Secession and the Start of the Civil War

Chapter 10 Section 4

• Compare the candidates in the election of 1860 and analyze the results of the election.

• Analyze why southern states seceded from

the Union.

• Assess the events that led to the outbreak of war.

Objectives

Issues leading up to the election of 1860

• Uncertainty about whether Kansas would be a slave state or free state

• Northern anger over the Dred Scott decision and Fugitive Slave Act

• Concern over whether slavery would be allowed in the territories

With ill will running so deep between the North and the South, it was hard to imagine that either side would accept a President from the other region.

Election of 1860

• Candidate Party Slavery • Lincoln Republican No

Expansion

• Douglas Northern Democrat Pop. Sov.

• Breckinridge Southern Democrat Protect• Bell Constitutional Union Moderate

Lincoln narrowly won the election in the popular vote, but he won the

electoral in a landslide

The vote for Abraham Lincoln was mostly a vote for moderation toward the issue of slavery and a vote for the Union.

The South felt they no longer had a voice in national government.

It seemed there was no way to bridge the gap between the North and South.

Secession!

• South Carolina was the first state to secede

• The southern States formed the Confederacy and chose Jefferson Davis as their president

Weak

• President Buchanan declared no state had the right to secede, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

• He decided to let the incoming President deal with the problem.

Abraham Lincoln

acquired sophisticated sense of strategy

skilled at balancing personalities

realistic understanding of the war.

Jefferson Davis

detail-orientedunable to develop broad war strategyburdened by ineffective central governmentimpersonal.

Leadership: Lincoln vs. Davis

Many of the states with the largest enslaved populations seceded.

The Confederate States of America

• The south drafted a new constitution modeled after the US Constitution, but with 2 key differences:

#1 Guaranteed the right to own slaves.

# 2 Stressed each state was sovereign and independent.

Crittenden Compromise

• Senator John Crittenden proposed extending the Missouri Compromise line to California

• Lincoln immediately rejected it

• Republicans became united against slavery

Fort Sumter

• The Confederacy began taking federal buildings in the south

• Fort Sumter in South Carolina was surrounded by the Confederates

• Lincoln didn’t want to fire the first shot, but he also didn’t want to surrender the fort

• He sent “food for hungry men”

• The Confederates refused, opened fire

• The Civil War is on• Recruits were called

for 3 months of service

• Compare the candidates in the election of 1860 and analyze the results of the election.

• Analyze why southern states seceded from

the Union.

• Assess the events that led to the outbreak of war.

Objectives