By 1860 the United States of America stood at a fateful crossroad. The nation was polarized into two camps, and the Union hung by a few threads. 1860 was a presidential election year. What I will do first is tell you what happened. Then we will discuss the question of why.

The Democratic party split apart over the question of whether the people of a territory had the right to exclude slavery from a territory before it became a state. Stephen Douglas and Northerners who supported popular sovereignty believed that the people of a territory ought to have this right. Southerners believed that only a state had the power to decide about slavery: territories and the people of a territory did not. Territories did not rate or rank as highly as states, and under the states rights doctrine of Calhoun only a state could abolish slavery or enact emancipation, except that the federal government has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia.

I repeat again, the quarrel between the northern Democrats and Southern Democrats was over the expansion of slavery into the territories of the west: it was not a fight about slavery in the South. And more generally, the quarrel between North and South was over the EXPANSION of slavery into the West. It was NOT a quarrel about slavery in the South.

It was also a question of how willing whites who did not own slaves were to tolerate the presence in their midst of whites who did own slaves, and slaves. Many non-slaveholding whited did not want to have to live alongside blacks. They didn't want any blacks in their states or counties or neighborhoods, and that were mad at slaveholding whites for bringing blacks into all-white regions in the west.

When the Democratic convention met at Baltimore, in June (Garraty, p. 379), the two sides could not agree. The Southern Democrats demanded that northern Democrats agree that neither the Federal Government nor any territorial government can prevent citizens from settling "with their property" in any territory. Northern Democrats would not agree to this, because it meant surrendering the principle of popular sovereignty. The Democrats could not agree and therefore, next, they split up and met separately. The Northern wing of the party nominated Stephen Douglas of Illinois, champion of the principle of popular sovereignty. The Southern wing nominated John C. Breckinridge, and the southern wing adopted a platform that stated explicitly that they believed that neither the federal government nor a territorial government has the right to exclude slaveholders from settling in a territory. But please understand, Northerners migrating to the West did not want slavemasters bringing black slaves into the heretofore white West and settling next door to them and competing with them economically. How can the family farm compete with the plantation. And why is anybody going to pay a decent wage to do a job when he can get slaves to do it for free. Slavery was not just bad for the African American slaves. Many white people who did not own slaves began to feel that the spread of slavery to the West was bad for the average white person too, economically. Completely apart from any moral question, there was the matter of money and economic interests.

THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION

In the end, four candidates ran. They were:

PARTY CANDIDATE POPULAR ELECTORAL.

VOTE VOTE

Republican Abraham Lincoln 1,866,000 180

Dem. (Northern) Stephen Douglas 1,383,000 12

Dem. (Southern) John Breckinridge 848,000 72

Constitutional John Bell 593,000 39

Union

The country split apart in how it voted (see map on p. 380 of Garraty). Lincoln carried almost every state in the North, except that New Jersey split its 7 electoral votes: 4 to Lincoln, 3 to Douglas. Lincoln also won in California and Oregon.

Breckinridge carried all of the deep South, including NC, SC, GA, Florida, Ala, Miss, LA, Ark and Texas. Bell carried the Border States of Delaware, MD, VA, KY and TN. Please recall that in 1860 Delaware was still a slave state.

Stephen Douglas carried only Missouri, and the three electoral votes from New Jersey.

If one combines the votes of Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell together, the contrast would be

Lincoln 1,866,000 180

Others 2,824,000 123

If we look at the popular vote, we might say that Lincoln and the Republicans won because the Democrats divided.

When a person wins a majority of the popular vote in a state, they win all of the electoral votes for that state. This is the "winner take all" system.

THE NORTH HAD NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY

However, what the election of 1860 really revealed was that the Northern and Western states, or the free states, alone, by themselves, had enough population and enough electoral votes to control and determine the presidency. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in 10 Southern states. It didn't make any difference to the outcome. If the free states of the North and West were unified, and voted as a bloc, they could elect a president even if all of the South disagreed--because the North and West had more people than the South and had numerical superiority over the South (repeat).

North and West approx. 17 million

South approx. 12.6 million

However, this 12.6 million included 3.5 million African American slaves.

If we are comparing the white population, it would be a contrast of 17 million for the free states to 9.1 million for the slave states. in other words, almost a 2-1 margin in favor of the free states.

Politically, the South said that it had become a "minority section." The real problem was not Lincoln. The real problem was the unequal balance of power.