The election of 1860 led to the secession of 11 states and the creation of the Confederate States of America following the election of Former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln on the anti-slavery Republican Party ticket. Lincoln won the election by winning a plurality of the popular vote, less than 35%. The Democratic Party split two ways, with Illinois Senator Stephen Douglass leading the northern faction and Former Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky leading the southern faction. Douglass only managed to win three states, Missouri, new Jersey, and his home state of Illinois, and Breckinridge was able to carry seven states, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and the western state of Oregon. Texas Governor Sam Houston carried the Whig Party into second place by taking advantage of the break within the Democratic Party and emphasis on national unity. Despite the party's strong showing, it shortly crumbled, and its members joined the post-war Republican and Democratic Parties.
This was the last election in which the popular-vote winner was selected by a plurality of voters, for it wasn't until the passage of the 16th Amendment, which rejoining southern states pushed for, that the top two candidates who did not receive 50% or more of the vote would face each other at a later time.
