5.6 Election of 1860 and Secession

The election of 1860 represented the ultimate crisis of the American political system. For more than a decade, the nation had been sliding toward disunion as sectional hostility deepened and the mechanisms of compromise collapsed. By 1860, the political parties that had once mediated regional conflict no longer existed in their old form. The Whig Party had disintegrated, the Democratic Party was irreparably divided between Northern and Southern factions, and the newly formed Republican Party had consolidated its strength in the free states. Each section of the country approached the election with incompatible objectives. In the North, Republicans led by Abraham Lincoln embraced a platform dedicated to halting the expansion of slavery, promoting free labor, and fostering national development through protective tariffs and internal improvements. In the South, the very existence of such a platform was perceived as a direct threat to the institution of slavery and to the social order it sustained.