Crisis of 1860

Crisis of 1860
Name	Crisis of 1860
Date	1860
Location	United States
Result	Secession of seven Southern states; escalation toward American Civil War

Crisis of 1860 was the cascade of political, constitutional, sectional, and military events surrounding the 1860 United States presidential election that culminated in the secession of Southern states and set the stage for the American Civil War. Rooted in disputes over slavery, territorial expansion, state sovereignty, and partisan realignment, the crisis involved leading figures and institutions across the nation and provoked debates in courts, legislatures, and the press.

Background and Political Context

In the decade before 1860 disputes among leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun sharpened over events including the Mexican–American War, the Wilmot Proviso, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Parties such as the Democratic Party (United States), the Republican Party (United States), the Whig Party, the Know Nothing movement, and the Free Soil Party realigned as leaders from William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, and Horace Greeley debated national policy. Controversies in territories like Kansas Territory and events such as Bleeding Kansas and the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of the United States Supreme Court intensified sectional cleavages, while journalists and publishers including Horace Greeley, James Gordon Bennett Sr., The New York Tribune, and The Charleston Mercury shaped public opinion.

Presidential Election of 1860

The 1860 contest featured candidates including Abraham Lincoln for the Republican Party (United States), Stephen A. Douglas for the Northern Democrats, John C. Breckinridge for the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Campaign events in states such as New York (state), Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky combined with platforms addressing the Homestead Act, Tariff of 1846, and territorial slavery policies to polarize electorates. Electoral mechanisms in the Electoral College (United States) and voter mobilization by organizations like the Union Leagues and state parties produced a decisive Lincoln victory that prompted immediate reaction from leaders in South Carolina and other Southern legislatures.

Secession Movements and State Responses

Following the election state conventions and assemblies in South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia (U.S. state), Louisiana, and Texas moved toward secession, invoking leaders such as Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, Jefferson Davis, Lyman Trumbull, and state figures in Missouri (border state), Maryland, Kentucky, and Delaware (state). Actions included convocations at state capitals like Columbia, South Carolina, Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi, and legislative measures that cited precedents from the Articles of Confederation debates and resolutions from the Virginia Convention and the Kentucky Resolutions. Slaveholding planters, represented by families linked to plantations in Virginia (state), South Carolina, and Louisiana (state), coordinated with militia leaders and railroad magnates to prepare for transfer of power.

Constitutional and Legal Debates

Jurists and politicians invoked the United States Constitution, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and judicial opinions from the United States Supreme Court including the majority in Dred Scott v. Sandford to argue for or against secession. Debates in state courts and federal legal circles involved figures such as Roger B. Taney, Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase, Alexander Hamilton Stephens, and constitutional theorists who cited the Federalist Papers, the Kentucky Resolutions, and the Missouri Compromise as legal touchstones. Questions over the legality of secession, contracts under the United States Constitution, property rights in slaves, and the role of the United States Congress produced competing legal doctrines and numerous resolutions in legislative bodies.

Economic and Social Impacts

Economic interests of cotton planters, textile manufacturers in New England, shipping firms in Boston, banking houses in New York City, and railroad corporations like the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Cumberland Road (National Road) shaped regional responses. Tariff policy debates involving the Tariff of 1857 and tariff proposals influenced industrialists and merchants, while international actors including investors in Liverpool, Paris, and Bremen monitored cotton markets. Social tensions manifested in urban mobs, militia mustering in port cities, and the actions of abolitionist societies such as the American Anti-Slavery Society, temperance groups, and volunteer organizations that altered labor patterns and migration between states like Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri (state).

Federal Government Actions and Military Preparations

The outgoing James Buchanan administration, cabinet members including Levi Woodbury and Isaac Toucey, and federal agencies such as the United States Army and the United States Navy debated troop deployments, fortifications at posts like Fort Sumter, and arms shipments to arsenals such as Harper's Ferry and Fort Pickens. Naval commanders and Army officers including Robert Anderson and officers of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point made contingency plans while Congress considered appropriations. State militias, organized under statutes and leaders in New York National Guard, Massachusetts militia, and Southern militias, began mobilization, procurement, and officer commissions that increased tensions.

Immediate Aftermath and Road to Civil War

The secession declarations, formation of a provisional government in Montgomery, Alabama leading to the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States of America, and federal responses set the nation on a collision course culminating at Fort Sumter and the outbreak of hostilities. Efforts by moderates including John J. Crittenden and proposals like the Crittenden Compromise failed to produce consensus, while Unionist politicians such as Edwin M. Stanton, William H. Seward, and Salmon P. Chase organized political and logistic support that transitioned into wartime administrations in states across Pennsylvania (state), Virginia (state), Tennessee, and border regions. The Crisis of 1860 thus bridged antebellum politics and the conflict of the American Civil War, involving a web of actors, institutions, and legal arguments that reshaped the nation.

Category:1860 in the United States Category:Secession crises