Election of 1860/Secession of the South Have you ever wondered why the United States Presidential Election of 1860 was one of the most monumental presidential elections in the history of this country? The reason why is because it caused so much conflict between in north and the south in the late 1800’s. The south wished for slavery to be legal while the north thought otherwise. In the Election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States as he was a Republican candidate and as a result, the south decided to make a dramatic move to make a “step forward” as a unit. The election of Abraham Lincoln caused the north and the south to grow their conflicts and caused the Civil War, but what caused the conflicts? In the 1860 …show more content…
The north side aiming to abolish slavery as it’s a cruel treatment and it gave the United States a bad name world-wide. On the other hand, the south wished to keep slavery a thing and fought for ownership of “property”. Once the 1860 Elections came up can the final four candidates were revealed, doubts were made. Southerners did not like Abraham Lincoln as he was the favorite to win the election. Abraham Lincoln’s view of slavery was moderate. He did not believe slavery was too bad, but he did not wish for slavery to expand anymore as it could have caused more trouble nationwide. The south started to doubt Lincoln as a president as they suspected that he would change his mind about slavery and make an attempt to abolish it. Southern states claimed to leave the United States as soon as Lincoln was elected …show more content…
The election of Abraham Lincoln resulted in eleven southern states seceding from the United States to form The Confederate States of America, CSA. Abraham Lincoln competed with John Bell, John C. Breckinridge, and Stephen A. Douglas to become the 16th president while his thoughts on slavery were modest. He had no issue on slavery at the moment, but he did not want for it to keep expanding as it would not end well with the Northern states. Southern states doubted Lincoln’s honesty and decided to secede immediately if Abraham Lincoln was named the next president of the United States. Secession is when someone or something disengages from a membership or a group, meaning that the South left its country in order to pursue its desires. Soon, the Civil War started which lasted almost exactly four years having the South, led by General Robert E. Lee, defeated by the North who won in a tactical manner. After the war has cooled off, it was made illegal to secede the Union again, not allowing the South leave the Union any
Lincoln was a Republican from the North and was against expanding slavery. This would be the first time many (Southerners) would refuse to accept the results of the election. In the end, many of the southern states would withdraw from the union. They would go on to create their own national capitol in the south. They would call themselves the confederate states.
The election of 1860 was an election to decide between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas as the 16th president. Lincoln was not a fan favorite, but he won the election, due to Electoral College system. Lincoln made his position on slavery very clear. He wanted to end slavery. The people in the south opposed to the idea of abolishing slavery.
Some Southerners believed that they needed to secede from the nation because they believed Abraham Lincoln, and his Republican majority were a major threat to the institution of slavery. The new Republican Party showed up in the 1850s and they were against the institution of slavery. When the election of 1860 came about, one of the candidates was Abraham Lincoln who just so happened to be a republican. When he won the election alongside his commanding majorities in both houses of Congress, the Southern states panicked, and got afraid that the federal government would stop the continuation of the practice of slavery. In other words, they were afraid that they were going to abolish slavery in the South, which they believed was going to be a problem
He made it very clear that he didn’t want slavery to spread and would work to see that slavery didn’t spread. President Lincoln said if he could save the Union by keeping slavery where it already existed, he would do that. Saving the Union was his top priority. However, the South didn’t trust President Lincoln to keep his word.
In 1860, the U.S. was divided. It was divided into the North, South, and New Territories. It was also divided in terms of their views on slavery. The North believed that slavery was wrong, the South completely supported the idea, and the West was indifferent at the time.
According to those states, they all think slavery should be allowed in their region. Convinced that their way of life, based on slavery, was threatened by the election of Abraham Lincoln, those seven states of the deep South seceded. Jefferson Davis felt like the election was the final straw in secession or as he put it, “ the last feather which you know breaks the camel’s back”(Doc 7 Jefferson Davis). This meant that the election made the decision clear to the Southern states.
This tension between the north and south finally exploded and seven states one after another seceded. In my opinion the secession could have been avoided in 1860 because there was much money to be made with trading and selling of goods. People believed that they needed slaves and could not imagine being without
The Civil War was the result of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860, as the first Republican president on a platform promising to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. Military during the Civil War was off, but equalled out in terms of stats, North having better leadership and South having better weapons. As the United States expanded westward, two new territories were created from the issue of slavery in the United States. The U.S. government let the two new territories decide whether or not to allow slavery.
The American Civil war that was fought from 1861- 1865 was used to decide the continuity of the Union or the Independence for the Confederacy. Out of the 34 states in January 1861, seven Southern slaves states separately pronounced their withdrawal from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy also called the South, increased to eleven states, they claimed thirteen states and added western territories, the Confederacy was never officially recognized by a foreign country. The states that are faithful and didn't pronounced withdrawal were the Union.
In the early 1860’s the Southern states seceded from the Union due to the uproar of disputes over, slavery in the territories, the Northern abolitionists growth in power and the
Creating a monument for an person or event is an great idea if they have did something significant in the historic life that have changed us in some way. People that have been leaders or made an great impact on modern lives they should be notice because of what they did to help. Some people just want there name on something for little stuff thats not making history or changing people’s lives. That why i think people or an event that has already occurred should have an monument. Memorializing a person or event and creating a monument is an great idea because illustrates our past that some may not know that happen and that a person or event should be honored.
After Lincoln was elected and began his presidential reign, the country began to fracture and soon went into war. Lincoln had a tough situation as President because the South seceded from the Union as a direct result of his policies and favoritism to the Union and North, which then meant he would have to lead the North to victory over the military superior South in order to preserve and repair his country’s Union (OI). Southerners did not like Lincoln for a variety of reasons, however they opposed his presidential campaign and rule mainly due to his opposition of slavery, which they felt was a violation and direct attack on their rights and way of life (Doc 7). Lincoln believed slavery was immoral and wrong, so one of his initial contributions to the political environment of America was to proclaim that slavery would, “...become extinct for all time to come, if we but readopted the policy of the fathers by restricting it to the limits it has already covered-restricting it from new Territories” (Doc 1). Lincoln’s Presidency was controversial, and his controversial but effective actions as President would lead the Union to victory and eventually restore the nation to its unified state at the end of the Civil
The American Civil War changed Americans and their ideals about freedom in many ways. Northern and Southern United states began to have simmering tensions for the states’ rights versus federal authority, plus westward expansion, and slavery had huge effects on the states. An election which made anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln the president of the United States of America in 1860, caused seven of the southern states to concede from the Union to make The Confederate States Of America soon after four more joined afterwards. It changed Americans in many ways as neighbors fought each other through the 4 gruesome years of the war. Conflict between the sides were like fights between brother and brother instead with many deaths.
‘Slavery was the root cause of secession’. ‘November 6 1860, Lincoln was elected president of America which resulted in panic emerging in the South’ . The election of Lincoln as president who was a Republican leader meant that ideologies, movements and values from the North would be implemented in the South which meant the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a huge characteristic of the South as the economy; politics; social status and psychological mind-sets were influenced by the process of slavery. The southern white population then derived the idea of secession which meant the South would gain independence from Northern aggression .
There were disputes over territories. The main disagreement was over slavery. Slavery was legal in the south but had become banned by then states north of the Mason-Dixon line. The southerners feared that the slave ban would eventually lead to no slaveholding states, and which would give the control of the government to abolitionist. If this happened the institution of slavery would be outlawed completely.