In 1848, settlers discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, starting a mass migration. By 1849, California had enough citizens to apply for statehood. However, the debate over whether the large western state would or would not allow slavery delayed its admittance. Delegates from the south threatened to secede if California was admitted as a free state. Meanwhile, tempers also flared in New Mexico and Texas over border disputes, and abolitionists fought pro-slavery advocates over the issue of slave trading within the District of Columbia. Southern political leaders, mostly Democrats, proposed a convention in Nashville to discuss secession. In 1850, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850 to Congress. The Compromise contained the following provisions:

The race became a two-man battle between Lincoln and Breckinridge. Lincoln won a majority of electoral votes (180 of 303) but only gained 39% of the popular vote. Lincoln had made considerable abolitionist noise in the past, and several states had threatened to secede. Now that Lincoln had been elected, South Carolina carried out its threats, electing to secede on December 20, 1860.

Five days later, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln while the president was watching a play in northern Virginia. Booth and everyone who allegedly aided or conspired with him were executed. Seemingly before Lincoln was cold in his grave, the radical Republicans tried to gain support of his successor, Andrew Johnson. However, Johnson's policies on Reconstruction were more similar to the ten-percent plan imposed by Lincoln than the strict laws proposed by the radicals in Congress.

In Dred Scott v. Sanford, the slave Dred Scott and his wife, Harriett, sued for their freedom from their master, because he had taken them into Michigan, which was a free state. They insisted that since they had lived on free soil, their bonds of slavery were no longer valid. The Supreme Court decided in a shocking decision that not only was the Scotts' claim invalid, but the entire case had been unconstitutional, because blacks, according to their claims, had no right to sue whites in any court, much less the United States Supreme Court. This total denial of blacks' rights ignited a violent fury in abolitionists everywhere, and inspired an equally defiant spirit among pro-slavery activists.

The other critical loss the rebels suffered was at Antietam, one of the Confederacy's precious few offensive campaigns. Until then, the British had considered aiding the Confederacy, despite their claims of neutrality and the negative reactions they received from Russia and France, which the British feared. The British hoped that a major offensive victory would turn the tides of the war, gain the support of other European powers, and provide Britain with a powerful ally against the United States in the future. However, the Union armies defeated the already exhausted force at Antietam, and Britain gave up any serious hopes of a Confederate victory. With Britain's vote of confidence also went the possibility of European support for the Confederacy. Without this vital link with the outside world, the Confederacy lost all advantage in the war.

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Approximate Word count = 2578
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)