This Day in History-May 18, 1860

Abraham Lincoln Receives the Republican Nomination for President.

On May 18, 1860, former Illinois State Legislator and Congressman Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party for President of the United States at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice President.

A former Representative to the United States Congress of the Whig Party and Kentucky-born lawyer, Lincoln had first gained national noteriety during his 1858 Senatorial campaign against Illinois Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas. That Senatorial campaign was notable for it's Lincoln-Douglas debates which largely focused on the issue of slavery. Lincoln argued against the spread of the institution and Douglas argued that the question should be left up to the residents of the particular territory or state, a doctrine known as Popular Sovereignty. Lincoln lost the race, but the debates brought him to the attention of the young Republican Party, and in 1860, he would win the Republican Party's Presidential nomination.

With the Democratic Party divided along sectional lines, with the northern Democrats nominating Douglas, and the southern Democrats nominating John C. Breckenridge, Lincoln won easily with 180 electoral college votes, more than enough to give him the victory. Lincoln, thus became the first Republican to be elected President. About a month after Lincoln's election on November 6th, South Carolina voted to secede from the union, and was soon filled by several other slave states. These southern states had been threatening secession if a Republican was elected.

On March 4, 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated as President and by this time, seven southern states had seceded, who had established the Confederate States of America and had elected Jefferson Davis as it's President. A month later, the Civil War began when Confederate forces under P.G.T. Beauregard fired on the union force at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

Source Article: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-nominated-for-presidency

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