[SoCal Pubbie]

For proof that secession was no more than Democrats refusing to accept the results of an election, we need look no further than the election of 1856. Democrats threatened to do the same damned thing they did in 1861 if Fremont won!

“I will say, that should Fremont be elected, I will not stand and wait for fire, but will call upon my countrymen to take to that to which they will be driven – the sword. If that be disunion, I am a disunionist. If that be treason, make the most of it. You see the traitor before you.”

Roger Toombs of Georgia

“...the Union ought not to be preserved if Fremont should be elected.”

James Slidell of Louisiana

“in the event of Fremont’s election the South should not postpone but at once proceed to ‘immediate, absolute, and eternal separation”

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi

“If Fremont is elected, it will be the duty of the South to dissolve the Union and form a Southern Confederacy.”

The Richmond Enquirer

http://www.thiscruelwar.com/union-is-in-danger-fremont-and-secession/

[BroJoeK]

SoCal Pubbie quoting on 1856 election: "in the event of Fremont’s election the South should not postpone but at once proceed to ‘immediate, absolute, and eternal separation'
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi"

Thanks for those quotes, I never knew that about 1856, though am not in the least surprised.

[DiogenesLamp]

I think the South had just grown tired of being part of a Union that did not benefit them.