when president lincoln was elected?
Abraham Lincoln 1861 presidential inauguration
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 With the roads becoming impassable , Lafayette stayed in Washington City for the winter of 1824 – 25 , and thus was there for the climax of the hotly contested 1824 election , in which no presidential candidate was able to secure a majority of the Electoral College , throwing the decision to the House of Representatives . On 9 February 1825 , that body selected Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as president ; that evening , the runner @-@ up , General Andrew Jackson , shook hands with Adams at the White House as Lafayette looked on . 

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 Lincoln was elected president on November 6 , 1860 , and the following month Booth drafted a long speech , apparently undelivered , that decried Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of the South and the institution of slavery . On April 12 , 1861 , the Civil War began , and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union . In Booth 's native Maryland , the slaveholding portion of the population favored joining the Confederate States of America . Because the threatened secession of Maryland would leave the Federal capital of Washington , D.C. , an indefensible enclave within the Confederacy , Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Baltimore and portions of the state , ordering the imprisonment of pro @-@ secession Maryland political leaders at Ft . McHenry and the stationing of Federal troops in Baltimore . Although Maryland remained in the Union , newspaper editorials and many Marylanders , including Booth , agreed with Judge Roger B. Taney 's decision in Ex parte Merryman that Lincoln 's actions were unconstitutional . 

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 Now , Bryan was ready to conclude the speech , and according to his biographer , Michael Kazin , step " into the headlines of American history " . 

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 The usual tradition was for the leading figure of the winning party to be offered the position of Secretary of State , the most senior Cabinet post . Seward was that man and around December 12 , the vice president @-@ elect , Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin , offered Seward the position on Lincoln 's behalf . At Weed 's advice , Seward was slow to formally accept , doing so on December 28 , 1860 , though well before Inauguration Day , March 4 , 1861 . Lincoln remained in Illinois until mid @-@ February , and he and Seward communicated by letter . 

neutral
 = = Lincoln 's reaction and Frémont 's removal = = 
