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== __THE QUESTION__:

**How did the Election of 1860 contribute to the onset of the Civil War?**
__Introduction__: The 1850s were as chaotic and tense as any decade in American history. As America expanded westward the slavery issue continued to produce conflict and necessitate compromise. The Compromise of 1850 brought with it the system of popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories. Soon, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 defined the borders of the Kansas and Nebraska territories while establishing popular sovereignty within them. Under popular sovereignty, these territories, especially Kansas, soon hosted a wave of violence between pro and anti-slavery forces that helped push the country further along on its path toward Civil War. Another result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was that it led to Abraham Lincoln’s reemergence onto the political scene. Lincoln strongly disagreed with popular sovereignty and that the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the possibility of those territories becoming slave states. In 1856 Lincoln helped to organize the Illinois branch of the newly formed Republican Party and then decided to run for the U.S. Senate. In 1858 he ran against the incumbent, Stephen Douglas, a Democrat, for a Senate seat from Illinois. Lincoln and Douglas held a series of seven now famous debates in the summer and fall of 1858, leading up to the election, which Douglas won.

Despite the loss, Abraham Lincoln’s political career had made significant gains. The fame and respect that he had achieved made him nationally prominent and a key figure in the Republican Party. Within two years the Republicans decided that Lincoln would be their candidate in the presidential election of 1860. The Lincoln-Douglas debates had helped Lincoln rise to national prominence but had also alarmed many people, especially southerners, who felt that Lincoln was a threat to the existence of slavery. As Lincoln’s opponents emerged it became increasingly clear that the Election of 1860 would be as tumultuous and complicated as the preceding decade. Many of Lincoln’s critics labeled him as a radical who would abolish slavery if elected president. That belief and the anti-Lincoln sentiments that accompanied it were so prominent in the south that Lincoln’s name did not even appear on the election ballot in eight southern states.

Meanwhile, the split in the Democratic Party that produced two candidates for president and the emergence of the Constitutional Union Party added to the chaos and contributed to the monumental effects of the election’s outcome. A transformative political event, the Election of 1860 altered America and became one of the leading causes of southern secession, which began a week later, and thus, the Civil War that began just over a month after Inauguration Day in 1861. __**State Standards**__: USI.35 Describe how the different economies and cultures of the North and South contributed to the growing importance of sectional politics in the early 19th century. (H) USI.36 Summarize the critical developments leading to the Civil War. (H) USI.38 Analyze Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), his views on slavery, and the political obstacles he encountered. (H, C) __**Lesson Objectives**__: Analyze a political cartoon on the Election of 1860. Analyze the results of the popular vote of the Election of 1860. Identify the results of the state by state popular vote of the Election of 1860. Create and analyze an electoral map of the electoral voting results of the Election of 1860. Identify U.S. states on a blank outline map. Identify and analyze the effects of the Election of 1860.


 * __Pre-Activity:__** Read and mark up the text of The Election of 1860 Candidate, Party, and Platform information. Then complete the Candidates Chart based on that reading.




 * __[[file:Election of 1860 Candidates Chart.doc]]__**