From: Matt Carminto
Date: 4/19/00
Time: 9:47:50 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.59.63
Matt Carminito History 67 4/20/00
As 1860 approached, and a new president of the United States was to be elected, the Republican party began to look for a creditable candidate. They wanted someone who could help them win two or three more northern states that they had lost in the previous election. The Republicans also wanted a more moderate person to represent them as Senator Seward was deemed a radical. Abraham Lincoln fit the criteria that they were searching for. Lincoln was a moderate and he was from Illinois, a state which the Republicans wanted to win. Lincoln was also a self made man. He grew up in a poor family and yet he had managed to gain a lot of success in the political world. These actions help portray the idea of equal opportunity for all. After the third voting Lincoln became the Republican's nomination. He was going to run on a platform that was ultimately concerned with economic issues in the United States. The issue of halting the expansion of slavery was also on the platform but was not the main focus. This platform was intended to appeal to former Whigs and any Democrats that were not die-hards. When it came time for the election there were four candidates running for president. The four persons that were in the running were Lincoln, Bell, Douglas, and Breckenridge. Bell was in favor of finesse slavery, Breckenridge was for slavery, and Douglas took a more conservative view. Douglas was in favor of popular sovereignty when it came to slavery and because of that stance he lost support in the south. Even though he was not on the ballot in the south, Lincoln won the election of 1860. He won all of the northern states except a portion of New Jersey. This period marked the first time that the south was a minority in the United States government and immediately after the election southern states began to secede.