Election Of 1860: How Could Lincoln Have Lost The Election

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Election of 1860: How Could Lincoln Have Lost the Election

The election of 1860 brought a dramatic change to politics. The country had already been divided by the Northern states and Southern states. There were disagreements over whether the territories should be expanded and about each state entering the Union. In addition, slavery was also a major issue. Not only was Lincoln not even on the ballot in nine Southern states, he only won 2 of 996 counties in the entire south. Not only did Lincoln not having any southern support, but also he was apart of the Union and against slavery; his views could have seriously lost him the race. Along with this, other things could have cost him the victory at the end of the election such as more Southerners voting and if the Democratic Party outweighed the Republican Party. Lincoln's candidates used different newspaper publishing to convince voters not to vote for him. Many of them dealt with him and his feelings of anti-slavery.

Although Lincoln was a good man, he was not favored in the South as much as he was by the Northerners. Abraham Lincoln was an abolitionist and wanted to better America as a whole and bring the North and the South together, which meant ending the very big issue of slavery. The South was totally against the idea of abolishing slavery and did not want to have any part of Lincoln's attitude towards equality amongst all men. He had practically no support coming from the South. If more Southerners were to vote, he would have definitely lost the race. The Southerners used slaves to bring in the bulk of

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their income and with Lincoln wanting them to free their slaves, which would cause them to lose profit; the Southerners did not want him to...

... middle of paper ...

...pers giving them the reputation of being an abolitionist party, which was not true. Lincoln's opponents and their slandering newspapers were influencing citizens. With the talks of how slavery was an efficient way of economy, many men voted for the Democrats or the Republicans that did not oppose

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slavery. Being that Lincoln was one of the few candidates that was an abolitionist, he lost many votes. The people of the south and the north felt content that Lincoln was sure to lose because he had almost no support from the south or any of the slave owners and those who were not against slavery. Even if more people in the north could vote, all the people who did not want to abolish slavery outnumbered them. There was an abundance of votes for Abraham Lincoln, but if it weren't for the Electoral College, he would have been beaten by a landslide.

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