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Republican Campaign Banner, 1860

This banner promotes Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign of 1860. It depicts Lincoln and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. In this campaign the Republican ticket of Lincoln and Hamlin faced three opposing duos. Remants of the shattered organization Whig nominated the Tennesseean John Bell as a Constitutional Union candidate. Many Republicans referred to his organization as the "old gentleman's party," who hoped that the sectional crisis would go away if they did nothing. The Democratic Party, deeply split between Stephen Douglas' ill-fated bid to save the Union with popular sovereignty and southern fire-eaters, fielded two candidates. While Douglas ran an ill-starred campaign across the nation, the Kentuckian John Breckinridge represented southerners using the threat of disunion to demand a pro-slavery federal policy. While Lincoln received less than 50% of the ballots cast, he won election by sweeping the northern states and thus the electoral college.

For more information about politics in the 19th century, please look at Lincoln/Net's Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials, 1840-1860 Web site