Election of 1860 (Muzzey, 1920)

In the election on the sixth of November Lincoln carried all the Northern states except New Jersey, receiving 180 electoral votes. Douglas got only 12 electoral votes, from Missouri and New Jersey. Bell carried Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, with 39 votes. And Breckinridge got the 72 votes of the rest of the Southern states. But the electoral vote does not tell the story of the election. Douglas polled a very large popular vote in all the states of the North. He received 1,370,000 votes to Lincoln's 1,860,000 and would have easily won with the support of the united Democratic party. He was repudiated by the administration of Buchanan and by the radical slavery leaders of the South, yet he received nearly twice as many votes (1,370,000 to 850,000) as their candidate, Breckinridge. It was a wonderful testimony to his personal and political hold on his countrymen. Again, although Lincoln received 180 electoral votes to 123 for Douglas, Bell, and Breckinridge combined, his popular vote was only 1,860,000 as against 2,810,000 cast for his opponents. He was the choice of exactly 40 per cent of the voters of the country. Finally, the election showed that the South as a whole was not in favor of secession in 1860.