1860 United States presidential election

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A United States presidential election was held on November 6, 1860. The Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged victorious. In 1860, the United States was divided over the issue of slavery, and four major political parties had nominated candidates in the 1860 presidential election. Incumbent president James Buchanan, a Democrat, did not seek re-election. The anti-slavery Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln, who previously had been a one-term Whig Representative from Illinois, for president. Its platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed, but opposed its extension into the territories. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to avoid disunion by resolving divisions over slavery with some new compromise. The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention put forward former Tennessee senator John Bell for president. After the 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned without...

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