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The Social Contract and
Secession
• What did John Locke say about the
relationship between government and the
people?
• Why did the North feel the South had
broken its contract?
• Why did the South feel the North had
broken its contract?
What is a contract?
What is a contract?
• an agreement between two or more
people or groups
• often they are legal documents.
John Locke (1632–1704)
philosopher
John Locke, 1632–1704, Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004672071/
• Government is
essentially a contract
between the people
and the ruler; thus, if
the government ever
breaks its side of the
contract, the people
have the right to
overthrow it.
Turning Points
• John Brown’s Raid
• Abraham Lincoln’s win in the 1860 election
• South Carolina’s secession
• Confederates firing on Fort Sumter
• Lincoln’s call for volunteers
John Brown’s Raid
David Hunter Strother, John Brown, Pierre
Morand Memorial, Special Collections, Library of
Virginia.
John Brown’s raid on
Harpers Ferry, Virginia,
caused many Southern
slaveholders to fear
more attempts by
Northern abolitionists to
incite violence among
slaves.
Abraham Lincoln Was Elected
During the months following
Abraham Lincoln's election in
November 1860, white Virginians
discussed the future of the Union.
Some people endorsed secession
or offered their services to the
governor in the event of war.
Others vigorously denounced
secessionists and disunion. Still
others spoke of the necessity to
find a compromise to save the
Union and preserve the peace.
Detail from Johnson's North
and South Carolina.
Library of Congress
Geography and Map Division.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g390
0.np000152
South Carolina
seceded on
December 20,
1860.
• By February 23, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded.
• Representatives of the seceded states met and on
February 4 and formed a provisional government for
the Confederate States of America.
Confederates fired on Fort Sumter
• On April 12, 1861, Confederate artillerists in Charleston opened
fire on Fort Sumter after U.S. ships attempted to resupply the
garrison there.
• One day later the commander of the fort surrendered, and the
U.S. forces evacuated Fort Sumter on April 14.
Detail from Fort Sumter South Carolina,
1860 (Map) The Abraham Lincoln Papers
at the Library of Congress. Series 1.
General Correspondence. 1833–1916.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers
Detail from “United States
volunteers. The ‘Union guard,’
accepted by the Secretary of
War, July 26th, '61.” Library of
Congress
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.1
2302400
• After Fort Sumter was attacked, Lincoln
called for 75,000 volunteers from all over
the country to suppress the rebellion.
• Virginians had a new decision to make:
fight with the United States against the
Confederate States or fight with the
Confederacy against the United States.
Callie Anthony
• 21 years old in 1860
• Lived in Campbell
County, Virginia
Photograph
(possibly of
Callie Anthony)
in Anthony
Family Papers,
1785–1952,
Acc. 35647,
35648, Library
of Virginia.
Unidentified cousin to Callie Anthony, November 13, 1860 [from page 4], Anthony Family Papers, 1785–1952,
Acc. 35647, 35648, Library of Virginia.
Resolutions of Rockbridge County
Working Men
• Workingmen, farmers, and mechanics
meeting in Lexington on December 19,
1860, condemned antislavery agitators
and Southern radicals for putting both
slavery and the Union in jeopardy and
recommended that workingmen
throughout the Union join them in
advocating a peaceful, constitutional
resolution of political differences.
John Brown
Broadside supporting John Brown’s beliefs
John Brown's Raid
On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown led a group of radical
abolitionists against the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, Virginia,
with the purpose of arming and inciting a slave rebellion. Brown and many of his coconspirators were captured and some were killed when U.S. Marines under Colonel
Robert E. Lee surrounded and stormed the engine house where Brown's men had
been trapped. John Brown and his men were taken to Charles Town where they
were tried and Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.
Campaign poster for Lincoln
Printing of Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
from March 4, 1861
South Carolina
Dec. 20, 1860
Mississippi
Jan. 9, 1861
Florida
Jan. 10, 1861
Alabama
Jan. 11, 1861
Georgia
Jan. 19, 1861
Louisiana
Jan. 26, 1861
Texas (convention
Feb. 1, 1861
voted to secede)
Virginia (convention
April 17, 1861
voted to secede.)
A political cartoon
satirizing the secession
movement
The order and dates on which the
Southern states seceded
The bombing
of Fort Sumter
on April 12
and 13, 1861
Fort Sumter
After South Carolina seceded, troops were stationed around Charleston harbor. They
prevented the United States Army commander of Fort Sumter from resupplying the fort
from shore. On April 12, 1861, before the Virginia convention's delegation could confer
with Lincoln about his policies toward the seceded states, Confederate artillerists in
Charleston opened fire on Fort Sumter after Lincoln attempted to resupply the garrison
there. One day later the commander of the fort surrendered, and the U.S. forces
evacuated Fort Sumter on April 14.
April 15, 1861
Proclamation Calling
75,000 Militia
“Now, therefore, I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the
United States, in virtue of
the power in me vested by
the Constitution and the
laws, have thought fit to call
forth, and hereby do call
forth, the militia of the
several States of the Union
to the aggregate number of
seventy-five thousand, in
order to suppress said
combinations, and to cause
the laws to be duly
executed.”
The Virginia Ordinance of Secession
Who broke the contract?
• Choose a turning point to illustrate your
argument.
• Use the primary source readings to
explain whether the North impeded the
rights of the South and broke the contract,
• or whether the Southern states, by the
Constitution, did not have the right to
secede and should have used other
methods to resolve their differences.