Lincoln's election was merely the culmination of a secession drive that began 30 years earlier in Charleston by John C. Calhoun. In fact, the "hot heads" actually engineered the election of a "Black Republican", by intentionally splitting the Democrat party along sectional lines with outrageous demands for various pro-slavery planks at the Charleston convention of 1860.
The "hot heads knew damn well that neither "sectional" Democrat could win enough electoral votes and the election would go by default to a "Black Republican" regardless of who they ran and that on its own would allow them to panic the Deep South to secession. From that point, it was a matter of starting a shooting war to get the Upper South to join them.
The war was not something that was stumbled into. It was a long time coming. It is that neither side could comprehend how bad it it be. But the fact is the people most pleased with Lincoln's election in 1860 were the Southern fire-eaters who had worked for secession for the last 30 years. They finally had the straw man they needed to scare enough of their fellow citizens into committing an insane act.
As I have said before, the Democrat party has a 150 year history of very skillfully playing the race card. In 1860, they dealt form one side of the deck. Today they deal from the other. But the theme is always the same. Divide and frighten people along race lines.
I have to agree Ditto, but my sympathies still lie with the South...(big suprise there, eh?). Thanks!