Abraham Lincoln Is Elected President in a Four-Way Race

Four Candidates

The 1860 election had four main candidates. Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer from Illinois who had served one term in the House of Representatives, ran for the Republican Party, which opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. The Democratic Party had split at its convention. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was nominated by Northern Democrats, and Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky by Southern Democrats. John Bell of Tennessee ran for the Constitutional Union Party, which avoided the slavery question and stood for the Union and the Constitution.

The Result

Lincoln received about 1.87 million votes, roughly 40 percent of the national popular vote. Douglas received about 29 percent, Breckinridge about 18 percent and Bell about 13 percent. In the Electoral College, which determines the presidency, Lincoln won 180 of 303 votes, which was a majority. Breckinridge won 72, Bell 39 and Douglas 12. Lincoln carried every free state except New Jersey, where his electors shared the vote with Douglas. His name was not on the ballot in ten Southern states.

Voting and Counting

Presidential electors met in their states on December 5, 1860, and Congress counted their votes in February 1861. Under the Constitution, the new president took office on March 4, 1861. The months between the election and the inauguration were a period of rapid change. South Carolina voted to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860, and by early February 1861 six more states of the Deep South had done the same. Delegates from these states formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861.

Lincoln's Background

Lincoln, who was 51 years old, had been born in Kentucky in 1809 and had practiced law in Springfield, Illinois. He was known nationally for the 1858 debates with Douglas during their Senate campaign in Illinois, which Douglas won, and for an address at the Cooper Union in New York in February 1860. In the campaign he did not travel to speak, following the custom of the period, and others campaigned for him. He took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, and Fort Sumter was attacked in April.

How Voting Worked in 1860

In 1860 voters did not choose the president directly. They voted for electors pledged to a candidate, and the electors then cast the votes that decided the election. In every state but one, voters chose the electors. In South Carolina the state legislature chose them. Almost all voters were white men, although a few states allowed some free Black men to vote, sometimes with property requirements. Ballots were printed by the parties, not by the states, and voters usually cast a party ticket. Election Day in November had been set by a federal law of 1845 as the Tuesday after the first Monday of the month.