In the years leading up to the Civil War, serious conflicts broke out across the United States. The North and the South had arrived at a crossroads of no turning back. The secession crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and South disagreed over slavery and which states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and revolted, forming the Confederate States of America. Both the North and the South were responsible for the crisis, but it was the election of Lincoln that had the greatest impact. All of these factors caused the war that brother fought brother in. In the 1830s to 1860s, a breakdown in unity between the North and South of the United States occurred. Contrary to what today's society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South during this time. The South wanted to expand west, but Lincoln created a geographic containment rule maintaining slavery in the states in which he currently resided. Despite his attempts to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed in something different. "Lincoln asserted that he, like the Founding Fathers, viewed slavery in the Old South as an unfortunate reality whose expansion could and should be halted, thus putting it on a long and gradual path to "ultimate extinction." (216). He considered him "evil", which "implied that free Southerners were bad at defending him" (275). deceive, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and started what is now known as the Civil War. Secession from the United States was the cause of the Civil War. South were furious that the Northern Union was trying to abolish slavery When Lincoln was elected president, he attempted to abolish slavery once and for all in the North as he tried to. contain slavery within its geographic area to prevent it from spreading further north, but the South broke out in rebellion and eventually went to war against the North in the Civil War.