1. No state has the right to interfere with the domestic institutions of any other state.

2. Any attack on slavery within the slave states is a violation of the Constitution.

3. It is the duty of the Senate to oppose all discriminatory measures against persons or property in the territories.

4. Neither Congress nor a territorial legislature has the power to interfere with the right to hold slaves in any territory. The Federal Government should extend all necessary protection, such as a federal slave code, to that institution.

5. Territories may not decide on the question of slavery within their borders until they become states and are admitted to the Union.

6. Any interference by a state legislature with the recovery of fugitive slaves is a violation of the Constitution.

1. Southern Democrats pushed a platform calling for protection of slavery in the territories.

2. Douglas Democrats pushed a platform calling for popular sovereignty, abiding by the Dred Scott decision, and acquiring Cuba.

3. Douglas Democrats won the platform fight, and Southern delegates withdrew from the convention. Convention fell apart without making a nomination.

1. Remnants of Whigs and American Party (Know-Nothings)

2. Nominated John Bell of Tenn. and Edward Everett of Mass.

3. Platform condemned sectional parties and called for upholding "The Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws."

1. Split again, but this time the convention survived.

2. Northern Democrats nominated Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. (Ga.)

3. Northern Democrats accepted Charleston platform.

4. Southern Democrats met on 28 JUN and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky and Joseph Lane of Oregon.

5. Southern platform supported slavery in the territories, the admission of states into the Union on an equal footing with the rest (meaning without preconditions or restrictions on slavery) and the acquisition of Cuba.

1. Slavery to be prohibited in all territories North of 36^o30" (The Old Missouri Compromise Line) and not interfered with by Congress South of that line. When a state came into the Union, it would make its own choice about allowing slavery.

2. Congress could not abolish slavery in places "under its exclusive jurisdiction" (territories and the District of Columbia, etc.).

3. Congress could not abolish slavery in D.C. as long as it existed in nearby states, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation.

4. Congress would not have power to interfere with the interstate slave trade.

5. Congress would have full power to pay to the owner full value of fugitive slaves, when officers were prevented by states or individuals or other governments from arresting them.

6. No future amendment could affect the five preceding articles, nor the sections of the Constitution pertaining to slavery, nor could any amendment be made which would give Congress the power to abolish or interfere with slavery in the states where state laws permitted it.

1. Argued for state sovereignty.

2. Justified secession because of the Northern attack on slavery, the election to the Presidency of the candidate of a sectional party, and the coming of an anti-slavery president.

26 DEC -- Maj. Robert Anderson, Commander of US troops in Charleston Harbor, withdrew his garrison from Ft. Moultrie and concentrated all his troops in Ft. Sumter.

28 DEC -- South Carolina demanded that President Buchanan remove U.S. troops from Charleston Harbor and deliver all federal installations in S.C. to the state.

31 DEC -- Buchanan refused the South Carolina demand to remove troops and vacate installations.

05 JAN -- Alabama troops seized Ft. Morgan and Ft. Gaines.

Buchanan sent Star of the West with reinforcements and food for Ft. Sumter.

10 JAN -- Louisiana troops seized Baton Rouge arsenal and barracks. Florida seceded.

04 FEB -- Representatives of seceded states met in Montgomery, Ala. Representatives of 21 states (none of them seceded) met in Washington for a Peace Convention called by Virginia. Ex-President John Tyler, a delegate from Virginia, was elected president of this so-called Old Gentlemen's Convention.

08 FEB -- Montgomery Convention proclaimed the Confederate States of America and adopted a provisional constitution.

1. Right to own slaves spelled out specifically.

2. Right to secession from the Confederacy implied, but not stated. Permanent central government.

3. Each state acts "in its sovereign and independent character."

4. Protective tariffs prohibited.

5. Importation of new slaves from Africa prohibited.

6. President and V.P. serve a single six-year term.

7. Slavery protected in Confederate territories.

8. Strong fugitive slave clause.

9. Otherwise, much resembled U.S. Constitution.

08 FEB -- Arkansas troops seized arsenal at Little Rock.

09 FEB -- Jefferson Davis elected Provisional President of the Confederacy. Alexander Stephens of Georgia chosen Vice-President.

16 FEB -- Texas troops seized San Antonio Arsenal.

18 FEB -- Davis inaugurated as President.

Maj. Gen. David Twiggs surrendered all Federal military posts in Texas to the Texas state forces. Later, Twiggs would fight for the Confederacy.

27 FEB -- Washington Peace Convention (Old Gentlemen's Convention) sent its compromise, consisting of six proposed constitutional amendments, to Congress.

1. Slavery prohibited North of 36^o30". Slavery could exist south of that line, and Congress could not hinder it. Upon admittance as a state, the ex-territory/new state could come in with or without slavery as its own freely-chosen Constitution should provide.

2. No further territory should be acquired except through treaty, and with 4/5 consent of the Senate.

3. Congress prohibited from regulating, abolishing, or controlling slavery in the states or territories.

4. Fugitive slave provisions of the Constitution must be strictly enforced. Congress should not interfere with this.

5. Foreign slave trade prohibited.

6. Compensation for unrecaptured runaway slaves.

02 MAR -- Congress approved a joint resolution calling for a Constitutional amendment providing that "no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof." (This amendment was never approved by the states.)

Sen. Crittenden proposed that the Senate adopt the Peace Convention's amendments. His proposal was defeated.

04 MAR -- Lincoln inaugurated, pledging to slave states that he would leave slavery alone where it existed, but that he would resist secession. Still, there would be no violence, unless it were "forced upon the national authority."

06 APR -- Lincoln notified South Carolina that he was sending an expedition to Ft. Sumter solely to provision the garrison.

11 APR -- South Carolina requested that Maj. Anderson surrender Ft. Sumter at once. Anderson offered to surrender when his supplies ran out in a few days. State authorities, who knew, as Anderson did not, that Lincoln was sending more supplies, refused the offer.

12 APR -- 4:30 a.m.: Shore batteries under the control of Gen. PGT. Beauregard opened fire on Ft. Sumter, precipitating the Civil War.

13 APR -- 2:30 p.m.: Maj. Anderson surrendered Ft. Sumter.

15 APR -- Lincoln declared that an "insurrection" existed in the South and called for the state governors to send 75,000 volunteer militiamen to put down the rebellion. All Northern states wired immediate acceptance. Kentucky and North Carolina immediately refused. North Carolina seized Ft. Macon, an unmanned installation.

16 APR -- North Carolina state troops seized Ft. Caswell and Ft. Johnston.

17 APR -- Virginia, which had so far consistently refused to approve secession, declared that the President's call for troops constituted a signal for the invasion of the South, then passed an ordinance of secession. The Virginia convention also instructed the governor to call out as many militiamen, volunteers, or other troops as might be necessary to protect Virginia from Federal invasion.

19 APR -- Lincoln declared blockade of Southern states.

20 APR -- Federals evacuated Norfolk Navy yard, burning ships left there.

23 APR -- Arkansas troops seized Ft. Smith.

06 MAY -- Arkansas seceded.

17 MAY -- Tennessee seceded.

20 MAY -- North Carolina seceded.

03 JUN -- Battle of Phillipi.

10 JUN -- Battle of Big Bethel.

21 JUN -- Battle of Bull Run or Manassas.