Chapter 114: Rumblings of secession are ignored by the Republicans.

Along with Lincoln’s victory comes the promised ban on expanding slavery into the west.
This move that would cripple the Southern economy’s dependence on auctioning off its “excess slaves” bred in the east to new plantations opening on the acquired Mexican lands.

With literally billions of dollars at stake, threats of secession ramp up. But the Republicans fail to see the seriousness, instead regarding them as a bluff. As Seward says:

All this talk about dissolution of the Union is humbug, nothing but Folly.
The people of the South have too much of good sense, and good temper,
to attempt the ruin of the government…At least so I hope and believe.

Three days after the election three federal officials resign their posts in Charleston, and the South Carolina Legislature pass a bill to hold a secession convention in mid-December.