The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[109] Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction.[110] However, Lincoln would not be inaugurated until five months after the election, which gave the South time to secede and prepare for war in the winter and spring of 1861.[111]
According to Lincoln, the American people had shown that they had been successful in establishing and administering a republic, but a third challenge faced the nation: maintaining a republic based on the people’s vote, in the face of an attempt to destroy it.
