it wasn't all at once

most waited to see

I mean South Carolina

he made a veiled threat

many said wait and see

others said fuck that

He was in office since March 4, 1861

On November 9, 1860 the South Carolina General Assembly passed a "Resolution to Call the Election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President a Hostile Act" and stated its intention to declare secession from the United States

he said before he was in office that he would force them to pay the imposts northerners had been trying to impose for decades

south carolina was the first

they didn't wait

in his innaugural, he threatend them all

more joined

then he ordered the rest to raise armies to invade the others

they all left then

remember

he called general lee to lead his army

virginia had not left yet

he had ordered virginia to invade carolina

virginia refrused to invade carolina

virginia then left the union

lee then refused to turn on virginia

I just think SC knew what was going to happen now that he didnt need southern votes, before he said he would use force in the innaugural

nah

His speech and the raising of an army convinced the other states

he campaigned on it

it wasn't new

northern states had been failing to bring the southern states to heel for decades

he promised to impose national law on them as he was campaigning

putting an end to southern states rejecting DC policy was a central part of his platform

dude suspened habius corpus basically day one

imprisonned hundreds of journalists

And I think the southeners thought he couldnt win on that. When he did they knew the north would elect their own presidents now and they wouldnt be able to stop them

the southern states were operating under the rules at the time

you can enter and you can leave

it was not illegal to votw to leave then

jefferson davis was never tried because of that

not one prosecutor would take the case to try to convict him

seccession was not illegal

after years of searching for a prosecutor willing to take the case, the US govt gave up on it

southern seccession was never ruled in court to be illegal