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• Public debate for U.S. Senate

despite no public vote

• Lincoln argued slavery should not

be expanded into new territories

o Believed it was a national issue

• Douglas favored letting the

territories decide on slavery

o Believed it was a state to state issue

• Douglas won reelection yet

Lincoln became a national figure

and rising star in the G.O.P.

"A house divided against

itself cannot stand. I believe

this government cannot

endure permanently half

slave and half free. I do not

expect the union to be

dissolved, I do not expect

the house to fall, but I do

expect it will cease to be

divided. It will become all

one thing or all of the other.”

- 1st Senate campaign

speech given by Lincoln

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

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Raid @ Harper’s Ferry • John Brown raises $23K from a

group of six investors from MA o Plan to attack a federal arsenal in

the south in hopes of a slave revolt

• Brown & 18 men attack but are held up in a local fire station o Receive no slave support

• U.S. Marines kill 10 men, wound and capture Brown o Led by Col. Robert E. Lee

o Brown is tried and hanged for treason

• Northern abolitionists see him as a hero while southerners see him as a radical or terrorist

American Politics in 1860 • Republican Party was

gaining national momentum

o Nominated Lincoln instead of the more popular William Seward

• Democratic Party splintered over slavery

o Officially nominated Douglas

o Southerners nominated current Vice President John Breckinridge

• A 4th party was created in response to the conflict

o Constitutional Union Party Nominate John Bell of Tennessee

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1860 Republican Platform • Maintain the rights listed in the

Declaration of Independence to preserve the republic

• Uphold the Union

• Denounce violence in Kansas & repeal KS-NE Act

• Stop slave expansion into the western territories

• Accept Kansas statehood as a free state

• Transcontinental railroad

1860 Democratic Platforms • Slavery decided by territories

o North & South Democrats

• No national laws against slavery o N & S Democrats & Constitutional

Union

• National government should protect slavery o Southern Democrats

• Support Dred Scott decision o N & S Democrats

• Enforce Fugitive Slave Law o N & S Democrats

• Annex Cuba o N & S Democrats

1860 Charleston Convention

(chose Douglas)

1860 Baltimore Convention

(chose Breckenridge)

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5

Secession Crisis • November 20, 1860 – S. Carolina

seceded from the Union o Less than one month after the election

o Concerned that the Republican Party would abolish slavery

• President Buchanan and others claimed the Constitution prevented secession o The president did nothing to stop it

and lost political support for it

• By February 1861 – MS,TX, LA, AL, FL, and GA had seceded

• The states formed the Confederate States of America o Chose MS Senator Jefferson Davis

as their first president

State of the Union (1860) • U.S. divided by

slave/free states

• U.S. divided socially

and economically

• Southern states were

logistically

unprepared for the

possibility of war