The 1860 Democratic National Convention met in Charleston , South Carolina and a large bloc of Southern delegates walked out when the platform was insufficiently pro-slavery . That led to the division of the party and separate Northern and Southern nominees for President , which practically guaranteed the election of an anti-slavery Republican , which in turn triggered declarations of secession in seven states . During the 1860 presidential campaign , a widely credited report in the '' Nashville Patriot '' said that the outcome was the intended result of a conspiracy by Rhett , Yancey , and William Porcher Miles hatched at the Southern Convention in Montgomery , Alabama , in May 1858
1860 Democratic National Convention
1860 Democratic National Conventions
Robert Rhett