As we all know, the 1860 Election was a key one for the US. While Lincoln won a majority of the vote in enough states to ensure victory, I'd like to consider the possibilities of a deadlocked election along the lines of 1824.
Here's the scenario: Breckenridge adds OR to his tally. Douglas picks off CA, the 4 remaining electors in NJ, as well as IL and (the biggest stretch) IN. The result with these changes is as follows:
Lincoln 145
Breckinridge 67
Bell 39
Douglas 44
Under these results, the election would proceed to Congress between Lincoln, Breckinridge, and Douglas; assuming that no secessions took place, the breakdown in the House, as to number of delegations held, would be 12 Republican, 12 Democrat, 4 Unionist, 1 Split (Conn. split 2R/2D), and 3 either Dem or Unionist (those are VA, TN, and LA, which retained House delegations following secession). Of the non-slave states, CT is split while IL, OR, and NJ are Dem, and RI is "Unionist".
The Senate would be Democratic-controlled, but with the complication of the VP choice being between a Republican (Hamlin) and a Southern Democrat (Joseph Lane) and 7 Dems being from non-slave states (one of those being from NJ, which was part-slave and part-free; some slaves existed in Southern NJ, but not many) while the makeup is 36-29-1; doing a sectional breakout, it's 29 Slave State Dems, 29 Republicans, 7 Free State Dems, and 1 Unionist from MD.
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As an added bonus, for discussion fodder, it is entirely possible for Bell to pick off Maryland from Breckinridge, swapping Bell into the House voting at Douglas's expense. However, both being the arguably "moderate" candidate, the result is probably similar.
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Under either circumstance, however, the Republicans lack a majority in either the House or the Senate. Simply put, what happens from here assuming that all secession is held back until at least the vote in Congress (though talk is probably running hot on all sides)?