DK - The American Civil War

The Union is Dissolved

After the lower South seceded to form the Confederacy, Lincoln acted to preserve the Union, while

adhering to the Free-Soil principles of the Republican Party. Union sentiment remained strong in the

upper South, including Virginia. Confusion, regret, and conflict divided the U.S. Army’s officer corps.

SECESSION TRIGGERS WAR 1861

newly formed Confederacy’s seizure of

Federal property in the lower South,

which Buchanan had not opposed. By

this time, only two important military

installations—Fort Sumter in

Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort

Pickens in Florida—remained in Federal

hands. Lincoln wished to sustain the

claims of the Federal government to

sovereign authority in the seceded

states, but he also did not want to

trigger a shooting war that might drive

the upper South into the Confederacy.

As Lincoln confronted the question

of how to enforce the Federal

government’s claims to the two

endangered Federal forts, the upper

South continued to wrestle with

secession. The state of Virginia, in

particular, played a critical role in this

debate, because of its large population,

substantial economic resources, and its

symbolic importance to the history of the

republic. Upper South and border state

legislators led last-ditch attempts at

crafting another

intersectional

compromise to

preserve the Union,

as had been done

in the past, but

moderates faced the

dual challenges of

a president elected

on a platform that

would prohibit any

extension of slavery

and the physical

fact of the lower

South’s secession

and the divisions

that it created.

Meanwhile, as the

politicians schemed

and quarreled, the

Federal military

establishment found

itself divided.

Most U.S. Army officers came from

West Point Military Academy, which

ensured sectional balance, because

appointments were allotted on the basis

of congressional districts. Most, but not

all, lower South officers immediately

BEFORE

Lincoln was the first president to be
elected on a purely sectional basis with
almost exclusively Northern votes.

FREE-SOIL PLATFORM
Not only did Lincoln win without any Southern
electoral college votes ❮❮ 38–39, but he also
ran on an explicitly anti-slavery platform,
pledging to prevent further territorial expansion
of slavery. Republicans recognized the
constitutional protection of slavery in states
where it already existed, and focused on
preventing the expansion of slavery in
territories that had not yet attained statehood.

PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS AT SECESSION
South Carolina had seriously contemplated
secession during the Nullification Crisis of
1833 ❮❮ 20–21, but retreated due to a lack of
support from other Southern states. Sectional
tensions flared again in relation to slavery in the
territories captured in the War with Mexico
❮❮ 20–21, but calmed after the passage of the
Compromise of 1850 ❮❮ 22–23.

S

hortly after Abraham Lincoln’s

election as president, the entire

lower South (South Carolina,

Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,

Louisiana, and Texas) seceded from

the Union through the device of state

conventions. On the principle that each

state was a sovereign entity in and of

itself, they voted to form a new nation

called the “Confederate States of

America.” Furthermore, Alexander

Stephens, vice president of the new

nation, declared of its government that

“its foundations are laid, its cornerstone

rests, upon the great truth that the negro

is not equal to the white man; that

slavery, subordination to the superior

race, is his natural and moral condition.”

The upper South’s dilemma

The new Confederacy began its

preparations for war, but the fate of the

states of the upper South remained

ambiguous. Virginia, Arkansas, and

Missouri elected conventions with

Unionists in the majority, while North

Carolina and Tennessee chose not to

have conventions at all. The border

states of Maryland, Kentucky, and

Delaware, where slavery existed in a

limited form, also hung in the balance.

While these states refused to join the

Confederacy, they

also made it clear

that they would

oppose any Federal

attempt to coerce

the states of the

lower South back

into the Union.

In this confused

situation, the

sitting President

James Buchanan

did next to

nothing. With the

chief executive

acting as a lame

duck, President-

elect Lincoln

sought to support

Unionist sentiment

in the South,

while remaining

committed to the

Free-Soil principles of the Republican

Party’s platform.

When Lincoln assumed the powers

and office of the presidency on March

4, 1861, he faced the thorny political

dilemma of how to respond to the

Calling for secession

With the news of Lincoln’s election, huge crowds

gathered in Savannah’s Johnson Square, calling for a

state secession convention. South Carolina, the first

to secede, left the Union on December 20, 1860.

First broadside
A broadside from the Charleston Mercury was the first
Secession publication, going to press 15 minutes after
the secession ordinance was passed. Crowds cheered as
it was distributed, and they saw the dramatic headline.

Inauguration of President Davis

Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of

the Confederate States of America on February

18, 1861. The event was held in Montgomery,

Alabama, at the Alabama Capitol.

In February 1861, Republicans in Congress

helped pass a 13th amendment to the

Constitution protecting slavery in the states

where it already existed as a conciliatory

gesture. It never received state approval.