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The John Brown raid on the Federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia) took place 16-18 October 1859. Abolitionist Brown, son of abolitionist Owen Brown, was a Kansas free-soiler who in 1856 helped kill five proslavery men. His group actively liberated slaves from Missouri and escorted them to Canada. To obtain weapons to continue the slave-running operation, Brown and a band of 21 men seized the town in the early morning hours. However, word soon spread of their act after the train passed through and the townspeople were alerted to danger with the ringing of a church bell. The band of raiders lost their battle and Brown was forced to surrender to Col. Robert E. Lee. Frederick Douglass and other sympathizers fled the country. Quickly convicted of treason against the state of Virginia, Brown was hung 2 December at Charlestown, Virginia. His last recorded words: "I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

The word on everyone's lips in 1860 was "secession". Two months after the Brown hanging, Jefferson Davis set the tone for the year when on 2 February he laid out his six resolutions of states' rights in the Senate. This created a wide division among the Democrats and opened the way for a Republican to rise in the minds of Americans. (The abolitionist Republican party had only been in existence since July 1854.)  The Democrats held their national nominating convention first met at Charleston, S. C. from 23 April  to 3 May, during which delegates from eight southern states withdrew. The convention adjourned without a nominee after 57 ballots. They readjourned at Baltimore on 18 June. They came up with Stephen A. Douglas (Ill.) as their presidential candidate and Herschel V. Johnson (Ga.) for vice-president. The southern seceders reconvened at Baltimore on 28 June and nominated John C. Breckinridge (Ky.) and Joseph Lane (Ore.).  The Republicans met at Chicago 16 May. The first two ballots went to William H. Seward (N.Y.). The final slate after the third ballot became Abraham Lincoln (Ill.) and Hannibal Hamlin (Me.). Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 6 November, but he failed to secure a single Southern electoral vote. Within days of the election, the fears of secession were realized when South Carolina voted to convene. On 20 December, the state left the union.

Abraham Lincoln Library of Congress LC-USZ62-92281

updated 5 January 2002.