5.7 Election of 1860 and Secession

The election of 1860 triggered secession and the Civil War.
The central question is: What were the effects of Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860?
The Republican Party performed well in the midterm elections, causing concern among Southern Democrats.

Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, known for the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, who ran on a Free Soil platform: sought to prevent slavery from expanding into new territories.
The Free Soil movement aimed to limit the spread of slavery, not to abolish it where it already existed.
Lincoln stated that he did not intend to abolish slavery where it already existed.

The Democratic Party was divided between Northern and Southern factions.
- Northern faction (Douglas): favored popular sovereignty (residents of a territory should decide on slavery).
- Southern faction (John Breckenridge): wanted federal protection of slavery in new territories via a federal slave code, after which popular sovereignty could apply once they became states.
The division weakened the Democratic Party's chances of winning.

Southerners felt politically threatened by Lincoln's election.
Even deploying all their political power wasn't enough to prevail.
Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery but opposed its expansion.
The South feared the growing political dominance of the North, especially after events like John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

In December 1860, South Carolina seceded.
Within six weeks, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed.
Later, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina also seceded.
These states formed the Confederate States of America.
The Confederacy's constitution was similar to the U.S. Constitution.
- It had severely limited federal power.
- It enshrined slavery as a permanent institution.

The secession led to the American Civil War.
Two main arguments about why the Southern states seceded:
- To protect slavery.
- On the grounds of states’ rights.

Each state that seceded held secession conventions.
States drafted articles of secession to explain their reasons for leaving the Union.

Texas: Argued that the election of Lincoln meant the country was controlled by a sectional party that proclaimed the equality of all men, regardless of race, which they deemed contrary to nature and divine law. They accused Republicans of aiming to abolish slavery and grant political equality to black people.
South Carolina: Focused on the violation of their constitutional rights, particularly regarding Northern sympathies toward anti-slavery principles and the perceived oppressive designs of the Republican Party. They argued that the Republicans would exclude the South from common territory and wage war against slavery.
Mississippi: Stated that their position was "thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery."

Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's president, did not mention slavery in his inauguration speech.
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens argued that the Confederacy was founded on the triumph of the white race and the perpetuation of slavery in his Cornerstone Speech.