Lincoln’s Election and Southern Secession

Chapter 15, Section 3

The Split of the Democratic Party In April, the Democratic Convention

was held in Charlestown, S.C. • It was clear that Northern and Southern

Democrats held differing ideologies about slavery.

• The democratic party began to split along sectional lines.

The Southerners wanted the parties platform to defend slavery.

The Northerners wanted popular sovereignty to decide whether a territory or state can become a free or slave state.

The Northerners won the platform.• The Northern and Southern democrats

would nominate two different candidates.

The Election of 1860 The proslavery Southerners put

their support behind proslavery candidate John Breckinridge of Kentucky.

The Northerners backed Stephen A. Douglas.

The republican nominated Abraham Lincoln.

The Constitution Party- whose aim was to preserve the Union, nominated John Bell of Tennessee.

Two Political Races The election of 1860 turned into two

different races for the presidency- one in the North and one in the South.• Lincoln and Douglas were the only

candidates with support in the North. • Breckinridge and Bell competed for

Southern Votes.

Two Political Races Lincoln- opposed the expansion of

slavery into the territories.

Breckinridge- insisted that the federal gov’t be required to protect slavery in any territory.

Douglas and Bell- did not want the gov’t to pass any new laws on slavery.

The Election of 1860 Lincoln defeated Douglas in the North.

Breckinridge carried most of the South.

Because the North had a larger population, Lincoln won the election.

Most Southerners did not believe Lincolns statements of not wanting to ban slavery.• Many Southerners saw Lincoln as a threat to their

way of life.

Southern States Secede Before the election of 1860, the

Southerners had warned the U.S. gov’t that if Lincoln won the election, the South would secede from the Union.

The Confederate States of America Southerners based their arguments

on states’ rights- the idea that states have certain rights that the federal gov’t cannot overrule.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. • Shortly after, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,

Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined.

In early February 1861, the states that seceded met in Montgomery, Alabama and formed the Confederate States of America and named Jefferson Davis president of the Confederacy.

The Confederate States of America

The convention drafted a constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution, however with a few changes. • Supported States’ Rights• Protected slavery in the Confederacy,

including any territories it might acquire.

The Union’s Response Northerners considered the secession

unconstitutional. • President James Buchanan argued against it and

believed that the states did not have the right to withdraw from the union. The federal gov’t, not the states were sovereign.

The South complained that the North intended to use majority rule as a means to force the South to abolish slavery. • The North believed the South felt bitter about the

recent presidential election results.

The Failure of Compromise Senator John J. Crittenden of

Kentucky proposed a plan that:• 1. Slavery should be protected south

of the line established in the Missouri Compromise.

• 2. Congress should not abolish slavery in a slave state, and

• 3. the federal gov’t should compensate the owners of fugitive slaves.

The Crittenden Compromise was present to congress in 1861, but was defeated in the Senate.

Lincoln’s Inauguration On March 4, Lincoln took the oath of

office and gave his first inaugural speech.

He assured the South that he had no intentions of abolishing slavery.

He spoke forceful against secession.

Lincoln’s Inauguration Lincoln did not want to

invade the South, but he would not abandon the government’s forts of which stood on Southern soil.• He noted that these forts would

quickly need to be resupplied.

From March to April, Americans waited anxiously to see what would happen next.