Original Civil War photographs. Lincoln vs Douglas debate. 1860 Election. Some writers blame the Democrats, and especially the Southern Democrats, for Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. The split in the Democratic Party that summer is said to have opened the door for the new Republican Party. Because the divided Democrats could not agree on a candidate, this theory goes, the split in the party allowed Lincoln to capture the White House with a mere 39 percent of the popular vote.
This is provably false. Lincoln would have won even if all the non-Lincoln votes had gone to a single candidate. Yet the "divided Democrats" myth persists. Lincoln got 180 electoral votes and 1,865,593 popular votes. Breckenridge got 72 electoral votes and 848,356 popular votes. Douglas got 12 electoral votes and 1,382,713 popular votes. Bell got 39 electoral votes and 592,906 popular votes.
Even if you take all the Democratic electors into one pool, they only have 123 electoral votes. Amazingly, it could at that moment in American history. In other states, a fusion was unlikely. The Emancipation Proclamation: three ... U.S. Civil War 1861-1865. Jump To: Fort Sumter Attacked - First Bull Run - Shiloh - Second Bull Run - Antietam - Fredericksburg - Chancellorsville - Gettysburg - Chickamauga - Chattanooga - Cold Harbor - March to the Sea - Lee Surrenders - Lincoln Shot November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, who had declared "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free...
" is elected president, the first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote. December 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union. Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Auction and Negro sales, Atlanta, Georgia. 1861 February 9, 1861 - The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president. March 4, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as 16th President of the United States of America. Fort Sumter Attacked April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m.