Lincoln Movie Study Guide Questions
This is a set of 58 study guide questions for the film Lincoln (2012), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Comes with a student version of the questions along with a teacher's copy with all of the answers. The questions are arranged by the chapter divisions on the Lincoln DVD.
The questions for the movie vary in difficulty from simple plot details from Lincoln to some that require more thoughtful consideration on the part of the student. This guide would probably work best with high school students. Since there are 58 questions, which may be more than you need, you can pick and choose the ones that will work best with your students. Other related products Lincoln:. Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases:. Go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login) under your MyTpT at the top of the page.
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Learning Guide to Lincoln Lesson Plans Based on Movies & Film Clips! TWM LESSON PLAN THE END OF AMERICA'S NIGHTMARE DANCE WITH SLAVERY USING SPIELBERG'S LINCOLN SUBJECTS —U.S./1812 - 1865; Biography; SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Leadership; MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Citizenship. Age: 13+; MPAA Rating - PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language; Drama; 2012, 150 minutes; Color.
Available from. Warning to Teachers: Watching this film is such a strong experience that showing the movie without proper scaffolding risks leaving students with the misimpression that Emancipation consisted of a month of rancorous debate and political logrolling in the House of Representatives. This Lesson Plan provides the information, discussions, and assignments to allow teachers to use the film without students retaining that misimpression.
The materials below present the movie as an integral part of a unit on the end of America's nightmare dance with slavery. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is a well-researched work of historical fiction that conveys a reasonably accurate impression of the events of January 1865. The movie has many important strengths. Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Abraham Lincoln is by far the best characterization of the man recorded on film. The acting and writing for the character of Thaddeus Stevens should lead to a new appreciation for this almost forgotten leader of the Radical Republicans. Stevens' view of race relations was a hundred years ahead of its time. The movie contains one of the best historical extrapolations, whether on film or in print, of Lincoln's reasons for demanding that the 1865 lame-duck session of the House of Representatives join the Senate in proposing the 13th Amendment to the States.
The complications posed by the Confederate Peace Commission are well-represented, as are Mary Lincoln's desperate efforts to prevent the Lincolns' oldest son from enlisting in the army. The Lincolns' grief at the death of their middle son, Willie, and the Lincolns' sometimes difficult marriage are also shown. The use of Lincoln as an aid to education is complicated by its narrow focus on the legislative process during January of 1865. The film ignores the fact that 'Emancipation — like all far-reaching political change — resulted from events at all levels of society, including the efforts of social movements to change public sentiment and of slaves themselves to acquire freedom.
Slavery died on the ground, not just in the White House and the House of Representatives.' Thus, the tremendous contributions to the anti-slavery cause made before 1865 by abolitionists, African-Americans (particularly black soldiers and the contrabands), the Congress, the Union Army, the Republican Party, and Abraham Lincoln himself are virtually ignored by the movie. The film also fails to mention the growing support for abolition among many in the American public that had, a few short years before, been overwhelmingly opposed to emancipation. There is scant mention of the change of position, due to conviction or political calculation, by a number of War Democrats who came to favor abolition. In fact, the historical record shows that before January 1865, so many blows had been struck against slavery that it would have been almost impossible for the nation's 'peculiar institution' to recover. This is not shown in the movie.
Lincoln Movie Study Guide Answers
In order to maximize the educational benefits of the film, TWM has created a lesson plan that uses the movie for what it actually is, the story of an important but relatively short segment in the long and difficult struggle to emancipate the slaves. The lesson plan starts with student reports that will present the information necessary to understand how slavery was ended in the U.S. Up to the point where the movie takes over. After students have seen the film and developed a strong personal identification with Abraham Lincoln, they will be required to read on their own or out loud in class excerpts of Lincoln's important speeches and writings. This will: (a) enhance students' appreciation of Lincoln's eloquence; (b) review basic historical lessons of the Civil War period; and (c) turn students' attention from the movie toward the historical record. Finally, the lesson plan takes the emotional interest generated by the film to promote class discussion and drive assignments.
This lesson plan will require approximately two to three weeks of class time and substantial preparation by teachers. However, the benefits will be great because it will focus students' attention on what is probably the most important event in the first hundred years of the republic. For those educators who would like to use the movie, the introduction is necessary to avoid exaggerating the importance of the legislative battle of January 1865, thereby introducing historical error in the presentation of the history of emancipation.
Description: This lesson plan covers efforts in the U.S. To emancipate the slaves culminating in the 13th Amendment and the removal of Constitutional protections for slavery. Rationale: The decision to emancipate the slaves and to reject the bargain between North and South that gave Constitutional protection to slavery is one of the most important developments in U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is among the three greatest Presidents in U.S.
The film Lincoln provides visual and emotional depth as well as a dramatic high point to the unit. This lesson plan allows teachers to use the film Lincoln without introducing errors of historical perspective.
Objectives/Student Outcomes Using this Lesson Plan: Students will understand the broad social movement that resulted in the emancipation of the slaves. They will retain striking visual images of Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, and the passage of the resolution sending the 13th Amendment to the States for ratification — all within the context of the broad effort to end slavery in the U.S. They will understand why the 13th Amendment was necessary to invalidate protections for slavery written into the Constitution by the Founding Fathers.
Students will be motivated to do their best on research and writing assignments. 'It is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century.' Abraham Lincoln on the 13th Amendment emancipating the slaves. LESSON PLAN MENU CLASS PRESENTATION 1.
— — — — — SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS IN A SEPARATE DOCUMENT Other Sections: All citations are to the in the Supplemental Materials. Student Handouts:.;., the script of a scene from the movie;.;. The Thirteenth Amendment didn't just ban slavery, it invalidated the protections for slavery written into the Constitution by the Founding Fathers. The Thirteenth Amendment was like a surgery, cutting the cancer of slavery out of the Constitution. The Thirteen Amendment states: Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. The Amendment was passed in the Senate by the required 2/3rds margin on April 8, 1864. It was rejected once by the House of Representatives but passed on January 31, 1865. The amendment was ratified by 3/4s of the states on December 6, 1865 at which point it became the law of the land.
Lincoln did not have an opportunity to write his memoirs, and we are left to speculate about his reasons for insisting that the 13th Amendment be passed in January of 1865 by a lame-duck Congress. This movie contains one of the best explanations of those reasons, whether on film or in print. CLASS PRESENTATION 1. PUTTING THE EVENTS OF JANUARY 1865 IN CONTEXT — STUDENT REPORTS OR LECTURE 27 Student Reports: In preparation for showing the movie, have students present short reports on the following topics.
If a particular report does not include the 'Important Facts,' teachers should supply the missing information along with any additional insights that the teacher believes will be helpful. For a list of report topics. Omit reports on those topics that the class has already studied. In the alternative, teachers can provide the necessary background for the film through direct instruction using the 'Important Facts' as the starting point for the lecture. The End of Slavery in Great Britain and the British Empire Important Facts: In 1772, four years before the American Revolution, England's highest ranking judge ruled that the Common Law did not allow slavery and that since there was no statute permitting slavery on English soil, no slave could be held against his will.
The case concerned James Somerset, a slave brought to England from Virginia by his master. Somerset ran away but was captured and confined on board a ship that would soon sail for Jamaica where Somerset was to be sold. Friends of Somerset filed an application in the English courts for a writ of habeas corpus. Lord Chief Justice Mansfield issued the writ requiring the captain of the ship to bring Somerset to the court and to justify his detention. Somerset's master appeared in the case and tried to claim his 'property.' Lord Chief Justice Mansfield noted that, 'The power of a master over his slave has been exceedingly different, in different countries.' He held that since common law judicial decisions had to be based on the values of the community and since for the people of England slavery was 'odious,' Somerset could not be held in slavery under the common law.
The only other way for slavery to be imposed in England was by positive law, that it is, by a decree of the King or a law passed by Parliament. Since no such positive law permitting slavery existed in England, Lord Mansfield held there was no basis to deny Mr. Somerset his freedom. This decision effectively abolished slavery in Britain because any slave who ran away could not be compelled to return to his or her master. The Somerset decision was known to the slave owners in the American South. While it only applied to slaves in the British Isles, the handwriting was on the wall, and slave owners worried that eventually slavery would be outlawed throughout the British Empire. Thus, in addition to their desire for a republican form of government, the Southern slave owners had another contradictory reason for joining the American Revolution; ensuring that the benefits of freedom did not apply to their slaves.
The prediction of Southern slave owners that slavery would be banned in the British Empire proved correct. After years of abolitionist protests the international slave trade was outlawed by Great Britain in 1807 and slavery was abolished in most of the Empire by 1833. The Role of Slavery in the American Revolution and the South's Bargain with the North to Protect Slavery Important Facts: In 1776, the cause of abolition was gaining strength in the United Kingdom. Slavery in Britain itself had been effectively abolished by judicial decision in 1772 in Somerset's Case.
In 1776 when the South joined with the North to declare independence and also in 1787, when the constitution was drafted, it was apparent to the planter class in the Southern states that the British Empire was moving to abolish slavery in the colonies. The Southern Colonists agreed to participate in the American Revolution, in large part, to avoid the abolition of slavery and required the North to agree to let slavery alone if the nation and later the Constitution was to come into existence. Southern concern over the fate of slavery in the British Empire was well-founded.
Britain outlawed slavery in the colonies in 1833. Constitutional Protections for Slavery Important Facts: Important Facts: The original Constitution never used the words slave, slavery, involuntary servitude, or bondage. However, there were several provisions that protected slavery. Prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until the year 1808. Protected slavery even in free states: If a slave escaped to a free state, his status remained that of a slave, and he had to be returned. The provided that each slave was to be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining representation in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College, although only whites could participate in elections. This gave the South a strong advantage in Congress and a disproportionate say in the election of the President.
Finally, Article V, which required that amendments be proposed by 2/3rds of each House of Congress and ratified by 3/4s of the states, indirectly, protected the other pro-slavery provisions of the Constitution by making it impossible to amend the Constitution without the agreement of the South. In short, at the request of Southerners, the framers of the Constitution built several layers of protection for slavery into the framework of government.
Northerners agreed to these provisions for the purpose of getting the Constitution adopted, expecting that the institution of slavery would wither away. In 1776 and 1787, with the slave economy under stress, that appeared to be happening. Many northerners who were opposed to slavery recognized that it was protected by the Constitution in the slave states. These included Lincoln (see his First Inaugural) and even such radical anti-slavery men as Thaddeus Stevens.
See Korngold, 47 and. Some of the Consequences of Slavery for the Slave, the Master, and Southern Society Important Facts: Life-long servitude and status as property sometimes deprived slaves of 'life' and always took away their 'liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' Examples include loss of the following: the right to the fruits of their labor; the right to maintain a family (raise their children, choose a spouse, and live with that person); the right to choose an occupation; freedom from undeserved punishment; the right to defend oneself from aggression by the master or by white men; access to justice in the courts, and, primarily for women, the right to resist sexual advances by white men. In addition, slaves were prohibited from becoming educated. In every slave state except Tennessee, slaves were not permitted to learn to read or write.
For the masters, the power over slaves contributed to the following: it denigrated the value of work (if a slave could do it, the task was too menial for a white man); loss of empathy and indifference to the suffering of others by being the agents and beneficiaries of the denial of the slaves' liberty (e.g. While it's much worse for the slave family, the person who causes the family to be split up or who stands by and profits from it becomes hardened and less empathetic to others); sadistic tendencies (e.g., beating slaves or having them be whipped to coerce obedience); for the white men who had sexual relations with slave women, the act diluted if it did not destroy the meaningfulness of sexual relations with their wives and required them to deny any affection for the children born of their sexual exploitation of female slaves.
For Southern society slavery denigrated the value of work, led to a division of wealth in favor of the planter class, and retarded the development of industry, which is one of the reasons why the South lost the Civil War against a much more industrialized North. George Washington and Slavery Important Facts: Although George Washington owned slaves most of his life, he supported the gradual abolition of slavery. In fact, in his will, he freed his slaves upon the death of this wife Martha, and established a trust fund to assist them in the transition to lives as free men and women. Washington was the only founding father to free his slaves. Washington signed the law in 1790 that reaffirmed the ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory, but he also authorized military and financial aid to Haitian slaveholders during the revolt by slaves in Haiti in 1791. Washington also signed the nation's first fugitive slave law allowing for the capture of slaves who had fled to northern states. Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Important Facts: Thomas Jefferson understood the evil of slavery and proposed ending the practice all of his life.
Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence included the following passages among the list of outrages by George III. The phrases in brackets are changes either by Jefferson or by John Adams. Note that at the time of the Revolutionary War, the British were offering freedom to slaves who turned on their masters and joined the British Army. He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither.
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. This clause was deleted at the behest of the Slave Power in the Continental Congress. However, Jefferson did not believe in freeing slaves as a general rule because he thought that it led to insurrection or race war.
Jefferson wrote that slavery was like holding 'a wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.' As Secretary of State Jefferson wrote the Northwest Ordinance that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories.
Slavery financed Jefferson's very expensive life-style. Jefferson freed only a few slaves, including Sally Hemings' two older brothers and her children. Sally Hemings and another slave were informally freed at his death by Jefferson's daughter who gave them 'their time.' The rest of Jefferson's slaves were sold at his death to pay his debts.
Jefferson has been strongly criticized for his unwillingness to free his slaves during his life or at his death. Benjamin Franklin on Slavery Important Facts: Early in his adult life, Franklin owned two slaves, an accepted practice in Philadelphia at the time. He assumed, as was the common belief, that Africans were sub-human. This began to change in 1759 when he visited a school for young blacks and observed that they were studious and intelligent.
Over time his attitudes toward slavery and blacks changed and he began to see slavery as a system that caused black degradation. Franklin freed his slaves and, in 1770, began to attack the institution. When Franklin returned from France in 1785, he became President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. However, in 1787 he supported the new constitution that accepted and protected slavery. Otherwise, for the rest of his life Franklin was a participant in efforts to abolish slavery.
How Northern Ingenuity Strengthened Slavery in the South and Help Set the Preconditions for Civil War Important Facts: Before 1794 cotton was not a particularly profitable crop in the American South. It could have been. Cotton doesn't spoil and even before refrigeration could be easily stored for long periods and shipped long distances. However, cotton has small black seeds intermixed with the cotton fibers.
Even with slave labor it was difficult and time-consuming to remove the seeds. This changed when Eli Whitney (1765-1825) an inventor from Westboro, Massachusetts, invented a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from cotton fiber. A cotton gin could generate up to fifty-five pounds of cleaned cotton daily. Suddenly, cotton production became profitable, cotton cultivation expanded, and there was an increased demand for slaves to work the cotton fields. A thriving textile industry grew up in New England and in Britain to turn Southern cotton into cloth for the American and European markets. This changed the economy of the American South, strengthening the economic foundation of slavery.
The cotton gin was one of the key inventions of the industrial revolution. Cotton came to represent over half the value of U.S. Exports from 1820 to 1860. Before the invention of the cotton gin, slavery was on the decline in the South and many of the Founding Fathers expected that it would eventually whither away no matter how many protections it had in the U.S. However, with the invention of the cotton gin and the vast expansion in the cultivation of cotton, the wealth and power of the Southern planter class increased. This led to what abolitionists and Republicans called 'the Slave Power.'
In this indirect way, a Yankee inventor was a major contributor to the political and economic power of the slaveholders. The cotton gin was widely copied and Eli Whitney was unable to make money from his invention. However, he did become famous. This helped him get a contract to manufacture muskets for the U.S. To fulfill the contract, Whitney invented a system for manufacturing muskets by machine, making the parts interchangeable.
This led to faster assembly and easier repair. For this work, Whitney became famous again as a pioneer of American manufacturing. He also made a fortune. Eli Whitney continued to create new inventions for the rest of his life. The Political Power of Slaveholders Before the Civil War Important Facts: 'Slavery. Was the most powerful institution in the nation from 1830 to 1860. It elected every President of the United States, except four, until the new era.
It completely dominated the Senate and the Supreme Court, and nearly every Congress prior to 1861. West Point was ancillary to it; both the army and the navy were its auxiliaries. The social life at Washington obeyed its behests;. Statesmanship was its servitor; and diplomacy its handmaid. Exponents of the effete Southern aristocracy swarmed in the departments.
Whitney, a friend and biographer of Lincoln, writing nearly four decades after Lincoln's death. From Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, pp. 376-377 by Henry Clay Whitney. Before the Civil War, ten of the fifteen Presidents owned slaves and some of those who didn't, such as James Buchanan and Martin Van Buren, were beholden to or associated with the Slave Power. One of the reasons why the national capital wasn't located in the population and commercial centers of the North, such as New York and Philadelphia, was that those states restricted slavery. Instead, it was carved out of two slave states, Virginia and Maryland.
Slavery was legal in Washington, D.C. In 1860 'the economic value the slaves when considered as property exceeded the combined worth of all the banks, railroads, and factories in the United States. In geographical extent, population, and the institution's economic importance, the American South was home to the most powerful slave system the modern world has known.' 17 What Life was Like for Free Blacks in the U.S. Before the Civil War Important Facts: It depended upon where they lived. In many places, North and South, free blacks couldn't vote or hold public office nor could they travel or live where they pleased. Some states prohibited the entry of free blacks.
In most states free blacks were subject to seizure as fugitive slaves. In some states they were prohibited from owning real estate, testifying against whites, entering into contracts, maintaining lawsuits or enrolling their children in school. Free blacks in the South were under the most restrictions.
In some places they were not permitted to assemble even for religious services. Attitudes Toward Slavery in the South from the time of the Revolution through 1865 Important Facts: At the time of the Revolution many leaders of the South, including Founding Fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison disliked slavery and were aware of its evils. However, they couldn't figure out a practical way to end slavery. As the production of cotton and slavery became more profitable and abolitionists became more strident in their denunciation of slavery, Southerners reacted by elevating slavery to a God-sanctioned necessity for a civilized nation.
Local voices against slavery were severely punished and therefor stilled. The Abolition Movement in the U.S. Important Facts: Vermont abolished slavery in 1777, and by 1804 all of the other Northern states had done the same.
In most states, emancipation was gradual, with, for example, no living adult slaves being emancipated but children attaining freedom after working well into adulthood., pp. However, the movement to abolish slavery nation-wide did not gain momentum until the 1820s. Abolition came to the fore as the Great Awakening accelerated. America during this period came to celebrate individualism and the self-made man who rose from humble beginnings to wealth and positions of prominence. (Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens were self-made men who grew up in poverty.) Some Americans, like Lincoln and Stevens, disliked slavery and believed in free labor.
Lincoln Movie Study Guide
They believed that a person should be able to benefit from the fruits of his labor. In that environment, the fact of slavery became all the more galling, and the immorality of slavery began to penetrate the consciousness of some people in the North. The aim of the abolitionist movement was to alter public opinion and bring about a much needed moral transformation among white Americans so that they recognized the inhumanity of slavery and that all people should be equal before the law. Most abolitionists also believed in racial equality., p. By that standard, the abolition movement was only partially successful, achieving freedom for blacks but not its other goals.
Equality of all races before the law and the moral transformation that eliminates racism is still a work in progress. Many Americans, including Lincoln and his idol, Henry Clay, wanted to colonize the slaves in Africa believing that the two races could never live together in peace. As late as 1862, Lincoln was proposing colonization. However, the idea died because, very simply, freed African-Americans didn't want to leave the United States., pp. While the abolitionists made gains from the 1820s onwards, at the beginning of the Civil War most Americans were not abolitionists and most Northerners would have let the Southern states keep enslaving blacks. Unlike the abolitionists who wanted a complete ban on slavery, Lincoln's position, and that of a majority of the North in the 1860 elections, was that the Constitution protected slavery in the South. What they were against was the expansion of slavery into new territories.
In fact, most Americans disliked abolitionists, either they supported slavery or they feared abolitionists would drive the South out of the Union. Working class whites feared that free blacks would come North and take their jobs. Abolitionist meetings were often disrupted by crowds of angry whites, and occasionally abolitionists were killed. During the war, there were riots in New York in which blacks were hunted down and killed. Lincoln, despite his antipathy to slavery, repeatedly distanced himself from the abolitionists, understanding that identification with abolitionism would be a great obstacle to Republican success at the polls. Until emancipation of the slaves in the South became a military necessity, Lincoln advocated leaving slavery alone in the South. As the war continued, Lincoln came to adopt the abolitionist position on freedom for African-Americans, if not on the equality of blacks and whites., p.
24, 25 & 89 - 91. The Dred Scott Decision Important Facts: Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri whose master, an army doctor, had taken him to live in the free state of Illinois, then to the free territory of Wisconsin, and finally back to the slave state of Missouri. With his wife and two daughters (ages 14 and 7 at the time of the Supreme Court ruling), Scott brought a lawsuit claiming that since they had resided in a free state and a free territory, they were now free even though they had been moved back to Missouri, a state that recognized slavery. Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the opinion of the Supreme Court, was from an old planter family in Maryland; he had manumitted his own slaves in the 1820s.
However, he was a firm believer in black inferiority. In the Dred Scott decision, the Court had held that all blacks, including free men, were not citizens of the United States and never could become citizens. It held that the words 'all men are created equal' in the Declaration of Independence did not apply to blacks. The decision found that African-Americans were considered merely as property by the Founding Fathers. Thus, blacks, slave and free, could not be citizens of the United States even if a state made them citizens and granted them certain rights.
Those rights would not extend beyond the bounds of the state. Six of the other eight justices joined in Judge Taney's decision, thus the vote on the case was 7 to 2. In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court also ruled that Congress had no power to outlaw slavery in the territories.
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For excerpts from the Dred Scott decision. Justice Taney had hoped that the decision in the Dred Scott case would settle the issue of slavery once and for all.
Instead, the ruling angered the North, emboldened the South, and indirectly helped to cause the Civil War., pp. It is now regarded as the worst decision ever made by the U.S. Supreme Court and was effectively overruled by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The Election of 1860 Important Facts: Seward expected to be the Republican nominee for President in the 1860 elections, but Lincoln was more moderate on slavery, pledging to leave slavery alone in the states in which it was legal but to prevent its expansion into the territories. He was viewed as more electable than Seward precisely because of his position on slavery. The Democrats split into a Northern faction which supported Stephen A.
Douglas and favored popular sovereignty and the Southern Democrats who contended that under the Constitution Congress could not forbid slavery anywhere (see the Dred Scott decision). A fourth party, the Constitutional Union party of John C. Bell, didn't take a position on slavery but supported maintaining the Union. Republicans campaigned on halting the expansion of slavery. They downplayed the threat of secession contending that it was not legal.
They supported the rights of free labor., pp. Lincoln was elected with the solid support of the North, which gave him a strong victory in the Electoral College with no votes from the South. He wasn't even on the ballot in some Southern states. Even the South's advantage from the 3/5ths rule could not stem the tide of a solid North. If all of the votes of the three other candidates had been combined into one, Lincoln would have won in the Electoral College., p. Party Candidate Popular Vote Electoral College Republican Lincoln 1,865,593 (40%) 180 (59%) Southern Democrat Breckenridge 848,356 (18%) 72 (24%) Constitutional Union Bell 592,906 (13%) 39 (13%) Northern Democrat Douglas 1,382,713 (29%) 12 (4%) Lincoln was a minority President.
However, there was a clear preference for maintaining the Union because both Bell and Douglas were Unionist candidates. The Scorpion's Sting – Why the South Seceded When Lincoln Was Elected Important Facts: Before 1860, many abolitionists had a plan for ending slavery without war.