Hey everyone, welcome to the 28th episode of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello, y'all. Thanks for downloading the podcast. Well, boys, your

troubles are over now. Mine have just begun. With those words, and perhaps with a twinkle

in his eye, Abraham Lincoln greeted some newspaperman the morning of Wednesday, November 7,

1860, the morning after his election as the 16th president of the United States of America.

In the first days after Lincoln's election, there was celebration to be sure, but there

was also sobering news concerning the final shape of his victory. Lincoln was the first

Republican elected as president, but he won with less than 40% of the popular vote, and with

almost a million votes less than the combined total of his three opponents. Lincoln's triumph

was due to the fact that he and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin, won all of the more

populous, free northern states, except for New Jersey, whose electoral votes would have

to be split with Stephen Douglas. But by carrying the North, Lincoln netted 180 electoral votes,

28 more than the 152 needed to win.

Amonously though, Lincoln and Hamlin collected not one popular vote in 10 southern states.

For months prior to the election, there had been rising agitation across the South at

the growing likelihood that the Republicans would capture the White House. And now with

Lincoln's election a reality, a defiant spirit quickly spread to the deep South, starting

with South Carolina. Just two days after the election, the Charleston Mercury newspaper

announced the T has been thrown overboard. The revolution of 1860 has been initiated.

And yet, even as demands for disunion started to spread outward from South Carolina, it

seemed as if President-elect Abraham Lincoln and many other Republicans failed to grasp

the true gravity of the situation. Now in their defense, Lincoln and other

...