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United States presidential election, 1860

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Presidential electoral votes by state.
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Presidential electoral votes by state.

The U.S. presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War as the political system split four ways as it proved unable to hold the nation together. The nation had been divided through most of the 1850s on questions of slavery in the territories and states rights. In 1860, this issue finally came to a head, bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party to power, while it simultaneously fractured the formerly dominant Democratic Party in two.

The immediate result was the secession of seven southern states to form their own country and the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Contents

Background

Since 1856 the nation had been deeply divided along sectional lines by the Dred Scott decision, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

Nominations

Constitutional Union Party nomination

Constitutional Union poster
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Constitutional Union poster

Diehard former Whigs and Know-Nothings who felt they could not support the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party and formed the Constitutional Union Party, nominating John C. Bell of Tennessee for president and Edward Everett for vice president 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 and Cotton Whig in the Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union, with a slogan of “the Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is.”

Democratic Party nominations

The Democratic Party was divided. 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 was ahead on the first ballot, needing 57 more votes. On the 57th ballot, Douglas was still ahead, but was still 50 votes short of the nomination. In desperation, on May 3 the delegates agreed to stop voting and adjourn the convention.

They convened again in Baltimore on June 18. This time 110 southern Democrats (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 and Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia for Vice President.

The Southern Democrats reconvened in Richmond, Virginia and on June 28 nominated incumbent Vice President John Cabell Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice President.

This divide was, of course, caused by the issue of slavery. Those in the South nominated a solidly pro-slavery candidate, while those in the North nominated a candidate who maintained a middle field when discussing slavery.

Republican Party nomination

When the Republican National Convention met in mid-May, the Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston after 57 ballots. With the Democrats in disarray and with a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans were confident going into their convention in Chicago, Illinois. William H. Seward of New York was considered the frontrunner, followed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Pennsylvania's Simon Cameron.

As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that Seward, Chase, and Cameron had each alienated factions of the Republican Party. Delegates were concerned that Seward was too identified with the radical wing of the Republican Party, and Seward's 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 1840's and opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania. Cameron had little support outside Pennsylvania and was distrusted by many former Whigs because he had switched from the Whig Party to the Democratic Party before becoming a Republican.

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.

The party platform clearly stated that slavery would not be allowed to spread any farther, and also promised that tariffs protecting industry would be imposed. A law granting free homesteads in the west to settlers was also part of the platform.

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 Breckinridge 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 Breckinridge made the best showing).

Stephen Douglas became 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 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 campaign clubs like the Wide Awakes to rally their supporters. See American election campaigns in the 19th Century for campaign techniques.

Results

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 2 (St. Louis County, Missouri and Gasconade County, Missouri[link] ) of 996 counties in the entire South[link].

This election is a textbook example of how to win an electoral majority without a popular majority. While Lincoln captured less than 40% of the popular vote, the sectional divisions of the nation allowed him to capture 17 states plus 4 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 had 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.[link] Only in California, Oregon, and Illinois had Lincoln's victory margin been less than 7%.

Meanwhile, Stephen Douglas finished second in the popular vote, but due to the north-south split garnered only Missouri's 9 electoral votes and three of seven electoral votes in New Jersey, good for fourth place. Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia's electors, while Breckinridge won every other slave state except Missouri.

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[link].

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. [1860 Presidential Election Results]. [Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections] (July 27, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): [Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996]. [Official website of the National Archives]. (July 31, 2005).

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

Consequences

The election of Lincoln made South Carolina's secession from the United States a foregone conclusion. The state was long waiting for an excuse to secede and unite the southern states against the anti-slavery forces. Upon confirming that the results were final, South Carolina declared, “the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the ‘United States of America’ is hereby dissolved,” precipitating the American Civil War.

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 colspan=3
colspan=3
8 colspan=3
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

References

External links

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