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Lincoln’s Election, Southern Secession: 1860 to April 1861

Lincoln’s Journey, Davis’ Speech

Was there any chance that the war could—at this late moment—have been averted?

Virtually none. To make that happen, Lincoln and his Cabinet would have had to make concessions that might bring down the wrath of their Northern supporters. For Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, too, the question of morale was all-important. The Southern people were keyed up, and this seemed like the propitious moment to strike. And so, after a decade of dissension and division, the thirty-four states of what had been the Union prepared to go to war, not with some foreign power but against each other.



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