Bell Ringer!• Why were sectional differences developing in the

United States?– Economic conditions, geography and interests in each region

varied• North – industrial economy• South – plantation economy

• What is a political party?– organized group of people with at least roughly similar

political aims and opinions– Disputes over slavery lead to the creation of new political

parties

Whigs Free Soil Party

Anti-Slavery Democrats

*Republican Party (1854)

opposed the spread of slavery into new territories

1856 Election

Fillmore – Know-Nothing party (received 22% of vote)

Fremont – Republican party (received 33% of vote)

Buchanan – Democratic party from PA (received 45% of vote) *WINNER!

White House here I come!

Abraham Lincoln

Stephen Douglas

What were the main positions they held on slavery?Why were these debates important?http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/9815570D-7FA2-47CF-A713-8BF6B4E2F092

2 minute clip

Lincoln became a nationally known figure

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

Results:

Douglas won the election by a slim margin If he lost, then why are debates so important?

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln challenged incumbent Stephen Douglas for his seat in the Senate.

VOTERS in territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery

Popular Sovereignty

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

Stephen Douglas:

• Slave owners can keep their slaves and slavery will continue to exist where it is

• Slavery was a moral wrong and should be kept out of the new territories

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

Abraham Lincoln:

• Sectional differences threatened to destroy the Union

• ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ • “I believe this government cannot endure,

permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other”

Abraham Lincoln (1858), from first campaign speech running for US Senate

“PRESERVE THE UNION”

Could Lincoln have stopped the war?

Crittenden PlanProposed Amendments to the Constitution:*Slavery "hereby recognized" and could not be

interfered with by Congress. *Congress could not prohibit or interfere with the

interstate slave trade.*No future amendment of the Constitution could

change these amendments or authorize or empower Congress to interfere with slavery within any slave state.

FAIL!

Secede – to withdraw or leave

“Southern secession” means that states in the South are leaving the United States and creating their own new country

What argument did Lincoln use against secession of the Southern

states?

The government was a union of PEOPLE

NOT of states

Lincoln’s Election and the Start of the American Civil War

• http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/9815570D-7FA2-47CF-A713-8BF6B4E2F092

A NATION DIVIDED

Video! Fort Sumter

• http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=D05AFBC2-056F-433F-877F-03768470E7E5&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US