Why Americans Sought After The Election Of 1861

Abraham Lincoln's victory alarmed many white southerners because this meant that their future was now in the hands of a political party that was primarily against their region's personal values and interests. The people that wanted the South to secede from the Union had their reasons to do so. They were worried that Lincoln's election might lead to future Republican administrations interfering with slavery in the states. In the Deep South, southerners feared that they might become a sticking minority in a nation that was overrun by their political opposites. With this in mind, they instead seceded from the Union and saved slavery within their states.

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)

Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia

Southern states left the Union because they thought they had more power than the Federal Government. “Many Southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers, which the federal government cannot legally deny”(Doc 5). This means that Southerners thought that the Federal Government could not deny their right to have slavery so they left. Southern states left the Union because Abraham Lincoln banned slavery and it was their only way to make a

The secession of seven southern states. After Lincoln was elected southern states were furious. The reason why they were furious was that they never voted for him. They felt that their votes did not matter to them. Some states threatened to secede from the union. Secession was declared unconstitutional, but the states did not care. Lincoln argued that “The government was a union of people and not of states.”. He could of of helped the states or let the states go and let the United States look weak and apart. He picked the second choice, eleven states seceded, South Carolina was the first to go. The states were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee,

The South felt that they had multiple reasons for secession, although the North did not fully support their decisions. They wanted to secede for their own safety since different abolitionist groups were attacking them. Also, Lincoln’s inauguration further encouraged the Southern states to secede because Lincoln did not agree with slavery and wanted it abolished. Another reason for secession was the increase of sectional hostility. The Southern states seceded from the Union because of the results of the election of 1860, the existing hostility between the North and the South, and the attempts performed by extreme abolitionists who tried to end slavery.

Abraham Lincoln’s triumph in that election triggered frustration and a sense of unfairness from the South. His political republican views prompted southern states to try and succeed. South Carolina became the first state to declare its secession from the Union. (Doc 1.) They felt that they needed to protect their state’s right to maintain slavery.

“No state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the union”(Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, Document C). “ The crisis upon us involves not only the right of self government, but the maintenance of great pricleple in the law of nations” (President of the Texas Secession Convention, Document C). Texas likes to be in control, so anyone can understand why state rights are important to them. As you can see in the first quote that Abraham Lincoln said that any state that did not agree with the Union can get out and leave. That’s exactly what Texas did, in 1861 Texas was the seventh state to succeed from the Union.

During the Civil War Era and Reconstruction, there was continuous threats by the Confederacy of secession from the Union. The Confederacy was extremely hesitant to maintain relations with the Union and was willing to separate into its own territory. Secession, in Civil War terms, is the act of disassociation from the Union. The Confederacy was willing to secede from the Union for various reasons. Lincoln being elected was a red flag for the Southern states, which allowed for the issue of abolition to be a rising threat as well as create tension between the North and Southern territories.

The election of Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[74] Efforts at compromise, including the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise", failed. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined together to form the Confederacy.

For years prior to the Election of 1860, the Northern and Southern states of America were growing apart. Problems decades earlier such as the South’s lack of railroads were coupled with more recent arguments concerning the future of slavery in America and whether it should be allowed in new territories. Following closely on the heels of many of these divisive problems was the Election of 1860, in which Abraham Lincoln won without carrying a single Southern state. Although it was not his intention, Lincoln’s victory in the Election of 1860 proved to be the final straw for the South, and quickly caused the secession of seven Southern states, ultimately leading to the deadliest war in American history, and the end of slavery in the United States.

After the 1860 election to the presidency of Republican Abraham Lincoln, 11 southern states to end secession by Federal in 1861. They tried to establish a confederation of independent states where slavery would be protected. Northern unionists, on the other hand, insisted that secession was not only unconstitutional but also unthinkable. They were willing to use military force to keep South Union. Even the southerners who owned slaves opposed threatened federal coercion. The result was a costly and bloody civil war. Almost as many Americans were killed in the civil war as in all the other wars of the nation

In 1861 until 1865, the American Civil War was fought for different reason but the common belief was to keep slavery legal in the South; states’ rights also played a part into that as well. South Carolina threatened to secede from the union if Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election; when he did then they made good on the threat. There were many other states that followed and formed the Confederation States of America.

South Carolina also accused the Northern states of instigating “a war [that would] be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States,” (South Carolina) through the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. In Georgia’s declaration of secession, the reasons for secession are cited as “numerous and serious causes of complaint” (Georgia) against the non-slave holding states that were centered on “the subject of African slavery” (Georgia). In Mississippi, the consensus in the same; Mississippi’s position in the issue “[was] thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” (Mississippi) and goes to list many reasons pertaining to slavery for its secession, most notably 1) The North “has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation” (Mississippi), 2) “has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union” (Mississippi), and 3) “advocates negro equality” (Mississippi). For these as well as other reasons all pertaining to slavery, the Confederate States seceded from the Union. In the Southern States, as seen through the declarations of secession from the Confederate States, the people, along with the governments of those states all supported secession based on issues arising from the conflict over slavery.