The Presidential election of 1860 was the final straw for the Southerners. This election came down to Stephen A. Douglas (Kansas-Nebraska Act) and Abraham Lincoln. Southerners supported Douglas because he supported the expansion of slavery west. Southerners despised Lincoln because they knew that he did not want slavery to expand west. Lincoln did not necessarily want to be held responsible for bringing slavery to an end. He just wanted to contain it where it already resided. Southerners were outraged. They did not trust Lincoln. They believed that eventually he would try to bring an end to slavery and their SOUTHERN WAY OF LIFE! Southerners despised him so much that many states refused to put his name on the ballot in hopes that would keep him from winning. Southerners did not take into consideration that the North had more white males citizens that were able to vote in 1860 than the South. As a result Lincoln won the election without winning a single Southern state. That was the final straw! The boiling water tocivil warhad over flowed! Southerners did not feel that their opinions and beliefs counted. South Carolina was the first state to secedefrom the Union with the support of Sen. John C. Calhoun who had been threatening to secede since 1828! Soon after, 10 other Southern states seceded forming the Confederate States of America and appointed Jefferson Davis as its president.
The American Civil War had begun!
Conclusion: Civil War 1861-1865
It will be the
job of Abraham Lincoln to bring the Union back together. He will have to
answer the question that all other presidents before him avoided: What to do about
slavery? These are the
things that will consume and define his presidency. Even to his
fatal demise…….