As It Was: Southern Oregonians favored pro-slavery presidential candidate

Presidential elections in Oregon date back to 1860, when Abraham Lincoln’s victory foreshadowed the Civil War. A year earlier Oregonians had rejected slavery and entered the Union as a free state, but the divisive slavery issue hung over the elections. Abraham Lincoln ran as a Republican. The Democratic Party had split into two camps at its national convention, with pro-slavery Southerners nominating John Breckinridge of Kentucky and Northern Democrats choosing Stephen [...]