The Rise And Fall Of The Secession Of 1860

The Secession
The idea of the South’s secession from the union was by no means new in 1860. In his book,The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Davis Jefferson quotes a letter by C. C. Clay, in which Clay describes that the decision for the South to secede in the event of Lincoln winning the election had already been made. He writes:

“Before the election of Lincoln, all the Southern States, excepting one or two, had pledged themselves to separate from the Union upon the triumph of a sectional party in the Presidential election, by acts or resolutions of their Legislatures, resolves of both Democratic and Whig State Conventions, and of primary assemblies of the people—in every way in which they could commit themselves to any future

He writes:
"The 'plan of secession,’

"if any, and the purpose of secession, unquestionably, originated, not in Washington City, or with the Senators or Representatives of the South, but among the people of the several States, many months before it was attempted.”

After Lincolns victory was announced on November 6, 1860, things happened fast. The first state to secede was South Carolina on December 20 1860, with 6 additional states also seceding during the first month of the new year. In their own minds, their secession was totally legitimate and they felt they ought to be recognized as a fully independent nation. This is illustrated well in the last few lines of the Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession of South Carolina, which state that the state was a “separate and independent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right

This was because, President Buchanan had stated that any state that wanted to secede, could do so freely until the inauguration of Lincoln in march of 1861. Lincoln was left with only being able to make statements about what he thought of the secession and the national unity he hoped could still be realized. When asked about what he thought of the secession he said:

“ [There is] but little, if any thing, in my speeches about secession; but my opinion is that no state can, in any way lawfully get out of the union, without the consent of the others; and that it is the duty of the President, and other government functionaries to run the machine as it is.”

Lincoln and his administration was determined to avoid civil war at all cost. In his inaugural address in he said of the secession and the impending risk of civil war: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil