green denotes those won by Douglas/Johnson. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election James Buchanan Democratic Elected President Abraham Lincoln Republican

The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states' rights and slavery in the territories. In 1860 this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the support of a single Southern State.

The immediate result of Lincoln's victory was declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by the then-current President, James Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln.

Background

See also: Origins of the American Civil War

The origins of the American Civil War lay in the complex issues of slavery, competing understandings of federalism, party politics, expansionism, sectionalism, tariffs, economics and modernization in the Antebellum Period.

After the Mexican-American War, the issue of slavery in the new territories led to the Compromise of 1850. While the compromise averted an immediate political crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of the Slave power (the power of slaveholders to control the national government).

Amid the emergence of increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in national politics, the collapse of the old Second Party System in the 1850s hampered efforts of the politicians to reach yet one more compromise. The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged many northerners. In the 1850s, with the rise of the Republican Party, the first major party with no appeal in the South, the industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Republican National Convention

Republican candidates were:

• Edward Bates, former U.S. representative from Missouri
• Simon Cameron, U.S. senator from Pennsylvania
• Salmon P. Chase, Governor of Ohio
• Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. representative from Illinois
• William H. Seward, U.S. senator from New York

Candidate gallery

• 
  Former Representative Edward Bates of Missouri
• 
  Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania
• 
  Former Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio
• 
  Former Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois
• 
  Senator William H. Seward of New York

The Republican National Convention met in mid-May, after the Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and with a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans were confident going into their convention in Chicago. William H. Seward of New York was considered the front runner, followed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates.

As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of the Republican Party. Delegates were concerned that Seward was too closely identified with the radical wing of the party, and his moves toward the center had alienated the radicals. Chase, a former Democrat, had alienated many of the former Whigs by his coalition with the Democrats in the late 1840s, had opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania, and critically, had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. Bates outlined his positions on extension of slavery into the territories and equal constitutional rights for all citizens, positions that alienated his supporters in the border states and southern conservatives. German-Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know-Nothings.

Since it was essential to carry the West, and because Lincoln had a national reputation from his debates and speeches as the most articulate moderate, he won the party's nomination on the third ballot on May 16 1860.

Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Cassius M. Clay of Missouri.

The party platform clearly stated that slavery would not be allowed to spread any further, and it also promised that tariffs protecting industry would be imposed. The party promised a homestead law granting free farm land in the West to settlers. These provisions were highly unpopular in the South.

Vice Presidential Ballot
Ballot	1st	2nd
Hannibal Hamlin	194	367
Cassius M. Clay	100.5	86
John Hickman	57	13
Andrew Reeder	51	0
Nathaniel Banks	38.5	0
Henry Winter Davis	8	0
Sam Houston	6	0
William L. Dayton	3	0
John M. Reed	1	0

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Democratic National Convention

Democratic candidates

• Daniel S. Dickinson, former U.S. senator from New York
• Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. senator and candidate for the 1852 and 1856 nominations from Illinois
• James Guthrie, former Secretary of Treasury from Kentucky
• Robert M.T. Hunter, U.S. senator from Virginia
• Andrew Johnson, U.S. senator from Tennessee
• Joseph Lane, U.S. senator from Oregon
• Horatio Seymour, former Governor of New York

The Democratic Party was divided over the issue of slavery. At the convention in Charleston in April 1860, 50 southern Democrats walked out over a platform dispute.

Six candidates were nominated: Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Joseph Lane of Oregon, James Guthrie of Kentucky, and Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia. Douglas, a moderate on the slavery issue who favored "popular sovereignty", was ahead on the first ballot, needing 57 more votes. On the 57th ballot, Douglas was still ahead, but still 50 votes short of nomination. In desperation, on May 3 the delegates agreed to stop voting and adjourn the convention.

The Democrats convened again at the Front Street Theater in Baltimore, Maryland on June 18. This time 110 southern delegates (led by “Fire-Eaters”) walked out when the convention would not adopt a resolution supporting slavery in the territories. After many ballots, the remaining Democrats nominated the ticket of Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for President. Benjamin Fitzpatrick was nominated for vice president, but he refused the nomination. The nomination ultimately went to Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia.

The Southern Democrats reconvened in Richmond, Virginia, and on June 28 nominated the pro-slavery incumbent Vice President, John Cabell Breckinridge of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice President at the Maryland Institute, in Baltimore.

Candidate Gallery

• Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky
  Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky
• Former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
  Former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
• 
  Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois
• Former Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie of Kentucky
  Former Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie of Kentucky
• 
  Senator Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia
• 
  Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee
• 
  Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon
• 
  Former Governor Horatio Seymour of New York

Constitutional Union Party nomination

File:BELL.JPG

Constitutional Union poster

Die-hard former Whigs and Know-Nothings who felt they could support neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party formed the Constitutional Union Party, nominating John Bell of Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice president at the convention in Baltimore on May 9 1860 (one week before Lincoln was nominated).

John Bell was a former Whig who had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution. Edward Everett had been president of Harvard University and Secretary of State in the Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union, with the slogan "the Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is."

General election

Campaign

The contest in the North was between Lincoln and Douglas, but only the latter took to the stump and gave speeches and interviews. In the South, John Breckenridge and John Bell were the main rivals, but Douglas had an important presence in southern cities, especially among Irish Americans. Fusion tickets of the non-Republicans developed in New York and Rhode Island, and partially in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (the northern state in which Breckenridge made the best showing).

Political cartoon depicting Lincoln stopping Douglas, Bell, and Breckenridge trying to enter the White House

Stephen Douglas was the first presidential candidate in history to undertake a nationwide speaking tour. He traveled to the South where he did not expect to win many electoral votes, but he spoke for the maintenance of the Union. The dispute over the Dred Scott case had helped the Republicans easily dominate the Northern states' congressional delegations, allowing that party, although a newcomer on the political scene, easily to spread its popular influence.

The 1860 campaign was less frenzied than 1856, when the Republicans had crusaded zealously, and their opponents counter-crusaded with warnings of civil war. In 1860 every observer calculated the Republicans had an almost unbeatable advantage in the electoral college, since they dominated almost every northern state. Republicans felt victory at hand, and used para-military campaign organizations like the Wide Awakes to rally their supporters. See American election campaigns in the 19th century for campaign techniques.

Abraham Lincoln's December 1 1859 visit to Kansas has been recorded by the Kansas History Online service.

Results

Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 4 March 1861, beneath the unfinished capitol dome

The election was held on November 6. It was noteworthy for the exaggerated sectionalism of the vote, with Lincoln not even on the ballot in nine Southern states - and winning only two of 996 counties in the entire South. (In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes in 13 of the 15 slave states.) In the six states still permitting slavery where he was on the ballot, he came in fourth in every state except Delaware (3rd). Breckinridge, who was the sitting Vice-President of the United States and the only candidate to later support secession, won all the states that would form the Confederacy except Virginia and Tennessee. Breckenridge also lost in the future border states of Missouri and Kentucky (his home state), but won the states of Delaware and Maryland (both of which also still permitted slavery) by pluralities.

Lincoln won an electoral majority without a popular majority. While Lincoln captured less than 40% of the popular vote, the divisions of the nation allowed him to capture 17 states plus four electoral votes in New Jersey, for a total of 180 electoral votes. Although the three-way split of the non-Republican vote confuses the issue, the vote split was irrelevant to Lincoln's victory, because he would have won an outright majority in the electoral vote, 169-134, even if the 60% of voters who supported other candidates united behind a single candidate. Except for California, Oregon, and New Jersey, Lincoln won a popular majority in every state that cast its electoral votes for him. Only in California, Oregon, and Illinois was Lincoln's victory margin less than seven percent.

Stephen Douglas finished second in the popular vote, but because his support was relatively evenly distributed between both northern and southern states he garnered only Missouri's nine electoral votes and three of seven electoral votes in New Jersey, good for fourth place. Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia's electors, while Breckenridge won every other slave state except Missouri.

Contrary to popular myth, Lincoln was not a third party candidate. The Republicans had already established themselves as the second major party in the 1856 election by coming in second in that race.

The voter turnout rate in 1860 was the second-highest on record (81.2%, second only to 1876, with 81.8%). The Fusion ticket of non-Republicans drew 595,846 votes.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a)		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Abraham Lincoln	Republican	Illinois	1,865,908	39.8%	180	Hannibal Hamlin	Maine	180
John C. Breckinridge	Southern Democratic	Kentucky	848,019	18.1%	72	Joseph Lane	Oregon	72
John Bell	Constitutional Union/Whig	Tennessee	590,901	12.6%	39	Edward Everett	Massachusetts	39
Stephen A. Douglas	Northern Democratic	Illinois	1,380,202	29.5%	12	Herschel Vespasian Johnson	Georgia	12
Other			531	0.0%	—	Other		—
Total			4,685,561	100%	303			303
Needed to win					152			152

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1860 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help) Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

^(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.

Results by state

		Abraham Lincoln Republican			Stephen Douglas (Northern) Democrat			John Breckinridge Southern Democrat			John Bell Constitutional Union			State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#
Alabama	9	not on ballot			13,618	15.1	-	48,669	54.0	9	27,835	30.9	-	90,122	AL
Arkansas	4	not on ballot			5,357	9.9	-	28,732	53.1	4	20,063	37.0	-	54,152	AR
California	4	38,733	32.3	4	37,999	31.7	-	33,969	28.4	-	9,111	7.6	-	119,812	CA
Connecticut	6	43,488	58.1	6	15,431	20.6	-	14,372	19.2	-	1,528	2.0	-	74,819	CT
Delaware	3	3,822	23.7	-	1,066	6.6	-	7,339	45.5	3	3,888	24.1	-	16,115	DE
Florida	3	not on ballot			223	1.7	-	8,277	62.2	3	4,801	36.1	-	13,301	FL
Georgia	10	not on ballot			11,581	10.9	-	52,176	48.9	10	42,960	40.3	-	106,717	GA
Illinois	11	172,171	50.7	11	160,215	47.2	-	2,331	0.7	-	4,914	1.4	-	339,631	IL
Indiana	13	139,033	51.1	13	115,509	42.4	-	12,295	4.5	-	5,306	1.9	-	272,143	IN
Iowa	4	70,302	54.6	4	55,639	43.2	-	1,035	0.8	-	1,763	1.4	-	128,739	IA
Kentucky	12	1,364	0.9	-	25,651	17.5	-	53,143	36.3	-	66,058	45.2	12	146,216	KY
Louisiana	6	not on ballot			7,625	15.1	-	22,681	44.9	6	20,204	40.0	-	50,510	LA
Maine	8	62,811	62.2	8	29,693	29.4	-	6,368	6.3	-	2,046	2.0	-	100,918	ME
Maryland	8	2,294	2.5	-	5,966	6.4	-	42,482	45.9	8	41,760	45.1	-	92,502	MD
Massachusetts	13	106,684	62.9	13	34,370	20.3	-	6,163	3.6	-	22,331	13.2	-	169,548	MA
Michigan	6	88,481	57.2	6	65,057	42.0	-	805	0.5	-	415	0.3	-	154,758	MI
Minnesota	4	22,069	63.4	4	11,920	34.3	-	748	2.2	-	50	0.1	-	34,787	MN
Mississippi	7	not on ballot			3,282	4.7	-	40,768	59.0	7	25,045	36.2	-	69,095	MS
Missouri	9	17,028	10.3	-	58,801	35.5	9	31,362	18.9	-	58,372	35.3	-	165,563	MO
New Hampshire	5	37,519	56.9	5	25,887	39.3	-	2,125	3.2	-	412	0.6	-	65,943	NH
New Jersey	7	58,346	48.1	4	62,869	51.9	3	partial fusion ticket with Douglas						121,215	NJ
New York	35	362,646	53.7	35	312,510	46.3	-	fusion ticket with Douglas						675,156	NY
North Carolina	10	not on ballot			2,737	2.8	-	48,846	50.5	10	45,129	46.7	-	96,712	NC
Ohio	23	231,709	52.3	23	187,421	42.3	-	11,406	2.6	-	12,194	2.8	-	442,730	OH
Oregon	3	5,329	36.1	3	4,136	28.0	-	5,075	34.4	-	218	1.5	-	14,758	OR
Pennsylvania	27	268,030	56.3	27	16,765	3.5	-	178,871	37.5	-	12,776	2.7	-	476,442	PA
Rhode Island	4	12,244	61.4	4	7,707	38.6	-	fusion ticket with Douglas						19,951	RI
South Carolina	8	-			-			8			-			-	SC
Tennessee	12	not on ballot			11,281	7.7	-	65,097	44.6	-	69,728	47.7	12	146,106	TN
Texas	4	not on ballot			18	0.0	-	47,454	75.5	4	15,383	24.5	-	62,855	TX
Vermont	5	33,808	75.7	5	8,649	19.4	-	218	0.5	-	1,969	4.4	-	44,644	VT
Virginia	15	1,887	1.1	-	16,198	9.7	-	74,325	44.5	-	74,481	44.6	15	166,891	VA
Wisconsin	5	86,110	56.6	5	65,021	42.7	-	887	0.6	-	161	0.1	-	152,179	WI
TOTALS:	303	1,865,908	39.8	180	1,380,202	29.5	12	848,019	18.1	72	590,901	12.6	39	4,685,030
TO WIN:	152

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• History of the United States (1849–1865)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• Third Party System
• United States House elections, 1860
• Wide Awakes

References

• Daniel W. Crofts; Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis University of North Carolina Press, 1989
• David Herbert Donald. Lincoln (1999) ISBN 0-684-82535-X, standard biography
• Dwight Lowell Dumond, ed., Southern Editorials on Secession (1931), contains hundreds of well-chosen editorials from the 1860 presidential campaign and the secession crisis in both the upper and lower South
• Foner, Eric (1995). Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War., analyzes factions inside new party
• Holt, Michael F. (1978). The Political Crisis of the 1850s.
• Robert W Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas Oxford University Press, 1973, standard biography
• Marc W. Kruman, Parties and Politics in North Carolina, 1836-1865 (Louisiana State University Press, 1983), pages 180-221
• Luebke, Frederick C. (1971). Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln.
• Luthin, Reinhard H. The First Lincoln Campaign (1944), along with Nevins, the most detailed narrative of the election
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988). Pulitzer Prize winner surveys all aspects of the era
• Nevins, Allan (1950). The Emergence of Lincoln. 2 vols. the most detailed narrative; covers 1857–61
• Roy Franklin Nichols. The Disruption of American Democracy (1948), pp 348-506, focused on the Democratic party
• H. Parks, John Bell of Tennessee (Louisiana State University Press, 1950), standard biography
• Howard Cecil Perkins, ed., Northern Editorials on Secession, 2 vols. (1942), reprints hundreds of editorials
• Potter, David (1976). Impending Crisis 1848–1861. ISBN 0-06-090524-7.
• Rhodes, James Ford (1920). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. vol. 2, ch. 11. highly detailed narrative covering 1856–60
• Stampp, Kenneth M. (1950). And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860–1861., focus on immediate aftermath of election

External links

• 1860 election: State-by-state Popular vote results
• 1860 popular vote by counties
• Wrong way elections table at the Center for Range Voting
• Election of 1860
• Electoral Map from 1860
• Lincoln's election - details
• Report on 1860 Republican convention
• U.S. Department of State infoUSA site
• Overview of Constitutional Union National Convention
• How close was the 1860 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University
• Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• 1860 Republican Platform