... to import almost all manufactured goods, making them strictly opposed to high tariffs. The North on the other hand, demanded them to protect its own products from cheap foreign competition. Contrasting social, economic and political points of view such as these gradually drove the two sections farther and farther apart. Each tried to impose its own interests on the country as a whole. Although compromises had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the situation was explosive. Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president, which was viewed by the South as a grave threat to slavery and therefore a threat to the entire way of life. The only feasible course of action then was secession and war. So in 1861 seven states including South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, initially seceded from the Union. Not long after Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas joined them. ...

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