Jack of Harts

A little known fact of the American election of 1860 that catapulted the Third Republican Party into majorities in both Houses of Congress, and the Presidency, is that it was done with a minority of the vote. The Democrats had a massive majority, but were divided between three competing factions that year. They split the election between them, allowing the man history would call Honest Abe to slip through with an electoral majority. The Democrats were shocked and horrified at having lost, when nobody thought the man they’d called an idiot and worse had any chance of winning. They declared they would never submit to such a man in the Presidency. They called for resistance against him, for driving his supporters out of society, and for outright rebellion against his rule. And seven States, including Texas, officially seceded from the Union a month before Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States of America.