1860 United States presidential election

The 1860 presidential election conventions were unusually tumultuous, particularly because a split in the Democratic Party had led to both Northern and Southern party conventions. Republican nomination Republican candidates: • Abraham Lincoln, former representative from Illinois • William Seward, senator from New York • Simon Cameron, senator from Pennsylvania • Salmon P. Chase, governor of Ohio • Edward Bates, former representative from Missouri • John McLean, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court • Benjamin Wade, senator from Ohio • William L. Dayton, former senator from New Jersey Republican Party candidates gallery File:Abraham Lincoln O-26 by Hesler, 1860 (cropped).jpg|Former Representative Abraham Lincolnfrom Illinois File:William Henry Seward - edited.jpg|Senator William H. Seward from New York File:Smn Cameron-SecofWar.jpg|Senator Simon Cameronfrom Pennsylvania File:Samuel Portland Chase.jpg|Governor Salmon P. Chaseof Ohio File:Edward Bates - Brady-Handy (cropped).jpg|Former Representative Edward Bates from Missouri File:John McLean - History of Ohio.jpg|Associate Justice John McLean File:Benjamin F Wade - Brady-Handy.jpg|Senator Benjamin Wade from Ohio File:William L. Dayton.jpg|Former Senator William L. Dayton from New Jersey , site of the Republican Convention The Republican National Convention met in mid-May 1860 after the Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans felt confident going into their convention in Chicago. William H. Seward from New York was considered the front-runner, followed by Salmon P. Chase from Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates. Abraham Lincoln from Illinois was less well-known and was not considered to have a good chance against Seward. Seward had been governor and senator of New York, and was an able politician with a Whig background. Also running were John C. Frémont, William L. Dayton, Cassius M. Clay, and Benjamin Wade, who might be able to win if the convention deadlocked. As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that frontrunners Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of the Republican Party. Seward had been painted as a radical, and his speeches on slavery predicted inevitable conflict, which spooked moderate delegates. He also was firmly opposed to nativism, which further weakened his position. He had also been abandoned by his longtime friend and political ally Horace Greeley, publisher of the influential New-York Tribune. As the convention approached, Lincoln did not campaign actively, as the "office was expected to seek the man". So it did at the Illinois state convention, a week before the national convention. Young politician Richard Oglesby found several fence rails that Lincoln may have split as a youngster and paraded them into the convention with a banner that proclaimed Lincoln to be "The Rail Candidate" for president. Lincoln received a thunderous ovation, surpassing his and his political allies' expectations. Even with such support from his home state, Lincoln faced a difficult task if he was to win the nomination. He set about ensuring that he was the second choice of most delegates, realizing that the first round of voting at the convention was unlikely to produce a clear winner. He engineered that the convention would be held in Chicago, which would be inherently friendly to the Illinois-based Lincoln. He also made sure that the Illinois delegation would vote as a bloc for him. Lincoln did not attend the convention in person and left the task of delegate wrangling to several close friends. Senator Hannibal Hamlin from Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Clay. Hamlin was surprised by his nomination, saying he was "astonished" and that he "neither expected nor desired it." The party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the states, but opposed slavery in the territories. The platform promised tariffs protecting industry and workers, a Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a transcontinental railroad. There was no mention of Mormonism (which had been condemned in the Party's 1856 platform), the Fugitive Slave Act, personal liberty laws, or the Dred Scott decision. While the Seward forces were disappointed at the nomination of a little-known western upstart, they rallied behind Lincoln, while abolitionists were angry at the selection of a moderate and had little faith in Lincoln. Northern Democratic Party nomination , the incumbent president in 1860, whose term expired on March 4, 1861 Northern Democratic candidates: • Stephen Douglas, senator from Illinois • James Guthrie, former treasury secretary from Kentucky • Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, senator from Virginia • Joseph Lane, senator from Oregon • Daniel S. Dickinson, former senator from New York • Andrew Johnson, senator from Tennessee • Howell Cobb, treasury secretary from Georgia Northern Democratic Party candidates gallery File:Senator Stephen A. Douglas (edited) cropped.png|Senator Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois File:JamesGuthrie.png|Former Treasury Secretary James Guthrie from Kentucky File:RobertMercerTaliaferroHunter.png|Senator Robert M. T. Hunter from Virginia File:JosephLane.png|Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon File:DanielSDickinson.png|Former Senator Daniel S. Dickinson from New York File:Andrew Johnson, seated, facing left 1860.jpg|Senator Andrew Johnsonfrom Tennessee File:Howell Cobb-crop.jpg|Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb from Georgia . The Institute hosted the Democratic National Convention and December Secession Convention in 1860. The election would now pit Lincoln against his longtime political rival, whom Lincoln had lost to in the Illinois senate race just two years earlier. That two candidates were from Illinois showed the importance of the West in the election. The southern delegates walked out of Institute Hall on April 30th, moving at first to the Saint Andrews Hall, then to Military Hall on May 1st. On May 3rd, when the northern delegates left Charleston, the southern delegates left as well, reconvening at Metropolitan Hall in Richmond, Virginia on June 11. When the Democrats reconvened at Front Street Theater in Baltimore, they rejoined (except South Carolina and Florida, who had stayed in Richmond). When the convention seated two replacement delegations on June 18, they walked out again or boycotted the convention, accompanied by nearly all other Southern delegates and erstwhile Convention chair Caleb Cushing, a New Englander and former member of Franklin Pierce's cabinet. This larger group met immediately in Baltimore's Maryland Institute Hall, with Cushing again presiding. They adopted the pro-slavery platform rejected at Charleston, and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge for president, and Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon for vice president. Yancey and some (less than half) of the bolters - almost entirely from the Lower South - met on June 28 at Metropolitan Hall in Richmond, along with the South Carolina and Florida delegations, at a convention that affirmed the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane. They met in the Eastside District Courthouse of Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice president at the convention on May 9, 1860, one week before Lincoln. John Bell was a former Whig who had opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution. Edward Everett had been president of Harvard University and Secretary of State in the Millard Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union with the slogan "The Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is." Radical Abolitionist Party (aka Union Party) nomination Radical Abolitionist candidates: • Gerrit Smith, former representative from New York Radical Abolitionist candidates gallery File:Gerrit Smith - Brady-Handy (cropped) 3x4.jpg|Former Representative Gerrit Smith from New York The Radical Abolitionist Party was a remnant of the Liberty Party that formed after most former Liberty and Free Soil Party members joined the Republicans in the 1850s. A convention of one hundred delegates was held in Convention Hall, Syracuse, New York, on August 29, 1860. Delegates were in attendance from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Several of the delegates were women. Gerrit Smith, a prominent abolitionist and the 1848 presidential nominee of the original Liberty Party, had sent a letter in which he stated that his health had been so poor that he had not been able to be away from home since 1858. Nonetheless, he remained popular in the party because he had helped inspire some of John Brown's supporters at the Raid on Harpers Ferry. In his letter, Smith donated $50 to pay for the printing of ballots in the various states. There was quite a spirited contest between the friends of Gerrit Smith and William Goodell in regard to the nomination for the presidency. In spite of his professed ill health, Gerrit Smith was nominated for president and Samuel McFarland from Pennsylvania was nominated for vice president. ==Political considerations==

In their campaigning, Bell and Douglas both claimed that disunion would not necessarily follow a Lincoln election. Nonetheless, loyal army officers in Virginia, Kansas and South Carolina warned Lincoln of military preparations to the contrary. Secessionists threw their support behind Breckinridge in an attempt either to force the anti-Republican candidates to coordinate their electoral votes or throw the election into the House of Representatives, where the selection of the president would be made by the representatives elected in 1858, before the Republican majorities in both House and Senate achieved in 1860 were seated in the new 37th Congress. Mexican War hero Winfield Scott suggested to Lincoln that he assume the powers of a commander-in-chief before inauguration. However, historian Bruce Chadwick observes that Lincoln and his advisors ignored the widespread alarms and threats of secession as mere election trickery. Indeed, voting in the South was not as monolithic as the Electoral College map would make it seem. Economically, culturally, and politically, the South was made up of three regions. In the states of the Upper South, also known as the Border South (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri), unionist popular votes were scattered among Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell, to form a majority in all four. In the four Middle South states, there was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist (Bell and Douglas) vote approached a majority. In three of the seven Deep South states, unionists (Bell and Douglas) won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana and neared it in Alabama. Breckinridge convincingly carried only four of the seven states of the Deep South (South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas). The Deep South states had the largest enslaved populations, and consequently the smallest enfranchised free white populations. Among the slave states, the three states with the highest voter turnouts voted the most one-sided. Texas, with five percent of the total wartime South's population, voted 75 percent Breckinridge. Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth of the total population, voted 73 percent pro-Union Bell, Douglas and Lincoln. In comparison, the other six states of the Deep South made up one-fourth of the Confederate voting population; this was split 57 percent for Breckinridge versus 43 percent for the two pro-union candidates. The four states that were admitted to the Confederacy after Fort Sumter held almost half its population, and voted a narrow combined majority of 53 percent for the pro-union candidates. In the eleven states that would later declare their secession from the Union and be controlled by Confederate armies, ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia, where he received 1,929 votes (1.15 percent of the total). The vast majority of the votes Lincoln received were cast in border counties of what would soon become West Virginia – the future state accounted for 1,832 of Lincoln's 1,929 votes. Lincoln received no votes at all in 121 of the state's at-the-time 145 counties (including 31 of the 50 that would form West Virginia), received a single vote in three counties and received ten or fewer votes in nine of the 24 counties where he polled votes. Lincoln's best results, by far, were in the four counties that composed the state's northern panhandle, a region which had long felt alienated from Richmond, was economically and culturally linked to its neighbors Ohio and Pennsylvania and would become the key driver in the successful effort to form a separate state. Hancock County (Virginia's northernmost at the time) returned Lincoln's best result – he polled over 40% of the vote there and finished in second place (Lincoln polled only eight votes fewer than Breckinridge). Of the 97 votes cast for Lincoln in the state's post-1863 boundaries, 93 were polled in four counties along the Potomac River and four were tallied in the coastal city of Portsmouth. Although Lincoln received no votes in 10 Southern states, this was not because he was removed from the ballot in those states, but rather due to the Republican Party's absence in those states (parties rather than states printed ballots in that era). One key difference between modern elections and those of the mid-nineteenth century is that at the time the state did not print and distribute ballots. In theory, any document containing a valid or at least non-excessive number names of citizens of a particular state (provided they were eligible to vote in the electoral college within that state) might have been accepted as a valid presidential ballot; however, what this meant in practice was that a candidate's campaign was responsible for printing and distributing their own ballots (this service was typically done by supportive newspaper publishers). Moreover, since voters did not choose the president directly, but rather presidential electors, the only way for a voter to meaningfully support a particular candidate for president was cast a ballot for citizens of his state who would have pledged to vote for the candidate in the Electoral College. In ten southern slave states, no citizen would publicly pledge to vote for Abraham Lincoln, so citizens there had no legal means to vote for the Republican nominee. In most of Virginia, no publisher would print ballots for Lincoln's pledged electors. While a citizen without access to a ballot for Lincoln could theoretically have still voted for him by means of a write-in ballot provided his state had electors pledged to Lincoln and the voter knew their identities, casting a ballot in favor of the Republican candidate in a strongly pro-slavery county would have incurred (at minimum) social ostracization (of course, casting a vote for Breckinridge in a strongly abolitionist county ran a voter the same risk). Of the four slave states that did not secede Lincoln came third in Delaware and fourth in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland. Within the fifteen slave states, Lincoln won only two counties out of 996, Missouri's St. Louis and Gasconade counties. In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes at all in twelve of the fourteen slave states with a popular vote (these being the same states as in the 1860 election, plus Missouri and Virginia). ==Results==

The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860, and was noteworthy for the exaggerated sectionalism and voter enthusiasm in a country that was soon to dissolve into civil war. Voter turnout was 81.2%, the highest in American history up to that time, and the second-highest overall (exceeded only in the election of 1876). 31.5% of the voting age population voted. Since Andrew Jackson had won re-election in 1832, all six subsequent presidents had only won one term, while the last four of those had won with a popular vote under 51 percent. Lincoln won the Electoral College with less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide by carrying states above the Mason–Dixon line and north of the Ohio River, plus the states of California and Oregon in the Far West. Unlike every preceding president-elect, Lincoln did not carry even one slave state; he instead carried all eighteen free states exclusively. Lincoln received no votes in ten Southern states because the Republican Party was absent in those states (parties rather than states printed ballots in that era). Lincoln's strategy was deliberately focused, in collaboration with Republican Party Chairman Thurlow Weed, on expanding on the states Frémont won four years earlier: New York was critical with 35 Electoral College votes, 11.5 percent of the total, and with Pennsylvania (27) and Ohio (23) as well, a candidate could collect 85 votes, whereas 152 were required to win. The Wide Awakes young Republican men's organization massively expanded registered voter lists, and population increases in the free states had far exceeded those seen in the slave states for many years before the election of 1860, hence free states dominated in the Electoral College. Gasconade County, Missouri has voted for a Republican presidential candidate in every election from 1860 on, which, as of 2024, makes it the longest Republican winning streak in presidential elections in the nation. Despite Lincoln's commanding victory, this was the first election in American history in which the winner failed to win a majority of votes in his home county, with Lincoln narrowly losing Sangamon County, Illinois to Douglas, his main opponent in the North. The split in the Democratic party is often named as the main cause for Lincoln's victory though this is untrue; Lincoln received less than 40% of the national popular vote, though much of the anti-Republican vote was "wasted" in Southern states where a lack of Republican-ticket ballots meant Lincoln was not offered as an option to voters. Regardless, Lincoln won absolute majorities (>50%) in enough states, that if he lost all states that he took with pluralities, he still would have received enough electoral votes to win. Had all the Democratic Party voters voted for the same candidate, Lincoln would have only been deprived of California, Oregon, and four New Jersey electors, whose combined total of eleven electoral votes would not have swayed the national outcome; Lincoln would have received 169 electoral votes, 17 more than the 152 required to win. In short, even if Ranked-Choice Voting, or any other runoff system had been in effect in every state, Lincoln still would have won on the first round. In New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, where anti-Lincoln votes were combined into fusion tickets, Lincoln still won New York and Pennsylvania and split New Jersey. Nevertheless, a shift of 25,000 votes to the fusion ticket in New York would have left Lincoln with 145 electoral votes — seven votes short of winning the Electoral College — and forced a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Alternatively, a shift of only 15,400 votes over California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island would have left Lincoln short of the necessary 152 electoral votes. Of the five states that Lincoln failed to carry, he received 20 percent of the vote in only one (Delaware) and 10 percent of the vote in one more (Missouri). Like Lincoln, Breckinridge and Bell won no electoral votes outside of their respective sections. While Bell retired to his family business, quietly supporting his state's secession, Breckinridge served as a Confederate general. He finished second in the Electoral College with 72 votes, carrying eleven of fifteen slave states (including South Carolina, whose electors were chosen by the state legislature, not popular vote). Breckinridge stood a distant third in national popular vote at eighteen percent, but accrued 50 to 75 percent in the first seven states that would form the Confederate States of America. He took nine of the eleven states that eventually joined, plus the border slave states of Delaware and Maryland, losing only Virginia and Tennessee. Breckinridge received very little support in the free states, showing some strength only in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Bell carried three slave states (Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia) and lost Maryland by only 722 votes. Nevertheless, he finished a remarkable second in all slave states won by Breckinridge or Douglas. He won 45 to 47 percent in Maryland, Tennessee, and North Carolina and canvassed respectably with 36 to 40 percent in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. Bell himself had hoped that he would take over the former support of the extinct Whig Party in free states, but the majority of this support went to Lincoln. Thus, except for running mate Everett's home state of Massachusetts, and California, Bell received even less support in the free states than did Breckinridge, and consequently came in last in the national popular vote, at 12.62%. Douglas was the only candidate who won electoral votes in both slave and free states (free New Jersey and slave Missouri). His support was the most widespread geographically; he finished second behind Lincoln in the popular vote with 29.52%, but last in the Electoral College. His 12 electoral votes are the lowest for a Democrat in history. Douglas attained a 28 to 47% share in the states of the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Trans-Mississippi West, but slipped to 19 to 39% in New England. Outside his regional section, Douglas took 15 to 17% of the popular vote total in the slave states of Kentucky, Alabama, and Louisiana, then 10 percent or less in the nine remaining slave states. Douglas, in his "Norfolk Doctrine", reiterated in North Carolina, promised to keep the Union together by coercion if states proceeded to secede: the popular vote for Lincoln and Douglas combined was 69.17% of the turnout. The 1860 Republican ticket was the first successful national ticket that did not feature a Southerner, and the election marked the end of Southern political dominance in the United States. Between 1789 and 1860, Southerners had been president for two-thirds of the era, and had held the offices of Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate during much of that time. Moreover, since 1791, Southerners had constituted a majority of the Supreme Court. Source (Electoral Vote): (a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote. (b) The option of Lincoln was absent from 20.13% of ballots across ten states. He was available to only 79.87% of the voters that were available to the other candidates. Geography of results Cartographic gallery 1860 United States Presidential Election Counties.svg|Vector Map of presidential election results by county PresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of presidential election results by county RepublicanPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of Republican presidential election results by county NorthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of Northern Democratic presidential election results by county SouthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of Southern Democratic presidential election results by county ConstitutionalUnionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of Constitutional Union presidential election results by county FusionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Map of "Fusion" slate presidential election results by county CartogramPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of presidential election results by county CartogramRepublicanPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county CartogramNorthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Northern Democratic presidential election results by county CartogramSouthernDemocraticPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Southern Democratic presidential election results by county CartogramConstitutionalUnionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Constitutional Union presidential election results by county CartogramFusionPresidentialCounty1860Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of "Fusion" slate presidential election results by county ==Results by state==

Source States that flipped from Democratic to Constitutional Union • Kentucky • Tennessee • Virginia States that flipped from Know Nothing to Democratic • Maryland States that flipped from Democratic to Republican • California • Illinois • Indiana • Pennsylvania Close states States where the margin of victory was under 1%: • Virginia 0.2% (341 votes) • Missouri 0.33% (543 votes) • California 0.59% (709 votes) • Maryland 0.8% (737 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 5%: • Oregon 1.83% (270 votes) • Tennessee 3.19% (4,657 votes) • North Carolina 3.69% (3,549 votes) • Illinois 3.81% (12,842 votes) • New Jersey 3.74% (4,525 votes) • Louisiana 4.90% (2,477 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 10%: • New York 7.4% (48,703 votes) (tipping point state for Lincoln's victory) • Georgia 8.64% (9,227 votes) • Indiana 8.77% (23,847 votes) • Kentucky 8.83% (12,915 votes) County statistics Counties with highest percentage of Republican vote: • Kanabec County, Minnesota - 100.00% • Emmet County, Iowa - 100.00% • Mille Lacs County, Minnesota - 94.74% • Grundy County, Iowa - 88.13% • Hancock County, Iowa - 87.88% Counties with highest percentage of Southern Democratic vote: • Brevard County, Florida - 100.00% • Dade County, Florida - 100.00% • Hidalgo County, Texas - 100.00% • Manatee County, Florida - 100.00% • Zapata County, Texas - 100.00% Counties with highest percentage of Constitutional Union vote: • Stanly County, North Carolina - 93.78% • Montgomery County, North Carolina - 87.35% • Montgomery County, Georgia - 84.72% • Camden County, North Carolina - 84.68% • Bandera County, Texas - 84.21% Counties with highest percentage of Democratic vote: • Johnson County, Illinois - 96.96% • Hamilton County, Illinois - 88.54% • Palo Alto County, Iowa - 87.88% • Saline County, Illinois - 85.44% • Pope County, Illinois - 85.07% Counties with highest percentage of Fusion vote: • Hamilton County, New York - 77.7% • Pike County, Pennsylvania - 68.56% • New York County, New York - 65.24% • Sussex County, New Jersey - 63.58% • Richmond County, New York - 62.73% ==Trigger for the Civil War==

Lincoln's victory and imminent inauguration as president was the immediate cause for declarations of secession by seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) from 20 December 1860 to 1 February 1861. They then formed the Confederate States of America. On 9 February 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy. Several other states also considered declaring secession at the time: • Missouri convened a secession convention, which voted against secession and adjourned permanently. • Arkansas convened a secession convention, which voted against secession and adjourned temporarily. • Virginia convened a secession convention, which voted against secession but remained in session. • Tennessee held a referendum on having a secession convention, which failed. • North Carolina held a referendum on having a secession convention, which failed. All of the secessionist activity was motivated by fear for the institution of slavery in the South. If the President (and, by extension, the appointed federal officials in the South, such as district attorneys, marshals, postmasters, and judges) opposed slavery, it might collapse. There were fears that abolitionist agents would infiltrate the South and foment slave insurrections. (The noted secessionist William Lowndes Yancey, speaking at New York's Cooper Institute in October 1860, asserted that with abolitionists in power, "Emissaries will percolate between master [and] slave as water between the crevices of rocks underground. They will be found everywhere, with strychnine to put in our wells.") Less radical Southerners thought that with Northern antislavery dominance of the federal government, slavery would eventually be abolished, regardless of present constitutional limits. Bertram Wyatt-Brown argues that secessionists desired independence as necessary for their honor. They could no longer tolerate Northern state attitudes that regarded slave ownership as a great sin and Northern politicians who insisted on stopping the spread of slavery. Another bloc of Southerners resented Northern criticism of slavery and restrictions on slavery but opposed secession as dangerous and unnecessary. However, the "conditional Unionists" also hoped that when faced with secession, Northerners would stifle anti-slavery rhetoric and accept pro-slavery rules for the territories. It was that group that prevented immediate secession in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas when Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. He took no action against the secessionists in the seven "Confederate" states, but also declared that secession had no legal validity and refused to surrender federal property in those states. (He also reiterated his opposition to slavery anywhere in the territories.) Preparing to form an army, on 6 March 1861 Davis called for 100,000 volunteers to serve for twelve months. The political standoff continued until mid-April, when Davis ordered Confederate troops to bombard and capture Fort Sumter. Lincoln then called for troops to put down rebellion, which wiped out the possibility that the crisis could be resolved by compromise. Nearly all "conditional Unionists" joined the secessionists, including for example presidential candidate John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party, whose home state of Tennessee was the last to secede. The Virginia convention and the reconvened Arkansas convention both declared secession, as did the legislatures of Tennessee and North Carolina; all four states joined the Confederacy. Missouri and Kentucky stayed in the United States, but had unrecognized dual governments. After the Civil War begun, Douglas then threw his support behind Lincoln and undertook a tour to bolster support for the Union, making visits to Virginia, Ohio and Illinois. Douglas declared "There are no neutrals, only patriots and traitors". However, three months after Lincoln's inauguration, Douglas contracted typhoid fever and died in Chicago on June 3, 1861. ==See also==