With even more votes drawn off by the Constitutional Union Party, the staunchly anti-slavery Republican Party emerged victorious. The larger but divided Democratic Party failed to rally around a single national figure and instead supported their respective sectional favorites. He owed his election to the unsettled political situation that griped the nation. Lincoln’s election outraged many in the south. However, it was “Honest Abe”, candidate of the four-year-old Republican Party, who was declared the official winner of the race. Attempting to preserve the peace, the Constitutional Union Party attempted to pursue a course of reconciliation. The Whigs had faded away, making the party’s last appearance in a presidential race in 1852.
By 1860, the Democratic Party had splintered into a northern branch and a southern branch. The old two party system composed of Democrats and Whigs was a casualty of the political battle between the sections. The election of Abraham Lincoln brought the crisis to a head.
0 kommentar(er)
