https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_presidential_election
QT:{{”
In 1860, the United States was divided over the issue of slavery, and four major political parties had nominated candidates in the 1860 presidential election. Incumbent president James Buchanan, a Democrat, did not seek re-election. The anti-slavery Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln, who previously had been a one-term Whig
Representative from Illinois, for president. Its platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed, but opposed its extension into the territories. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to avoid disunion by resolving divisions over slavery with some new compromise. The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention put forward former Tennessee senator John Bell for president. After the 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned without agreeing on a nominee, a second convention nominated Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas as the Northern Democratic presidential candidate. Douglas’s support for the concept of popular sovereignty, which called for each territory’s settlers to decide the status of slavery within the territory, alienated many radical pro-slavery Southern Democrats. With President Buchanan’s support, Southern Democrats held their own convention, nominating Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for president.
Abraham Lincoln (Republican): Argued that slavery was morally wrong, opposed its extension into western territories, and contended that the nation could not permanently endure “half slave and half free”. [1, 2] Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat): Championed popular sovereignty—the idea that local white settlers should decide whether to allow slavery in their territories
“}}
