Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States.

Lincoln (R) defeats John Breckenridge (Nat. Dem.), Stephen Douglas (Southern Dem.), and John Bell (Constitutional Union). Lincoln carries 10 of the 12 wards in Boston, losing only in heavily Irish-American wards 1 and 7. Chosen by electors on February 13, 1861, Lincoln is inaugurated on March 4, 1861.*