Existing comment:
The Election of 1860:
Slavery and its expansion into the western territories divided the nation. Southern slaveholders thought that banning slavery in the territories was the first step to abolishing it everywhere. Many northerners believed that if slavery expanded westward it was just a matter of time before it would move back into the North. This debate fractured the political parties into regional factions.
Republican Abraham Lincoln won the election with less than 40 percent of the popular vote and without winning one southern state. News of his victory prompted a secession movement across the South. |