On Novem­ber 6, 1860, Spring­field, Illi­nois, came alive as can­non fire sig­naled Elec­tion Day. Despite ten­sions across the nation, the atmos­phere was charged with antic­i­pa­tion as cit­i­zens flocked to vote. The elec­tion fea­tured mul­ti­ple can­di­dates, with Abra­ham Lin­coln seen as a fron­trun­ner. The out­come was uncer­tain; if no major­i­ty emerged, the deci­sion would fall to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. As Springfield’s res­i­dents mobi­lized toward the polling place, the local ice cream par­lor wel­comed Repub­li­can women with refresh­ments, a nod to cama­raderie amidst polit­i­cal rival­ry.

Lin­coln walked five blocks to the state capitol’s cam­paign office, a priv­i­lege grant­ed by the gov­er­nor. He expressed intro­spec­tive thoughts, equat­ing elec­tions to “big boils” that, although uncom­fort­able, ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit the nation. Mean­while, across the nation, rep­re­sen­ta­tives like Charles Fran­cis Adams acknowl­edged the his­toric peace­ful­ness in decid­ing new lead­er­ship.

Lincoln’s poten­tial vic­to­ry posed a cat­a­clysmic shift. A win would dis­place the proslav­ery Democ­rats, estab­lish­ing the Repub­li­can Party’s dom­i­nance. The frag­men­ta­tion with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty allowed Lincoln’s par­ty to gain trac­tion, while the South­ern fears inten­si­fied, char­ac­ter­iz­ing him as an abo­li­tion­ist threat­en­ing their way of life. South­ern papers even encour­aged imme­di­ate seces­sion should Lin­coln win.

At 3:30 PM, Lin­coln cast his vote, greet­ed by enthu­si­as­tic sup­port­ers and nick­named “Old Abe” and “Hon­est Abe.” His pub­lic engage­ment drew a crowd eager to wit­ness the moment. As Lin­coln pro­ceed­ed to drop his bal­lot, he humbly snipped his name from it, show­ing a com­mit­ment to his prin­ci­ples over self-pro­mo­tion.

As evening fell, telegraphs brought reports of a strong lead for Lin­coln, includ­ing sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ries in Chica­go and Con­necti­cut. How­ev­er, anx­i­ety lin­gered until news from New York solid­i­fied his suc­cess, grant­i­ng him cru­cial elec­toral votes. Cel­e­bra­tions erupt­ed in Spring­field, high­light­ing the mixed emo­tions of achieve­ment and fore­bod­ing as Lin­coln grasped the bur­dens of lead­er­ship.

Ulti­mate­ly, the elec­tion saw Lin­coln receiv­ing the high­est pop­u­lar vote per­cent­age of any pres­i­dent but still a minor­i­ty over­all. The South, par­tic­u­lar­ly South Car­oli­na, react­ed vehe­ment­ly, with res­ig­na­tions among fed­er­al author­i­ties indi­cat­ing a will­ing­ness to defy the demo­c­ra­t­ic process. The South’s despair over the elec­tion results under­scored the brew­ing divi­sion, with Lin­coln puz­zled by the hos­til­i­ty, empha­siz­ing his stance against inter­fer­ing with slav­ery where it exist­ed. He strug­gled to com­mu­ni­cate his inten­tions, reflect­ing a pro­found mis­un­der­stand­ing of South­ern anx­i­eties about his pres­i­den­cy .