1. "In every political movement there is a leader or leaders with a motive."
How did Lincoln get elected?
I mean there were at least two more nationally known candidates in vice-President John C. Breckenridge and Senator Steven A. Douglas than Lincoln, who was at the time an almost political unknown outside of Illinois. I don't known how well John Bell was known nationally in 1860. But, How did Lincoln beat out both Douglas and Breckenridge in every northern states?
Lincoln was the candidate of a young political party that was known best for it radicalism. And even at that, Lincoln was not, at the time, a strong promoter of abolishion in his speeches. Which put Lincoln on a par with the speeches of both Douglas and Breckenridge.
I know the theroy about splitting the votes between those two well known candidates, giving Lincoln the victory. But was that really enough to give Lincoln the victory in ALL of the northern states? Seems like long odds to me.
I can understand a several state stradegy which would consentrate on just the larger northern States, But how popular could Lincoln have really been with the larger populations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York? How did he campaign in those states that made him so much more popular than Douglas or Breckenridge?