370.  The Democratic Nominations.—­The Democratic convention met at Charleston, South Carolina.  It was soon evident that the Northern Democrats and the Southern Democrats could not agree.  The Northerners were willing to accept the Dred Scott decision and to carry it out.  But the Southerners demanded that the platform should pledge the party actively to protect slavery in the territories.  To this the Northerners would not agree.  So the convention broke up to meet again at Baltimore.  But there the delegates could come to no agreement.  In the end two candidates were named.  The Northerners nominated Douglas on a platform advocating “popular sovereignty.”  The Southerners nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.  In their platform they advocated states’ rights, and the protection of slavery in the territories by the federal government.

[Sidenote:  The Constitutional Union party.]

371.  The Constitutional Union Party.—­Besides these three candidates, cautious and timid men of all parties united to form the Constitutional Union party.  They nominated Governor John Bell of Tennessee for President.  In their platform they declared for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union, regardless of slavery.

[Illustration:  LINCOLN’S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS AND SADDLEBAG.]

[Sidenote:  The campaign of 1860.]

[Sidenote:  Lincoln elected.]

372.  Lincoln elected President, 1860.—­With four candidates in the field and the Democratic party hopelessly divided, there could be little doubt of Lincoln’s election.  He carried every Northern state except Missouri and New Jersey.  He received one hundred and eighty electoral notes.  Breckenridge carried every Southern state except the “border states” of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and received seventy-two electoral votes.  Bell carried the three “border” Southern states and Douglas carried Missouri and New Jersey.  There was no doubt as to Lincoln’s election.  He had received a great majority of the electoral votes.  But his opponents had received more popular votes than he had received.  He was therefore elected by a minority of the voters.

[Illustration:  LINCOLN’S BOOKCASE.  From the Keyes-Lincoln Memorial Collection, Chicago.]

[Sidenote:  Weakness of the Republicans.]

[Sidenote:  Southern fears.]

373.  The North and the South.—­Lincoln had been elected by a minority of the people.  He had been elected by the people of one section.  Other Presidents had been chosen by minorities.  But Lincoln was the first man to be chosen President by the people of one section.  The Republicans, moreover, had not elected a majority of the members of the House of Representatives, and the Senate was still in the hands of the Democrats.  For two years at least the Republicans could not carry out their ideas.  They could not repeal the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  They could not admit Kansas to the Union as a free state.  They could not carry out one