US electoral college in 1860.
From the National Geographic Atlas of the Civil War
The
United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the
American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the
1850s on questions of states’ rights and slavery in the territories. In
1860, this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly
dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and
bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the
support of a single Southern state. Lincoln (Republican) won the
election in a four-way contest. Although Lincoln received less than 40%
of the popular vote, he easily won the Electoral College vote over
Stephen Douglas (Democrat), John Breckenridge (Southern Democrat), and
John Bell (Constitutional Union). Hardly more than a month following
Lincoln’s victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and
other states, which were rejected as illegal by the then-current
President, James Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln.