THE UNION DISSOLVESChapter 8 Section 3

Presidential Election of 1860• Problems in Democratic Party help Abraham Lincoln, a

Republican, win election

• Democrats, split over slavery, supported 2 candidates: John Breckinridge and Stephen Douglas

• John Bell presidential candidate for Constitutional Union party

1860 Election (cont.)• Republicans tried to persuade voters not just antislavery

party

• Denounced John Brown’s raids, reaffirmed right of Southern states to preserve slavery within borders

• Lincoln’s win represented to South victory for abolitionists

• South felt had no choice but to secede

Election of 1860 Political Cartoon

Secession Begins• South Carolina state legislature calls for convention after

Lincoln’s election

• Unanimously voted for Ordinance of Secession

• By Feb. 1, 1861, six more states in Lower South – MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX – vote to secede

• Secessionists in South seize all federal property

Founding the Confederacy• Feb 1861 seceded states form new nation – Confederate

States of America (CSA), also called Confederacy

• Drafted constitution based on U.S. Constitution

• Declared each state independent, guaranteed slavery

• Banned import of slaves from other countries, limited presidency to single six-year term

Confederacy (cont.)• Delegates of convention chose Jefferson Davis, MS

senator, as president of CSA

Civil War Begins• Lincoln sends supply ship to Ft. Sumter in Charleston

Harbor, SC

• Jefferson Davis, to avoid war, decides to capture Ft. Sumter before supply ship arrives

• Deadline set for handover from US control to Confederacy morning of April 12, 1861, deadline passes

• Cannons reign fire for 33 hours on Ft. Sumter, killing nobody, Major Robert Anderson and men surrender; CIVIL WAR BEGINS