The Election Of 1860, By George Douglas, John Breckinridge, And John Bell

Enter the presidential election of 1860, which brought these problems to a collision with dramatic consequences. The Democratic Party split into three groups along their regional lines, with each one vying for control of the party and each holding different ideas about how to deal with slavery in the West. They camps consisted of John C. Breckinride, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas; their efforts would be worthless however, as Abraham Lincoln would win for the Republican Party. Lincoln stood on the grounds that the West should be absolutely free of slavery entirely; which apparently was enough as he won the election with less than forty percent of the popular vote. On a side note about the election, fifty-nine percent of the Electoral College did vote for Lincoln;

The first election I would like to talk about is the 1860 election. This election was between four candidates but I’m only going to talk about two; Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was a U.S. politician and the leader of the democratic party. Douglas sparked popular sovereignty, which is the people who lived in the region should determine the nature of the government for themselves (and the question about slavery.)Douglas believed that the power should reside at a local level and should reflect the wishes of the people; even though he believed that, he opposed admission of Kansas as a slave state. Douglas also incorporated the doctrine in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise in 1820. In January of 1859, Douglas was re-elected senator for Illinois (Lincoln lost.) He further alienated the Buchanan administration and the South, was soon to be stripped of his power in the senate, and contributed to the division of the Democratic party.

In the late 1850’s, tension were rising between the northern states and the southern states. These tensions began long ago, but continued to rise before the election of 1860. The main topic of debate at this time was slavery. Southern states relied on slavery for economic production. Many in the north wanted to limit the spread of slavery, or outright ban it. Those opposed to slavery had numerous reasons from political to ethical and religious reasons. The election of 1860 had 4 large candidates: Abraham Lincoln, John C Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas. Abraham Lincoln won the popular vote and electoral vote and was elected president in 1860, taking over from James Buchanan. In the

The North and South both had opposite opinions about slavery, The South favored slavery because of there agricultural based economy which they needed slaves to attend to their harvests and crops, the North was against slavery because they were an industrialized nation they had no need for slavery. This debate went on and almost resulted

The election of 1860 was a crucial point in our countries history. The Tensions were high between the north and southern states and the issue of slavery was the biggest problem at the time. The election of Lincoln led to the perception that the south and its interests would lose control of the federal government and that the new government would ultimately get rid of slavery altogether.

Abraham Lincoln freely expressed his hatred for slavery and it’s expansion to Northern states, but he wasn’t calling for immediate emancipation. Despite this, Southerners’ fears that slavery would soon be abolished by Republicans reached its peak after the presidential election. Southerners viewed the presidential election of Lincoln as a virtual referendum regarding slavery. The 1860 presidential election caused fear and paranoia amongst Southerners that slavery would quickly be eradicated entirely by Lincoln and the newly formed Republican party, which ultimately illustrates the influence the election had on the outbreak of the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln was a part of the republican party. That means that he was against slavery and wanted to abolish it (document 6). So because the north agreed with his ideas, it was the north that mainly voted for him (document 7). Because the south was pro slavery and did not want it abolished, they did not like Abraham Lincoln and did not vote for him. But when he was elected, it angered the south because that meant that he could have the power to abolish slavery, and that is the second reason that the south seceded from the union.

The South seceding from the Union and the causes and effects of the secession have played a pivotal role in shaping the United States of America. The South seceding from the Union was caused by political, economic and social difference between the North and the South. These differences included the North and South having different views on slavery, states rights and politics. To this day, the United States is divided when it comes to issues such as politics, economics and race relations.

The election of November 6, 1860 in which Abraham Lincoln was elected ("Abraham Lincoln Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.) Abraham Lincoln was anti-slavery and republican. The reason why the lower half of the country didn’t like Lincoln because he was against slavery (Document Letter). Additionally they may have had a higher concentration of democrats (Document Letter). There was a large disagreement with the south and Lincoln. The majority of the north supported Lincoln. Because of this there was a lot of tension between the north and the south.

In 1860 a new president was going to be elected to the US. The newly elected president would have to deal with the issues of slavery and what to do with the west. The Democratic Party split into 3 groups and was running against Republican Nominee Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic Convention adjourned without nominating anyone. Different elements of the Democratic Party then chose their own candidates John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, who represented the Deep South Democrats, and Stephen A. Douglas, who represented the Northern and border-state Democrats. The Constitutional Union Party, comprised of former Whigs and other factions, nominated John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate. Each group had their own theories on how to change the country and avoid war. On November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. He received 1,866,452 popular votes and 180 electoral votes in the 17 of the 33 states. He did not win one southern state in the election of 1860 and wasn’t even on the ballet in the southern states. The reason that Lincoln had some many electoral votes was because he won all the northern states, which had higher populations than the southern states. In response on December 20, 1860 South Carolina declared that they would secede from the US. This happened 3 months after Lincoln was elected president the first real actions of the south separating from the north happened. They were seceding because a geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all

”The presidential election of 1860 was one of the most pivotal in U.S. history. The nation was in the grips of a national schism over the issue of slavery, and the results of this election accelerated that schism.”It changed the viewpoint of America at that time, when it showed us that Abraham Lincoln was a good man and helped America become a better country.

On the other hand, Southerners believed that slavery was a necessary evil for the expansion of America. Historian Eric Foner said, “without slavery, you could not have civilization…it freed the upper class from the need to do manual labor...and therefore gave them the time...to devote themselves to the arts and literature.” (Doc. 4a) He was attempting to convince the opposing side that slavery was required to support American culture and progress. Because the North and the South never could agree or even come to a compromise for very long, tensions rose. Even Abraham Lincoln believed that the United States wouldn’t last half free and half slave, as he stated in his famous “House Divided” speech. This foreshadowed a much bigger disagreement over the issue of slavery, the Civil

northern Republican who disliked slavery and thought it shouldn’t be expanded furthermore. Stephen Douglas was a Democrat who thought slavery should be limited. John C. Breckinridge had the exact opposite thoughts as Lincoln which is why they had the most arguments, John was a southern Democrat who wanted slavery to expand everywhere. John Bell was from the Constitutional Union and he thought that the issue over slavery could be ignored. In the election of 1860, 25 states were involved. (Ground, Each candidate had their own thoughts and would argue over whose thinking was the correct thinking. Although, the election of 1860 was a huge argument, the election of 1864 was way more different. In the election of 1864, there were only two candidates, Abraham Lincoln, our previous winner and George B. McClellan. McClellan and Lincoln’s thoughts were quite similar. Because of that, there were limited arguments between the two. Abraham Lincoln won this election with 212 electoral votes and 2.2 million popular votes. Two different elections, one same winner. Today, we have elections that

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 was a very influential event that occurred in American history and has much significance, even till this day. The debates were in contest for the United States Senate seat in Illinois. The main topic involved in the debates was based around slavery and the separation of the union because of it. Both Lincoln and Douglas refer to the U.S. Constitution in their remarks and state different opinions surrounding what they interpret the meaning of certain parts regarding slavery to be.

As a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery. He believed it was unnecessary to everyone-including Negros and Whites. However, with his stand on slavery, he held back by declaring that he had no reason to disrupt slavery where it existed. The constitution had protected states where citizens wanted slavery to exist. Lincoln knew he would not get enough support and that the four slave-holding states in the North would turn against him. As a result, the Civil War began in 1861 with more of a political purpose in keeping the union together rather than a battle for human freedom. Slaveholders could not turn to the Union’s side because slaves were valuable and played a vital role to