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.
South Carolinaâs passion for slavery and dread of slave revolt pushed it ever further toward secession. In 1856 its governor demanded the reopening of the international slave trade. In 1858 the legislature passed laws to discourage Northerners from even traveling through the state.