Ultimately, the fate of the Union rested on one event: the national election. The campaign of 1860 saw the emergence of four major candidates. The nominee of the newly formed Republican party was Abraham Lincoln, who beat out the once leading party candidate William H. Seward. For the Democrats, two nominees were chosen. This was because the Democratic party was ultimately split between the loyalists and those with slave-holding interests. Stephen Douglas was nominated by the Northern Unionist Democrats, while Vice President John Breckinridge was declared a candidate for the Southern Democrats. And finally there was John Bell, another Southerner, of the Constitutional Union party. Essentially, the election would be decided sectionally: Douglas vs. Lincoln in the North, and Bell vs. Breckinridge in the South.

The South was almost entirely against Lincoln from the outset. They saw his election as a detriment to their way of life. Although he promised not to touch slavery in the states where it already existed, pro-slavery Southerners knew he would not allow for the expansion of slavery, and that in itself was against their notion of popular sovereignty. In addition, Lincoln was 100 percent against secession, calling it unconstitutional. With these two issues separating him from much of the Southern point of view, he was not even on the ballot in many Southern states. Furthermore, the South made it very clear that if Lincoln won the election, secession would follow.

The outcome of the election of 1860 was exactly what Lincoln’s supporters hoped for. He won the majority of the popular votes and all but three electoral votes in the North, while in the South he received no electoral votes. However, that mattered very little as far as winning the election for there were enough electoral votes in the Northern states to carry the number needed to win. And win is exactly what Lincoln did, carrying 180 electoral votes. Breckinridge came in second with 72. Abraham Lincoln was going to be the 16th president of the United States.

On Dec. 19, 1860, a convention of delegates were called to St. Andrew’s Hall in Charleston, S.C., to vote on secession. On that day, many issues were brought to the floor to be settled before the actual vote could occur. Among these issues were what to do with the federal military installations in South Carolina, particularly Forts Moultrie and Sumter. It was agreed that all federal property would have to be handed over to the government of South Carolina. Finally, on Dec. 20, 1860, the delegates voted by a count of 169-0 in favor of secession, and the union between South Carolina and other states of the United States was "hereby dissolved."

Between Jan. 9 and Feb. 1, 1861, six other Southern states followed suit: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas respectively. This was the first wave of secession. Then following the inauguration of Lincoln, the second wave began on April 17 with the secession of Virginia. This wave was continued by Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina respectively. The only slave-holding states that did not leave the Union were Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. These states were then known as the border states: those that remained loyal to the Union and separated the United States from the newly formed Confederacy.

It was the secession of the Southern states that ultimately led to the first shots of the American Civil War. Lincoln believed secession to be unconstitutional, and therefore not possible. He saw the South’s attempt to do so as a rebellion, and he vowed to preserve the Union at all costs. Lincoln also refused to relinquish control of the federal forts on South Carolina. Thus, on April 12, 1861, South Carolina militia, commanded by P.G.T. Beauregard, fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War. Sumter surrendered on April 14.

Sources Used: Ordeal By Fire: James MacPherson, 1992.

Brother Against Brother: The War Begins: William C. Davis, 1983.

The American People: Gary B. Nash, 1990.