Amendment. The Constitutional Union campaign therefore directed most of its resources in the Upper South states which they believed they had the best chance of winning. In the general election in November 1860, Bell received 592,906 popular votes (13% of the total; 39% of Southern popular votes). He finished third in the electoral college with 39 electoral votes (13%), nevertheless Lincoln secured a decisive victory by winning nearly all of the Northern electoral votes. Bell carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with narrow pluralities over Breckinridge, but was narrowly defeated by Breckinridge in Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, and by Douglas in Missouri, and lost badly in Delaware, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. While Bell received less than 3% of the popular vote cast in Northern states, several of his electors were on fusion tickets with Douglas and Breckinridge electors, so this figure may not be representative of his actual support. Civil War In the months following Lincoln's election, Bell remained steadfast in his support for the Union. During March 1861, he met Lincoln, who, according to Bell, said that he had no intention of using force against the South. After the Battle of Fort Sumter in April, however, Bell, despite continuing to believe in the illegality of secession, complained that he felt deceived by Lincoln. While he still supported preserving the Union if at all possible, he reasoned that if federal forces invaded Tennessee, they should be resisted. Accordingly, on April 23, he openly opposed Lincoln, called for the state to align itself with the Confederacy, and urged that it prepare a defense against a federal invasion. Bell's defection to the Confederate cause stunned Unionist leaders. Louisville Journal editor George D. Prentice wrote that Bell's decision brought "unspeakable mortification, and disgust, and indignation" to his long-time supporters. Horace Greeley lamented such an "ignominious close" to Bell's public career. Knoxville Whig editor (and future Tennessee governor) William Brownlow derided Bell as the "officiating Priest" at the altar of the "false god of Disunion." In June 1861, Bell traveled to Knoxville in hopes of converting the city's Unionist leaders to the secessionist cause and perhaps changing sentiments in the state's east, where most people remained pro-Union. On June 6, Bell delivered a speech before a crowd of secessionists at the Knox County Courthouse. Following the speech, he walked across the street to the law office of long-time Whig attorney Oliver