GU. An unincorporated territory of the United States, the largest and most southerly of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Inhabited since ancient times by the Chamorro people, Guam was visited by Magellan in 1521 and ceded by Spain to the United States in 1898. Agana is the capital.
The Republican victory in that election resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States, many citizens of Southern states feared their property right in slaves would no longer be protected. Between 1860 and 1861, 11 slave-holding states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. Though the constitution establishing the Confederacy was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, differences reflected the many reasons these states chose to secede.