Election of Abraham Lincoln (1860)
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The United States had been divided during the 1850's on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, these issues split the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern groups, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. The Republican Party, dominant in the North, took advantage of this split and secured enough electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House without support from the South. Before Lincoln's inauguration, seven Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy. Secessionists from four other Border states joined the rebellion at Lincoln's call to restore federal property in the South. Following South Carolina's secessionist movement, the Union admitted Kansas, West Virginia, and Nevada as free-soil states. Nevertheless, the Civil War disrupted the electoral process to the extent that no Presidential Electoral votes were recognized from all eleven Southern states in 1864.
Main Ideas:
- New political parties had arose (Republican, Constitutional union, and 2 democratic parties)
- Republicans took advantage of the democratic party split and gained control of the white house
- Final straw for south
- 11 states seceded before the election
- Launched the Civil War