When Abraham Lincoln was elected President he said that he had no intention of eliminating slavery but he did intend on making sure that slavery did not spread to any new states. The southern states were worried that with all new states coming into the Union as free states that slavery would eventually be abolished due to the increase in representation in Congress from free states. Lincoln tried to appease the southern states in his Inaugural Address by offering to amend the constitution to allow states that currently had slavery to be able to keep it but they were not interested in compromise.

(The Great Courses – Mr. Lincoln: The Life of Abraham Lincoln)