Vermont in the American Civil War Vermont in the American Civil War During the American Civil War, the State of Vermont continued the military tradition started by the Green Mountain Boys of American Revolutionary War fame, contributing a significant portion of its eligible men to the war effort. The second article in Vermont's constitution, originally written in 1777, abolished slavery, making it the first state to do so. Although its climate was not conducive to the slave trade, Vermonters were early participants in the abolitionist movement. In the 1860 presidential election, Vermont gave Republican Abraham Lincoln a lopsided victory, 33,808 votes compared to 8,649 for Stephen
Missouri in the American Civil War the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in which Congress agreed that slavery would be illegal in all territory north of 36°30' latitude, except Missouri. The compromise was that Maine would enter the Union as a free state to balance Missouri. Of the greatest concern for Missouri slave-holders in the years before the war was a federal law that decreed that if a slave physically entered a free state, the slave became free. The Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses through which runaway slaves could find protection and refuge while heading north, was already established in the state, and slave owners