When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that the Missouri Compromise’s prohibition of slavery in territories was unconstitutional, an increasingly diverse body of opponents of slavery rallied around the Republican Party. Its presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the election of 1860 after the issue of slavery split the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, and a fourth party, the Constitutional Union Party, also fielded a candidate. Lincoln’s victory precipitated secession and ultimately the Civil War.
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