Chapter 15, Section 5

 1860 Abraham Lincoln was nominated to run for president with the Republican Party

 Democrats held their convention in Charleston, South Carolina  Southerners wanted the party to support slavery  Northerners Democrats refused  The party split in two

 Northern Democrats choose Stephen Douglas to run for President  Southern Democrats choose John Breckinridge of Kentucky  Constitutional Union Party: new political party  Tried to heal the split between North and South  Choose John Bell of Tennessee to run for President  He was a moderate who wanted to keep the Union together

 Lincoln won the election  Even though his name was not even on the ballot in 10 southern states

 To many Southerners Lincoln ‘s election meant that the South no longer had a voice in the federal government  Even before the election the governor of South Carolina wrote to other Southern states that if Lincoln won the election it was their duty to leave the Union

 Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky made one last effort to save the Union  He introduced a bill to extent the Missouri Compromise Line all the way to the Pacific

 Southerners believe they had put an abolitionist in the White House  The first state to secede was South Carolina on December 20, 1860  By February 1, 1861 Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas had seceded.

 Confederate States of America: seven states that seceded  Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was named President of the Confederacy

 Southerners believed they had every right to secede  Declaration of Independence states it is the right of the people to alter or abolish a government that denies the right of its citizens  Believed Lincoln would deny white southerners the right to own slaves

 Lincoln stated that no state can lawfully get out of the Union  He pledged there would be no war unless the South started it

 The Confederacy started seizing federal forts in the South  South felt they were a threat because the United States was now a foreign power  By April 1861 the Confederacy controlled nearly all forts post offices and federal buildings in the South

 Fort Sumter, in South Carolina guarded Charleston Harbor  Confederates asked for the fort’s surrender  Major Robert Anderson, Union commander, refused  Confederate guns opened fire  Union ran out of ammunition and surrendered  Marked the beginning of the Civil War.