1. Election of 1860

2. Missouri Compromise

3. Compromise of 1850

4. Kansas-Nebraska Act

5. “A house divided against itself cannot stand
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Emergence of Abraham Lincoln
Republican Party – (new party) political party formed united under the belief that “no man can own another man...that slavery must be prohibited in the territories…that all new states must be free states…that the rights of our colored citizens…must be protected.”

6. Lincoln- Douglas Debates: 1858
Lincoln – the challenger
decries “Southern plot” to extend slavery
promises to work for slavery’s extinction
casts slavery as a moral problem, not just political
Douglas – the incumbent (already a senator)
accuses Lincoln of favoring equality
Lincoln loses election, gains national reputation
“THE FIGHT MUST GO ON.”

7. Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat) (Constitutional Union)
Election of 1860:
Main Candidates
Abraham Lincoln
(Republican)
John Breckinridge
(Southern Democrat)
Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat)
John Bell
(Constitutional Union)
* Lincoln won the election.

10. Election Results Lincoln wins with just 40% of the votes
10 southern states did not put his name on the ballot
The South realizes that they have no power left in the government and that ending slavery would be a goal of the new president.
Possibility of secession.
A Senate committee was formed to work out a compromise and save the Union

11. John C. Crittenden

12. Lincoln’s View on Slavery
December 20, 1860 Interview with Lincoln
Promised not to interfere with slavery in the South.
He would support the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Under no circumstance would he allow slavery to spread into the new territories.

13. Secession
December 20, 1860

14. Secession
In response to Lincoln’s victory, the southern states seceded from the Union, (the same day as his interview) eventually forming the Confederate States of America (or the Confederacy).
States in order of their secession:
South Carolina – Dec. 20, 1860
Mississippi – Jan. 9, 1861
Florida – Jan. 10, 1861
Alabama – Jan. 1, 1861
Georgia – Jan. 19, 1861
Louisiana – Jan. 26, 1861
Texas – Feb. 1, 1861
Virginia – Apr. 17, 1861
Arkansas – May 6, 1861
North Carolina – May 20, 1861
Tennessee – June 8, 1861
“Henceforth, the watchword of every uncompromising abolitionist, of every friend of God and liberty, must be, both in a religious and political sense — 'NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS‘”

15. Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.“ I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.