Lincoln denounced secession as anarchy , and explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints in the American system of republicanism : A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations , and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments , is the only true sovereign of a free people . " Desperately wishing to avoid this terrible conflict , Lincoln ended with this impassioned plea : I am loath to close . We are not enemies , but friends . We must not be enemies . Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection . The mystic chords of memory , stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land , will yet swell the chorus of the Union , when again touched , as surely they will be , by the better angels of our nature . Lincoln was chosen to be the Republican candidate in the 1860 presidential election , which he won on November 6 with 180 electoral votes . Between this time and his inauguration on March 4 , seven Deep South cotton states — South Carolina , Mississippi , Georgia , Florida , Alabama , Louisiana and Texas — would secede from the Union . Lincoln 's predecessor , James Buchanan , had deplored secession as illegal , but had insisted that the Federal government could do nothing to stop it . The entire nation , together with several interested foreign powers , awaited the President-elect 's words on what exactly his policy toward the new Confederacy would be
chosen
1860 Republican National Convention
Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address