Lincoln and Hamlin Campaign Medal, 1860

In the 1860 election, the relatively new Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln as president and Hannibal Hamlin as vice president. While Lincoln was a Midwesterner, a former Whig party member, and a moderate on the issue of slavery, Hamlin came from New England, had recently left the Democratic party, and was seen as far more anti-slavery than Lincoln. This attempt to balance the ticket helped keep the Republican party relatively united in a complicated four-way race, in which Lincoln’s Republicans defeated John Breckenridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell.