John C. Calhoun died on March 31, 1850.
No, John C. Calhoun was not a candidate for the presidential election of 1860. He had actually passed away in 1850. The main candidates for the 1860 election were Abraham Lincoln for the Republican Party, Stephen Douglas for the Northern Democrats, John C. Breckinridge for the Southern Democrats, and John Bell for the Constitutional Union Party.
he had a minority of the people's vote.
He recieved a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote.
Lincoln won the election in 1860 without the majority of the popular vote. He won 40% of the popular vote, and 180 out of 303 electoral votes.
election of 1860
Lincoln winning the presidency with only 40 percent of the popular vote
in 1860
Lincoln carried Massachusetts in 1860 with 62.9 %of the vote. Douglas got 20.3%, John Bell 13.2% and Breckinridge 3.5%.
No single candidate won a majority of the votes cast in the 1860 election. Abraham Lincoln won the most with 1,865,908, 39.7% of all the votes cast. Stephen A. Douglas won 1,380,202 votes, 29.5% of the vote. John C. Breckinridge won 848,019 votes, 18.2% of the vote, and John Bell won 590,901, 12.6%.
Because at the time of the election of 1860 only white males had the right to vote, so it's unnecessary to ask who most whites voted for in 1860. Most southern states voted for the Southern Democratic Party's candidate John Breckenridge, who's VP was Joseph Lane. Two links: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1860 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860
Lincoln's opponent in the 1860 election
Slavery was the major issue in the 1860 election. Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election. Opposition to Lincoln was divided with 3 candidates challenging him. The Democratic Party was split between the northern Democrats and the Southern candidates. Lincoln won 39.8% of the popular vote and defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.