ELECTION OF 1860

Missouri Compromise

Compromise of 1850

Kansas-Nebraska Act

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Emergence of Abraham Lincoln

Republican Party – (new party) political party formed united under the belief that “no man can own another man...that slavery must be prohibited in the territories…that all new states must be free states…that the rights of our colored citizens…must be protected.”

Lincoln- Douglas Debates: 1858

Lincoln – the challenger decries “Southern plot” to extend slavery promises to work for slavery’s extinction casts slavery as a moral problem, not just political

Douglas – the incumbent (already a senator) accuses Lincoln of favoring equality

Lincoln loses election, gains national reputation

“THE FIGHT MUST GO ON.”

Election of 1860:Main Candidates

Abraham Lincoln

(Republican)

Stephen Douglas

(Northern Democrat)

John Breckinridge

(Southern Democrat)

John Bell(Constitutional

Union)

* Lincoln won the election.

Election Results

Lincoln wins with just 40% of the votes 10 southern states did not put his name

on the ballot The South realizes that they have no

power left in the government and that ending slavery would be a goal of the new president. Possibility of secession.

A Senate committee was formed to work out a compromise and save the Union

John C. Crittenden

Lincoln’s View on Slavery

December 20, 1860 Interview with Lincoln Promised not to interfere with slavery in

the South. He would support the enforcement of the

Fugitive Slave Law. Under no circumstance would he allow

slavery to spread into the new territories.

SECESSIONDecember 20, 1860

Secession In response to Lincoln’s victory, the southern states seceded from the Union,

(the same day as his interview) eventually forming the Confederate States of America (or the Confederacy).

States in order of their secession:

South Carolina – Dec. 20, 1860

Mississippi – Jan. 9, 1861

Florida – Jan. 10, 1861

Alabama – Jan. 1, 1861

Georgia – Jan. 19, 1861

Louisiana – Jan. 26, 1861

Texas – Feb. 1, 1861

Virginia – Apr. 17, 1861

Arkansas – May 6, 1861

North Carolina – May 20, 1861

Tennessee – June 8, 1861

“Henceforth, the watchword of every uncompromising abolitionist, of every friend of God and liberty, must be, both in a religious and political sense — 'NO UNION

WITH SLAVEHOLDERS‘”

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in

mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government

will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being

yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in

heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the

most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.“

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must

not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must

not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords ofmemory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot

graveto every living heart and hearthstone all over this

broad land,will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again

touched,as surely they will be, by the better angels of our

nature.