What happen in the election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell.

The Republican Party, which fielded its first candidate in 1856, was opposed to the expansion of slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the party's nominee in 1860, was seen as a moderate on slavery, but Southerners feared that his election would lead to it's demise, and vowed to leave the Union if he was elected.