This is an overview of the material covered in Chapter 16 Section 5 of The American Nation textbook

1. Chapter 16 Section 5
A Nation Divides

2. The Election of 1860
 The Democrats
– Southerners wanted the party to support slavery
– Northerners did not want to support slavery
– Party splits in two
 Northern Democrats
– Chose Stephen Douglas as their candidate
 Southern Democrats
– Chose John Breckinridge of Kentucky

3. The Election of 1860 cont’d
 The Republicans
– Chose Abraham Lincoln
for President
 A new party on the
horizon: The
Constitutional Union
– Tried to heal the split
between the North and
the South
– Chose John Bell of
Tennessee

4. Americans go to the Polls
 Americans made their
opinions clear
 Lincoln carried the
North and effectively
won the election
 Bell only got a few
southern states, and
Douglas got most of the
South

5. The South Reacts
 Many southerners believed that Lincoln’s
election showed that the South no longer had
a voice in government.
 Senator John Crittenden (KY) made one last
attempt to save the Union
– Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the
Pacific
– Proposed that states south of the Compromise
line could hold slaves.

6. The South Reacts cont’d
– This bill received little support
 Many southerners believed that the North
had put an abolitionist in the White House
 They felt that secession was their only choice
 The first state to secede was South Carolina
(12/20/1860) Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas soon
followed

7. The Confederacy
 Many southerners believed
that the Declaration of
Independence supported
them
– “it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish” a
government that denies the
rights of its citizens
 They felt that Lincoln had
denied them the right to hold
slaves

8. The Civil War Begins
 In his inaugural address,
Lincoln warned that “no
state…can lawfully get out of
the Union.”
 Jefferson Davis began to
order forces to begin seizing
federal forts in the South
 Fort Sumter (SC) was one of
the only forts not taken over
by the Confederacy
Fort Sumter, 1861

9. The Civil War Begins cont’d
 President Lincoln learned that supplies at
Fort Sumter were running low
 Lincoln notified the S. Carolina government
that he was going to only send food, not
troops or weapons
 On April 11, 1861, the Confederates
demanded that Fort Sumter surrender

10. This Means War!
 Major Robert Anderson,
the Union commander,
refused to give in
 Confederate guns
opened fire
 Union troops quickly
ran out of ammunition
 On April 13, Anderson
surrendered the fort.