1860 Turning Point

The presidential election of 1860, followed by secession in the south was a major turning point in American history and was actually the beginning of what came to be known as the Civil War. The year prior to the election, John Brown, an abolitionist raided Harpers Ferry, Virginia, trying to get the slaves to stand up to their masters. It was a failed attempt, and John Brown got convicted of treason and later on was hanged. Because of this raid, the south saw him as a criminal due to the fact that the south felt they needed slaves. The north however, viewed him as a martyr. This was only a preview of how the election would go.
When time came to nominate candidates, the democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, and the republicans met in Chicago, Illinois. A bit of a disagreement occurred among the democrats. Stephen Douglas was the obvious choice for them, but because he was in support of popular sovereignty, many democrats felt that he wasn’t
Secession was such a huge movement, everyone knew what would be next. In this compromise, it said that slavery would be protected in all territories south of 36°30’. When these southern territories applied for statehood, popular sovereignty would be the deciding factor if the territory would become a free or slave state. All territories north of 36°30’ would be free states. However, Lincoln turned down the idea because he did not want slavery to expand west. Through all the movements being made, and the country dividing, Lincoln was silent. He gave his first inaugural address in March and said he wasn’t going to do anything. He wanted to mend the friendships between the north and south and asked the southerners to abandon secession. He then said secession was illegal and wanted to maintain the union at all costs, but he would not move against the south unless they did something to provoke him to do