Election of 1860 and Secession Notes (AMSCO 5.7)

October 1859: John Brown (radical abolitionist) led followers to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, aiming to arm enslaved African Americans for a revolt.
Federal troops, under Robert E. Lee, captured Brown after a two-day siege.
Brown and six followers were tried for treason, convicted, and hanged.
Brown's raid divided Northerners: Moderates condemned violence, abolitionists hailed him as a martyr.
Southern whites viewed the raid and Northern support as proof of the North's intention to incite slave revolts and destroy the South.

The Democratic Party held its national convention in Charleston, South Carolina.
Stephen Douglas was the leading candidate.
Southerners and supporters of President Buchanan blocked his nomination.
After a deadlock, a second convention was held in Baltimore.
Delegates from slave states walked out, leading to Douglas's nomination on a platform of popular sovereignty and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Southern Democrats held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.
The Southern Democratic platform called for the unrestricted extension of slavery in the territories and annexation of Cuba.

Republicans met in Chicago with hopes of an easy win due to the divided Democrats.
They drafted a platform appealing to the economic self-interest of Northerners and Westerners.
The platform called for:
- Exclusion of slavery from the territories.
- A protective tariff for industry.
- Free land for homesteaders.
- Internal improvements, including a railroad to the Pacific.
To win moderates, they rejected William Seward, a strong opponent of slavery, and nominated Abraham Lincoln.
Republicans believed Lincoln could win the Midwestern states.
Radicals in the South warned that their states would secede if Lincoln was elected.

Fearing a Republican victory, former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and moderate Democrats formed the Constitutional Union Party.
They nominated John Bell of Tennessee and pledged enforcement of laws, the Constitution, and preservation of the Union.

Lincoln carried every free state in the North, winning a solid majority of 59 percent of the electoral votes.
Breckinridge carried the Deep South.
Douglas and Bell won only a few electoral votes in the border states.
Lincoln won only 39.8 percent of the popular vote, making him a minority president.
The populous free states had enough electoral votes to elect a president without the South.
Southern fears of Northern domination and threats to slavery appeared to be coming true.

Republicans did not control the Senate or the Supreme Court in 1860.
Southern secessionists called for immediate disunion after Lincoln's election.
December 1860: South Carolina voted to secede to protect slavery.
Within six weeks, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas did the same.
- Many in Georgia and Alabama were uncertain or opposed to secession.
Large slaveowners argued for states' rights to defend slavery.
February 1861: The seven states of the Deep South formed the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Confederate constitution was similar to the U.S. Constitution, but with limits on the government's power to impose tariffs and restrict slavery.
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander Stephens of Georgia were elected president and vice president.

President Buchanan was a lame-duck president who did nothing to prevent secession.
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to hold slaves in territories south of the Missouri Compromise line ( $36°30'$ ).
Lincoln rejected this compromise because it violated the Republican position against the extension of slavery.
Southern whites who voted for secession believed they were acting in the tradition of the Revolution of 1776.
They argued for the right to national independence and to dissolve a compact that no longer protected them.
Many thought Lincoln might permit secession without a fight.

When Lincoln took office in March 1861, people wondered if he would challenge secession militarily.
Lincoln assured Southerners he would not interfere with slavery where it existed but warned that no state had the right to break up the Union.
Lincoln appealed for restraint, stating that the issue of civil war rested in the hands of the Southern people, not his.

The status of federal forts in seceded states was critical.
Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, was cut off by Southern control.
Lincoln announced he was sending provisions of food to the fort.
South Carolina was given the choice of allowing the fort to hold out or opening fire.
April 12, 1861: South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.
The attack united most Northerners behind a patriotic fight to save the Union.

Before Fort Sumter, only seven states of the Deep South had seceded.
After it was clear Lincoln would use troops, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy.
The decision to secede was controversial.
The Confederate capital moved to Richmond, Virginia.
Western Virginia remained loyal to the Union, becoming a separate state in 1863.

Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky remained in the Union due to pro-Union sentiment and shrewd federal policies.
In Maryland, pro-secessionists attacked Union troops; the Union army used martial law to maintain control.
In Missouri, U.S. troops prevented pro-South elements from gaining control.
In Kentucky, the state legislature voted to remain neutral; Lincoln respected this until the South violated it.
Keeping the border states was a military and political goal for Lincoln, as their loss would increase the Confederate population by 50 percent and weaken the North's strategic position.
To avoid alienating Unionists in the border states, Lincoln initially rejected calls for the emancipation of slaves.