Election of 1860

1. The Election of 1860

2. Democrats
• Slavery issue finally splits party
– Had united under popular sovereignty.
– Sounded democratic, fair, and practical.

3. Democrats are Split
John Breckinridge
Southern Dem
Stephen Douglas
Northern Dem

4. Republicans
• The leading political organization in
the North
– Moderate
– Opposed the expansion of slavery
– Confining slavery = extinction

5. Republicans
• The leading political organization in
the North
– Saw egitimacy of the fugitive slave
clause of the Constitution
– Denounced John Brown

6. Republicans
Abraham Lincoln

7. Constitutional Union party
John Bell

8. Abraham Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Union Party
John Breckinridge
Southern Dem
Stephen Douglas
Northern Dem

9. The Election of 1860
• The contest was actually two
elections,
– one in the North (Lincoln vs. Douglas)
– one in the South (Breckinridge vs. Bell)
• Lincoln did not appear on the ballot
in most southern states
• No candidate captured a single state
in the opposite section.

10. The Election of 1860
• Lincoln did not appear on the ballot
in most southern states
• No candidate captured a single state
in the opposite section.

12. Robert Toombs
• “Never permit this Federal Government to
pass into the traitorous hands of the Black
Republican party. It has already declared
war against you and your institutions. It
every day commits acts of war against you;
; it has already compelled you to arm for
your defence……Defend yourselves ; the
enemy is at your door ; wait not to meet
him at the hearthstone, — meet him at the
door-sill, and drive him from the temple of
liberty, or pull down its pillars and involve
him in a common ruin."