"A divisive presidential election threatened to destroy the Union. It was 1860, and Abraham Lincoln, on record as being morally opposed to the enslavement of human beings, had swept nearly every county in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, and lost every single one south of the Mason-Dixon line. He'd also lost every county in and around New York City, fracturing the nation's largest state."
"Before November 1860 was out, Wood was holding private secession planning meetings at his sprawling country estate on what's now the Upper West Side, with invitations going out to real estate tycoon William Astor, financier August Belmont and Democratic Party honcho Samuel Tilden. Financier George Law, one of Wood's most powerful allies, was dispatched to Washington to rally the city's congressional delegation to support the plan,"
A divisive 1860 presidential election produced stark regional splits: Abraham Lincoln won nearly every Northeast and Upper Midwest county and lost every county south of the Mason‑Dixon line, plus every county in and around New York City. Mayor Fernando Wood concluded the Union was unraveling and pursued New York City's independence to separate the commercially oriented city from hostile upstate lawmakers in Albany. Wood convened private secession planning meetings with financiers and political leaders, dispatched ally George Law to Washington to rally support, and triggered Albany intelligence gathering and press leaks about the scheme. The outbreak of the Civil War terminated the secession effort.
Read at Smithsonian Magazine
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