Evaluate the relative importance of political events and issues that divided the nation and led to civil war, including the compromises reached to maintain balance of free and slave states, the abolitionist movement, the Dred Scott case, conflicting views on states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of the Republican Party, and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

It was the free soil idea that proved most successful because it was the position of the Republican Party. The idea of free soil was not abolitionism and actually whites did not want slavery to spread because they did not want the labor competition. The Free Soil Party was founded to limit the expansion of slavery into the territories. The Free Soil Party, the Liberty Party, and some of the Whig Party joined together to form the Republican party. ***Their and their candidates platform (Abraham Lincoln) were NOT abolitionists, but advocated that slavery should not extend into the territories.

In 1858 the Republican nominated Abraham Lincoln to run against the current Illinois senator, Stephan A. Douglas. The two had a series debates mostly about the issue of slavery spreading to the states. ***Lincoln argued that slavery should be contained to areas it already existed and should not be allowed to spread. He thought slavery would eventually die out if contained. Douglas wanted to allow individual territories and states to decide the issue by popular sovereignty. Douglas won the senatorial election of 1858, but they made Lincoln immensely popular in the North and equally unpopular in the South. Lincoln would go on to run against Douglas in the 1860 presidential election.

The country was split along sectional lines. The North wanted to attack slavery, while the South wanted the US government to protect slavery. Lincoln wins the election, but wins 0 electoral votes in the South. ***The South fearing Lincoln would try to end slavery completely, the South seceded starting with South Carolina (Dec. 20, 1860) ***By February of 1861 Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas followed and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated the south had drafted a Constitution and elected Jefferson Davis president of the Confederate States of America.

The conflicting views of states’ rights and federal authority had been evolving in the United States since ratification of the Constitution and the development of the first political parties. However, all previous disagreements had been successfully resolved. It was the disagreement over expanding slavery into the territories that led southerners to argue that their rights were being violated by the federal government. ***They feared that the federal government under Lincoln would not allow slavery to expand into the territories. ***Thus the balance of power would be upset in Congress and Congress would eventually vote to abolish slavery. ***So they formed the Confederate States of America and began to occupy federal forts in the South

The Union soldiers at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. SC The soldiers holding the fort had only one months supply of food and Lincoln sent a message to the South saying he would re-supply them with food. Before the ships could arrive the South fired on Sumter forcing the Union troops to surrender. The border states were forced to chose a side, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland stayed in the Union while North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee join the Confederacy.