Existing comment:
The Election of 1860
Despite exhausting efforts by all the campaigns, the election of 1860 devolved into two separate sectional races: Lincoln against Douglas in the North and Bell versus Breckinridge in the South. Breckinridge won 72 electoral votes, none north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Bell's efforts for continued Union proved fruitless. He took three border states, all by thin margins over Breckinridge. Virginia went to Bell by just 156 votes out of over 166,000 cast (.1%). Douglas' Election Day results were most disappointing of all. In a reversal of their historic Senate race from two years earlier, Lincoln beat Douglas decisively in their home state of Illinois. Though he finished second in the popular vote, Douglas ran last in the Electoral College, winning only Missouri while splitting New Jersey. Lincoln, kept off the ballot in nine southern states, swept the North, along with California and Oregon. He became President on March 4, 1861. Within two months, the two sections were at war. |