On December 20, 1860, six weeks after Lincoln’s election, the legislature of South Carolina announced that because “a sectional party” had engineered “the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery,” the people of South Carolina dissolve their union with “the other states of North America.” In early 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed suit. Representatives from these states met on February 8 in Montgomery, Alabama, where they adopted a provisional constitution, elected Jefferson Davis as their president, and established the Confederate States of America (Map 12.4).

President Buchanan did nothing to stop the secession movement. His cabinet included three secessionists and two unionists, one of whom resigned in frustration over Buchanan’s failure to act. But Washington, D.C., was filled with southern sympathizers, who urged caution on an already timid president. Although some Northerners were shocked by the decision of South Carolina and its allies, many others supported their right to leave or believed they would return to the Union when they realized they could not survive economically on their own. Moreover, with Virginia, Maryland, and other Upper South slave states still part of the nation, the secession movement seemed unlikely to succeed.

In the midst of the crisis, Kentucky senator John Crittenden proposed a compromise that gained significant support. Indeed, Congress approved the first part of his plan, which called for a constitutional amendment to protect slavery from federal interference in any state where it already existed. But the second part of the Crittenden plan failed to win Republican votes. It would have extended the Missouri Compromise line (latitude 36°30’) to the California border and barred slavery north of that line. South of that line, however, slavery would be protected, including in any territories “acquired hereafter.” Fearing that passage would encourage southern planters to again seek territory in Cuba, Mexico, or Central America, Republicans in Congress rejected the proposal. Despite the hopes of the Buchanan administration, it was becoming apparent that compromise was impossible.

REVIEW & RELATE

How and why did John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry move the country closer to civil war?

Why did many in the South believe that the election of Abraham Lincoln was cause for secession?