Election+of+1860

__**Election of 1860** Republicans__ The Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln to run with Hannibal Hamlin in the election of 1860, he was a lawyer from Illinois that became famous through the Lincoln-Douglas debates. He was well liked by the north because he had a moderate position on slavery and that helped him well, and he represented the west. The Republicans were very appealing to the North because they supported tariffs, internal improvements, a homestead bill, and the creation of the Pacific Railroad. They had also held together because they had equal views unlike the Democratic party. __Democrats__ The democratic suffered during the elections greatly due to the break-up of the party, a division between the North and the South. During the party convention in Charleston, South Carolina, southern and western state delegates had a dispute over popular sovereignty and slavery, whether to support one or the other. The convention supported popular sovereignty and eight southern states walked out of the convention and this divided the votes of the democrats. Now the Democrats were split up between the Northern and Southern Democrats. In a meeting in Baltimore the Northern democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, also from Illinois. The Southern Democrats met in Richmond and elected John C. Breckinridge from Kentucky.

__Third Party__ A third party, the Constitutional Union Party, formed of ex-Whigs nominated John Bell. They supported the Union and were never on the issue of slavery. They tried to avoid the issue of slavery to protect the Union, and they based their party on the Constitution.

__Issue__ The main issues of the election of 1860 were states' rights and slavery, these two issues led to the disunion and to the Civil War. The states' right issue goes back to the Alien and Sedition acts passed by the Federalists to put the Democratic-Republicans at bay during the Quasi-war with France. In response, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions was written that says states have the right to nullify laws passed by the federal government. This law led to the nullification crisis of 1832 that began with states nullifying tarrifs passed by the federal government. The issue began to arise again in the election of 1860. Slavery had also become one of the main issues during the election and it clearly defined the differences between the North and the South. In the south, slaves were considered to be part of the economy, and without them, they won't be able to grow their cottons or work the machines to produce the raw materials. The south needed slaves, it wasn't just considered a moral issue for the south, it was mostly for their economy to run because it required a large labor force. In the North, the abolitionists considered it a moral problem, and they wanted a quick end to release the slaves. These two issues were sectional problems, and it ran through in the election. Abraham Lincoln during the election would talk about these issues and warn that if these questions weren't answered, then it would lead to disunion.

__Results__ The Republicans with Abraham Lincoln won the election with a majority of the electoral votes, 180, and J. C. Breckinridge coming in second from the Southern Democratic party.

__Effects__ Due to Lincoln winning the election, the union began to break apart with southern states succeeding from the Union, and this will lead to the bloodiest war in the United States history, the Civil War. Southern states succeeded and created a confederacy of states in the South. The Civil War would end solve the problem to the sectional problems in the Union.

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