The election of 1860 is one of the most important elections in American history. Menacing political, economic, and social issues had pulled the United States in too many directions, and she was threatening to snap. The most central topic in all of these issues was slavery. Slavery had been feeding in the shadows for the better part of a century since the founding fathers had authored the Declaration of Independence. They had been unable to reach a decisive conclusion over its place in the fledgling United States and instead tabled the discussion for future generations. Nearly eighty years later that question was ready to tear the nation asunder.
The 1850s saw some of the most volatile political conditions in all of American history. For example, the Fugitive Slave Law passed in 1850 was a source of great division in the United States. Included as part of the Great Compromise, it required that runaway slaves in Northern states be returned to their Southern slave masters. Despite numerous other victories during this decade, abolitionists still saw the passage of this act as a huge defeat in the war against slavery. Following the passage and implementation of this act, the abolitionist movement began to work at a more frenzied pace. Abolitionist newspapers and printers began to issue propaganda, spreading the message of the abolitionist movement.
Other political institutions were also being threatened by the volatile issue that slavery had become. The notion of popular sovereignty had led to outright violence in “bleeding Kansas.” The political parties themselves were not immune to the divisive effects that slavery was having on the rest of the nation. The Whig party ceased to exist in the mid-1850s as a result of its divisions on the issue of slavery. Finally, in 1858 a landmark case appeared before the Supreme Court. Dred Scott, a former slave who had been brought to live in free territories by his owner, was threatened with slavery once again. His struggle for freedom was crushed when Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that Scott was a piece of property, not a citizen, and had no right to sue. This decision was a huge setback for the abolitionist movement.
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