![]() Although there were several thousand federal troops stationed in Texas, they were scattered across the state at a number of distant posts located west of San Antonio. Many Texans had come to regret the state’s entrance into the Union only fifteen years earlier. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. “The Republic of Texas is no more”-President Anson Jones, Annexation Ceremony, February 19, 1846. Their officials hoped that they would be joined by other states as members of a new government - the Confederate States of America. Other southern states quickly followed: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. South Carolina was the first southern State to act, voting on December 20, 1860, to leave the Union. The alternative to domination by the north appeared to be secession from the Union and the formation of a new nation. Lincoln’s name had not even been on the ballot in the south, making southerners feel that the political system had failed them. With even more votes drawn off by the Constitutional Union Party, the staunchly anti-slavery Republican Party emerged victorious. The larger but divided Democratic Party failed to rally around a single national figure and instead supported their respective sectional favorites. He owed his election to the unsettled political situation that griped the nation. ![]() Lincoln’s election outraged many in the south. However, it was “Honest Abe”, candidate of the four-year-old Republican Party, who was declared the official winner of the race. Attempting to preserve the peace, the Constitutional Union Party attempted to pursue a course of reconciliation. The Whigs had faded away, making the party’s last appearance in a presidential race in 1852. By 1860, the Democratic Party had splintered into a northern branch and a southern branch. The old two party system composed of Democrats and Whigs was a casualty of the political battle between the sections. The election of Abraham Lincoln brought the crisis to a head. Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, 1863 printed ca.
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