Original sentence: Before Lincoln took office, seven slave states declared their secession from the U.In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president.The Northern states opposed allowing slavery to spread; the South, its economy dependent on slave labor, saw this opposition as an attack on its way of life.The federal government maintained secession was illegal, and with the attack upon Fort Sumter by the Confederacy, the Civil War began and four more slave states declared their secession
Edited sentence: Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860.Before he took office, seven slave states seceded from the U.The Northern states opposed allowing slavery to spread; the South saw this opposition as an attack on its way of life.Union opposition to their secession and the Battle of Fort Sumter prompted the American Civil War and led four more slave states to secede