THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860

The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 virtually ensured that some Southern states would leave the Union. Lincoln campaigned on the need to contain slavery in the territories. The Democratic party split at their nominating convention, with Stephen Douglas receiving the support of Northern Democrats and John Breckinridge getting the backing of Southern Democrats. Douglas stated that the slave issue in the territories should be decided by a vote of those residing in each territory; Breckinridge proposed that slavery should be legally protected in the territories, John Bell also received some ex-Whig support as he ran as a candidate of the Constitutional Union party. Lincoln received nearly 40 percent of the popular vote and easily won the Electoral College vote.

To many Southerners, the election was an insult. A man had been elected president who virtually no one in the South had voted for. Since free states outnumbered slaves states, it was only natural that their representatives would dominate Congress and the Electoral College. Lincoln had repeatedly stated that Republicans had no interest in disturbing slavery in the South, but many Southerners did not believe him.

South Carolina was the first state to leave the Union on December 20, 1860. In the next six weeks, legislatures in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana all voted to do the same. Representatives of these seven states met in February of 1861 to create the Confederate States of America, with former moderate Jefferson Davis elected as president. The only question remaining was when the first shots between the North and the South would actually be fired.