Abraham Lincoln is chosen as the sixteenth leader of the United States over a profoundly separated Democratic Party, turning into the main Republican to win the administration. Lincoln got just 40 percent of the well known vote however helpfully crushed the three different applicants: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union applicant John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. congressperson for Illinois.

The senatorial battle highlighted a striking arrangement of open experiences on the subjection issue, known as the Lincoln-Douglas wrangles, in which Lincoln contended against the spread of bondage, while Douglas kept up that every region ought to have the privilege to choose whether it would turn out to be free or slave.
In the November 1860 race, Lincoln again confronted Douglas, who spoke to the Northern group of an intensely partitioned Democratic Party, and in addition Breckinridge and Bell. The declaration of Lincoln's triumph flagged the withdrawal of the Southern states, which since the start of the year had been freely debilitating severance if the Republicans picked up the White House.
When of Lincoln's initiation on March 4, 1861, seven states had withdrawn, and the Confederate States of America had been formally settled, with Jefferson Davis as its chose president. Multi month later, the American Civil War started when Confederate powers under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina. In 1863, as the tide betrayed the Confederacy, Lincoln liberated the slaves and in 1864 won re-decision. In April 1865, he was killed by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The assault came just five days after the American Civil War successfully finished with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.
For safeguarding the Union and conveying a conclusion to subjugation, and for his extraordinary character and ground-breaking speech, Lincoln is hailed as one of the best American presidents.