this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Explanation: The US Civil War was kicked off in 1861 after the election of the antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln in late 1860. The radical antislavery position Lincoln held?
... that slavery shouldn't be allowed to expand outside of the South.
Not "Slavery must be immediately destroyed by the Federal government". Not even "Slavery in the South must be reduced by the Federal government." Just "No expansion."
Obviously, to the slaver cunts, this was unacceptable oppression, and they then attempted to secede after losing said democratic election.
I may be incorrect, but wasn't Lincoln's position even less direct and was "new states should decide for themselves", but the south wanted "new states have an automatic yes"?
Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery into the territories, and believed that the Federal government did not have the power to remove or prevent slavery from expanding into states, but could do so to territories.
One of his Democratic opponents in the election, Douglas, took the 'moderate' position of letting territories decide for themselves, while the majority South opinion championed by his other Democratic opponent, Breckenridge, was that slavery could not be forbidden from the territories.