1860 United States Presidential Election

The 1860 United States Presidential Election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 6, 1860. In what was a close two-way, the Democratic Party ticket of  Stephen Douglas and  Herschel Johnson won the popular as well as Electoral College majority.

Over the last decade, the 1850's, the country grew ever more divided over the issue of slavery, particularly its expansion into western territories like Kansas and  Nebraska. Both the incumbent, James Buchanan, and his predecessor,  Franklin Pierce, were Northern  Democrats with southern sympathies. After the Democrats gathered at Charleston, South Carolina, they chose Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois to be their nominee and Herschel Johnson, Senator from Georgia. The Republican Party, which came into promience after the Kansas-Nebraska Act,