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Quiz about The US Election of 1860
Quiz about The US Election of 1860

The U.S. Election of 1860 Trivia Quiz


The 1860 election featured no fewer than 4 candidates. By the time the dust cleared and the winning candidate was seated, America was about to be caught in a Civil War. Here are ten questions about the candidates, votes, and events of that campaign.

A multiple-choice quiz by kevinatilusa. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
kevinatilusa
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
69,496
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
1814
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 63 (4/10), HumblePie7 (4/10), Guest 24 (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Who was the candidate for the Republican Party in this election? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The Democratic Party split in the 1860 election. Who ran as presidential candidate for the Northern wing of the party? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. You knew this was coming...who was selected as the candidate for the Southern wing of the Democratic party? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. And now for the final member of our cast of candidates. What Senator from Tennessee was chosen as the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Now on to the election itself. Needless to say, the Republican candidate won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Which candidate received the second highest popular vote total? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The Constitutional Union Party carried a total of 3 states, all near the border of what would soon become the Confederacy. Which of these states was NOT carried by the Constitutional Union Party? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. What proportion of the popular vote did Lincoln finally end up receiving? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. The electoral college is quite different now than it was in 1860. Which State in 1860 gave the most electoral votes to the candidate who took it? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Who was the Vice Presidential Candidate on the winning Republican ticket? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. What percentage of eligible voters cast their ballots in the election of 1860? Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Who was the candidate for the Republican Party in this election?

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was only the second presidential candidate for this young party. A dark horse candidate, at the time he was best known for a losing campaign against Stephen Douglas for Senator in 1858. (He had also tried to obtain the Republican nomination for Vice President in 1856, but lost on the first ballot).

The actual favorite was in fact William Seward (future Secretary of State under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson), but Seward was unable to obtain the vote of a majority of the delegates and the anti-Seward factions united behind Lincoln as a compromise candidate.
2. The Democratic Party split in the 1860 election. Who ran as presidential candidate for the Northern wing of the party?

Answer: Stephen Douglas

Douglas's doctrine of 'popular sovereignty' (the belief that each state's residents should have the right to choose whether that state should be slave or free) had come under fire from Lincoln and anti-slavery forces in a series of famous debates during the 1858 senatorial campaign.

In 1860 they were attacked from the other side. Southern Democrats wanted a federal slave code -- a law prohibiting territorial legislatures from banning slavery -- while Douglas and the Northern Democrats believed such a code would infringe on states' rights. Whether slavery was right or not was irrelevant...the important thing was to let the states decide and not Congress. By a vote of 165-138, the Democratic delegation approved Douglas' platform, causing the delegations of several states (most of which would later become part of the Confederacy) to withdraw from the convention and plan their own.
3. You knew this was coming...who was selected as the candidate for the Southern wing of the Democratic party?

Answer: John Breckinridge

After the Democratic platform was approved, the Southern Democrats split off and held their own convention in Baltimore (technically under the banner of the 'National Democrats', though they have become known as the Southern Democrats). John Breckinridge, then the vice president under James Buchanan, was chosen as their candidate.

As a citizen of Kentucky, Breckinridge would flee his state when Kentucky chose to remain in the Union, later joining the Confederate Army and rising to the rank of Major General.

After the war, he would become a voice urging compromise and reconciliation.
4. And now for the final member of our cast of candidates. What Senator from Tennessee was chosen as the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party?

Answer: John Bell

The Constitutional Union party wrote in their platform that it was 'both the part of patriotism and of duty to recognize no political principle other than THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNTRY, THE UNION OF THE STATES, AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS' (Emphasis in the original platform).

They believed that the slavery issue was tearing the nation apart, and that the unity of the nation was more important than any single issue.
5. Now on to the election itself. Needless to say, the Republican candidate won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Which candidate received the second highest popular vote total?

Answer: Stephen Douglas

Despite this, he finished last in the electoral college, carrying only the state of Missouri and half the electors from New Jersey! Although he did quite well in many of the northern states, he almost always finished a close second to Lincoln. In the south, the Democrats tended to vote for the National (Southern) Democrat instead of the man whose party they had split from.

Interestingly, when it became apparent to Douglas that he wasn't going to win, he spent the last few weeks before the election campaigning in the south, urging the states not to secede from the Union if Lincoln won.
6. The Constitutional Union Party carried a total of 3 states, all near the border of what would soon become the Confederacy. Which of these states was NOT carried by the Constitutional Union Party?

Answer: Maryland

Tennessee and Virginia would both later go on to join the confederacy...so much for Constitutional Union. Bell actually did quite well in the south as well, finishing with about 30 percent of the vote (but without a plurality) in most states there. Most of the Northern states, however, gave him less than 5 percent of their vote, perhaps because they feared he would compromise too much on the issue of slavery.
7. What proportion of the popular vote did Lincoln finally end up receiving?

Answer: A little under two fifths

Yes, Lincoln won with under 40 percent of the vote. Part of this was due to the fact that there were so many candidates he was running against (especially Douglas who stole many of his votes in the north). It also came about because the election was so factionalized. There were several southern states in which Lincoln received an official vote total of exactly 0.
8. The electoral college is quite different now than it was in 1860. Which State in 1860 gave the most electoral votes to the candidate who took it?

Answer: New York

New York provided 35 electoral votes in an election in which only 152 were needed for a majority of the electoral college. Pennsylvania provided the second most (27) and Ohio the third most (23)...all three were taken by Lincoln. Lincoln also took California, but its 4 electoral votes weren't exactly critical.
9. Who was the Vice Presidential Candidate on the winning Republican ticket?

Answer: Hannibal Hamlin

Both before and after his stint as Vice President, Hamlin served as U.S. Senator from the state of Maine. Hamlin was actually a casuality of the Union's military troubles at the beginning of 1864. Fearing for Lincoln's reelection chances, the Republican party chose Andrew Johnson, a pro-war Democrat, as Vice Presidential candidate instead of Hamlin.
10. What percentage of eligible voters cast their ballots in the election of 1860?

Answer: 81 percent

For comparison, the turnout for the 2000 election was only 51.0 percent. Kind of sad, isn't it?
Source: Author kevinatilusa

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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