John Bell was another of the four men who ran in the complicated 1860 presidential election, which ultimately helped cause the Civil War. Bell was a Tennessee senator and moderate politician, who ran as the candidate for the Constitutional Union party in 1860, a movement dedicated to a single goal: maintaining the Union and Constitution. The conservative movement hoped to stave off sectional conflict by supporting neither pro- nor anti-slavery policies. It was widely seen as old-fashioned and out-of-date in a heated political climate, and John Bell won just 12.6% of the popular vote and 36 electoral votes, surpassed by Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John Breckenridge.
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