Elections in general are dirty; the 1860 election was probably the dirtiest in history. The biggest issue was slavery. And the fact that slavery was even an issue in the first place made this particular election unbelievably ugly.
There was Abraham Lincoln as the Republican candidate. He was against slavery; while not precisely an abolitionist, he did not want slavery to spread.
Then there was Stephen Douglas as the Northern Democratic candidate. While he was for slavery, he wanted the states to decide for themselves whether or not to allow it. This was called "Popular Sovereignty".
Next you had John C. Breckenridge as the Southern Democratic candidate. He was very much pro-slavery.
Finally there was John Bell as the Constitutional Union Party Candidate. He was one of the earliest third-party candidates in U.S. history.
It is so easy to jump up and say that Lincoln was right and the others were wrong. While that's true, one has to go deeper into the issue and try to explain your argument. Look at the issue and observe what happened. Why did Douglas's idea of Popular Sovereignty not work? Because when you allow a state to decide for itself based on what the people find most appealing, you're going to get trouble (witness "Bleeding Kansas")
on November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the nation's 16th President. After that, the South broke off from the Union and fired on Fort Sumter. The rest of the story...well, I think most of you probably know already what happened. This article should explain things a little better than I can.
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