Whigs drawing much of their support from East Tennessee. The collapse of the Whig Party over the issue of slavery in the mid-1850s left East Tennessee's Whigs in a difficult position. Most Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party, but Southern Whigs generally found this unpalatable due to the Republicans' anti-slavery sentiments. Some prominent East Tennessee Whigs switched their allegiance to the Democratic Party, though most turned to third party movements, such as the American Party ("Know Nothings"). By the late 1850s, former Whigs, Know Nothings, and a few disgruntled Democrats had formed the Opposition Party to counter rising secessionist sentiment. Gubernatorial elections in Tennessee had been very competitive during the two decades prior to the election of Isham G. Harris in 1857. The six previous elections had all been decided by less than 2,500 votes (out of over 110,000 votes cast). Whigs relied heavily on East Tennessee and Democrats relied on Middle Tennessee, with West Tennessee generally split. As the sectionalist conflict over the issue of slavery heated up in the late 1850s, however, sentiments in West Tennessee began to shift in favor of the Democrats. Harris, a staunch pro-slavery Southern Democrat, was elected by over 12,000 votes in 1857, and over 8,000 votes in 1859. Democrats also gained control of both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly in the 1859 cycle. During the 1860 presidential election, East Tennessee's former Whigs turned to the Constitutional Union Party, a third party which rejected both secession and abolition. This party's candidate, John Bell, was a long-time Whig and native of Tennessee. After Abraham Lincoln won the election in November 1860, Southern Democrats, convinced that Lincoln would abolish slavery, began calling for secession. Following two contentious meetings between secessionists and Unionists in Knoxville in late 1860, Unionist leaders organized rallies in counties throughout East Tennessee to counter rising secessionist sentiment. The efforts of Tennessee's secessionists culminated in a February 9, 1861, statewide referendum in which voters chose whether or not to hold a convention to consider the issue of secession. After a bitter campaign, the hopes of secessionists appeared to be dashed when Tennessee voters rejected holding the convention, 69,675 votes to 57,789. In East Tennessee, roughly 81% of voters rejected the convention, including majorities in every East Tennessee county with the exception of Sullivan and (by a slight majority) Meigs. While slavery was a divisive issue nationwide, East Tennessee's Unionists opposed