What pushed the Southern states over the brink?
Not all Republicans were Abolitionists, but all Abolitionists were Republicans. Though Lincoln felt at the time that he lacked constitutional authority to do anything about ending slavery, and repeatedly tried to reassure the southern states that he had no intention of attempting it, the prospect of a Lincoln presidency was alarming enough to the southern political leadership to give the “fire eaters” ascendancy and allowed them to lead the deep south states to secede even before Lincoln was sworn in (which was done on March 4, until 1944). The slave states of the upper south (North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas) did not secede until after Lincoln called on them for troops “to suppress the insurrection” in the wake of Fort Sumter. They then had to decide whether to assist in subjugating their neighbors, or to cast their lot with them. The “border states” where slavery was widespread had differing reactions. Kentucky attempted to proclaim neutrality. Missouri’s state govern
