If you wished, you could devote the rest of your life writing about Abraham Lincoln. His election was the most significant of all time. Many believed that his election would plunge the country into an inevitable civil war, yet they voted for him anyway. The furor on both side was enormous and the chances of compromise was gone. In 1860 the dominant party of the time was the Democratic Party, they met in Charleston, South Carolina to select a presidential candidate. The Southern delegates insisted that the party endorse a platform that guaranteed the rights of slaveholders in the territories. When the convention rejected the proposal, delegates from the deep South walked out. The remaining delegates reassembled six weeks later and selected Stephen Douglas as their candidate. Southern Democrats formed their own party and proceeded to choose John C. Breckinridge as their presidential nominee.
In May of 1860, the Constitutional Union Party, which consisted of conservative former Whigs, Know Nothings, and pro-Union Democrats nominated John Bell of Tennessee for President. This party platform denounced sectionalism and attempted to rally support for the Constitution and the Union. Meanwhile, the new Republican Party met in Chicago that May and recognized that the Democrat’s turmoil actually gave them a chance to take the election. They needed to select a candidate who could carry the North and win a majority of the Electoral College. To do that, the Republicans needed someone who could carry New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania — four important states that remained uncertain. There were plenty of potential candidates, but in the end Abraham Lincoln had emerged as the best choice. Lincoln had become the symbol of the frontier, hard work, the self-made man. His debates with Douglas had made him a national figure and the publication of those debates in early 1860 made him even better known. After the third ballot, he had the nomination for President.