![]() It took four years to end the fighting, and the Constitutional issues were never completely resolved.Īll of which may or may not have something to do with why Town Line, New York, a tiny hamlet near Buffalo, decided to join the Confederacy in 1861. Then someone started shooting, and – legal or not – the War Between the States was on. The issue was debated across the land, in town halls and legislatures. Northern politicians claimed that you couldn't legally leave the Union – once in, always in. It was a bold step, and one with serious consequences. Forced to choose between fighting against their neighbours and leaving their country, they chose to join South Carolina in secession. Most were reluctant to take this risky step – until the government in Washington called up the state militias. Lincoln was elected in November 1860, and by Christmas, South Carolina had seceded from the Union, inviting the other slave-holding states to join her in forming what South Carolina called 'the Confederate States of America'. Republicans (the anti-slavery party) weren't even on the ballot in most of the South, so it was no surprise that when Lincoln won the election by capturing the necessary number of votes in the Electoral College, carrying only the North, and with less than 40% of the popular vote, some people were bound to cry foul. There was something called 'sectionalism', which meant that people in one part of the country suspected the other sections of being disloyal and untrue to the principles of the Republic for one reason or other. There was a lot of disagreement in 1860: Lincoln's opponents tried to warn Northerners that Lincoln's election would split the Union, which sounds to modern ears like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fact that they were all in uniform and likely to intimidate the opposition was, of course, strictly unintended. They were supposed to ensure order at political rallies. The Republican Wide-Awakes, a volunteer campaign support group, marched 10,000 strong in a torchlight parade through Chicago. ![]() Abraham Lincoln took the high road, and followed tradition by campaigning from his front porch in Springfield, Illinois.Ī political party with a paramilitary support group is unnerving – but they all had one. ![]() Once he had picked the lady up at her Northern home, he headed south again with her to North Carolina, 'to settle family business'. Of course, he claimed he was only trying to visit his mother, and if his fans wanted him to speak along the way, how could he refuse? Douglas must have had a bad railway map: he started near Chicago, and his mother lived in upstate New York, but before he got to her house, he was haranguing crowds in Maryland, 400 miles away and in the South. Stephen Douglas, the Northern Democrat, shocked the nation by becoming the first presidential candidate to go on a speaking tour. The four-way contest stirred up feelings throughout the (still, just barely) United States. Calling the 1860 Presidential election 'divisive' would be a massive understatement, considering that the outcome was a civil war. ![]()
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