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There was talk of seceding from the union for a few weeks after the election. Senators formed a group to search for another way to compromise so the nation wouldn't be divided. Lincoln states "Let there be no compromise." On December 20th 1860 delegates attending a state convention voted to leave the union. They would be followed by 6 more states, forming the Confederate States of America

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14. Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President

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14. Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President

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Lincoln won an odd victory. He won the election with only 40% of the votes (all from the north). Lincolns election symbolized that the south was in the minority now and that it didn't have much power anymore. They feared congress would try to abolish slavery and the south would lose all.

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John Brown planned to snatch the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He wanted to use the weapons to arm slaves for a rebellion that he thought would end slavery. Brown launched his raid in 1859 but all of his men were either killed or captured. Brown was convicted of treason and got sentenced to die.

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These were debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Douglas saw no reason why the US couldn't just be half free and half slave states. Lincoln challenged Douglas to debate about the slavery issues and Douglas agreed. Lincoln believed that slavery was not a legal issue, but a moral one. Lincoln lost the election but the debates helped make Lincoln a national figure.

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Dred Scott was brought to Wisconsin (a state where slavery was banned) by his owner. Scott then went to court to win his freedom, arguing that because he was in a free state, he was a free man.

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Charles Sumner made a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas" talking about the sack of Lawrence. Two days after the speech, a southerner, Preston Brooks, brutally attacked Sumner with his cane until it snapped in half. This was an example of the cruelty of southerners in northerners eyes.

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The north and the south both moved into Kansas and soon took up arms when the opposing side wanted their own government. pro-slavery settlers invaded Lawrence, Kansas, where the antislavery settlers were held up. The southerners sacked the place. This enraged the north and more antislavery settlers were called to move to Kansas. Two days after the raid John Brown and seven followers invaded Pottawatomie, a pro slavery town. They killed five men suspected of supporting slavery.

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This act created two new territories, Nebraska and Kansas. It also put an end to the Missouri compromise, leaving it to the settlers to vote if they wanted slavery. The north thought Douglass' promise that Kansas and Nebraska weren't suited for slave labor was a lie.

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People in the north opposed this act because they didn't want to enforce it. Southerners didn't like it because they didn't think it ensured the return of their slaves. Any escaped slave would be returned to their owner and anyone helping escaped slaves or not helping slave catchers would be punished.

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Henry Clay and Daniel Webster proposed a series of compromises in 1850. it was supposed to "defuse" the political argument between slave sates and free states about territories that the US had acquired during the Mexican-American war. Some wanted it to be a free state and others wanted it to be a slave state.

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southerners proposed a bill that would extend the Missouri compromise line all the way to the Pacific. Northerners rejected this. In 1849 California applied to be added to the union as a free state but southerners feared that it would "upset the balance between free and slave states"

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for then years congress was not bothered by slavery issues, thanks to the gag rule. David Wilmot added an amendment to an aid of funds being sent to mexico to help with the Mexican-american war. This amendment said any territory gained from the war will be free land. Southerners strongly opposed this amendment and it was rejected.

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Nat turners rebellion was a slave revolt where slaves went to slave owners homes and murdered them. Slaves rebelled another way after that, by running away. Fugitive slaves were often helped by northerners, and southerners demanded congress to make a law to help them take back their property

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The second great awakening happened and religious leaders promised that people who did the lords work would be blessed. Some Americans thought abolishing slavery was the lords work so many people "flooded congress" with antislavery petitions.A "gag rule" that set aside all antislavery petitions indefinitely was put into place, which in 1839 prevented consideration of a proposal by John Quincy Adams to end slavery altogether.

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Congress agreed to admit Missouri to the union as a slave state and also Maine as a free state. In the north congressmen who voted for Missouri to become a slave state were labelled "traitors" and the south didn't like that there was a ban on slavery in places that might later become states.