Part of the Republican Party’s platform leading into the election of 1860 was to make human slavery illegal. In protest, seven Southern states seceded from the United States of America, followed by four more, and unified as the Confederate States of America following the inauguration of Republican President Abraham Lincoln, making them the first domestic terrorists. After four years of civil war and nearly 700,000 lives lost, the United States of America was victorious and the states who had seceded were allowed to rejoin the Union. Although having to admit defeat, those who served the Confederacy were allowed to hold office, influence laws, erect statues, and monuments, and forever refer to their treason as Southern Heritage.