What did Lincoln's opponents think he would do once he became president?

Question: What did Lincoln's opponents think he would do once he became president!?
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End slavery!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

~The southern concern was not with Lincoln per se!. His election without carrying a single southern state (he was not even on the ballot in several) proved conclusively what southern statesmen had been saying for decades: the south had been disenfranchised and had lost any voice in Congress!.

Lincoln's opponents in the south as well as his abolitionist opponents in the north knew that Lincoln had no intention, interest or authority to emancipate the slaves or to end slavery!. Abe made that very clear throughout his campaign!. In his First Inaugural Address he said:

" Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered!. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension!. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection!. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you!. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists!. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so!."

Anyone who thought then or believes now that Lincoln intended to end slavery is either a fool or is simply ignorant of US history!. Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories, but he acknowledged that he had no authority as President to prevent it!. He also affirmed that it was a constitutional duty of every state and the federal government to return fugitive slaves to their rightful owners and he promised to comply with such constitutional mandate!. He later broke his promise with his illegal, unconstitutional Emancipation Proclamation - a redundant decree that simply did under powers Lincoln wrongly claimed to have as Commander-in-Chief what Congress had done earlier with the equally illegal and unconstitutional Confiscation Acts!. EP and Confiscation Acts were used as weapons and were not human rights gestures!. Neither ended slavery - they only purported to free slaves in those areas declared to be in rebellion while preserving slavery in regions under federal control!.

Slave ownership was guaranteed by the US Constitution at Art I, sec 2 and Art IV, sec 2, and Amendments IX and X!. Lincoln violated those provisions as well as his oath of office and Amendments IV and V when he issued the EP!.

Lincoln also said in his inaugural address that he:

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes!."

He broke that promise as well!. The southern states who seceded did so by scrupulously observing constitution strictures!. The framers of the constitution at the Philadelphia (Constitutional) Convention acknowledged each state was a free and independent nation, created by the British by the Treaty of Paris, 1783) and while they surrendered temporarily certain areas of common interest to the central government, they retained their individual independence and the right to opt out of the union if and when the federal government no longer served or protected their interests!. No one challenged the New England states right to secede when they threatened to do so in 1803 or in 1812/14 (most of the framers were still alive then addressed the issue)!. Things had changed by 1860!. When the southern states reclaimed their independence in accordance with the Constitution and the precepts of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln invaded them!. Eventually, he caused the free and independent, democratically elected government of the people, by the people for the people of the CSA to perish from the earth!.

The south feared that the northern majority in Congress would continue to whittle away at their autonomy and sovereignty!. They seceded in 1860/61 over the same issues as expressed by South Carolina when she threatened to secede in 1837!. Abolition was not one of them!. The southerners knew that slavery was protected by the constitution and could be abolished only by constitutional amendment or state law!. They knew they didn't have to secede to protect a right already guaranteed to them!. They also knew no amendment for abolition slavery had been proposed in the antebellum years simply because there was insufficient support for ratification of such an amendment in the north, forget the south, and likely would not have been for a least another generation or two!.

The south was concerned that the north would continue to expand the power of the federal government to the detriment of the south, as it had been doing for decades!. The south was concerned that the draconian tariff laws effectuated by the north would continue to close international markets to the south and force southern planters to continue to sell to northern industrialists and capitalists at rock bottom prices, which was already driving the southern planters into bankruptcy!. The south feared that 75% of federal revenue would continue to be raised in the south, and that 75% of federal spending would continue to be spent in the north!. The south feared that northern industrialists would continue to retard industrial development in the south, forcing the south to be enslaved by its agrarian economy!. The history of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s proves the southern fears were well founded!. Lincoln was merely a symbol of the true enemies of the south - the northern capitalists, the northern industrialists and the northern Republican Congress!.Www@QuestionHome@Com