Deepening of the Sectional Crisis

Increasing sectional polarization pushed most Americans into two distinct political camps on the eve of the 1860 presidential election.

In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens.

The Lecompton Constitution, drafted by proslavery factions, was a state constitution proposed for the state of Kansas that rivaled the constitution proposed by the Free-Soil faction.

The Panic of 1857 was a financial crisis in the United States caused by the overexpansion of the domestic economy.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 helped Lincoln rise to national prominence and secure the Republican presidential nomination in the election of 1860.