Lincoln

Lincoln The Election of 1860 By the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's "peculiar institution," slavery. During the presidency of James K. Polk (1841-1849), the United States had confirmed the annexation of Texas to the Union, negotiated a treaty with Great Britain for the Oregon territory up to the 49th parallel, and, as a result of the Mexican War, added California and New Mexico as well. The American eagle now spanned the entire continent, a source of nationalistic pride to those who thought expansion was the fulfillment of both God's will and America's mission to spread its republican institutions. But national exuberance turned sour when Americans confronted the issue of whether slavery should follow the flag into the new territories. During the 1850s, different views about slavery's expansion and its place in America's future fueled suspicion and bitterness between northerners and southerners. In Kansas, the question of whether the territory would be opened or closed to slavery erupted in violence and political unrest. "Bleeding Kansas," the treatment of fugitive slaves, and other issues involving slavery strained and then shattered the nation's two-party system which had served for slavery, party, south, states, popular, lincoln, territories, republicans, free, sovereignty, republican, 1860, territory, southern, national, democratic, southerners, political, breckinridge, against, united, slave, northerners, measures, institution, election, union, throughout, territorial, slaves, parties, northern, federal, democrats, constitutional, between