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In the weeks following the election, Southerners talked of seceding from the Union. In order to try and prevent this from happening, senators met together on December 20, 1860 to come up with a compromise to keep the nation together. However, Lincoln would not support any compromise. Additionally, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to leave the Union. Several other southern states also decided to secede from the Union. Those states that seceded were know as the Confederate States of America.

Source: https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/why-did-southern-states-secede

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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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The Election of 1860 had shown how divided the nation had become. All the Republicans supported Abraham Lincoln, Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, Southern Democrats favored John C. Breckinridge, and members of the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell. But, in the end, Abraham Lincoln was elected president with 40 percent of the votes, which were all cast in the North. He was not even on the ballot in the South. With Lincoln as president, the South feared that sooner or later, Congress would abolish slavery.

Source: http://npg.si.edu/blog/abraham-lincoln-elected-president-november-6-1860-part-one

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An abolitionist named John Brown took steps to end slavery. However, his methods were much more violent and extreme. John Brown planned to seize a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and then arm all slaves with weapons for a rebellion that will end slavery. The raid was launched in 1859. All of Brown's men were either killed or captured, and John Brown himself was convicted of treason, and sentenced to death.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/articles/john-browns-raid.htm

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The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of political debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, on the issue of slavery in the Union.

Source:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Lincoln-Douglas-debates

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Dred Scott was a slave who traveled with his owner to Wisconsin, which was a free state. Once Dred Scott returned to Missouri, he went to court to win his freedom. He said that his stay in Wisconsin for that time made him a free man. In the end, the Court had rejected Scott's argument. The Dred Scott decision also explained that African Americans would never become citizens of the United States, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32a.asp

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Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts made a speech known as "The Crime Against Kansas", which angrily described Senator Stephen Douglas and the Southerner's plans to make Kansas a new slave state. Two days after the speech, Preston Brooks, who was the South Carolina representative, beat Senator Charles Sumner until he was bloody and unconscious.

Source: https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/sumner-attacked-in-u-s-senate.html

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After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, many settlers settled in Kansas. Many settlers in Kansas either supported slavery, or were against it. The conflict with slavery soon turned violent. Proslavery settlers invaded Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the antislavery government. Then, two days later, an abolitionist named John Brown invaded the proslavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas, and hacked the five men they suspected of supporting slavery, to death.

Source: http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/john-brown-s-christmas-raid-missouri-1858

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Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced a bill to get a railroad built to California. In order to do this, he thought that the Great Plains must be organized into the Nebraska Territory. His final bill, known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, created the Kansas and Nebraska territory. It also abolished the Missouri Compromise, due to the fact that settlers were allowed to decide whether slavery would be allowed in these two regions.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp

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The Fugitive Slave Act stated that a slaveholder could recapture a runaway slave. Anyone who helped a slave escape, or refused to help slave catchers, could be jailed. The North was unhappy about such an unjust law, and the South did not think the Fugitive Slave Act was enough to ensure the return of their escaped property.

Source: https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/mr13.socst.us.fugiact/fugitive-slave-act/#.WsVzFi7wbIU

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Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky came up with a plan to end the deadlock over California. At first, California would be admitted as a free state. But, it would then be up to the New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery. Also, Clay's plan ended the slave trade in Washington D.C. and called for passage of a fugitive slave law. Even with Senator Daniel Webster's support, Congress debated the Compromise of 1850 for a long time, but in the end, the compromise was still accepted.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp

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For the next couple of years, Congress decided what to do about slavery in the new land obtained from Mexico. In 1849, California applied to admission to the Union as a free state. The North welcomed California, but the South rejected California's request, because the addition of a free state would upset the balance between slave and free states. As a result, Congress deadlocked on California's request for statehood.

Source: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856

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President James Polk sent a bill to Congress asking for funds for the war with Mexico. David Wilmot added an amendment known as the Wilmot Proviso, to the bill, which stated that any land acquired from Mexico will not contain slavery. Southerners strongly opposed Wilmot's amendment. Wilmot's Proviso passed the House, but was rejected by the Senate.

Source: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/polk/aa_polk_wilmot_1.html

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Many individual slaves decided to escape to freedom by running to the North. They were known as fugitive slaves. Slaveholders demanded that Congress pass a fugitive slave law allowing slaveholders to recapture their slaves.

Source:
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2018/02/fugitive-slaves-as-constitutional-actors.html

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The issue of slavery between the North and South was settled temporarily. However, due to the Second Great Awakening, many people thought that helping to abolish slavery was doing the Lord's work. Northerners took actions to abolish slavery, while Southerners attempted to make slavery more prevalent. Disagreement over what to do about slavery caused tension between the two groups.

Source:  http://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/36690?ret=True

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Congress could not decide to let Missouri enter as a slave state, or as a free state, since it could ruin the balance of free states and slave states. However, Congress solved the problem through the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. As a result, the balance of free states and slave states was preserved.

Source: http://www.compromise-of-1850.org/missouri-compromise-1820/