The democratic split was so severe during the 1860 elections that: the party disbanded they ran two candidates for the presidency they had no candidates running for the presidential election the majority of the members joined the republican party

The Democratic split was so severe during Presidency elections of 1860 that they had two candidates running for the post of President.  

Further Explanation:

The Presidential elections of 1860 in United States are still market as most closely fought elections in the American history. There were not 2 but 3 main nominees for the presidential candidature. Abraham Lincoln was the nominee from Republican Party but Democratic Party had nominated two candidates due to split within the party on issues related to Slavery. Stephen Douglas was nominee of Democratic Party and Southern Democratic Party had nominated John Breckinridge as their candidate. During the time of elections, everyone expected Unity to be there in Democratic Party but the party was broken into two groups right before the elections and the reason for that was the issue related to Slavery. The Southern Democrats were in favour of expanding slavery but the Northern Democrats used to think otherwise. Southern democrats wanted states to have rights to govern themselves but Northerners supported strong national government should take all state related decisions. Southern Democrats opposed Stephen Douglas as they knew that he will never support Pro-Slavery.  John Breckinridge was nominated by southern democrats as he supported rights for slavery. The problems with the Democrats profited the Republicans as votes of democrats were split between both nominees of democrats and Abraham Lincoln who was a republican candidate won easily.  

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Answer details:

Grade: High School

Subject: Politics

Chapter: Elections of 1860

Keywords:

President, United States of America, Senate, Powers, Democrats, Problems, Slavery, Anti-Slavery, John Breckinridge, Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln

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