What was the election of 1860?
Answer
Lincoln's election that led to Southern secession
Explanation
The election of 1860 was a four way presidential contest in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and Constitutional Unionist John Bell, an outcome that triggered the secession of seven southern states between December 1860 and February 1861 and the Civil War shortly after.
The election unfolded against a fractured political landscape. The Whig Party had collapsed in the early 1850s. The new Republican Party, founded in 1854 in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, had emerged as the dominant northern antislavery party. The Democratic Party split irreparably at its Charleston convention in April 1860 over slavery in the territories.
Northern Democrats favored Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who supported popular sovereignty allowing territorial settlers to decide. Southern Democrats demanded a federal slave code protecting slavery in all territories regardless of settler preference. After the Charleston convention deadlocked, Northern Democrats nominated Douglas at Baltimore in June 1860, while Southern Democrats walked out and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky on a strong proslavery platform. The Constitutional Union Party, formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings to avoid the slavery question, nominated John Bell of Tennessee.
The Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois at its Chicago convention on May 18, 1860, choosing him over front-runner William H. Seward of New York partly because Lincoln seemed more electable in the critical states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Republican platform opposed any extension of slavery into the territories but did not call for abolition where slavery already existed.
The general election on November 6, 1860 produced sectional results. Lincoln won 39.8 percent of the popular vote but a clear majority of 180 electoral votes from 17 northern and western states. He received no electoral votes and was not even on the ballot in 10 southern states. Douglas finished second in the popular vote at 29.5 percent but won only 12 electoral votes (Missouri and part of New Jersey). Breckinridge won 18.1 percent and 72 electoral votes from 11 southern states. Bell won 12.6 percent and 39 electoral votes from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Total turnout was 81.2 percent of eligible voters, one of the highest in American history.
The result was unmistakable: Lincoln had won without any southern support, demonstrating that the North alone could elect a president opposed to slavery's expansion. South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed by February 1, 1861. The seven states formed the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861. Four more states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina) seceded after Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
Why this matters for your test
The 1860 election triggered the secession crisis and set up the Civil War. Knowing it helps applicants understand how a political process can produce a constitutional rupture and how Lincoln's victory transformed American history.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
