They went to extremes in the fight against slave holders. They used physical intent to force Southerners and anyone who didn't want to listen to what they wanted from the establishment of their government. They wanted freedom rights one way or another. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the Southern states began progressing from the Union. Although he was personally against slavery and believed that the United States could not be both, but should have been either all free or all slave. He has repeatedly stated that he will not interfere with slavery where it already exists. But he was against its expansion into territories where it did not exist; and slaveholders were determined that they should be free to take their human property with them if they chose to move into it