Anniversary of Lincoln's Election

On November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president in one of the most significant elections in American history. Lincoln, who had barely been known outside Illinois a year earlier, had engineered a brilliant campaign which took off after he gave a speech in New York City that made him a suddenly prominent voice against slavery and the politicians who accepted it.

Lincoln was elected without a single electoral vote from the south. And the news of his election as president prompted a number of southern states to make good on their threats to secede from the Union. By the time of Lincoln's inaugural address in March 1861, the first cannon shots of the Civil War were only weeks away.

The 1800s could boast a number of significant elections, but the campaign and election of 1860 will always stand apart. A candidate came from obscurity, stunned a number of more prominent politicians, and won a triumph that would forever resonate.

Photograph: Abraham Lincoln in 1860/Library of Congress