For this occasion the studied ambiguity of the Cincinnati platform made possible a last cooeperation of North and South, in the face of carefully concealed mental reservations, to secure a presidential victory.
It is not the province of this work to describe the incidents of the national canvass, but only to record its results.

At the election of November, 1856, Buchanan was chosen President.

The popular vote in the nation at large stood: Buchanan, 1,838,169; Fremont, 1,341,264; Fillmore, 874,534.

By States Buchanan received the votes of fourteen slave-States and five free-States, a total of 174 electors; Fremont the vote of eleven free-States, a total of 114 electors; and Fillmore the vote of one slave-State, a total of eight electors.[4] In the campaign which preceded Mr.Buchanan's election, Mr.Lincoln, at the head of the Fremont electoral ticket for Illinois, took a prominent part, traversing the State in every direction, and making about fifty speeches.

Among the addresses which he thus delivered in the different counties, it is interesting to read a fragment of a speech he made at Galena, Illinois, discussing the charge of "sectionalism," the identical pretext upon which the South inaugurated its rebellion against his Administration four years afterwards: You further charge us with being disunionists.