American Nation
16-5 Section
Questions
Name_________________________________
A Nation Divides
The Election of 1860 (page 478)
1. What happened to the Democratic Party when they held their convention in Charleston, South
Carolina?
2. Complete the chart with details about the candidates in the election of 1860.
Name
Home State
Political Party
Position on Slavery
Abraham Lincoln
Stephen A. Douglas
John Breckinridge
John Bell
3. Who won the Election of 1860? How did he win?
The South Reacts (page 479)
4. Many southerners felt that Lincoln’s election meant ________________________________________________________.
To them, the President and Congress were against ___________________ ______________________ especially
__________________________. The governor of South Carolina wrote to other governors that if Lincoln won the
election it was the duty of the South to ______________________ _____________ ___________________________.
Secession (page479)
5. What did John Crittenden propose as a last ditch effort to try to save the Union?
6. What happened to Crittenden’s proposal?
7. What happened on December 20, 1860?
8. What six states followed in 1861?
The Confederacy (page 480)
9. Why did southerners say they had the right to secede?
10. How did Lincoln respond to secession?
11. What did the South call their new nation?
12. Who did they elect as their president?
The Civil War Begins (page 480)
13. What did Lincoln say about a war in his inaugural address?
Lincoln’s Difficult Decision (page 481)
14. What dilemma did Lincoln face with federal forts in the South?
15. By April 1861, the Confederacy controlled ___________________________________________________________________.
The Union held only three forts off the coast of Florida and ________________ _______________ in South Carolina.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter (page 481)
16. When Lincoln learned that supplies were low at Fort Sumter, he told the governor he wanted to ship
______________ to the fort; NOT _______________ or ___________________________.
17. On April 11, 1861, the Confederates demanded that the fort __________________________. Major Robert
Anderson (USA) ______________________________________________________________. The ________________________________
opened fire first. The Union troops ran out of ammunition quickly and on April 13, 1861
______________________________. The ____________________ _______________ had begun!!!