Charleston, South Carolina. Following the results of the presidential election, South Carolina declared itself an independent republic and considered its ties with the Union severed: it was secession. President Lincoln saw secession not only as the moral defeat of democracy, but also as the fragmentation of North America into hostile powers, like Europe: endless strife, millions of men under arms arrayed on both sides of the Potomac, militarism, internal turmoil, and social reaction. A victory for the Union, however, would not only have preserved American democracy but could have broadened its horizons for the future, seeking the overthrow of tyrannies and the advent of freedom. With these ideas, expressed from his inauguration, Lincoln demonstrated the impressive realism of visionaries, spanning continents and centuries. The Southern states poised to secede had found in him a formidable adversary.
