After Dred Scott, the question of slavery in the territories filled every campaign. In 1858 an Illinois lawyer and former congressman, Abraham Lincoln, ran for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas, the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Key idea
In seven debates (1858) Lincoln argued that slavery was a wrong that must not spread; Douglas defended popular sovereignty. Douglas won the seat, but Lincoln became nationally known. In October 1859 John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to start an uprising of enslaved people; he was captured and hanged. In 1860 Lincoln won the presidency in a four-way race, with about 40 percent of the popular vote and no electoral votes from the South.
Why it works
At Freeport, Lincoln asked Douglas how a territory could keep slavery out after Dred Scott. Douglas answered that slavery could not exist where local laws did not protect it, so settlers could keep it out by not passing such laws. That answer kept Douglas's Illinois voters but cost him Southern support. In 1860 the Democrats split: Northern Democrats nominated Douglas, and Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge. Border-state moderates formed the Constitutional Union Party behind John Bell. With the opposition divided, Lincoln won every free state but New Jersey, whose electoral votes were split.
Worked example: Reading the 1860 map
Lincoln won 180 electoral votes without carrying a single slave state. How was that possible?
- The free states had a large majority of the population, so they had most of the electoral votes.
- Lincoln carried nearly all of them: 180 votes, more than the 152 needed.
- His three opponents split the rest: Breckinridge 72, Bell 39, Douglas 12.
- Even if all of his opponents' votes had been combined, Lincoln would still have had a majority of electoral votes, because he won the most populous states.
Answer: He swept the populous free states, which alone held a majority of electoral votes.
Common mistake
Lincoln did not run promising to abolish slavery in the states. He pledged not to interfere with slavery where it existed but to stop its spread into the territories. Many white Southerners still believed his election threatened slavery's future, since a party opposed to it now held the presidency. Check: "stop the spread" and "abolish now" are different platforms.