Abraham Lincoln’s Victory
Throughout the 1850’s the United States was being torn apart over the issue of slavery and this soon became the central issue in the presidential election of 1860. Abraham Lincoln joined the Republican Party and emerged as a nominee for president after a series of senate debates in 1858. His anti-slavery stance made him unfavorable to the Southerners and his nomination only enraged them even more. Following Lincoln’s election for president and with the national government finally in antislavery hands, the South proceeded to secede from the union. Lincoln’s decision to fight in what became the Civil War was not based on his feelings towards slavery, but his duty as President to preserve the union at all costs. Lincoln set an entire new course for the United States withholding the crucial goals of “union and freedom”.
The spread of slavery to new territories and states was an ongoing battle that was only deepened by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The bill mandated popular sovereignty which was intended as a compromise to reduce tensions but it had the opposite effect. It contradicted the Missouri Compromise which had been holding the country together for over 30 years. Once passed by Congress it lead to what became known as Bleeding Kansas due to the increased violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. This had a profound effect on Lincoln who was greatly offended by Douglas’s creation and passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He began speaking out at public meetings in his home state and in debates with Stephen Douglas during the Illinois Senate campaign of 1858. Lincoln had previously put his political aspirations aside, but this prompted him to return to the political arena
This 1854 bill failed to organize western territories worsening the relations between the North and South paving the way for the Civil War.