Election of 1860 and Secession

Democrats were divided; Northern Democrats distrusted Southern Democrats.
Stephen Douglas's supporters opposed any platform that would guarantee defeat in the North.
Abraham Lincoln nominated by the Republican Party as a moderate figure to unite the party.
Lincoln’s support for the Union appealed to moderate Republicans.
His focus on the moral issue of slavery appealed to those from abolitionist backgrounds.
Lincoln's lack of involvement with the Know-Nothings (an anti-immigrant group) and immigrant voters was beneficial.
Lincoln was from Illinois, giving him an advantage in key “doubtful states”.
After three rounds of voting, Lincoln was nominated.
Republican platform:
- Rejected the Dred Scott decision.
- Reaffirmed opposition to the expansion of slavery.
- Economic measures to attract Northern voters, including:
  - Free homesteads in the West.
  - A protective tariff.
  - Government support for building a transcontinental railroad.

Two separate campaigns occurred:
- North: Lincoln vs. Douglas.
- South: Douglas, John Breckinridge, and John Bell.
John Bell represented the Constitutional Union Party (former Whigs).
- Aimed to preserve the Union and maintain slavery where it existed without sectional conflict.
Election results were divided along regional lines.
Lincoln won every Northern state except New Jersey.
- Received 1.8 million votes (54% of the North's total, 40% of the national vote).
- Secured 180 electoral votes.
Breckinridge won most of the slave states, and Bell took three states in the Upper South.
Douglas won only Missouri but received 1.3 million votes.
Douglas's failure to win in North/South showed that a traditional political career based on Union unity was no longer viable.
Lincoln won enough electoral votes to become the 16th president, even without a majority of the national popular vote.

Key Concept 5.2: Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war.
Effect of Lincoln's election.
Factors causing Southern states to secede.

Southern states feared Lincoln's election would lead to Republican rule and federal government interference with slavery.
South Carolina was the first to declare independence on December 20, 1860, followed by the Cotton Belt states.

President Buchanan believed states had no right to secede but that the federal government lacked the power to force them back.
Crittenden Compromise:
- Proposed to keep slavery in slave states.
- Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.
Lincoln opposed the Crittenden Compromise.
- Argued it was political blackmail and would lead to conflicts over land from Mexico and the Caribbean.

Lincoln initially aimed to keep the remaining slave states in the Union and hoped the secession movement would collapse.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln rejected secession but denied any intention to interfere with slavery in existing states.
He pledged to "hold" remaining federal property in seceding states.
Lincoln stated the decision for civil war rested with the "dissatisfied fellow countrymen".
The Confederacy began seizing American forts.
The Civil War began with the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.