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#The Withdrawal of the South

South Carolina, long the hotbed of Southern separatism, seceded first.
It called a special convention, which voted unanimously on December 20, 1860, to withdraw the state from the Union
By the time Lincoln took office, six other states from the lower South—Mississippi (January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10), Alabama (January 11), Georgia (January 19), Louisiana (January 26), and Texas (February 1)—had seceded.
In February 1861, representatives of the seven seceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, and announced the formation of a new nation: the Confederate States of America.
The response from the North was confused and indecisive. President James Buchanan told Congress in December 1860 that no state had the right to secede from the Union but suggested that the federal government had no authority to stop a state if it did.
The seceding states immediately seized the federal property—forts, arsenals, government offices—within their boundaries
Confederate guns on shore fired at the vessel—the first shots between North and South— and turned it back.
Still, neither section was yet ready to concede that war had begun.
And in Washington, efforts began once more to forge a compromise.

Gradually, compromise forces gathered behind a proposal first submitted by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and known as the Crittenden Compromise.
It called for several constitutional amendments, which would guarantee the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states and would satisfy Southern demands on such issues as fugitive slaves and slavery in the District of Columbia.
And so nothing had been resolved when Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington for his inauguration—sneaking into the city in disguise on a night train to avoid assassination as he passed through the slave state of Maryland.
In his inaugural address, which dealt directly with the secession crisis, Lincoln laid down several basic principles.
Since the Union was older than the Constitution, no state could leave it. Acts of force or violence to support secession were insurrectionary.
And the government would “hold, occupy, and possess” federal property in the seceded states—a clear reference to Fort Sumter.

South Carolina, long the hotbed of Southern separatism, seceded first.
It called a special convention, which voted unanimously on December 20, 1860, to withdraw the state from the Union
By the time Lincoln took office, six other states from the lower South—Mississippi (January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10), Alabama (January 11), Georgia (January 19), Louisiana (January 26), and Texas (February 1)—had seceded.
In February 1861, representatives of the seven seceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, and announced the formation of a new nation: the Confederate States of America.
The response from the North was confused and indecisive. President James Buchanan told Congress in December 1860 that no state had the right to secede from the Union but suggested that the federal government had no authority to stop a state if it did.
The seceding states immediately seized the federal property—forts, arsenals, government offices—within their boundaries
Confederate guns on shore fired at the vessel—the first shots between North and South— and turned it back.
Still, neither section was yet ready to concede that war had begun.
And in Washington, efforts began once more to forge a compromise.

Gradually, compromise forces gathered behind a proposal first submitted by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and known as the Crittenden Compromise.
It called for several constitutional amendments, which would guarantee the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states and would satisfy Southern demands on such issues as fugitive slaves and slavery in the District of Columbia.
And so nothing had been resolved when Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington for his inauguration—sneaking into the city in disguise on a night train to avoid assassination as he passed through the slave state of Maryland.
In his inaugural address, which dealt directly with the secession crisis, Lincoln laid down several basic principles.
Since the Union was older than the Constitution, no state could leave it. Acts of force or violence to support secession were insurrectionary.
And the government would “hold, occupy, and possess” federal property in the seceded states—a clear reference to Fort Sumter.