Introduction
The 1860 presidential election was the most significant in American history because the event precipitated secession and the Civil War. The newly formed Republican Party did well in the mid-term congressional election, leaving the opposing Southern Democrats disappointed about the 1860 presidential election. For this election, Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, and Republicans selected Abraham Lincoln, who vied on a free-soil platform.
The Free Soil movement aimed to keep slavery from expanding to any recently acquired territory. The forum was concerned with curtailing the spread of bondage, not its abolition, where it already existed. The 1860 presidential election sparked deep divisions in the United States, pushing the nation toward the Civil War.
Factors Leading to the Civil War
Election Tensions
There were undoubtedly some abolitionist Republicans who advocated for ending slavery in the South, but that was not the official platform nor Lincoln’s stated goal. Lincoln won the election without a single electoral vote from the South, a threatening sign for Southerners. The perceived threat increased after losing a high-stakes decision, such as the presidential election, because they would have to endure a long period of political dominance by the North. Therefore, in December 1860, even before Lincoln was inaugurated, South Carolina seceded from the Union (Harris, 2020). Within a few weeks, six more states followed the cascade of secessions, forming the Confederate States of America (Harris, 2020).
The novel confederacy created a new constitution, similar in form and language to that of the United States of America. However, it severely limited Federal power and made provisions that enshrined servitude as a perpetual institution never to be abolished. The secessions, alongside other economic and political transgressions, would lead to the American Civil War.
State Separation
The division in the U.S. had been growing throughout the 1850s over the issue of the expansion of repression out West and the rights of enslavers. In 1860, tensions were high not only between Democrats and Republicans but also within the Democratic Party (Shimshoni, 2022). Lincoln was against the separation and did not recognize the newly formed country.
Later, in 19861, Confederate forces attacked and seized control of the federal property and forts within their borders, marking the start of the American Civil War (Harris, 2020). Therefore, Lincoln fought what would become one of the deadliest wars in American history only a few weeks into his inauguration. The assault by Southerners on Charleston Harbor started the war, which was imminent based on the prevailing conflicts.
Slavery
The slave labor had strong roots in the South throughout the early years of American history due to novel technologies and the global need for cotton. Meanwhile, Northern states passed emancipation acts to end oppression. Periodic disputes over the legality of slavery in the territories and the newly formed states intensified as a result of the westward migration of settlers and the expansion of the country’s borders. The tensions had reached an impasse as of 1850, but the dominant political parties at the time, the Democrats and Whigs, settled on a compromise (Gaughan, 2019).
Although the factions’ sense of moral and social superiority made peace possible in the early 1850s, the war was only put on hold. The preceding political ideologies and standpoints on the issue of the oppression of blacks served to amplify the situation. Lincoln disliked slavery because he viewed it as inconsistent with the notion that all men are created equal. Lincoln’s election victory interfered with forced labor, a real threat to Southerners, setting the country on a path to the Civil War.
Real Cause of the War
Lincoln stated that the conflict was initially about the nation’s existence rather than the continuation or abolition of slavery. It demonstrates that the Southerners’ goal and purpose to separate were preexisting, and slavery was merely a pretext for achieving their goal (Shimshoni, 2022). As a result, the political tension peaked in the 1860 election.
The Union’s crisis was probably precipitated by the perceived threat to the slave states’ ability to regulate their internal institutions rather than their rights in general. Enslaved people had begun to form a peculiar and powerful interest, and everyone recognized that this pursuit would endanger the status of whites who relied on their labor for economic progress. The enslaved Africans’ uprisings and attacks on slaveholders demonstrated their drive for liberation, which would spiral out of control unless some intervention was realized. Therefore, the rebels would split the Union to defend, uphold, and expand this interest, even if it meant war.
Conclusion
In summary, a crucial turning point in American history was the 1860 presidential election, which marked the start of the American Civil War and the secession of the Southern states. Conflicts between Democrats and Republicans emerged when Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party secured the presidency without receiving any electoral votes from Southern states. Lincoln’s platform was centered on reducing rather than outlawing oppression.
However, the Southerners were determined to break from the Union due to political dominance and the threat to enslavement presented by Lincoln’s victory. According to President Lincoln, the war was more about the country’s survival than it was about keeping or ending oppression. The perceived threat to slave states’ authority over their internal institutions caused the tension and the subsequent war.
References
Gaughan, A. (2019). The dynamics of democratic breakdown: A case study of the American Civil War. British Journal of American Legal Studies, 11, 1–39.
Harris, B. (2020). California’s dilemma: Northern and Southern sympathies during the American Civil War. Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History, 3(2), 1–20.
Shimshoni, J. (2022). Swords and emotions: The American Civil War and society-centric strategy. Survival, 64(2), 141–166.