Secession and the Decision for War

1. Secession and the Decision for War Aaron Sheehan-Dean Bridgeton, New Jersey July 16, 2012

2. The Failure of Democracy • I. Party politics breaks down • A. Democrats in Charleston • B. Republicans in Chicago • C. Unionists in the middle • II. Four-way contest • A. Douglas • B. Lincoln • C. The South • D. The outcome • III. Lower South secedes • A. Fear, paranoia, and anger • B. South Carolina leads • C. The Divided South • D. Birth of the Confederacy • E. Buchanan and Lame Duck-ism • IV. Lincoln • A. Stays quiet • B. Inaugural Address • V. Fort Sumter • A. Resupply effort • B. CSA attacks • C. Sumter's effect • D. Militia call • VI. Upper South secedes • A. VA, NC, AR, and TN • B. The Emboldened Confederacy

3. Democrats in Charleston William Lowndes Yancey Robert Barnwell Rhett

4. Republicans in Chicago “The Wigwam”

5. Know-Nothings

6. Four-Way Contest Stephen Douglas Northern Democrat Abraham Lincoln Republican John Bell Constitutional Unionist John Breckinridge Southern Democrat

7. 1860 Presidential Election

8. South Carolina Secedes “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.” -- Declaration of the Causes of Secession South Carolina, December 20, 1860

9. The Confederate States of America

10. Buchanan Dithers

11. Lincoln “I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” -- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address

12. Fort Sumter

13. Sumter’s effect: Charleston “April 17: The streets of Charleston present some such aspect of those of Paris in the last revolution. Crowds of armed men singing and promenading the streets. The battle-blood runing through their veins – that hot oxygen which is called the ‘flush of victory’ on the cheek; restaurants full, revelling in barroms, club-rooms crowded, orgies and carousing in tavern or private house, in taproom, from cabaret – down narrow alleys, in the broad highway. Sumter has set them distraught; never was such a victory; never such brave lads; never such a sight. There are pamphlets already full of the incident. It is a bloodless Waterloo or Solferino.” --William Howard Russell, April 17, 1861

14. Sumter’s effect: New York “April 12: Here begins a new chapter of my journal, entitled WAR -- This morning’s papers confirmed last nights news; viz., that the rebels opened fire at Sumter yesterday morning … So Civil War is inaugurated at last. God defend the Right. The Northern backbone is much stiffened already. Many who stood up for ‘Southern Rights’ and complained of wrongs done the South now say that since the South has fired the first gun, they are ready to go all lengths in supporting the government ... Would I were in Sumter tonight, even with the chance of being forced to surrender (seventy men against seven thousand) and of being lynched thereafter by the Chivalry of Charleston.” --George Templeton Strong, April 12, 1861

15. Secession of the Upper South

16. Secession