Section 4 - Lincoln’s Election and Southern Secession Find Out: Why the Democratic Party split in the election of 1860 The issues in the election of 1860 The secession of the Southern states from the Union The Union’s response to secession

1. What caused a split in the Democratic Party at their convention in Charleston, SC? Democrats held convention to nominate candidate for President in Charleston, S.C. in April of 1860 No. and So. Democrats disagreed on issue of slavery in their platform regarding popular sovereignty Northern Democrats won out causing 50 Southern delegates to walk out Northern Democrats tried to nominate Stephen Douglas of Illinois He couldn’t win enough votes

Political Parties Splinter cont. Democrats gave up and decided to meet in Baltimore in June of 1860 Couldn’t agree on candidate and Northern Democrats nominated Douglas Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge of Kentucky (current VP) and supporter of slavery (2) Republicans had already nominated Lincoln John Bell ran for Constitutional Union Party which formed to preserve Union (3)

1860 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Republicans nominated Abe Lincoln while the Democrats split (3) Lincoln won the 1860 election with less than half the popular vote and no Southern electoral votes The Southern states were not happy http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8d20423)) America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945 Washington, D.C. Negro boys admiring the Lincoln Memorial –from Library of Congress .

1860 ELECTION RESULTS http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/highlandsprings/strusky_m/webquests/tocivwarpic.map1860.jpg

4. How did the Presidential election of 1860 become two different races? Who won Lincoln and Douglas ran in the North and Breckenridge and bell ran in the South.

5. Before the 1860 presidential election, many Southern states had warned that if Lincoln won, the Southern states would secede, or withdraw from the Union. Supporters of secession based their arguments on the idea of states’ rights, arguing that the states had voluntarily joined the Union and had the right to leave the Union as well.

SOUTHERN SECESSION Lincoln’s victory in 1860 election convinced Southerners that they had to act quickly South Carolina led the way, seceding from the union in December of 1860 (6) Mississippi was next, then Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, & Texas (7) Southern delegates met in February, 1861 and formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as President (8) Southern states had now dissolved their ties with the USA http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/app:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3b36109)) Secession Exploded from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.

10. Why did President Buchanan feel that Southern states had no right to secede? Buchanan said the federal government, not states governments, was sovereign

Efforts to Compromise Fail Some want compromise John J. Crittenden proposed a compromise to extend the Missouri Compromise Line to the Pacific Ocean Never passed Congress (11) Lincoln took oath of office on March 4,1861 Told South he had no intention of abolishing slavery Lincoln did not press the South