6.51860: a nation splits at the ballot box

The election of 1860 fractured along sectional lines. The Democratic Party split in two, running separate Northern and Southern candidates, while a fourth party sought the middle. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln on a platform of halting slavery's expansion.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Lincoln won the presidency with almost no Southern support, carrying the populous North. To many white Southerners, his victory meant the federal government had passed permanently into hostile, anti-slavery hands. The normal machinery of democracy had produced a result that a large section of the country refused to accept. Secession followed within weeks.