There were no ballots distributed for Lincoln in ten of the Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
To retain his support in the North without further alienating the South, he called for compromise. He promised he would not initiate force to maintain the Union or interfere with slavery in the states in which it already existed.
A former Whig, Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1865, Lincoln was instrumental in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional.
In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign; and became vice president after a victorious election in 1864. He did not win the 1868 Democratic presidential nomination and left office the following year.
The National convention which assembled at Baltimore on the 7th of last June, and there nominated Abraham Lincoln for re-election as President, with Andrew Johnson as Vice-president, adopted and presented to the America. Regular Democratic Ticket. Ward 8. 1864 [Boston, 1864]
1860 United States elections
| Presidential election |
|---|
| Partisan control | Republican gain |
| Popular vote margin | Republican +10.3% |
| Electoral vote |
| Abraham Lincoln (R) | 180 |
Slavery, Secession, and States' Rights. The 1860 presidential election turned on a number of issues including secession; the relationship between the federal government, states, and territories; and slavery and abolition.
Tennessee was won by the Senator John Bell (CU–Tennessee), running with the 15th Governor of Massachusetts Edward Everett, with 47.72% of the popular vote, against the 14th Vice President of the United States John Breckenridge (SD–Kentucky), running with Senator Joseph Lane, with 44.55% of the popular vote and Senator
At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. Less than 34 hours later, Union forces surrendered. Traditionally, this event has been used to mark the beginning of the Civil War.
Although a large slaveholder, Bell opposed efforts to expand slavery to the U.S. territories. He vigorously opposed Pres. James Knox Polk's Mexican War policy and voted against the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska bill (1854), and the attempt to admit Kansas as a slave state.
Citing states rights doctrine, South Carolina voted to nullify the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The escalating controversy over the expansion of slavery into the territory acquired from Mexico prompted South Carolina's secession crisis of 1850 - 51.
By about 1860, most white men without property were enfranchised. But African Americans, women, Native Americans, non-English speakers, and citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 had to fight for the right to vote in this country.
Born in a log cabin in North Carolina to nearly illiterate parents, Andrew Johnson did not master the basics of reading, grammar, or math until he met his wife at the age of seventeen. The only other man to attain the office of President with so little formal education was Abraham Lincoln.
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln's First Vice-President.
Radical leaders included Henry Winter Davis, Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin Butler, and George Sewall Boutwell in the House and Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, and Zachariah Chandler in the Senate. Henry Winter Davis.
Perhaps equally surprising was what Lincoln did after being elected President: He appointed all three rivals to his cabinet—Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Bates as attorney general.
In one of the more humorous events of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln politely rejected an offer of elephants from the King of Siam. As Lincoln points out in his reply, steam power had overtaken the need for heavy animal power of this kind.
What was Abraham Lincoln's political party?
The Election of 1860 demonstrated the divisions within the United States just before the Civil War. The election was unusual because four strong candidates competed for the presidency. Political parties of the day were in flux.
The election of the president of the United States 1860. Lincoln won the election, and had more electoral votes and more popular votes than any candidate. Since the race had four main candidates, it allowed Lincoln to get more electoral votes than he would otherwise.
