DOCUMENT 5 Lincoln Elected President

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, who had declared "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free..." is elected president.

Dec 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union. Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Seven states of the Deep South, those in which the slavery system is most entrenched, leave the Union. Many Southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers which the federal government cannot legally deny. The supporters of states' rights held that the national government was a league of independent states, any of which had the right to secede.

1.  Using Lincoln's 1860 campaign poster, what did the Republican party support?

2.  What does the phrase "Free Territory" mean?

3.  What part of the country would vote for Lincoln? Why?

4.  Why would the election of Lincoln cause Southern states to leave the Union?

5. What did the South mean by the phrase "state's rights"?