<P> The United States Presidential Election of 1860 was the nineteenth quadrennial presidential election to select the President and Vice President of the United States . The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860 . In a four - way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged triumphant . The election of Lincoln served as the primary catalyst of the American Civil War . </P> <P> The United States had become increasingly divided during the 1850s over sectional disagreements, especially regarding the extension of slavery into the territories . Incumbent President James Buchanan, like his predecessor Franklin Pierce, was a northern Democrat with sympathies for the South . During the mid-to - late 1850s, the anti-slavery Republican Party became a major political force in the wake of the Kansas--Nebraska Act and the Supreme Court's decision in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford . By 1860, the Republican Party had replaced the defunct Whig Party as the major opposition to the Democrats . A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to avoid secession by pushing aside the issue of slavery . </P> <P> The 1860 Republican National Convention nominated Lincoln, a moderate former Congressman from Illinois, as its standard - bearer . The Republican Party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states, but opposed the further extension of slavery into the territories . The first 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned without agreeing on a nominee, but a second convention nominated Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for president . Douglas's support for the concept of popular sovereignty, which called for each individual territory to decide on the status of slavery, alienated many Southern Democrats . The Southern Democrats, with the support of President Buchanan, held their own convention and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for president . The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention nominated a ticket led by former Senator John Bell of Tennessee . </P> <P> Despite minimal support in the South, Lincoln won a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote . The divisions among the Republicans' opponents were not in themselves decisive in ensuring the Republican capture of the White House, as Lincoln received absolute majorities in states that combined for a majority of the electoral votes . Lincoln's main opponent in the North was Douglas, who finished second in several states but only won the slave state of Missouri and three electors from the free state of New Jersey . Bell won three Southern states, while Breckinridge swept the remainder of the South . The election of Lincoln led to the secession of several states in the South, and the Civil War would begin with the Battle of Fort Sumter . The election was the first of six consecutive victories for the Republican Party . </P>

Why were there four candidates in the election of 1860
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