The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states had already abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from the Union. This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904, 1920, 1940, 1944, and 2016.
Samuel Houston was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only individual to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.
James Lusk Alcorn was a governor, and U.S. senator during the Reconstruction era in Mississippi. A Moderate Republican and Whiggish "scalawag", he engaged in a bitter rivalry with Radical Republican Adelbert Ames, who defeated him in the 1873 gubernatorial race. Alcorn was the first elected Republican governor of Mississippi.
John Jordan Crittenden was an American statesman and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and twice served as United States Attorney General in the administrations of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. He was also the 17th governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislature. Although frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the U.S. presidency, he never consented to run for the office.
Claiborne Fox Jackson was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forced out by the Unionist majority in the Missouri General Assembly after planning to force the secession of the state.
John Bell was an American politician, attorney, and planter who was a candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1860.
The 1860–61 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between August 6, 1860, and October 24, 1861, before or after the first session of the 37th United States Congress convened on July 4, 1861. The number of House seats initially increased to 239 when California was apportioned an extra one, but these elections were affected by the outbreak of the American Civil War and resulted in over 56 vacancies.
John Bullock Clark Sr. was a militia officer and politician who served as a member of the United States Congress and Confederate Congress. Born in Kentucky, Clark moved with his family to Missouri in 1818 and studied law. He opened a legal practice in Fayette, Missouri, in 1824. He held several positions in the local government in the 1820s and 1830s. Clark was also involved in the state militia, serving as a colonel in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and eventually rising to the rank of major general. In 1838, during the Missouri Mormon War, Clark was the recipient of Governor Lilburn Boggs's infamous Mormon Extermination Order, and was involved in the ending stages of the conflict. He was the Whig candidate in the 1840 Missouri gubernatorial election. Clark was accused of conspiring to commit electoral fraud in the election and as a result almost fought a duel with Claiborne Fox Jackson, later a Governor of Missouri.
Texas declared its secession from the Union on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States on March 2, 1861, after it had replaced its governor, Sam Houston, who had refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. As with those of other states, the Declaration of Secession was not recognized by the US government at Washington, DC. Some Texan military units fought in the Civil War east of the Mississippi River, but Texas was more useful for supplying soldiers and horses for the Confederate Army. Texas' supply role lasted until mid-1863, when Union gunboats started to control the Mississippi River, which prevented large transfers of men, horses, or cattle. Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Union's naval blockade of Galveston, Houston, and other ports.
The Confederate government of Kentucky was a shadow government established for the Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate sympathizers and delegates sent by Kentucky counties, during the American Civil War. The shadow government never replaced the elected government in Frankfort, in which the state legislature had strong Union sympathies while the governor was pro-Confederate. Neither was it able to gain the whole support of Kentucky's citizens; its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in the Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent in 1861 and early 1862 encompassed over half the state. Nevertheless, the provisional government was recognized by the Confederate States of America, and Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Kentucky, the final state admitted to the Confederacy, was represented by the 13th (central) star on the Confederate battle flag.
The RestoredGovernment of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and joining the new Confederate States of America. Each state government regarded the other as illegitimate. The Restored Government attempted to assume de facto control of the Commonwealth's northwest with the help of the Union Army but was only partly successful. It raised Union regiments from local volunteers but depended upon recruits from Pennsylvania and Ohio to fulfill its commitments. It administered this territory until, with its approval, the area became part of West Virginia in mid-1863.
The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee state government on the eve of the war unconstitutional, and requested that East Tennessee, where Union support remained strong, be allowed to form a separate state that would remain part of the United States split from the rest of Confederate Tennessee. The state legislature denied this request, and the Confederate Army occupied the region in late 1861.
The 1857 Texas gubernatorial election was held on August 3, 1857, to elect the governor of Texas. The election pitted Lieutenant Governor Hardin Richard Runnels and Lieutenant Governor candidate Francis Lubbock against former President of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston and Lieutenant Governor hopeful Jesse Grimes. Runnels won the election with 57% of the vote, becoming the only person to ever defeat Sam Houston in a political contest.
The 1859 Texas gubernatorial election was held on August 1, 1859, to elect the governor of Texas. Incumbent Democratic governor Hardin Richard Runnels was running for reelection, but was defeated by Sam Houston, former senator and president of Texas, whom he had beaten two years earlier.
The 1863 Texas gubernatorial election was held on August 3, 1863, to elect the governor of Texas. Harrison County attorney Pendleton Murrah, backed by Incumbent Governor Francis Lubbock who chose not to run for a second term, defeated perennial candidate Thomas J. Chambers, a wealthy political gadfly from East Texas.
The 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election was the first gubernatorial election, held on Thursday, May 28, 1863. Unionist Arthur I. Boreman was elected virtually without opposition. This was the first of two gubernatorial elections held in West Virginia during the American Civil War; 17 counties were occupied by Confederate military forces on Election Day and did not participate in the balloting.
The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 was called in the state capital of Richmond to determine whether Virginia would secede from the United States, govern the state during a state of emergency, and write a new Constitution for Virginia, which was subsequently voted down in a referendum under the Confederate Government.
The 1884 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 1884, as part of the 1884 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose twelve representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1861 Maryland gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1861. It was held amid the early phases of the American Civil War and was contested between the Union Party's Augustus Bradford and the Democratic Party's Benjamin Chew Howard. Bradford supported the maintenance of the Union while Howard advocated for a peace treaty with the Confederacy. Concerned about pro-secession elements in the state, the federal government sent troops to supervise the vote and ordered electors to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. The election was won by Bradford with 68.8% of the votes.
The 1863Mississippi gubernatorial election was held on October 5, 1863, to elect the governor of Mississippi. Charles Clark, a Democrat, won against Democrat A. M. West and Fire-Eater Democrat Reuben Davis.
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