1860 And 1861 Address Analysis

In 1860 and 1861 eleven of the southern states declared their secession from the Union creating the Confederate States. This act caused widespread conflict and the Civil War followed quickly after. The Southern states were led to secede from the Union by many different factors, including the question of slavery, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the “right of self government.”
In 1850, John C. Calhoun asked the question, “What is it that has endangered the Union?” in his speech "The Clay Compromise Measures," and continued on to say, “...the immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which pervades all the States composing the Southern section of the Union... It commenced with the agitation of the slavery question and has been increasing ever since.” Slavery was one of the most important causes of the succession of the Southern states and the Civil War. It was a topic often discussed and feelings towards it were greatly divided between the North and South. Despite the fact that the act of slavery was morally wrong many Americans (Mainly southerners) believed it was necessary and did not feel that the African Americans were equals. This belief had caused disagreements for far too long and slowly began to
He said in his 1858 speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois, “Although I have ever been opposed to slavery, so far I rested in the hope and belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction.” Lincoln states he was not anti-slavery but he did see it as a problem in the Union. His election angered the south because President Lincoln didn’t see slavery as a necessity anymore. He believed the races had the same rights, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and even spoke of the contradiction of having slaves in a country where “all men are created equal,” in the same speech he gave in Springfield. Lincoln’s election only pushed the South further to