The 1860 Election, Secession and Civil War

Question 1

When and where was the Democrat convention?

Answer 1

April 1860 in Charleston, South Carolina

Question 2

What did the Democrat convention show?

Answer 2

That the party was divided against itself

Question 3

What was a ‘fire-eater’?

Answer 3

Southerners who wanted to leave the Union

Question 4

What happened at the Democrat convention?

Answer 4

1. Northerners blocked a proposal which would have pledged the party to protect the rights of slaveholders in the territories
2. Delegates from the Lower South walked out
3. The Democrats found it impossible to nominate a candidate
4. The convention agreed to reconvene at Baltimore in June

Question 5

Who won the Democratic nomination?

Answer 5

Stephen Douglas

Question 6

Who did Southern delegates nominate?

Answer 6

Vice-President John Breckinridge of Kentucky

Question 7

Republican Convention

Answer 7

Met in May in Chicago in the Wigwam (a huge wooden building that could hold over 10,000 people)

Question 8

What happened at the Republican Convention?

Answer 8

1. The Republicans declared that they had no intention of interfering with slavery where it already existed
2. Their platform condemned John Brown’s raid as ‘the greatest of crimes’

Question 9

What did Republicans call for at the Republican Convention?

Answer 9

1. Higher protective tariffs
2. Free 160-acre homesteads for western settlers
3. A northern transcontinental railway

Question 10

Who was the favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination?

Answer 10

William Seward (New York governer)

Question 11

Issues with Seward

Answer 11

1. He’d been a major public figure for many years so had many enemies
2. Seen as holding militant abolitionist views on slavery
3. Long record of hostility to nativism

Question 12

Who was Seward’s main opponent?

Answer 12

Abraham Lincoln

Question 13

Positives for Abraham Lincoln

Answer 13

1. He came from Illinois whose voters might decide the outcome of the election
2. His debates with Douglas in 1858 had enhanced his reputation
3. He made many speeches which gained him supporters
4. Reputation for honesty

Question 14

Results of first ballot

Answer 14

Seward - 173

Lincoln - 102

Question 15

Who did the Constitutional Unionist Party nominate as its presidential candidate?

Answer 15

John Bell of Tennessee

Question 16

What did the Constitutionalist Unionist Party want?

Answer 16

To remove the slavery question from the political arena, thus relieving sectional strife

Question 17

Who was the main fight between in the North?

Answer 17

Lincoln and Douglas

Question 18

Who was the main fight between in the South?

Answer 18

Bell and Breckinridge

Question 19

What did Republican propaganda focus on?

Answer 19

Slave Power Conspiracy

Question 20

What did Southern Democrats stereotype all northerners as?

Answer 20

‘Black Republicans’ set on abolishing slavery

Question 21

How much of the electorate voted in November?

Answer 21

81%

Question 22

How many votes did Lincoln win?

Answer 22

1,866,000 (40%)

Question 23

Who became President?

Answer 23

Lincoln

Question 24

Why did northerners vote for Lincoln?

Answer 24

1. He seemed to represent their section

2. A vote for Lincoln was a vote against Slave Power

Question 25

Why should Lincoln’s victory have not sparked southern secession?

Answer 25

1. Lincoln had promised that he wouldn’t interfere with slavery in states where it existed
2. There was little Lincoln could do, his party didn’t control Congress or Supreme Court
3. Secession would mean abandoning an enforceable Fugitive Slave Act (slaves would be able to flee to the North)
4. Secession might lead to civil war

Question 26

Problems for secessionsists

Answer 26

1. There was no great southern organisation that might organise a secessionist movement
2. The South wasn’t united
3. If individual states acted alone there was a danger they would receive no support (1832 Nullification Crisis)

Question 27

10th November

Answer 27

South Carolina’s state legislature called for elections to a convention to meet on 17th December

Question 28

What would be decided on 17th December?

Answer 28

Whether South Carolina should secede or not

Question 29

How many people voted for secession in South Carolina?

Answer 29

169

Question 30

4th February 1861

Answer 30

South Carolina sent commissioners to other southern states to propose a meeting, in Montgomery, Alabama, to create a new government

Question 31

Which other states seceded?

Answer 31

Mississippi 
Florida 
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Texas

Question 32

When was a provisional constitution set up?

Answer 32

8the February

Question 33

Who was elected as provisional President?

Answer 33

Senator Jefferson Davis

Question 34

Who became Vice President of the provisional constituion?

Answer 34

Alexander Stephens

Question 35

What did provisional congress do?

Answer 35

1. Passed major pieces of financial legislation
2. Adopted the Stars and Bars as the national flag
3. Set about raising an army

Question 36

Crittenden Compromise

Answer 36

1. The Missouri Compromise line should be extended to the Pacific
2. A constitutional amendment would guarantee there would be no interference with slavery in states where it already existed
3. Congress would be forbidden to abolish slavery in Washington, DC

Question 37

Salmon Chase

Answer 37

Secretary of the treasury - was seen as the main radical spokesman in the cabinet

Question 38

Gideon Welles

Answer 38

Secretary of the navy

Question 39

Caleb Smith

Answer 39

Secretary of the interior

Question 40

Simon Cameron

Answer 40

Secretary of war

Question 41

When did Lincoln become President?

Answer 41

4th March 1861

Question 42

What were the two remaining forts?

Answer 42

Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter

Question 43

When was the ship sent to Fort Sumter?

Answer 43

January 1861

Question 44

What did Fort Sumter become a symbol of?

Answer 44

National sovereignty