The Election of 1860

Perhaps no presidential election can rival that of 1860 for importance. The country was being split over the issue of slavery, and a lawyer from Illinois who had recently become an overnight star in New York City gained the nomination of the young Republican Party.

Abraham Lincoln's ascent to the White House was brilliantly executed, from his finely crafted oratory to a political gimmick involving rails he'd split for a fence 30 years earlier. The election campaign was all about the newcomer from Illinois, who won in a four-way race that had ominous implications. Lincoln didn't carry a single southern state, and the nation was soon plunged into a secession crisis and, of course, the Civil War.

Illustration: Abraham Lincoln, from the cover of campaign sheet music from the 1860 campaign/Library of Congress