1860 United States presidential election

For related races, see 1860 United States elections.

1860 United States presidential election

November 6, 1860
All 303 electoral votes of the Electoral College 152 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	81.2% 2.3 pp
x200px 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%   x200px x200px Nominee John Bell Stephen A. Douglas Party Constitutional Union Northern Democratic Home state Tennessee Illinois Running mate Edward Everett Herschel V. Johnson Electoral vote 39 12 States carried 3 1 Popular vote 590,901 1,380,202 Percentage 12.6% 29.5%
Template:United States presidential election, 1860 imagemap Presidential Election 1860. Red shows states won by Lincoln/Hamlin, green by Breckinridge/Lane, orange by Bell/Everett, and blue by Douglas/Johnson Numbers are Electoral College votes in each state by the 1850 Census.
President before election James Buchanan Democratic Elected President Abraham Lincoln Republican

In the 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged triumphant. The election of Lincoln served as the primary catalyst of the American Civil War.

The United States had become increasingly divided during the 1850s over sectional disagreements, especially regarding the extension of slavery into the territories. Incumbent President James Buchanan, like his predecessor Franklin Pierce, was a northern Democrat with sympathies for the South. During the mid-to-late 1850s, the anti-slavery Republican Party became a major political force in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Supreme Court's decision in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. By 1860, the Republican Party had replaced the defunct Whig Party as the major opposition to the Democrats. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to avoid secession by pushing aside the issue of slavery.

The 1860 Republican National Convention nominated Lincoln, a moderate former Congressman from Illinois, as its standard-bearer. The Republican Party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states, but opposed the further extension of slavery into the territories. The first 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned without agreeing on a nominee, but a second convention nominated Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for president. Douglas's support for the concept of popular sovereignty, which called for each individual territory to decide on the status of slavery, alienated many Southern Democrats. The Southern Democrats, with the support of President Buchanan, held their own convention and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for president. The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention nominated a ticket led by former Senator John Bell of Tennessee.

Despite minimal support in the South, Lincoln won a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote. The divisions among the Republicans' opponents were not in themselves decisive in ensuring the Republican capture of the White House, as Lincoln received absolute majorities in states that combined for a majority of the electoral votes. Lincoln's main opponent in the North was Douglas, who finished second in several states but only won the slave state of Missouri and three electors from the free state of New Jersey. Bell won three Southern states, while Breckinridge swept the remainder of the South. The election of Lincoln led to the secession of several states in the South, and the Civil War soon began, with the Battle of Fort Sumter. The election was the first of six consecutive victories for the Republican Party.

Nominations

The 1860 presidential election conventions were unusually tumultuous, due in particular to a split in the Democratic Party that led to rival conventions.

Democratic (Northern Democratic) Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Democratic National Conventions

Democratic Party Ticket, 1860
Stephen A. Douglas	Herschel V. Johnson
for President	for Vice President
200x200px	200x200px
U.S. Senator from Illinois (1847–1861)	41st Governor of Georgia (1853–1857)
Campaign

Northern Democratic candidates:

• Stephen Douglas, senator from Illinois
• James Guthrie, former treasury secretary from Kentucky
• Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, senator from Virginia
• Joseph Lane, senator from Oregon
• Daniel S. Dickinson, former senator from New York
• Andrew Johnson, senator from Tennessee

Democratic Party candidates gallery

• BradyHandy-StephenADouglas restored.jpg

  Senator Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois

• 

  Former Treasury Secretary James Guthrie

• RobertMercerTaliaferroHunter.png

  Senator Robert M. T. Hunter from Virginia

• 

  Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon

• 

  Former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson from New York

• 

  Senator Andrew Johnson
  from Tennessee

File:St Andrew's Hall, Charleston.jpg

The South Carolina Institute located in Charleston. The Institute hosted the Democratic National Convention and December Secession Convention in 1860.

At the Democratic National Convention held in Institute Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860, 51 Southern Democrats walked out over a platform dispute. The extreme pro-slavery "Fire-Eater" William Lowndes Yancey and the Alabama delegation first left the hall, followed by the delegates of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, three of the four delegates from Arkansas, and one of the three delegates from Delaware.

Six candidates were nominated: Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois, James Guthrie from Kentucky, Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter from Virginia, Joseph Lane from Oregon, Daniel S. Dickinson from New York, and Andrew Johnson from Tennessee. Three other candidates, Isaac Toucey from Connecticut, James Pearce from Maryland, and Jefferson Davis from Mississippi (the future president of the Confederate States) also received votes.

File:1860NorthernDemocraticPartyPoster.png

Douglas/Johnson campaign poster

Douglas, a moderate on the slavery issue who favored "popular sovereignty", was ahead on the first ballot, but needed 56.5 more votes to secure the nomination. On the 57th ballot, Douglas was still ahead, but 51.5 votes short of the nomination. In desperation, the delegates agreed on May 3 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 extending slavery into territories whose voters did not want it. Some considered Horatio Seymour a compromise candidate for the National Democratic nomination at the reconvening convention in Baltimore. Seymour wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper declaring unreservedly that he was not a candidate for either spot on the ticket. After two ballots, the remaining Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois for president.

Benjamin Fitzpatrick from Alabama was nominated for vice president, but he refused the nomination. That nomination ultimately went instead to Herschel Vespasian Johnson from Georgia.

Southern Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Democratic National Conventions

Southern Democratic Party Ticket, 1860
John C. Breckinridge	Joseph Lane
for President	for Vice President
14th Vice President of the United States (1857–1861)	U.S. Senator from Oregon (1859–1861)
Campaign

Southern Democratic candidates:

• John C. Breckinridge, Vice President of the United States
• Daniel S. Dickinson, former senator from New York
• Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, senator from Virginia
• Joseph Lane, senator from Oregon
• Jefferson Davis, senator from Mississippi

Southern Democratic Party candidates gallery

• 

  Vice President John C. Breckinridge

• 

  Former Senator
  Daniel S. Dickinson from New York

• RobertMercerTaliaferroHunter.png

  Senator
  Robert M. T. Hunter from Virginia
  (declined to be nominated)

• 

  Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon
  (declined to be nominated)

• 

  Senator Jefferson Davis from Mississippi
  (declined to be nominated)

File:MDINST.jpg

Maryland Institute Hall, Baltimore. Here bolting delegates nominated Breckinridge before Richmond vote

The Charleston bolters reconvened in Richmond, Virginia on June 11. When the Democrats reconvened in Baltimore, they rejoined (except South Carolina and Florida, who stayed in Richmond).

When the convention seated two replacement delegations on June 18, they bolted again, now accompanied by nearly all other Southern delegates, as well as erstwhile Convention chair Caleb Cushing, a New Englander and former member of Franklin Pierce's cabinet. This larger group met immediately in Baltimore's Institute Hall, with Cushing again presiding. They adopted the pro-slavery platform rejected at Charleston, and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge for president, and Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon for vice president.

Yancey and some (less than half) of the bolters, almost entirely from the Lower South, met on June 28 in Richmond, along with the South Carolina and Florida delegations. This convention affirmed the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane.

Besides the Democratic Parties in the southern states, the Breckinridge/Lane ticket was also supported by the Buchanan administration. Buchanan's own continued prestige in his home state of Pennsylvania ensured that Breckinridge would be the principal Democratic candidate in that populous state. Breckinridge was the last sitting vice president nominated for president until Richard Nixon in 1960.

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Republican National Convention

Republican Party Ticket, 1860
Abraham Lincoln	Hannibal Hamlin
for President	for Vice President
200x200px
Former U.S. Representative for Illinois's 7th (1847–1849)	U.S. Senator from Maine (1848–1857 & 1857–1861)
Campaign

Republican candidates:

• Abraham Lincoln, former representative from Illinois
• William Seward, senator from New York
• Simon Cameron, senator from Pennsylvania
• Salmon P. Chase, governor of Ohio
• Edward Bates, former representative from Missouri
• John McLean, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Benjamin Wade, senator from Ohio
• William L. Dayton, former senator from New Jersey

Republican Party candidates gallery

• Abraham Lincoln O-26 by Hesler, 1860 (cropped).jpg

  Former Representative Abraham Lincoln
  from Illinois

• William Henry Seward - edited.jpg

  Senator William H. Seward from New York

• Smn Cameron-SecofWar.jpg

  Senator Simon Cameron
  from Pennsylvania

• Samuel Portland Chase.jpg

  Governor Salmon P. Chase
  of Ohio

• Edward Bates - Brady-Handy.jpg

  Former Representative Edward Bates from Missouri

• John McLean - History of Ohio.jpg

  Associate Justice John McLean

• Benjamin F Wade - Brady-Handy.jpg

  Senator Benjamin Wade from Ohio

• William L. Dayton.jpg

  Former Senator William L. Dayton from New Jersey

File:Chicago Wigwam.png

Chicago Wigwam, Republican Convention

The Republican National Convention met in mid-May 1860, after the Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans felt confident going into their convention in Chicago. William H. Seward from New York was considered the front-runner, followed by Abraham Lincoln from Illinois, Salmon P. Chase from 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. He had also opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania, and—critically—had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. Bates outlined his positions on the 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 for president on the third ballot on May 18, 1860. Senator Hannibal Hamlin from Maine was nominated for vice-president, defeating Cassius Clay from Kentucky.

The party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states, but opposed slavery in the territories. The platform promised tariffs protecting industry and workers, a Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a transcontinental railroad. There was no mention of Mormonism (which had been condemned in the Party's 1856 platform), the Fugitive Slave Act, personal liberty laws, or the Dred Scott decision. While the Seward forces were disappointed at the nomination of a little-known western upstart, they rallied behind Lincoln. Abolitionists, however, were angry at the selection of a moderate and had little faith in Lincoln.

Constitutional Union Party nomination

Main article: 1860 Constitutional Union Convention

Constitutional Union Party Ticket, 1860
John Bell	Edward Everett
for President	for Vice President
200x200px
Former U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1847–1859)	Former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1853–1854)
Campaign

Constitutional Union candidates:

• John Bell, former senator from Tennessee
• Sam Houston, governor of Texas
• John J. Crittenden, senator from Kentucky
• Edward Everett, former senator from Massachusetts
• William A. Graham, former senator from North Carolina
• William C. Rives, former senator from Virginia

• John-bell-brady-handy-cropped restored.jpg

  Former Senator John Bell of Tennessee

• 

  Governor Sam Houston of Texas

• 

  Senator John J. Crittenden from Kentucky

• 

  Former Senator Edward Everett from Massachusetts

• 

  Former Senator William A. Graham from North Carolina

• 

  Former Senator William C. Rives from Virginia

File:Bell Everett Campaign Poster 1860.jpg

A Constitutional Union campaign poster, 1860, portraying John Bell and Edward Everett, respectively the candidates for President and Vice-President. Once Lincoln was inaugurated and called up the militia, Bell supported the secession of Tennessee. In 1863, Everett dedicated the new cemetery at Gettysburg.

The Constitutional Union Party was formed by remnants of both the defunct Know Nothing and Whig Parties who were unwilling to join either the Republicans or the Democrats. The new party's members hoped to stave off Southern secession by avoiding the slavery issue. They met in the Eastside District Courthouse of Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice-president at the convention on May 9, 1860, one week before Lincoln.

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 Millard 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."

Liberty (Union) Party nomination

Liberty (Union) candidates:

• Gerrit Smith, former representative from New York

Liberty Party (Radical Abolitionists, Union) candidates gallery

• 

  Former Representative Gerrit Smith from New York

By 1860, very little remained of the Liberty Party, after most of its membership left to join the Free Soil Party in 1848 and nearly all of what remained of it joined the Republicans in 1854. The remaining party was also called the Radical Abolitionists. A convention of one hundred delegates was held in Convention Hall, Syracuse, New York, on August 29, 1860. Delegates were in attendance from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Several of the delegates were women.

Gerrit Smith, a prominent abolitionist and the 1848 presidential nominee of the original Liberty Party, had sent a letter in which he stated that his health had been so poor that he had not been able to be away from home since 1858. Nonetheless, he remained popular in the party because he had helped inspire some of John Brown's supporters at the Raid on Harpers Ferry. In his letter, Smith donated $50 to pay for the printing of ballots in the various states.

There was quite a spirited contest between the friends of Gerrit Smith and William Goodell in regard to the nomination for the presidency. In spite of his professed ill health, Gerrit Smith was nominated for president and Samuel McFarland from Pennsylvania was nominated for vice president.

In Ohio, a slate of presidential electors pledged to Smith ran with the name of the Union Party.

People's Party nomination

• 

  Governor Sam Houston of Texas

The People's Party was a loose association of the supporters of Governor Samuel Houston. On April 20, 1860, the party held what it termed a national convention to nominate Houston for president on the San Jacinto Battlefield in Texas. Houston's supporters at the gathering did not nominate a vice-presidential candidate, since they expected later gatherings to carry out that function. Later mass meetings were held in northern cities, such as New York City on May 30, 1860, but they too failed to nominate a vice-presidential candidate. Houston, never enthusiastic about running for the Presidency, soon became convinced that he had no chance of winning and that his candidacy would only make it easier for the Republican candidate to win. He withdrew from the race on August 16, and urged the formation of a Unified "Union" ticket in opposition to Lincoln.

Election for disunion

In their campaigning, Bell and Douglas both claimed that disunion would not necessarily follow a Lincoln election. Nonetheless, loyal army officers in Virginia, Kansas and South Carolina warned Lincoln of military preparations to the contrary. Secessionists threw their support behind Breckinridge in an attempt either to force the anti-Republican candidates to coordinate their electoral votes or throw the election into the House of Representatives, where the selection of the president would be made by the representatives elected in 1858, before the Republican majorities in both House and Senate achieved in 1860 were seated in the new 37th Congress. Mexican War hero Winfield Scott suggested to Lincoln that he assume the powers of a commander-in-chief before inauguration. However, historian Bruce Chadwick observes that Lincoln and his advisors ignored the widespread alarms and threats of secession as mere election trickery.

Indeed, voting in the South was not as monolithic as the Electoral College map would make it seem. Economically, culturally, and politically, the South was made up of three regions. In the states of the "Upper" South, later known as the "Border States" (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri along with the Kansas territories), unionist popular votes were scattered among Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell, to form a majority in all four. In the "Middle" South states, there was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist (Bell and Douglas) vote approached a majority. Texas was the only Middle South state that Breckinridge carried convincingly. In three of the six "Deep" South states, unionists (Bell and Douglas) won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana or neared it in Alabama. Breckinridge convincingly carried only three of the six states of the Deep South (South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi). These three Deep South states were all among the four Southern states with the lowest white populations; together, they held only nine percent of Southern whites.

Among the slave states, the three states with the highest voter turnouts voted the most one-sided. Texas, with five percent of the total wartime South's population, voted 75 percent Breckinridge. Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth the total population, voted 73 percent pro-union Bell, Douglas and Lincoln. In comparison, the six states of the Deep South making up one-fourth the Confederate voting population, split 57 percent Breckinridge versus 43 percent for the two pro-union candidates. The four states that were admitted to the Confederacy after Fort Sumter held almost half its population, and voted a narrow combined majority of 53 percent for the pro-union candidates.

In the eleven states that would later declare their secession from the Union and be controlled by Confederate armies, ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia, where he received 1,929 votes (1.15 percent of the total). Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the votes Lincoln received were cast in border counties of what would soon become West Virginia – the future state accounted for 1,832 of Lincoln's 1,929 votes.

Lincoln received no votes at all in 121 of the state's then-145 counties (including 31 of the 50 that would form West Virginia), received a single vote in three counties and received ten or fewer votes in nine of the 24 counties where he polled votes. Lincoln's best results, by far, were in the four counties that comprised the state's northern panhandle, a region which had long felt alienated from Richmond and which was economically and culturally linked to its neighbors Ohio and Pennsylvania and which would become the key driver in the successful effort to form a separate state. Hancock County (Virginia's northernmost at the time) returned Lincoln's best result – he polled over 40% of the vote there and finished in second place (Lincoln polled only eight votes fewer than Breckinridge). Of the 97 votes cast for Lincoln in the state's post-1863 boundaries, 93 were polled in four counties (all along the Potomac River) and four were tallied in the coastal city of Portsmouth.

Some key differences between modern elections and the those of the mid-nineteenth century are that at the time, there was no secret ballot anywhere in the United States, that candidates were responsible for printing and distributing their own ballots (a service that was typically done by supportive newspaper publishers) and that in order to distribute valid ballots for a presidential election in a state, candidates needed citizens eligible to vote in that state who would pledge to vote for the candidate in the Electoral College. This meant that even if a voter had access to a ballot for Lincoln, casting one in favor of him in a strongly pro-slavery county would incur (at minimum) social ostracization (of course, casting a vote for Breckinridge in a strongly abolitionist county ran a voter the same risk). In ten southern slave states, no citizen would publicly pledge to vote for Abraham Lincoln. In most of Virginia, no publisher would print ballots for Lincoln's pledged electors.

In the four slave states that did not secede (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware), Lincoln came in fourth in every state except Delaware (where he finished third). Within the fifteen slave states, Lincoln won only two counties out of 996, Missouri's St. Louis and Gasconade Counties. In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes at all in twelve of the fourteen slave states with a popular vote (these being the same states as in the 1860 election, plus Missouri and Virginia).

Results

Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
the Capitol, March 4, 1861

state Election results
by Electoral College vote

The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860, and was noteworthy for exaggerated sectionalism and voter enthusiasm in a country that was soon to dissolve into civil war. Voter turnout was 81.2%, the highest in American history up to that time, and the second-highest overall (exceeded only in the election of 1876). Since Andrew Jackson had won re-election in 1832, all six subsequent presidents had only won one-term, while the last four of those had won with a popular vote under 51 percent.

Results by county, with darker shades indicating larger percentages for the winning candidate. Red is for Lincoln (Republican), blue is for Douglas (Northern Democratic), green is for Breckinridge (Southern Democratic), yellow is for Bell (Constitutional Union), and purple is for "Fusion" (Non-Republican/Democratic Fusion). South Carolina had no popular vote.

Lincoln won the Electoral College with less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide by carrying states above the Mason–Dixon line and north of the Ohio River, plus the states of California and Oregon in the Far West. Unlike every preceding president-elect, Lincoln did not carry even one slave state.

Ballots were not distributed for Lincoln in ten of the southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Lincoln was the first President-elect to poll no votes in any state which had a popular vote. It should be further noted that, prior to introduction of the secret ballot in the 1880s, the concept of ballot access did not exist in the sense it does today in that there was no standardized state-issued ballot for a candidate to "appear" on. Instead, presidential ballots were printed and distributed by agents of the candidates and their parties, who organized slates of would-be electors publicly pledged to vote for a particular candidate. The 1860 presidential election was the only such occasion prior to the introduction of the secret ballot where a winning candidate was so unpopular in a particular region that it was impossible to organize and print ballots for a slate of eligible voters pledged to vote for that candidate in every state.

Since 1860, Republican presidential candidates have managed to poll votes in every state (other than unreconstructed Southern states prior to 1872) whereas national Democratic candidates have occasionally failed to appear on all state ballots since the introduction of the secret ballot, including three elections where the Democratic candidate won the presidency, but never to the same extent as in 1860.

Lincoln won the second-lowest share of the popular vote among all winning presidential candidates in U.S. history. Moreover, Lincoln's share of the popular vote would have been even less if there had been a popular vote in South Carolina. The Republican victory resulted from the concentration of votes in the free states, which together controlled a majority of the presidential electors. Lincoln's strategy was deliberately focused, in collaboration with Republican Party Chairman Thurlow Weed, on expanding on the states Frémont won four years earlier. New York was critical with 35 Electoral College votes, 11.5 percent of the total; with Pennsylvania (27) and Ohio (23), a candidate could collect more than half (85) of the votes needed. The Wide Awakes young Republican men's organization massively expanded registered voter lists, and although Lincoln was not even on the ballot in most southern states, population increases in the free states had far exceeded those seen in the slave states for many years before the election of 1860, hence free states dominated in the Electoral College.

The split in the Democratic party is sometimes held responsible for Lincoln's victory, however, despite the fact that Lincoln won the election with less than forty percent of the popular vote, much of the anti-Republican vote was "wasted" in Southern states where no ballots for Lincoln were circulated. At most, a single opponent nationwide would only have deprived Lincoln of California, Oregon, and four New Jersey electors, whose combined total of eleven electoral votes would have made no difference to the result; every other state won by the Republicans was won by a clear majority of the vote. In the four states of New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey where anti-Lincoln votes did combine into fusion tickets, Lincoln still won three and split New Jersey. If the opposition had formed fusion tickets in every state, Lincoln still would have received 169 electoral votes, 17 more than the 152 required to win the Electoral College.

Like Lincoln, Breckinridge and Bell won no electoral votes outside of their respective sections. While Bell retired to his family business, quietly supporting his state's secession, Breckinridge served as a Confederate general. He finished second in the Electoral College with 72 votes, carrying eleven of fifteen slave states (including South Carolina, whose electors were chosen by the state legislature, not popular vote). Breckinridge stood a distant third in national popular vote at eighteen percent, but accrued 50 to 75 percent in the first seven states that would form the Confederate States of America. He took nine of the eleven states that eventually joined, plus the border slave states of Delaware and Maryland, losing only Virginia and Tennessee. Breckinridge received very little support in the free states, showing some strength only in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Bell carried three slave states (Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia) and lost Maryland by only 722 votes. Nevertheless, he finished a remarkable second in all slave states won by Breckinridge or Douglas. He won 45 to 47 percent in Maryland, Tennessee and North Carolina and canvassed respectably with 36 to 40 percent in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. Bell himself had hoped that he would take over the former support of the extinct Whig Party in free states, but the majority of this support went to Lincoln. Thus, except for running mate Everett's home state of Massachusetts, and California, Bell received even less support in the free states than did Breckinridge, and consequently came in last in the national popular vote at 12 percent.

Douglas was the only candidate who won electoral votes in both slave and free states (free New Jersey and slave Missouri). His support was the most widespread geographically; he finished second behind Lincoln in the popular vote with 29.5 percent, but last in the Electoral College. Douglas attained a 28 to 47 percent share in the states of the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Trans-Mississippi West, but slipped to 19 to 39 percent in New England. Outside his regional section, Douglas took 15 to 17 percent of the popular vote total in the slave states of Kentucky, Alabama, and Louisiana, then 10 percent or less in the nine remaining slave states. Douglas, in his "Norfolk Doctrine", reiterated in North Carolina, promised to keep the Union together by coercion if states proceeded to secede. The popular vote for Lincoln and Douglas combined was seventy percent of the turnout.

The 1860 Republican ticket was the first successful national ticket that did not feature a Southerner, and the election marked the end of Southern political dominance in the United States. Between 1789 and 1860, Southerners had been president for two-thirds of the era, and had held the offices of Speaker of the House and President pro tem of the Senate during much of that time. Moreover, since 1791, Southerners had comprised a majority of the Supreme Court.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a)		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote
Abraham Lincoln	Republican	Illinois	1,865,908	39.82%	180	Hannibal Hamlin	Maine	180
John C. Breckinridge	Southern Democratic	Kentucky	848,019	18.10%	72	Joseph Lane	Oregon	72
John Bell	Constitutional Union/Whig	Tennessee	590,901	12.61%	39	Edward Everett	Massachusetts	39
Stephen A. Douglas	Northern Democratic	Illinois	1,380,202	29.46%	12	Herschel Vespasian Johnson	Georgia	12
Other			531	0.01%	—	Other		—
Total			4,685,561	100%	303			303
Needed to win					152			152

Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

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

Popular vote
Lincoln			39.82%
Douglas			29.46%
Breckinridge			18.10%
Bell			12.61%
Others			0.01%

Electoral vote
Lincoln			59.41%
Breckinridge			23.76%
Bell			12.87%
Douglas			3.96%

Geography of results

Cartographic gallery

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing

  Map of presidential election results by county

• RepublicanPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Republican presidential election results by county

• NorthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Northern Democratic presidential election results by county

• SouthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Southern Democratic presidential election results by county

• ConstitutionalUnionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Constitutional Union presidential election results by county

• FusionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of "Fusion" slate presidential election results by county

• CartogramPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of presidential election results by county

• CartogramRepublicanPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county

• CartogramNorthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Northern Democratic presidential election results by county

• CartogramSouthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Southern Democratic presidential election results by county

• CartogramConstitutionalUnionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Constitutional Union presidential election results by county

• CartogramFusionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of "Fusion" slate presidential election results by county

Results by state

Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.

		Abraham Lincoln Republican			Stephen Douglas (Northern) Democratic			John Breckinridge (Southern) Democratic			John Bell Constitutional Union			Fusion (Non-Republican) (Democratic Fusion)			Margin		State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	#
Alabama	9	no ballots			0001361813,618	15.1	-	0004866948,669	54.0	9	27,835	30.9	-	no ballots			-20,834	-23.1	90,122	AL
Arkansas	4	no ballots			5,357	9.9	-	28,732	53.1	4	20,063	37.0	-	no ballots			-28,732	-16.1	54,152	AR
California	4	38,733	32.3	4	37,999	31.7	-	33,969	28.4	-	9,111	7.6	-	no ballots			734	0.6	119,827	CA
Connecticut	6	43,486	53.86	6	17,364	21.50	-	16,558	20.51	-	3,337	4.13	-	no ballots			28,057	37.5	80,745	CT
Delaware	3	3,822	23.7	-	1,066	6.6	-	7,339	45.5	3	3,888	24.1	-	no ballots			-3,451	-21.4	16,115	DE
Florida	3	no ballots			223	1.7	-	8,277	62.2	3	4,801	36.1	-	no ballots			-3,476	-26.1	13,301	FL
Georgia	10	no ballots			11,581	10.9	-	52,176	48.9	10	42,960	40.3	-	no ballots			-9,216	-8.6	106,717	GA
Illinois	11	172,171	50.7	11	160,215	47.2	-	2,331	0.7	-	4,914	1.4	-	no ballots			11,956	3.5	339,666	IL
Indiana	13	139,033	51.1	13	115,509	42.4	-	12,295	4.5	-	5,306	1.9	-	no ballots			23,524	8.7	272,143	IN
Iowa	4	70,302	54.6	4	55,639	43.2	-	1,035	0.8	-	1,763	1.4	-	no ballots			14,663	13.4	128,739	IA
Kentucky	12	1,364	0.9	-	25,651	17.5	-	53,143	36.3	-	66,058	45.2	12	no ballots			12,915	-8.9	146,216	KY
Louisiana	6	no ballots			7,625	15.1	-	22,681	44.9	6	20,204	40.0	-	no ballots			-2,477	-4.9	50,510	LA
Maine	8	62,811	62.2	8	29,693	29.4	-	6,368	6.3	-	2,046	2.0	-	no ballots			33,118	32.8	100,918	ME
Maryland	8	2,294	2.5	-	5,966	6.4	-	42,482	45.9	8	41,760	45.1	-	no ballots			-722	-0.8	92,502	MD
Massachusetts	13	106,684	62.9	13	34,370	20.3	-	6,163	3.6	-	22,331	13.2	-	no ballots			72,314	42.6	169,876	MA
Michigan	6	88,450	57.23	6	64,889	41.99	-	805	0.52	-	405	0.26	-	no ballots			23,561	15.25	154,549	MI
Minnesota	4	22,069	63.4	4	11,920	34.3	-	748	2.2	-	50	0.1	-	no ballots			10,149	29.1	34,787	MN
Mississippi	7	no ballots			3,282	4.7	-	40,768	59.0	7	25,045	36.2	-	no ballots			-15,723	-22.8	69,095	MS
Missouri	9	17,028	10.3	-	58,801	35.5	9	31,362	18.9	-	58,372	35.3	-	no ballots			-429	-0.2	165,563	MO
New Hampshire	5	37,519	56.9	5	25,887	39.3	-	2,125	3.2	-	412	0.6	-	no ballots			-11,632	20.6	65,943	NH
New Jersey	7	58,346	48.1	4	no ballots		3	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	62,869	51.9	-	-4,523	-3.8	121,215	NJ
New York	35	362,646	53.7	35	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	312,510	46.3	-	50,136	7.4	675,156	NY
North Carolina	10	no ballots			2,737	2.8	-	48,846	50.5	10	45,129	46.7	-	no ballots			-3,717	-3.8	96,712	NC
Ohio	23	221,809	51.24	23	187,421	42.30	-	11,303	2.61	-	12,193	2.82	-	no ballots			34,388	7.94	432,862	OH
Oregon	3	5,344	36.20	3	4,131	27.99	-	5,074	34.37	-	212	1.44	-	no ballots			270	1.83	14,761	OR
Pennsylvania	27	268,030	56.3	27	16,765	3.5	-	no ballots			12,776	2.7	-	178,871	37.5	-	89,159	18.8	476,442	PA
Rhode Island	4	12,244	61.4	4	7,707	38.6	-	no ballots			no ballots			no ballots			4,537	22.8	19,951	RI
South Carolina	8	no popular vote			no popular vote			no popular vote		8	no popular vote			no popular vote			-	-	-	SC
Tennessee	12	no ballots			11,281	7.7	-	65,097	44.6	-	69,728	47.7	12	no ballots			-4,631	-3.1	146,106	TN
Texas	4	no ballots			18	0.03	-	47,454	75.47	4	15,383	24.50	-	no ballots			-32,110	-50.97	63,004	TX
Vermont	5	33,808	75.86	5	8,649	19.41	-	1,866	4.19	-	217	0.49	-	no ballots			25,159	56.45	44,566	VT
Virginia	15	1,887	1.1	-	16,198	9.7	-	74,325	44.5	-	74,481	44.6	15	no ballots			-156	-0.1	166,891	VA
Wisconsin	5	86,113	56.59	5	65,021	42.73	-	887	0.58	-	161	0.11	-	no ballots			21,092	13.86	152,179	WI
TOTALS:	303	1,855,993	39.65	180	1,006,583	21.50	12	673,701	14.39	72	590,268	12.61	39	554,250	11.84	0			4,681,335	US
TO WIN:	152

Trigger for the Civil War

See also: Origins of the American Civil War and Presidency of James Buchanan § Secession

Lincoln's victory and imminent inauguration as President was the immediate cause for declarations of secession by seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas), from 20 December 1860 to 1 February 1861. These states then formed the "Confederate States of America".

Several other states also considered declaring secession at this time:

• Missouri convened a secession convention, which voted against secession and adjourned permanently.
• Arkansas convened a secession convention, which voted against secession and adjourned temporarily.

• Virginia convened a secession convention, which voted against secession, but remained in session.
• Tennessee held a referendum on having a secession convention, which failed.
• North Carolina held a referendum on having a secession convention, which failed.

All of this secessionist activity was motivated by fear for the institution of slavery in the South. If the President (and by extension appointed Federal officials in the South, such as US District Attorneys, US Marshals, postmasters, and Federal judges) opposed slavery, slavery might collapse. There were fears that abolitionist agents would infiltrate the South and foment slave insurrections. (Noted secessionist William Lowndes Yancey, speaking at New York's Cooper Institute in October 1860, asserted that with abolitionists in power, "Emissaries will percolate between master [and] slave as water between the crevices of rocks underground. They will be found everywhere, with strychnine to put in our wells.") Less radical Southerners thought that with Northern anti-slave dominance of the Federal government, slavery would eventually be abolished, regardless of present constitutional limits.

Bertram Wyatt-Brown argues that secessionists desired independence as necessary for their honor. They could no longer tolerate Northern state attitudes that regarded slave ownership as a great sin and Northern politicians who insisted on stopping the spread of slavery.

Another bloc of Southerners resented Northern criticism of slavery and restrictions on slavery, but opposed secession as dangerous and unnecessary. However, these "conditional Unionists" also hoped that when faced with secession, Northerners would stifle anti-slavery rhetoric and accept pro-slavery rules for the Territories. It was this group which prevented immediate secession in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Lincoln took office on 4 March 1861. He took no action against the secessionists in the seven "Confederate" states, but also declared that secession had no legal validity and refused to surrender Federal property in those states. (He also reiterated his opposition to slavery anywhere in the Territories.) This stand-off continued until mid-April, when Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Confederate troops to bombard and capture Fort Sumter.

Lincoln then called for troops to put down rebellion. This wiped out the possibility that the crisis could be resolved by compromise. Nearly all "conditional Unionists" joined with the secessionists. The Virginia convention and the reconvened Arkansas convention both declared secession, as did the legislatures of Tennessee and North Carolina; all four states joined the Confederacy.

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• Electoral history of Abraham Lincoln
• History of the United States (1849–1865)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• John Hanks
• Third Party System
• 1860 and 1861 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1860 and 1861 United States Senate elections
• First inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

Bibliography

• Decredico, Mary A. "Sectionalism and the Secession Crisis," in John B. Boles, ed., A Companion to the American South (2004) pp. 231-248, on the historiography of Southend motivations
• Fuller, A. James, ed. The Election of 1860 Reconsidered (Kent State Univ Press, 2013); 288pp; essays by scholars; online
• Grinspan, Jon, "'Young Men for War': The Wide Awakes and Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign," Journal of American History 96.2 (2009): online.
• Holt, Michael F. The Election of 1860: "A Campaign Fraught with Consequences (2017)
• Johannsen, Robert W. Stephen A. Douglas (1973), standard biography
• along with Nevins, the most detailed narrative of the election
• Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union (10 volumes, Macmillan, 1979–2018), detailed scholarly coverage of every election, 1848 to 1864.
• Nichols, Roy Franklin. The Disruption of American Democracy (1948), pp. 348–506, focused on the Democratic party
• Parks, Joseph Howard. John Bell of Tennessee (1950), standard biography
• vol. 2, ch. 11. highly detailed narrative covering 1856–60

External links

• United States presidential election of 1860 at Encyclopædia Britannica
• 1860 election: State-by-state Popular vote results
• 1860 popular vote by counties
• United States Presidential Election of 1860 in Encyclopedia Virginia
• Election of 1860
• Electoral Map from 1860
• Abraham Lincoln: Original Letters and Manuscripts, 1860 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Lincoln's election – details
• Report on 1860 Republican convention
• Overview of Constitutional Union National Convention
•  — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Presidential Election of 1860: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Bill Bigelow, "The Election of 1860 Role Play", 12-page lesson plan for high school students, Zinn Education Project/Rethinking Schools
• Election of 1860 in Counting the Votes