I am trying to examine the attitude of the time for a possible explaination of why the majority of the voters in the Northern states chose Lincoln over two other well known politicians, as it was Lincoln's election that was the tipping point which set all the domino's into motion.
As we have already discussed in the posts below that the electorial votes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York complete off set the combined electorial vote totals of all the southern states. So the election was always going to be decided in the northern states vote. So an honest evaluation of why the northern states voted so overwhelmingly for Lincoln would be key to why there was a Civil War.
Did they known that Lincoln's election would be such a pivitol point in history? Did they elect Lincoln with the belief that he would keep the Union together? Did they elect him knowing it would start a Civil War?
Note; that I did not say that Lincoln promised to free the slaves because he didn't in the 1860 election. That may have been the reason that the Abolishionist voted for Lincoln because he was the republican candidate, but emanciaption of the slaves was not a major point of his speeches. And when he did mention it he was noncommital on the subject publicly.
If the north elected him knowing that his election would set off the Civil War. Why would you think they wanted that? We alway elect our presdients to be a strong leader. But we do not always get what we think he has promised. If the north elected Lincoln and knew he would start a Civil War, either actively or passively, could you conclude they wanted war and the destruction, if necessary, of the southern states in order to keep them in the Union?