After much trading and discussing,the convention came to the conclusion that Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was the most "available"candidate.He was of Southern origin,born in Kentucky in 1809,a fact that told heavily in the campaign in the Ohio Valley.He was a man of the soil,the son of poor frontier parents,a pioneer who in his youth had labored in the fields and forests,celebrated far and wide as "honest Abe,the rail-splitter."It was well-known that he disliked slavery,but was no abolitionist.He had come dangerously near to Seward's radicalism in his "house-divided-against-itself"speech but he had never committed himself to the reckless doctrine that there was a "higher law"than the Constitution.Slavery in the South he tolerated as a bitter fact;slavery in the territories he opposed with all his strength.Of his sincerity there could be no doubt.He was a speaker and writer of singular power,commanding,by the use of ****** and homely language,the hearts and minds of those who heard him speak or read his printed words.He had gone far enough in his opposition to slavery;but not too far.He was the man of the hour!Amid lusty cheers from ten thousand throats,Lincoln was nominated for the presidency by the Republicans.In the ensuing election,he carried all the free states except New Jersey.
QUESTIONS
1.Trace the decline of slavery in the North and explain it.
2.Describe the character of early opposition to slavery.
3.What was the effect of abolition agitation?
4.Why did anti-slavery sentiment practically disappear in the South?
5.On what grounds did Calhoun defend slavery?
6.Explain how slave owners became powerful in politics.
7.Why was it impossible to keep the slavery issue out of national politics?
8.Give the leading steps in the long controversy over slavery in the territories.
9.State the terms of the Compromise of 1850and explain its failure.
10.What were the startling events between 1850and 1860?
11.Account for the rise of the Republican party.What party had used the title before?
12.How did the Dred Scott decision become a political issue?
13.What were some of the points brought out in the Lincoln-Douglas debates?
14.Describe the party division in 1860.
15.What were the main planks in the Republican platform?
THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
"The irrepressible conflict is about to be visited upon us through the Black Republican nominee and his fanatical,diabolical Republican party,"ran an appeal to the voters of South Carolina during the campaign of 1860.If that calamity comes to pass,responded the governor of the state,the answer should be a declaration of independence.In a few days the suspense was over.The news of Lincoln's election came speeding along the wires.Prepared for the event,the editor of the Charleston Mercury unfurled the flag of his state amid wild cheers from an excited throng in the streets.Then he seized his pen and wrote:"The tea has been thrown overboard;the revolution of 1860has been initiated."The issue was submitted to the voters in the choice of delegates to a state convention called to cast off the yoke of the Constitution.
The Southern Confederacy
Secession.-As arranged,the convention of South Carolina assembled in December and without a dissenting voice passed the ordinance of secessionThe United States in 1861The border states （in purple）remained loyal.
withdrawing from the union.Bells were rung exultantly,the roar of cannon car-ried the news to outlying counties,fireworks lighted up the heavens,and cham-pagne flowed.The crisis so long expected had come at last;even the conserva-tives who had prayed that they might escape the dreadful crash greeted it with a sigh of relief.
South Carolina now sent forth an appeal to her sister states-states that had in Jackson's day repudiated nullification as leading to "the dissolution of the union."The answer that came this time was in a different vein.A month had hardly elapsed before five other states-Florida,Georgia,Alabama,Mississippi,and Louisiana-had withdrawn from the union.In February,Texas followed.Virginia,hesitating until the bombardment of Fort Sumter forced a conclusion,seceded in April;but fifty-five of the one hundred and forty-three delegates dissented,foreshadowing the creation of the new state of West Virginia which Congress admitted to the union in 1863.In May,North Carolina,Arkansas,and Tennessee announced their independence.