Election of 1860

In the election of 1860, three candidates were running. Two Democratic Party representatives and one Republican Party representative. The republican representitive was Abraham Lincoln. Because there was a split of votes for the Democratic representatives, Abraham Lincoln won. He knew that either the United States would either ban slavery from the whole country, or allow it everywhere. The Southern states were very unhappy about the outcome of the election. The reactions were started by South Carolina when they suceeded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Georgians were split. The secessionists wanted to leave right away while the cooperationists did not. The final desicion ended up being that Georgia suceeded and joined the confederacy along with Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The president of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis and the vice president was Alexander Stephens.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/February/davis-stephens.jpg

Alexander Stephens was a cooperationist but knew that there was no way about getting around succession. The reason they hired a cooperationist and a secessionist was to keep order and balance so that everyone felt they were being represented. Davis and Stephens were close at first, but when Stephens became more focused on military efforts, their relationship weakened.