In 1860, the United States was as divided as it had ever been.

The issue of slavery had been growing more and more contentious over the decades,

and by 1860, things were nearing a breaking point.

The presidential election of that year would literally

determine the future of the country or if there would even continue to be a

country. Learn more about the presidential election of 1860, the most important

presidential election in American history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. I've done several episodes in the past about various presidential elections throughout history.

These have usually been elections that were unusual in some respect. They may have been really close like in

1876 or 1824, odd like in 1800, or just had weird accounting like in 1960.

While those elections were unique and had interesting stories, they weren't particularly important

elections in the big scheme of things.

The Presidencies of John Quincy Adams and Rutherford Hayes

really haven't reverberated throughout history.

For almost every presidential election that I can personally remember,

there have been people who have said that it was the most important election in American history.

And they are always wrong.

Because it is near impossible to have an election that would be more important than the election of 1860.

It was the election that ultimately resolved the issue of slavery in the United States and

sparked a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

As I've mentioned in previous episodes, the first American political party system fell apart in

1828 with the collapse of the Federalist Party.

The second party system saw the Democrats and the Wiggs as the two major parties.

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