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How did states in the South react to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860?

For the most part, states in the South reacted with anger to Lincoln's victory in the election of 1860.


The major issue of the 1860 presidential election was slavery.  For Southerners, expanding slavery was the critical issue.  Slavery was so pressing that the Democratic party put forth two candidates.  One of them represented the Northern Democrats and the other candidate was for the interests of the Southern Democrats.  Southerners knew that Lincoln and the newly formed Republican party were not going to be friendly to the expansion of slavery in the nation.


The high voter turnout reflected the voting public's passionate intensity regarding slavery.  Lincoln did not win any electoral votes in the South, but carried the electoral votes in the Northern states.  This helped to enhance the sectionalist feel to the election. Sectionalist feelings became more pronounced with Lincoln's election. Southerners openly embraced secession, or separating from the nation.  South Carolina was the first state to secede upon Lincoln's election, proclaiming "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved" with Lincoln's election in the Presidential Election of 1860.


There were many reasons as to why Southern states separated from the nation.  Talk of secession was becoming more evident as the partisanship for and against slavery became more entrenched.  For Southern states, the election of Lincoln, though, became seen as a "last straw" and something that showed that compromise on slavery between North and South was impossible to achieve.

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