Controversy of Slavery

For most of the early history of the United States, there was an equal amount of political power between the North and the South meaning that there were just as many slave states as there were slave-free states. However, by the middle of the 19th century, the number of slave-free states was more than the number of slave states; there were 16 slave-free states because California had just been admitted as one, and there were 15 slave states. The slave states were concerned that the free-staters would use their majority to try to pass a law which would outlaw slavery in the entire country. In order to keep this from happening, the South wanted to create new slave states out of the territories. The creation of the Republican Party in the 1850s brought this conflict to a crisis situation. The Republicans were willing to allow slavery to continue where it then existed (although they were against it even there), but were adamant that no new slave states would be created or admitted. Prior to the election of 1860, most of the Southern states threatened to secede if Lincoln were elected as President, which was inevitable because his opposition couldn't unite on a single candidate to defeat him. So Lincoln won with about 40 percent of the total vote, and the South seceded because they objected to the Republican Party's policies on slavery.