The Election of 1860 was one of the most consequential elections in US history. It came at a time when the nation was deeply polarized, divided over the issue of slavery; indeed, the election was seen by many as a referendum on the future of slavery itself. Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the antislavery Republican Party, seemed a beacon of hope to abolitionists and the enslaved, but he was deemed threatening by proslavery advocates. The Democratic Party, unable to agree about its position on slavery, split in two – Stephen A. Douglas became the candidate of the more moderate Northern Democrats, while John C. Breckinridge championed the fire-eating Southern Democrats; Southern Democrats vowed to protect slavery at all costs, with some even threatening to secede if Breckinridge lost. The fourth party, the Constitutional Union Party, wanted to uphold the status quo. Find out how this four-way election resulted in not only Lincoln's victory, but the start of the US Civil War.