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A deeply divided nation went to the polls on November 6, 1860, to choose a new president at a time of profound and existential crisis. As testament to those divisions, when Republican Abraham Lincoln emerged victorious over Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, he did so with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. Thus, a man who would go on to be lauded as...