The Presidential Election of 1860 was the contest in which Abraham Lincoln won on the Republicans' free-soil platform without any Southern electoral votes, prompting most slave states to secede from the Union and precipitating the Civil War (APUSH Topic 5.7, KC-5.2.II.D).
The Presidential Election of 1860 is the moment when decades of sectional conflict finally broke the political system. Abraham Lincoln ran as the Republican candidate on a free-soil platform, meaning the party opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, not slavery where it already existed. The Democratic Party split along sectional lines, the field fractured into four candidates, and Lincoln won the presidency without carrying a single Southern electoral vote. In most of the Deep South, he wasn't even on the ballot.
That last detail is the one the CED cares about most (KC-5.2.II.D). A president had just been elected by one section of the country alone. To white Southerners, this proved they had lost all national political power, and after a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to leave the Union. South Carolina went first in December 1860, before Lincoln even took office. The election didn't just pick a president. It convinced the Deep South that the Union no longer protected slavery, and that conviction led directly to the Civil War.
This term sits at the center of Topic 5.7 (Election of 1860 and Secession) in Unit 5: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848-1877. It directly supports learning objective APUSH 5.7.A, "Describe the effects of Lincoln's election," which is unusual phrasing worth noticing. The CED doesn't ask you to describe the election itself; it asks for its effects, meaning secession and the coming of the war. The election is also the payoff of the whole first half of Unit 5. Everything from the Compromise of 1850 through Kansas-Nebraska and Dred Scott was eroding the political middle ground, and 1860 is where that erosion becomes visible in the electoral map. It's a go-to example for the Politics and Power (PCE) theme and for causation questions about why compromise failed.
Secession and the Confederacy (Unit 5)
Lincoln's election is the immediate trigger for secession. The Deep South states left first, formed the Confederacy, and the standoff came to a head at Fort Sumter in April 1861. On causation questions, treat the election as the spark and the slavery-expansion fight as the fuel.
Rise of the Republican Party and the Free Soil platform (Unit 5)
The Republican Party only existed because the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 shattered the Whigs and the old two-party system. 1860 is the proof that a purely sectional, antislavery-expansion party could win the presidency, which is exactly what the South feared.
Crittenden Compromise (Unit 5)
After the election, Congress made one last attempt to hold the Union together by extending the Missouri Compromise line. Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it because protecting slavery's expansion would gut the free-soil platform they had just won on. Its failure shows compromise was dead.
Election of 1800 (Unit 4)
Great continuity-and-change pairing. In 1800, a bitterly contested election ended with a peaceful transfer of power. In 1860, the losing section refused to accept the result and seceded. Comparing the two lets you argue how sectionalism broke the norms the early republic established.
Multiple-choice stems usually pair this election with a map of the 1860 electoral results, a secession ordinance, or a Southern editorial, then ask what the result reveals about sectionalism or what its most direct effect was (answer: secession of the Deep South). The classic trap answer says Lincoln ran on immediate abolition. He didn't; the platform was free-soil. For SAQs and the long essay, this is prime causation evidence. A common task asks whether the Civil War was inevitable, and the 1860 election is your strongest single piece of evidence that the political system could no longer contain the slavery conflict. No released FRQ requires this term verbatim, but any essay on the causes of the Civil War is incomplete without it.
Both put Lincoln in the White House, so it's easy to blur them. The Election of 1860 happened before the war and caused secession; Lincoln won on a free-soil platform with zero Southern electoral votes. The Election of 1864 happened during the war, where Lincoln's re-election over George McClellan signaled the North would fight to total victory and emancipation. 1860 starts the war; 1864 confirms how it will end.
Abraham Lincoln won the Election of 1860 on the Republicans' free-soil platform, which opposed slavery's expansion into the territories, not slavery where it already existed.
Lincoln won without a single Southern electoral vote, proving the South had lost national political power and that a sectional party could control the presidency.
After contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to leave the Union in response to Lincoln's victory, precipitating the Civil War (KC-5.2.II.D).
South Carolina seceded in December 1860, before Lincoln was even inaugurated, showing the election itself, not any presidential action, triggered the break.
On the exam, use 1860 as causation evidence that political compromise over slavery had collapsed, capping the chain from the Compromise of 1850 through Kansas-Nebraska and Dred Scott.
It was the election in which Abraham Lincoln won the presidency on the Republicans' free-soil platform without any Southern electoral votes. His victory convinced most slave states to secede from the Union, which precipitated the Civil War.
No. Lincoln ran on a free-soil platform, which opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories but did not call for abolishing it in states where it existed. APUSH multiple-choice questions love this distinction, so don't fall for the abolition trap answer.
Because Lincoln won without any Southern electoral votes, white Southerners concluded they had permanently lost national political power and that slavery's future was no longer safe inside the Union. South Carolina seceded in December 1860, and most other slave states followed after a series of contested debates.
The 1860 election came before the war and caused secession when Lincoln won on a free-soil platform with no Southern support. The 1864 election came during the war, and Lincoln's re-election signaled the Union would see the war through to victory and emancipation.
No. He carried zero Southern electoral votes and wasn't even on the ballot in most Deep South states. That fact is essential knowledge in the CED (KC-5.2.II.D) and is the core reason the South treated his victory as grounds for secession.