Union

=Why the North didn't want the South to secede.=

1.) **It sets a bad example.** Once you set a precedent that a state can just secede when it loses an election or something happens that it doesn't like, pretty soon you don't have a country anymore. Before you know it, Maine will be seceding because of the tax rate on lobsters or New York will be seceding because they don't think they are being fairly represented due to having the same amount of Senators as Rhode Island. States like Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri were doubtful to stick around through another Presidential election if it didn't go their way. As a collection of smaller nations, we would never have become the world power that we are today. Lincoln showed great foresight in doing what he did.



2.) **Cotton Was Extremely Valuable.** When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 the United States became the leading place in the world to get cotton. Cotton made up between 60-80% of the income coming into America at the time of 1860. The south was the only place producing cotton in the United States and the Union recognized that if the South and the Confederacy seceded it would cause major economic issues for the North.



3.) **If the United States failed, so did Democracy.** The Declaration of Independence was written less than a century before Lincoln's presidency. It hadn't been that long before: plenty of people in 1860 knew people or had heard stories of the American Revolution and what it meant for all people. American Independence and the American Experiment were still fresh ideas to many people, and a bunch of them weren't ready to watch the whole country split up and fail.