Upon assuming the presidency, Abraham Lincoln was confronted with
the unprecedented national emergency of several southern states
declaring themselves seceded from the union and forming their own
nation, the Confederate States of America. He was confronted with a
very complicated and historic decision- whether to save the union or let
it dissolve. His scenario included 3 options to proceed with, each with
far-reaching consequences:
1) Compromise with the breakaway states, which would have likely been
based in a national political compromise with Southern congressman to
extend slavery by at least one more state.
2) Let the seceding states leave; the two nations would exist side by
side, with slavery continuing to be practiced and legal in the
Confederate states.
3) Use of armed force as Commander-in-Chief of the United States to
maintain the union, for the primary reason of preventing seceding
states from taking over federal military installations and confiscating
weapons, ships, vital ports and forts.
Analyze and explain why Pres. Lincoln chose the third option, involving
an inevitable military invasion of the slaveholding South rather than the
first two. What aspects of the first two options do you believe he
found unreasonable, politically impossible and disastrous in the long term?