Southern reaction to Lincoln as President-elect
A Richmond Whig reacts to Lincoln's election. South Carolina considers leaving the Union.
Ken Burns: The Civil War, "The Cause" |
"Let the consequences be what they may -- whether the Potomac is crimsoned in human gore, and Pennsylvania Avenue is paved ten fathoms deep with mangled bodies, or whether the last vestige of liberty is swept from the face of the American continent, the South will never submit to such humiliation and degradation as the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln." |
Writer Shelby Foote discusses the South's reason for secession.
The South quickly secedes. Ken Burns: The Civil War, "The Cause" |
Lincoln's response
"I could say nothing which I have not already said, and which is in print, and open for the inspection of all. To press a repetition of this upon those who have listened, is useless... to press it upon those who have refused to listen, and still refuse, would be wanting in self-respect, and would have an appearance of psychopathy and timidity, which would excite the contempt of good men, and encourage bad ones to clamor the more loudly." |
"I think Lincoln's greatest mistake was not talking more to keep the Union together...he engaged in wishful thinking in assuming that the south would not ultimately leave the Union." "Seward could not have done better [in calming the South] and the others could have only if disastrous concessions were made to the south." |
Secession
The South had threatened to secede before, but never had, so during the campaign Northerners didn't expect Lincoln winning to actually trigger secession.
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Headline in the Charleston Mercury on December 20, 1860, the day South Carolina seceded, reads "UNION IS DISSOLVED!"
Image from Library Congress |
The Staunton Spectator and General Advertiser of Staunton, Virginia reports on South Carolina's decision to secede on December 25, 1860
Image from Library Congress, Chronicling America However, four days after the election, South Carolina's legislature voted to call a special convention in Charleston that December. Six weeks after the election, the convention unanimously voted to secede from the Union. Ten other states eventually did so as well.
South Carolina leads the Southern states in seceding and forming the Confederate States of America.
America: The Story of Us, "Division" |