Just as slavery was at the root of the issues that tore the United States apart in the decade before the Civil War, the institution remained central in the struggle that followed. Secession movements began almost as soon as the vote count from the election of 1860 made antislavery Republican Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) the president-elect. Leaders in the South stated candidly that their aim in fighting the war was to protect their privileged status as slaveowners and to prevent Blacks from obtaining any rights that might threaten that privilege. W. L. Harris (1807-1868) was a judge from Mississippi who had been considered for a position on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1860 he declared bluntly that Lincoln’s election meant political and social equality between Black and white Americans. He called for Georgia to join Mississippi in secession.