He was one of our nation's greatest presidents, but Abraham Lincoln's road to the presidency was anything but great and that history lesson may teach us something about this year's presidential election.
You know him for saving the Union and for freeing the slaves, but what you might not know is that Lincoln was a nobody from nowhere.
"As the 16th President, he was the first one born outside of the original 13 colonies and out here in the Midwest - or as it was called the 'West' at the time - they were thought of as uneducated, hicks, badly dressed, badly spoken, badly educated, and Lincoln was the embodiment of all those problems in the eyes of Eastern Republicans and Eastern Democrats - the whole country," explained James Cornelius, the Curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
"Douglas was the most powerful Senator in Washington," he said. "He was really at odds with his own party mate - James Buchanan - so the Democrats were kind of splitting and the Republicans were going to try to work into that, but that was the first Senate election in our history that was covered by newspapers all over the country, because they really articulated this divide between the parties."
However, two years later, there was another guy - Senator William Seward from New York - who everyone assumed would be the Republican Presidential Nominee... including Seward himself.
"He had gone to Europe wearing the fanciest clothes so that he could meet Queen Victoria and the Emperor, because he was assuming he'd be the next Republican Nominee and President," explained Cornelius. "It didn't work out and the reason it didn't work out is that the Republicans were just as divided as the Democrats. Seward was in the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and the Republican definitely stood for anti-slavery, but that was not going to be a winning position nationally."
"The Illinois Party said - 'Well, let's pick a neutral place. How about Chicago?'" explained Cornelius.
It gave Lincoln a big advantage. Cornelius said there are stories of Lincoln supporters printing fake tickets so they could flood the convention hall, cheer Lincoln's name, and separate supporters of the other candidates. However, there was still one big obstacle.
"It didn't change the number of delegates from all the states and it didn't change the process of voting," he said.
Seward was in the lead, but only liked in his home state of New York and not really anywhere else.
So, after the first ballot everything changed - including a lot of Seward's pledged delegates.
"You are pledged to go to your National Convention representing your state's choice," explained Cornelius. "Today, we base that on Primaries. Back then, it was based on Republican Party meetings. You're pledged to it, but you're not legally bound."
Deals were dealt and after three days, on the third ballot - a miracle - Lincoln won.
"They were not underrepresented from New York at the Chicago Convention," explained Cornelius. "They just didn't have the right candidate, so sometimes money works. Something numbers work. Sometimes momentum beats both of those."
That momentum continued. A few weeks later, the Democrats held their convention - and they split. Lincoln had already unified the Republican Party. Now, he had to unify the country.
"Lincoln was able to build up the Republican Party - that's what he was best at," explained Cornelius. "He was a good organizer. He brought together the different factions of the Republicans at the county level and regional level."
Most of all though, Cornelius said Lincoln was civil.
"He didn't get affected by insults to his person or to his party."
It's a good thing too, because Lincoln - running against three other candidates - won the 1860 Presidential Election with just 39% of the vote. Cornelius did the math and said that's happened 18 times out of around 60 elections.
"Eighteen times a person with less than half of the popular has ended up as President so if even one minor party person gets into the race this time in 2016, the odds look pretty good that we'd have a minority President again."
"During the Primaries, we hear the extremes of the parties - that's always been the case," he explained. "During the General Election, they fight back towards the middle of the political spectrum in order to win that big majority of people who are in the political middle of everything, so Vice Presidential Candidates matter. They really do. It depends what state they're form, what race, what age, what wing of the party - all those things."
"Elections are lost," he added. "Elections are not won. Elections are lost. In 1860, the Democrats had most things going for them and they lost it by splitting. The anti-slavery people probably had the election in 1856, but they split and they lost to James Buchanan - a Democrat who was elected with less than 50% of the vote."
"More people than not wanted someone else. More people than not wanted someone besides Lincoln. You can't hold together a real victory unless you're unified."