Civil War and Reconstruction - PC\|MAC
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
I. Slavery in the South
A. Blum - “What gave the old South its special identity?...Not physical isolation..not a difference in population origin..not contrasts in religious and political philosophy...not even the economics of the North and the South were all together dissimilar...few Southern farmers benefited from the national market economy ...wealth was less evenly distributed...less money was invested in education...fewer towns and industry developed...but all of these were of secondary importance..by far the most significant difference was the presence and survival in the South of Negro slavery..”
B. Emerson - “If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.””
C. by the 1790s slavery was considered a dying institution
1. it was considered the peculiar institution - a necessary evil
2. invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made slavery profitable
3. 1800 17m # 7% of exports
1820 127m# 32%
1840 743m# 51%
1860 1.7b# 57%
4. 80% of the cotton used by Britain came from the American South
5. in fact cotton was King
D. methods of meeting increased demands
1. short staple cotton replaces long staple cotton
2. increases the area in which cotton could be profitably grown
3. extension of cotton growing regions westward as land gave out
4. expansion of slavery
a. slave trade had been banned in 1808
b. slave trade still carried on though until 1860 - though some say as few as 50,000 new slaves entered during the period
c. thus most was a natural increase - though Morison contends that slave women were poor breeders
d. slave breeding became a primary occupation for regions of the Upper South where cotton production was no longer profitable
II. Southern society
A. planter aristocracy
1. by 1850 only 254 people owned more than 200 slaves
2. planter estates of the elite ranged from 1000 to 2000 acres
3. the aristocracy, though few in number, held dominant positions in government and society
B. below the aristocracy were various levels of successful slave holders
1. 1733 owned 100 or more
2. 6196 50-99
3. 29733 20-49
4. 54595 10-19
5. 80765 5-9
6. 105683 2-4
7. 68820 1
C. 3/4 of all Southerners owned no slave (6.1.)
1. these were yeomen farmers (subsistence farmers)
2. poor white trash made up 10% of the Southern population - hook worm
D. why did non-slaveholding whites support the slave system?
1. American dream syndrome
2. somebody to kick around syndrome
III. Problems of slavery and the social system
A. public education will not be fostered because the elite don’t need it
B. excessive cultivation will lead to “soil butchery”
C. financial instability
1. one crop economy susceptible to price fluctuations and crop failures
2. constant over speculation in western lands (makes some land poor)
3. costs of slaves
a. 1830 $300-600 per field hand
b. 1839 $1300
c. 1860 $1800
d. by 1860 the south had $2 billion invested in slaves
e. “rattlin’ good breeders” brought as much as $3200
f. estimated that 8-13% of the blacks in the South were fathered by whites
IV. Treatment of slaves
A. generally well treated for fear of killing or maiming investment
B. many examples of abusive treatment however
C. slaves were given a subsistence type of life
D. worked from sunup until sundown six days a week
1. task system and gang system
2. encouraged to supplement diet with food grown in garden plots
C. increasing fear of slave uprisings
1. Prosser’s rebellion in Virginia in 1800
2. Denmark Vesey in Charleston - 1822
3. Nat Turner’s Rebellion - 1831 - Virginia - most notable
a. 57 whites killed
b. between 40-100 blacks killed
4. these led to the institution of black codes restricting the education, freedom of movement, and general freedom of blacks (not just slaves)
5. they were largely impositions on their owners requiring tighter control
D. slavery was a degrading situation
1. lack of freedom
2. greatly limited ability to advance since they were slaves for life
3. slave trade (auctions may be the most brutal symbol - families separated
E. free blacks, North and South were discriminated against too
F. Bailey’s contention - “Southerners liked blacks as individuals but despised the race. Northerners professed to like the race but despised individuals.” Why would that be so?
V. The Abolitionist movement
A. early attempts to deal with the slavery issue
1. Quaker attempts at emancipation began in the 1700s
2. partially because of them slavery was banned in the North by 1800
3. this did not ensure equal treatment
B. 1808 the slave trade is outlawed - interesting that it was done in the first year permitted under the constitution
C. Missouri Compromise the first serious attempt to resolve the issue of the extension of slavery
1. maybe an attempt to delay the day of reckoning
2. implicitly granted congress the right to control the extension of slavery into territories
D. Liberia established in 1822 by the American Colonization Society
1. partially out of fear of free blacks
2. ironically, many who returned set themselves up in the slave trade business
E. anti-slavery societies - manumission societies -103 in the South - 40 in the North
F. reasons for the development of the abolitionist movement
1. part of the general reform movement of the 1830-40s which sought to wed evil from society (Second Great Awakening)
2. growing recognition that slavery constituted the greatest evil
3. the success of British emancipation in 1833 - growing belief that the U.S., leader in democratic political thought, would be the only civilized nation permitting slavery
4. growing feeling of hypocrisy - Frederick Douglass - “slavery brands your Republicanism a sham, your humanity as base pretense, your Christianity a lie.”
5. slavery’s failure to die its expected natural death
6. general impulse of Jacksonian reform
7. highly publicized abuses of slaves by an emotional press
G. divisions of the abolitionist movement
1. the North divided 50-50 between abolitionists and non-abolitionists
2. division among non-abolitionists
a. pro-slavery 15%
b. indifferent 17%
c. neutral 20%
3. among abolitionists
a. freesoilers 35%
b. moderate abolitionists 12%
c. radical abolitionists 3%
H. free soilers
1. believed slavery should be left alone where it existed (generally believed the government lacked the constitutional right to intervene)
2. wanted to prohibit the extension of slavery into new territories - why?
a. genuine opposition to the institution
b. believed Congress has a constitutional right to regulate slavery there
c. failure to expand would lead to the ultimate death of the institution
d. prejudice - didn’t want blacks settling where they settled
e. feared increased competition for new lands - higher prices
I. radical abolitionists - the lunatic fringe
1. best characterized by William Lloyd garrison
2. in 1831 he began publishing the Liberator - first issue - “I will be as harsh as the truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation..I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard!”
3. he characterized the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell” because it legalized slavery - how?
4. Garrison believed in immediate, uncompensated emancipation
5. privately he would accept emancipation “promptly commenced, gradually accomplished”
6. Garrison is important far beyond the numbers of people his movement attracts - why?
a. he is boisterous and loud - he is heard
b. the South mistakenly believes him to be the spokesman for the abolitionist movement generally - why is that significant? - possibility of compromise?
J. moderate abolitionists
1. best characterized by Theodore Dwight Weld
2. favored gradual, compensated emancipation
3. 1839 Weld published “Slavery As It Is.” - was one of the few abolitionists to travel South
4. appeal of moderates was far broader than that of the radicals - Theodore Parker - “Slavery is the blight of this nation, the curse of the North and the curse of the South...it confounds your politics. It has silenced your ablest men. It has muzzled the pulpit and stifled the press. It is robbed three million men of what is dearer than life; it has kept back the welfare of seventeen million more.”
K. Northern reaction to the abolitionist crusade
1. speakers were frequently greeted with rotten eggs, stones, voice drownings
2. abolitionist Charles Stuart was whipped out of Plainfied, Ct.
3. a school for free blacks was deposited in the middle of a swamp (Maine, NH)
4. Elijah Lovejoy - had his press destroyed four times - eventually killed (IL)
5. Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia burned after an abolitionist meeting - houses of blacks destroyed after an abolitionist rally
6. Garrison paraded through the streets of Boston with a noose around his neck - Boston- the Broadcloth mob
7. what do these incidents demonstrate?
L. tactics of abolitionists
1. moral ‘sausion - believing in the rightness of their cause they thought others would too if they were informed on the issue
2. revivalist type meeting designed to emotionalize the issue and convert others
3. newspapers keep up pressure - some with stories of abuses
4. politics were less successful - why/ - look at previous chart
5. underground railroad
a. designed to move slaves to Canada
b. phony floors and walls
c. psychological impact was probably greater than the practical impact
6. courts battles
a. Nancy Jackson case - 1837 - slave brought from Georgia to Connecticut - court rules that laws of the state in which you reside apply - frees her
b. Amistad - 1839 - Spanish slave ship incurs mutiny - taken over by Cinque - drifts until finally picked up by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island
1. John Quincy Adams argues for their freedom
2. a Southern judge orders them freed but returned to Africa
3. Cinque sets himself up as a slave trader
c. Prigg v Pennsylvania (1842)
1. involved the Fugitive slave Law of 1793 which urged state cooperation in the capture and return of fugitive slaves
2. ruled that states are not required to use state officials to enforce it
3. lead to the establishment of “personal liberty laws” - laws that prohibited the involvement of state officials in the capture and return of fugitive slaves
d. these moderate gains through the legal process win middle class converts
7. politics
a. abolitionists flooded Congress with petitions on the issue of slavery
b. 1840 a third party presidential attempt by James Birney - Liberal Party
c. received only 3000 votes - what does that say about the appeal of abolitionism?
M. slow continued growth of the abolitionist movement
1. they are persistent and do gain converts - nevertheless it is a slow process
2. 1840 - 3000 votes - 1844 - 62,000 - lack of popular appeal continues
3. immigrants tend to oppose abolitionists - why - fear of competition for jobs
4. manufactures and bankers tend to oppose abolitionism - they own $300m of Southern debt - what might result from abolitionism
VI. The basis and results of Southern opposition
A. the South overreacted to Garrison, thinking the he was the spokesman for the abolitionists generally - why?
1. he was vocal, visible, and he was heard
2. they failed to understand the divisions of the movement - that this was the lunatic fringe
3. Nat Turner’s rebellion occurs as the first copy of the Liberator is published
4. properly the South should have ignored him
5. what kind of position would someone like Garrison evoke from the South? - defensive
B. Southern reaction to the abolitionist movement
1. antislavery movements dried up in the South
2. major crackdown on dissent in the South
a. owners were legally prohibited from freeing slaves
b. Southern post office refused to deliver abolitionist literature (1835 - Charleston mob breaks into post office and destroys antislavery material)
c. discussion of the slavery issue was suppressed
3. introduction of the Gag Rule - 1836
a. all petitions relating to slavery were automatically tabled without discussion
b. John Quincy Adams - now a representative - is the leading opponent
c. Garrity - “The Gag Rule accomplished what can only be called a political miracle: it made a popular hero out of John Quincy Adams.”
d. at 75 - Morison 278 - “Old nestor lifted up his voice like a trumpet: til all slaveholding, slave trading, and slavebreeding absolutely quaked and howled under his dissecting knife. Wise of Virginia, Raynor of North Carolina, W.C. Johnson of Maryland, and scores more of slaveholders, striving constantly to stop him by starting questions of order and by every now and then screaming at the top of their voices: that is false! I demand Mr. Speaker that you shut the mouth of that old harlequin. At least half of the slaveholders left their seats and gathered in the quarter of the hall where Mr. Adams stood. Whenever any one of them broke out upon him, Mr. Adams would say, “I see where the shoe pinches, Mr. Speaker, it will pinch more yet. If before I get through every slaveholder, slavetrader, and slave breeder on this floor does not get materials for bitter reflection it shall be no fault of mine - nevertheless it is not repealed until 1844
4. movement toward an “apologist’s” view of slavery
a. slavery came to be defended no longer as a peculiar institution or a necessary evil, but as a positive good
b. John C. Calhoun - 1837 - “I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two different races of different origin, and distinguished by color and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is, instead of an evil, a good, a positive good.”
c. arguments in defense of slavery
1. scriptural defense
a. Negroes were the descendants of Canaan (Ham), a servant of servants
b. Mosaic law bound heathens to Jews as slaves
c. lack of condemnation of slavery in the Bible
2. historical defense
a. the teachings of Aristotle
b. in every organized society men of superior talents become masters over inferior talents
c. slavery was the foundation of great civilizations of the past
3. perceived black inferiority
a. pseudo science of niggerology
b. “The animal parts of the brain predominate over the moral and intellectual...deficient in reason, judgment, and forecast....thoughtless of the future, and contented and happy in the enjoyment in mere animal pleasures of the present moment, nothing but arbitrary power can restrain the excesses of his animal nature.”
c. relate to Mark Twain story of phrenology
4. benefits of the system to the slave
a. more content than the “wage slaves” of Northern factories
b. well fed, well housed, well clothed, well cared for in old age and in childhood
c. “A merrier being does not exist on the face f the globe, than the Negro slave in the United States.”
5. the potential of Christian conversion
a. as free in Africa, they had no hope of salvation
b. as slaves in the U.S. they had a chance for eternal life
C. results of Southern overreaction
1. transformed the issue of slavery into a broader philosophical issue
2. Morison - “Southerners played into the abolitionists hands not only by stifling criticism where they had the power, but demanding its suppression in places where they had no power. Thousands of Northerners who were indifferent to slavery valued freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and of petition.”
3. thus Northerners felt that their natural rights were threatened by the South’s stand on the issue of slavery
4. it further emotionalized the situation
5. the abolitionist movement grew from 150,000 in 1840 to 250,000 in 1850
D. results of the abolitionist movement
1. at no time were a majority of Northerners abolitionists
2. the issue became transformed into an emotional one with far broader implications than merely the slavery issue
3. thus, abolitionism and the southern reaction to it made compromise more difficult
E. was compromise possible or was the Civil War an “irrepessible conflict?”
1. early on compensated emancipation provided a possible avenue for compromise
2. quickly the issue became on of moral rightness, and moral rightness cannot be compromised
VII. The Compromise of 1850
A. 1846 - Wilmot Proviso attached to appropriation bill (including $2 M bribe for Santa Anna)
1. neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist... in territory acquired from Mexico - taken directly from the Northwest Ordinance
2. logic - since Mexico had already abolished slavery it should not be extended by U.S.acquisition
3. the rider fails to pass
B. changing views on the right of Congress to regulate slavery
1. previously, no one doubted the right of Congress to regulate slavery in the territories
a. Northwest Ordinance
b. Missouri Compromise
2. new Southern view - Congress had no constitutional power to prohibit slavery in the territories, but a constitutional duty to protect it there
a. territories belonged to the states united, not the United s States
b. federal government served as the agent of the states - compact theory
c. constitutional guarantee of property rights meant that Congress could not prohibit slaveholders from taking their property into the territories
d. thus, Southerners came to view the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional
3. Northern view
a. since slavery is a moral evil, Congress has a moral obligation to follow the “highest law” (Seward) and prohibit slavery wherever its jurisdiction extends
b. since it has the constitutional power to “make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territories,” it may prohibit slavery
C. compromise views offered
1. Polk - extend the Missouri Compromise line west to the Pacific
2. Lewis Cass - squatter sovereignty (popular sovereignty) - allow the people of the territory to decide for themselves
3. why were these unacceptable?
a. Southerners wanted the legality of slavery protected - allowing a vote on the issue might mean the dissolution of slavery by popular vote
b. Northerners who believed that slavery was morally wrong and illegal did not wish to see it legalized by popular vote
D. the election of 1848 - irony of the candidates
1. Democrats (whose strength was in the South) nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan - their platform made no mention of the issue of slavery
2. Whigs (whose primary strength was in the North) nominated Zachary Taylor of Louisiana (40 years in the military and had never voted in a Presidential election) - the Whigs offered no platform
3. Free Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren - favored the Wilmot Proviso -” free soil, free speech, free labor, free men”
4. Whigs win - Van Buren takes enough New York votes from Cass to cost him the election-10%
a. Free Soil Party elects 10 members to the House
b. literacy sidelight - Hawthorne lost his job at the Salem customs house and was forced to write for a living - Whitman was fired from his newspaper job for taking a pro-Van Buren stand and wrote Leaves of Grass
E. gold and California - January 1848
1. prior to the gold rush, Congress was in no hurry to organize the territories of California and New Mexico
2. Southern expectation was that both would enter as slave states since Minnesota and Oregon were ready to enter as free states
3. gold rush confuses things by causing a population explosion
a. 100,000 person increase in one year - San Francisco went from 0 to 25,000
b. eggs sold for $10 a dozen
c. lawlessness led to the need for civil authority - technically it was still under military rule - really under vigilante rule
4. since Congress could not or would not organize the territories, Taylor urged California to write a constitution and apply for admission
a. September 1849 California writes and passes an anti-slavery constitution (12,000 - 800) and applies for statehood - even elects a governor and legislature
b. May 1850 New Mexico writes and passes an anti-slavery constitution
c. Southerners were angered by this - Calhoun “I trust we shall persist in our resistance to the admission
of California until the restoration of all of our rights, or disunion, one or the other is the consequence. We have borne the wrongs and the insults of the North long enough.”
d. until this time even the most extreme Southerners acknowledged the right of states to act on the issue of slavery within their boundaries
e. now, fear begins to replace reason as it appears slavery will have no territory left to expand into
f. 1850 - Nashville Convention - Robert Toombs (fireeaters) call for immediate secession - but it adjourns without a decision
g. Morison examines the southern complaint - “It is now difficult to grasp the reason for all this sound and fury. The Southern states had an equal vote in the Senate, a majority in the cabinet and Supreme Court, and a President who was Virginia born and Louisiana bred.” His contention is that fear for the institution of slavery and the Southern way of life cause “fear to supersede thought” - there are those who contend that the Civil War began in 1860 because the South lost control of all branches of the federal government in that year
F. Taylor’s stand (first President with NO political experience)
1. immediate admission of California with no compromises (threatened to veto any compromise)
2. vowed to “Jacksonize” the dissenters
a. crush secession wherever it appears
b. “hang the damn traitors”
3. Taylor’s position made compromise impossible
4. the House was so divided in 1849 that it took 49 ballots to elect a Speaker
G. old guard sought a compromise to preserve the Union (Clay, Calhoun, Webster) - serves as the basis for the Compromise of 1850
1. California would be admitted as a free state
2. territorial government in New Mexico would be organized without mention of slavery
3. a new, tougher fugitive slave law would be passed
4. grant of disputed territory between Texas and New Mexico to be given to New Mexico
5. assumption of the Texas debt at 77% of par (most had paid between 5-10% - most bonds were held by Northern bankers)
6. abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. (slavery left alone - only applied to slave auctions
Read Morison’s account of the debates - pages 336-337
H. the death of Taylor
1. 7-4-50 listens to two hours of speeches in the boiling sun
2. Morison - “He tried to cool off by consuming an excessive quantity of cucumbers, washed down with
copious draughts of iced milk, came down with acute gastroenteritus - He probably would have recovered if left alone, but no President ever has that chance. The physicians of the capital, assisted by a quack from Baltimore, rallied ‘round his bedside, drugged him with ipecac, calomel, opium, and quinine, and bled and blistered him too. On 9 July he gave up the ghost.”
3. importance of his death lies in the fact that Fillmore was more receptive to compromise - in fact by September 30 had signed them all into law
I. effects of the Compromise of 1850 - who won?
1. Northern gains
a. California admitted as a free state (gives North control of the Senate - thus the legislature)
b. disputed territory goes to Mexico - therefore instead of the certainty of slavery in that area, there is only the possibility
c. abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. - many though it an embarrassment
2. Southern gains - why they are illusionary
a. popular sovereignty in New Mexico (nature decided the issue of slavery there)
b. Texas debt payment (most of it was held by Northerners)
c. tougher fugitive slave law (galvanized moderate Northern opposition against the South)
3. the North is the clear winner
a. time is on their side
b. economy, population, immigration is consistently outdistancing the South
c. delay allows time for increased popular support for the Union cause - it was clearly moving in that direction throughout the time period
d. thus, according to Bailey, the compromise of 1850 wins the Civil War for the North - joining the ranks of Daniel Webster and Eli Whitney
J. there is popular support for the compromise
1. repeal of the Corn Laws (1846) led to agricultural prosperity - no time to fight a war)
2. the Nashville Convention fails - so it signals all hope is not lost
3. Fillmore’s more moderate attitude offers hope as well
K. the effect of the compromise on parties - one contention is that whenever one major party becomes wholly sectional, Civil War is inevitable
1. Northern Democrats accept the compromise
2. Whigs split over the acceptance - ultimately it probably leads to the death of the party
3. free soilers denounce it
4. realignment in the South
a. Union Party
b. Southern rights Party
c. Union Party prevails in all states except south Carolina
L. the death of three great statesmen
1. Calhoun dies in 1850 - Webster and Clay in 1853
2. emergence of new leadership - Cass, Douglas, Seward
3. does this make a difference?
M. the blunder of the fugitive slave Law
1. some say Northerners might have left slavery alone if they had no visible reminders of it
2. the law provided a rallying point for abolitionists
3. loss in slaves was not worth the cost of driving marginally attached Northerners to the abolitionist cause
4. popular opinion and personal liberty laws made it unenforceable
5. Garrison - “We excrecate it, we spit upon it, we trample it under our feet.”
6. Emerson - this filthy enactment was made in the nineteenth century by people who could read and write. I will not obey it by God.”
Thus the compromise headed off immediate confrontation but in the long run fanned the flames of emotionalism and further polarized sectional thought, perhaps to a degree from which it might not be reasonably expected to recover.
VII. “Young America” - America in the 1850’s
A. election of 1852
1. Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce - 49th ballot
2. Bailey? - the U.S. needed a man of strength - Pierce had the “backbone of a jellyfish”
3. conjecture what Lewis Cass might have meant if nominated
4. Whigs go for a war hero - Winfield Scott - “Old Fuss and Feathers” - 63th ballot
5. Pierce wins easily - why?
a. free soil;d votes return to the Democratic party
b. Democrats support the Compromise of 1850
c. Whigs less enthusiastic about the Compromise of 1850
d. “the pompous man” v “the bottle man”
B. the demise of the Whig party
1. Northern Whigs liked the candidate but not the platform
2. Southern Whigs liked the platform but distrusted the man
3. increasingly, a national base for the Whig party is difficult to maintain
4. speculate on the party that might replace the Whigs, and their platform
C. “Young America” - expansionism after the Mexican War - The Mexican War left U.S. territorial ambitions continentally complete - the emergence of the issue of slavery’s extension into the territories made the acquisition of new territory extremely difficult during the 1850s. It should have been an excellent opportunity for U.S. expansion because of the involvement of France and Britain in the Crimean War. Instead, each territorial debate test the virility of each section.
1. expansion of trade with the Far East and Canada
a. Treaty of Wanghia - 1844 - offers U.S. most favored nation status in China
b. 1853-1854 - Matthew Perry opens Japan to Western influence through a display of force
c. Canadian Reciprocity Treaty - 1854
2. early attempts made to annex Hawaii - 1854
a. opposition in the U.S. Senate - from U.S. sugar interests
b. also some opposition from France and Great Britain
3. foreign policy in Central America
a. U.S. recognizes Columbia’s sovereignty over Panama in exchange for rights to build a canal
b. British rights guaranteed in Nicaragua
c. 1850 - Clayton-Bulwer Treaty - any canal will be a joint venture between the U.S. and Great Britain – will be very important later
4. filibustering expeditions
a. William Walker (with encouragement of Vanderbilt) took over Nicaragua for two years - had already attempted takeover of Lower California
b. George Bickley - attempts some filibustering in Mexico
5. most important filibustering attempts involved Cuba
a. 1848 the U.S. offers to buy Cuba from Spain for $100 M - refused
b. filibustering expeditions in 1850-51 led to the execution of forty Americans - significant enough for mobs to burn the Spanish consulate in New Orleans
c. seizure of the “Black Warrior” leads to official U.S. protests
d. 1854 - The Ostend Manifesto
1. advisory paper on what to do about Cuba
2. encouraged U.S. to offer Spain $120-130 M - if they refused it contended we would be justified in taking it by force
3. becomes public - Northerners view it as a slave owners conspiracy to increase potential slave territory
D. all attempts at expansion tend to be viewed by the North as Southern attempts to extend slavery and upset the political balance (control by the North). Probably most were personal filibustering expeditions, though probably not all were.
E. further emotionalization of the issues occurs with the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin - 1852
1. Harriet Beecher Stowe
2. sells more than 300,000 copies
F. transcontinental railroad
1. Gadsden Purchase made by the Secretary of War (Jefferson Davis) to provide favorable arguments for a southern route
2. purchased in 1853 - for $10 m - skirted the Southern Rockies
3. eastern terminus of the railroad would provide tremendous economic advantage
4. potential routes
a. Northern - Minneapolis to Seattle
b. Central - Chicago (St Louis) to San Francisco
c. Central - Memphis to Los Angeles
d. Southern - New Orleans to San Diego
5. advantages of the Southern route
a. least costly route - after the Gadsden Purchase
b. traveled through organized territory (Northern and Central routes passed through unorganized territory with potentially dangerous Indians
c. despite the advantages of the Southern route, it is doubtful that the North would have supported it because of the economic link it would create
G. Kansas-Nebraska Bill introduced by Stephen Douglas - January of 1854
1. personal motivation (Senator from Illinois)
a. personal economic stake - he was a land speculator and railroad investor and the choice of a central route was dependent on Nebraska territory being organized
b. state political stake in that a central route would benefit Illinois
c. national political stake - eying the 1856 Presidential nomination (F-Street Mess)
1. could gain Southern support by introducing popular sovereignty in K-N
2. could gain Northern support through eastern terminus at St. Louis and Chicago
2. organization had been attempted earlier but had been voted down by the South - why?
3. changing pioneer characteristics created the need for new lands
a. farming no longer dependent on running water and timber
b. relative scarcity of eastern lands
c. technological improvements made farming the Great Plains profitable - reaper, steel plow, steel wire, etc.
d. rising grain prices - 1851 - .93 per bu. - 1855 - 2.50 per bu - +268%
e. transportation improvements - particularly the extension of the railroads on to the plains
H. provisions of the K-N Act
1. division of Nebraska into two territories
2. popular sovereignty would be used to determine the slavery issue
3. the Missouri Compromise was explicitly voided - why?
4. implicitly - Nebraska would become free and Kansas slave
5. passes on May 25, 1854
I. what goes wrong with the K-N Act?
1. failure to realize how intensely moral the issue has become
a. “The South had not asked for Kansas, did not want Kansas, but Southern honor dictated that once slavery became a possibility there, that it be successfully extended - thus honor and prestige meant more than practical application
b. Northern opposition to the extension of slavery had even turned against popular sovereignty as a means of justifying it
2. the Missouri Compromise carried the force of law in the North - its revocation was a signal of ill will on the part of the South
3. this led to a significant change in Northern attitudes
a. Morison - 358 - President of Brown University on the issue of slavery in 1844 - “To terminate slavery by violence without previous moral and social preparation would be a calamity.” - 1854 after the K-N Act “This is just cause for the dissolution of the union.”
b. a Southerner in Boston - “If the Nebraska Bill should be passed, the Fugitive Slave Law is a dead letter throughout New England. As easily could a law prohibiting the eating of codfish and pumpkin pie be enforced.”
c. two days after the passage of the K-N Act a Boston mob attempted to rescue a fugitive slave being returned - a battalion of artillery, four platoons of marines and twenty-two companies of state militia had to be called out - cost of returning the slave $40,000 - $100,000
4. Congress failed to see the depth of feeling about the issue
J. formation of the Republican party
1. formed in 2-54
2. they immediately emerge as a second major party rather than a third party
3. from the outset, they are openly opposed to the extension of slavery
4. it is banned in many Southern states
5. has characteristics of the dreaded sectional party
K. 1854 - third party emerges - American or Know-Nothing party
1. show state success in New York and Massachusetts
2. openly anti-immigrant
3. plug-uglies intimidate voters in Baltimore
4. pitched battles fought against Irish in St. Louis
5. in 1855 Southerners gain control and nominate Millard Fillmore as candidate for 1856
a. becomes a pro-slavery party
b. kills its chances in the North
c. how does it effect them in the South
D. “Anything more low, obscene, feculent, the manifold heavings of history have not cast up.”
VIII. Bleeding Kansas and beyond
A. 1854 a land office set up in Kansas despite the fact Indian title had not been extinguished
1. Emigrant Aid Society established to assist anti-slavery settlers moving to Kansas
2. by 1855, 1200 New England families had moved to Kansas
3. the South saw this as a betrayal of Douglas’ unwritten compromise in K-N
4. thus Missouri begins encouraging pro-slavery settlers
5. becomes a battle of Northern Jayhawks v Border Ruffians
B. the Southern view of Kansas - “We are playing for a mighty stake; if we win we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean”
1. examples of the depth of emotion - Senator Atchison (MO) preferred that Kansas “sink into hell” rather than become a free state
2. Atchison - South must “protect our interests with the bayonet and blood...if need be, kill every Goddamned abolitionist in the district.”
C. Northern view - Henry Ward Beecher - “Sharpes rifles are a better force than Bibles for morality in Kansas” - Beechers Bibles
D. pro-slavery forces initially win the territorial vote and the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution - 1855
1. Southerners brag - “We had at least 7000 men in the territory on the day of the election, and one third of them will remain there.”
2. twice as many ballots were cast in the election as there were registered voters
3. example - in one district only 20 of 600 voters were legal residents
E. anti-slavery forces refuse to accept the results of the election - claiming fraud
1. they establish their own government at Topeka
2. write an anti-slavery constitution which not only outlaws slavery but bans blacks from settlement in the territory
3. thus - one government and constitution fraudulently approved and the other lacking a legal foundation for its existence
F. 1856 - Civil War in Kansas
1. pro-slave force sack Lawrence
2. John Brown lead anti-slavery forces against Pottawatomie Creek
3. both sides resort to violence
4. by the end of 1856 over 200 deaths had resulted - federal troops called out to halt the bloodshed
. G. 1857 Lecompton constitution sent to Congress when Kansas applies for statehood
1. Pierce and later Buchanan support the pro-slavery constitution
2. Douglas calls for new elections - Lecompton constitution defeated 1-58
3. Congress accepts the anti-slavery constitution but denies statehood (until 1861)
4. Emerson one of the few sane voices - urged voluntary contributions to compensate owners for there slaves before an anti-slavery society in 1855 - the motion died for lack of a second
H. Bleeding Kansas demonstrates the fact that the emotional climate had so deteriorated that
popular sovereignty was not a viable solution
1. geography would, after all, determ ine slavery in K-N
2. was fought over “an imaginary Negro in an impossible place
3. 15 slaves in Nebraska
4. 1 slave in Kansas
I. Sumner - Brooks battle - 1856
1. Charles Sumner - Republican Senator from Massachusetts
2. Morison - “He was one of those fortunately rare and rarely fortunate persons who are not only thick-skinned themselves but assume everyone else is.”
3. “The Crime Against Kansas “ speech
a. attacks pro-slavery forces as the “drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization”
b. attacks Andrew Butler of South Carolina (who is out of town) as “a Don Quixote who has taken as his Dulcinea the harlot slavery as his mistress, and Stephen Douglas as Sancho Panza, the squire of slavery ready to do its humiliating offices”
c. Douglas shrugged off the language and abuse - “that damned fool will get himself killed by some other damned fool”
4. Preston Brooks (Democratic representative and Butler’s distant cousin) saw it as a matter of Southern honor - caning rather than dueling was his choice of method
a. attacks Sumner as he sits at his desk
b. Sumner badly injured (maybe not - though certainly in shock) unable to return to the Senate until 1859
c. Brooks - “I gave him about thirty first-rate stripes. Toward the last he bellowed like a calf. I wore my cane completely out but saved the head which is gold.”
d. Brooks becomes a hero in the South - has canes sent to him - reelected to his seat in the House even after the House expels him
e. Sumner seen as a martyr for the North - his Senate seat is left empty for three years
5. the battle demonstrates the emotional nature of the slavery issue by 1856 - remember - this happens on the floor of the U.S. Senate
IX. Election of 1856 - Dred Scott
A. Democrats nominate “flabby” Buchanan - amiable but mediocre - his chief qualification was that he was out of the country during the K-N debate and therefore had taken no stand - he is a pro-Southern candidate
B. Republicans nominate John C. Fremont (Pathfinder of the West) - “had every qualification of genius except talent”
C. Southern fireeaters threaten secession if Fremont is elected - John Bott (Va. Whig) called secession an idle threat - newspaper advises him to leave the state lest he “provoke the dishonor of lynching”
D. Republicans campaign on the slogan - “free speech, free soil, and Fremont - their platform called for a halt to e extension of slavery while allowing to survive where it already existed
1. Republicans make an impressive showing for a two-year-old party
2. more importantly, the sectional nature of the Republican party is demonstrated - only 1200 of Fremont’s popular votes come from slave holding states
E. the impact of Millard Fillmore and the death of the Know-Nothings
F. the Dred Scott case - 3-6-57 - two days after inauguration - originally filed in 1847
1. Buchanan calls on the nation to abide by the decision
a. he had previously been told what the decision would be
b. difficult to overstate the impact of the decision on the North
2. case background - Dred Scott had been shuffled from one family to another - one Northern state to another - eventually abolitionists decide to use him as a test case
a. their contention was that because he had lived in a free state, he was free
b. little legal basis for the contention - earlier cases had decided that temporary residence did not make slaves free
3. case evokes three major points - unnecessarily political - the court was probably looking to finally decide the issue and quiet the clamor
a. Were blacks citizens under the meaning of the Constitution?
1. for more than a century before the writing of the Constitution blacks were considered “beings of
an inferior order with no rights any white man was bound to respect”
2. thus, in a legal sense, blacks Africans were property and could not become citizens of the United
States
3. thus, Dred Scott lacked standing and had no right to bring suit
4. legally, the case should have ended there - if Dred Scott lacks standing the court cannot hear the
case
b. Does residence in a free state make a slave free
1. as previously decided - the laws of the state in which you reside apply
2. the suit is brought in Missouri which is a slave state
3. since Dred Scott is a resident of Missouri, the laws of that state apply, Dred Scott is a slave
c. Does residence North of 36-30 emancipate slaves?
1. slaves are property under the meaning of the Constitution
2. property cannot be taken away without due process of law (5th Amendment)
3. Congress does not have the constitutional authority to ban slavery in the territories because that were take away property
4. thus, the Missouri Compromise was, and always had been, unconstitutional - remember, the Missouri Compromise had been specifically voided by the K-N Act
5. Dred Scott is the first case since Marbury v Madison in which the Supreme Court rules an act of Congress unconstitutional
6. what does the Dred Scott decision mean to the future of popular sovereignty?
7. referendum is not due process, therefore people within a territory may not outlaw slavery
8. Dred Scott sanctions the doctrine that slavery is national and freedom is sectional
9. Dred Scott decision further emotionalizes the issue and reinforces the Northern view of a slave conspiracy
X. The Panic of 1857 - secession
A. Panic of 1857 - panic was a mild slowdown - most damaging to the North than to the South
1. caused by overspeculation in lands
2. drying up of agricultural markets following the Crimean War
3. inflation caused by the influx of California gold
4. significant because it results in finger pointing - the South claiming that it demonstrated the superiority of their economic and social system
B. Lincoln - Douglas debates - Illinois Senate seat in 1858 - read background - Morison - 365
1. Lincoln opposed the extension of slavery - leaving it alone where it was
a. he did not believe the federal government could constitutionally ban slavery where it existed
b. did not support equality - 1858 - “I am not now, nor have I ever been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”
c. understands the crisis proportions of the slavery debate - Morison 365 - “A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
d. does move to a moral position - Morison - 366 - “The Republican party think it (slavery) a wrong - we think it a moral, social, and political wrong.”
2. Douglas has to overcome the problem of the effect of the Dred Scott case on popular sovereignty - Lincoln - “The argument was as thin as soup made from the shadow of a pigeon which had starved to death”
a. introduces the Freeport Doctrine - “Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations.”
b. therefore, if people don’t want slavery, don’t enact slave codes
c. the problem for Douglas, the only candidate with national appeal, is that by being forced to straddle the fence he is alienating both sections
1. Southerners dislike popular sovereignty - failure to take a strong stand on the extension of slavery
2. Southerners feel betrayed because he did not support the Lecompton constitution
3. Southerners dislike the implications of the Freeport Doctrine
4. Northerners feel betrayed by the K-N Act
5. Northerners dislike his refusal to take a free soil stance
C. African slave trade
1. growing cries from the South to reopen the slave trade as more territories become available
2. U.S. lax in enforcing ban
a. 1843-1857 U.S. Navy halts 19 slavers - 6 condemned - 31%
b. 1843-1857 Britain halts 600 slavers - 562 condemned - 93.6%
c. estimated 400,000 slaves exported from Africa 1840-47 to Cuba, Brazil, and U.S.
d. 1859-60 - 85 slavers outfitted in New York - 60% profit
e. total imported into the U.S. during the 1850s probably runs to five figures - some say it was higher than when the slave trade was legal
f. open advertisements in southern newspapers for fresh slave imports
g. one reason Southern elite sought to reopen the slave trade was to gain the support of middle class Southerners who could not afford slaves
h. justification - if it is legal to buy and sell within the U.S. - importation should be legal
i. some opposition from border states where slave breeding is important
D. Harper’s Ferry
1. John Brown beyond the lunatic abolitionist fringe
2. sought to invade the South
3. believed that slaves would rise to join the cause
4. attempted to capture arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
5. Brown captured and hung
6. significance of Harper’s Ferry
a. South views this as an aggressive Northern conspiracy rather than isolated crackpot
b. abolitionists view Brown as a martyr
E. Election of 1860
1. Republicans choose Lincoln over Seward - views less known and fewer political enemies
2. takes a less radical stance than one might assume from a new party
3. its platform attempts to appeal to every Northern group
a. non-extension of slavery
b. protective tariff - attractive to Northern manufacturers
c. immigrant rights - designed to win Irish vote in New York
d. favored a northern route for the transcontinental railroad
e. supports federally funded internal improvements
f. free homesteads in the west for average farmers
4. Democrats are badly divided - remember - electing a President is essential to Southern strategy - note that the convention is held in Charleston, SC - what effect would that have?
5. Douglas is the only national candidate and yet he can’t win in either section
6. Democratic convention adjourns without nominating a candidate - factions hold subsequent conventions in Baltimore
a. Democrats minus the fireeaters - nominate Douglas
b. Southern Democrats - nominate Breckenridge
c. Constitutional Union Party - nominates William Bell
7. election outcome
a. Lincoln 1.8m-40%-180 ev
b. Douglas 1.3m-29%-12 ev
c. Breckenridge .8m-18%-72 ev
d. Bell .6m-13%-39 ev
8. meaning of the outcome
a. parties have become totally sectionalized - Lincoln’s name not allowed on the ballot in Southern states - gets NO popular votes from slave states
b. could united Democrats have won? - maybe 169-134
c. South Carolina had threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected - what was their position in the federal government following the election?
1. 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court
2. Democratic (not Southern) control of the Senate
3. ability to block any Constitutional amendment concerning slavery
4. major Northern sentiment was for Union - not abolitionism - Francis Parkman - “I would see every slave knocked on the head before I would see the Union go to pieces, and would include in the sacrifice as many abolitionists as could conveniently be brought together.”
F. secession attempted - South Carolina secedes 12-20-60 three months before Lincoln takes office
1. reinforced by their background of nullification
2. Unionist faction weakest in South Carolina - stronger in other Southern states
a. Alexander Stephens (Vice President of the Confederacy) 11-30-60 - “All efforts to save the Union will be unavailing. The truth is, our leaders and public men do not desire to continue it on any terms. They do not wish to redress any wrongs; they are disunionists per se.” - 12-3-60 - “The people run mad. They are wild with passion and frenzy, doing they know not what.”
b. 1-10-61 Georgia, Alabama, Florida join South Carolina
c. 2-1-61 Louisiana and Texas
d. 2-8-60 Confederate States of America are formed in Montgomery, AL
NOTE THAT ALL THIS TAKES PLACES BEFORE LINCOLN TAKES OFFICE
G. reasons for secession
1. weary of free soil criticism
2. weary of abolitionist nagging
3. tired of Northern interference - Fugitive Slave Law, John Brown’s Raid
4. psychological isolation - economic, intellectual, cultural, political
5. moral emotionalism over the slavery issue
6. $300 m in debts which could be repudiated
7. misread Yankee resolve - believed they would be permitted to go in peace
8. growing European nationalism - stirrings of the “purple dream” - tropical slaveholding paradise
H. foundations of the Confederacy - twin principles
1. slavery - protection and perpetuation of the institution
2. states rights
3. in Morison’s view, these twin principles doom the confederacy from the outset
a. the institution of slavery made European support unlikely
b. confederal system made it difficult to properly support the was effort
4. war was not a foregone conclusion however
I. peace attempts
1. Buchanan was inactive during the lame duck period - reasons
a. lacked strength of character
b. Northern opposition to an invasion of the South
c. scattered army of 15,000 men - mostly fighting Indians on the frontier
d. prospects of compromise
2. Crittenden proposal
a. extension of 36-30 for territories - no messing with slavery in the states
b. constitutional amendment guaranteeing the perpetuation of slavery
c. compensation for unrecovered fugitive slaves
d. Lincoln could agree to all of these except the extension of slavery - thus the Crittenden Proposal dies
3. Committee of Thirty-three - January - 1861
a. guarantee the protection of slavery where it existed
b. repeal of personal liberty laws
c. admission of New Mexico with a pro-slavery constitution
d. unacceptable to the South
4. Peace Convention - 2-61
a. extension of 36-30
b. U.S. could acquire further territory only with the sectional approval of the Senate
c. seven constitutional amendments to guarantee Southern rights - including the “never-never” amendment - slavery could never be abolished and the states could never alter this amendment
d. passed the House by a 2-1 vote - ratified by Ohio - did not budge the South
J. indications of good faith on the part of the North
1. in Boston - 23,000 signatures supported the Crittenden Proposal
2. repeal of personal liberty laws in several states
3. Northern support for the admission of New Mexico as a slave state
4. South rejects all these attempts at compromise
XI. The coming of the war
A. Lincoln’s inaugural address sets the tone - “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have not oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend’ it.”
1. Lincoln maintains that the Union is indivisible
2. attempts to place the burden of conflict on the South
B. by Lincoln’s inauguration the South controls all U.S. facilities except Ft. Pickens and Ft. Sumter
1. communication lines between the North and South are open and the South indicates that attempts to reinforce Ft. Sumter will be viewed as hostile acts
2. Lincoln advises of plans to resupply but not reinforce Ft. Sumter
3. Confederate Congress urges the taking of the forts
4. 4-10-61 Major Anderson agrees to surrender in two days time
5. delay is refused and Ft. Sumter is fired upon 4-12-61
6. later confessions indicate that officers felt that if the chance for war were not taken it would slip away, and with it , Southern independence
7. effects of the South firing on Ft. Sumter
a. strengthened Union resolve - indeed brought many over to the cause
b. places the burden of disunion, aggression, treason on the South
C. Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers
D. contest for the border states is crucial
1. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas are pretty likely to go confederate
2. Virginia was the key that other states looked to - Morison contends that Virginia was the only state to leave after due deliberation
3. Virginia secedes 4-17-61 - others follow suit
E. critical border states - Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri - why?
1. Maryland critical or national capital will be in enemy territory
2. Kentucky - vital for control of the Ohio and necessary supplies from the Northwest
3. Missouri - critical junction of the Mississippi
a. Maryland and Missouri only held by the presence of federal troops throughout the war
b. Kentucky is allowed a basically neutral position - to the point of trading with the South
c. 1861 - Union successfully detaches West Virginia from Virginia
F. Morison’s contention that it was truly a brothers war
1. Morison - page 387
2. Lee’s agony - Morison - 387
G. advantages and disadvantages - South
1. fighting a defensive war - similar to colonists during the American Revolution
a. did not have to defeat the North, only discourage them to the point where they recognized Southern independence
b. the South was an immense area without significant nerve centers
2. superior moral cause at the outset of the war
a. fighting for self-determination
b. fighting to defend their homeland against invasion
c. this will be altered by the emancipation proclamation
3. generally more talented officers (Lee and Jackson)
4. frontier background
a. trained and skillful in the use of firearms
b. Knowledge of terrain and climate
5. possibility of foreign intervention
H. review Bailey’s contention that no revolution in history ever had a better chance of success than the South during the Civil War. Examine the “what if” syndrome - border states, union resolve, foreign intervention
I. advantages and disadvantages - North
1. industrial capacity - 81% of the factories - 75% of the wealth produced
2. superiority in transportation - 66% of all railroad mileage - superior links between critical sections
3. superiority in finance
a. tax base superior to that of the South
b. finance and tax structures in place and people used to the responsibility
c. ability to coerce payment rather than request it
4. superior leadership (particularly Presidential)
a. interference in military strategy
b. ability to laugh at himself
c. Davis lost in detail while Lincoln pursues the ultimate cause
5. superior governmental structure
a. the North’s is in place and operating - the South must grope with the trial and error associated with the establishment of all new governments
b. centralized structure of the Union a more efficient way the support a war effort
c. South had to hold its Union together without the philosophical ability to deny the dissatisfied the right of secession
6. dominance of naval power
7. population - 61% - 22m - 9m
a. natural population increase a benefit to the North
b. immigration - 800,000 from 1861-1865 - more than the casualties of both sides
XII. The Civil War
A. Northern strategy (Bailey’s contention that the absence of a distinctive geographic boundary hurt the South strategically and psychologically
B. the Anaconda Plan (Winfield Scoot’s plan [weak of body, sound of mind])
1. blockade the South and weaken them by attrition (time is on the side of the North)
2. control the Mississippi - placing the South in a vise
3. split the Confederacy through gaining control of the Tennessee River-Atlanta-to the sea philosophy - thus divide the upper from the lower South
4. later - capture Richmond (may have been viewed as a nerve center)
C. sea power - even the Union was relatively weak
1. Union was slow to organize its forces - had only 42 ships - only 12 here
2. early blockade was largely a paper blockade
3. after 1862 it becomes more effective
4. 3500 miles of coastline made it impossible to have a leak-proof blockade - but limit Southern ports made it easier
5. blockade running was common though not dramatically successful
a. profits could run as high as 700% - usually ran from the West Indies in shallow draft vessels
b. capacity was limited
c. great demand for luxury goods
6. why did England choose to honor the blockade - according to international law, paper blockades are illegal Britain as the dominant naval power might need to impose a paper blockade of their own at some time in the future
D. poor Southern strategy hurt their efforts and made the blockade more effective
1. strategy should have been to export as much cotton as possible, and import needed military supplies
before the blockade could be organized
2. instead they withheld cotton (believing an embargo would force European support for their cause) –
hearkens back to the Jeffersonian overestimation of U.S. importance
a. Europe had a 50% oversupply of cotton on hand at the end of 1860
b. severe grain shortages made Northern wheat more vital than Southern cotton
c. the delay gave the Union the opportunity to make the blockade more effective
d. European nations looked to develop alternative sources of cotton - Egypt-India
NOTE ; THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS STRANGELY REQUESTED NO TAXES FROM THE STATES IN 1861
E. few believe that the blockade won the war for the North, but few doubt that it substantially weakened the South
F. the armies
1. North - 1.5 m eventually served in the Union army
a. 1862 - $300 bounties for substitutes
b. 1 out of 7 deserted before the end of their enlistment
c. July 1862 - draft accounts for 30% of the Union soldiers
2. South - .9m eventually served in the Confederate army
a. 1 out of 9 deserted
b. March 1862 - draft accounts for 6% of CSA soldiers
3. majority on both sides was under twenty-one
G. casualties
1. Union - 93,443 battle deaths - 210,400 disease
2. CSA - 90,000 battle deaths - 180,000 disease
3. thus close to 600,000 out of a total population of 31 m
4. despite that statistic, the population of the U.S. increased by 8 m in the decade of the 60s
5. poor medical treatment made casualty figures higher than they should have been
a. “Ninety-nine surgeons out of one hundred would not know whether his patient had horse distemper, lame toe, or any other disease.”
b. thus, in every regiment - “There are not less than a dozen doctors from whom our men have as much to fear as from their Northern enemies.”
H. beginnings of the war in the east - (officially - Phillipi, WV)
1. great debate over how long the war would last
a. Winfield Scott - 300,000 men and three years - most believed that excessive
b. William Seward - ninety days
c. McClellan - “In ten days I’ll be in Richmond.” - expected to “crush the rebels in one campaign,” persuade the confederate Congress to surrender by guaranteeing the security of the institution of slavery, have this ratified by popular acclaim, and be elected President in 1864 to a reunited country, half slave, half free.
2. political necessity demanded that the Union army undertake a campaign before they were prepared to
3. McDowell placed in command - orders a march toward Richmond
b. thirty miles outside of Washington - 1st Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) - July 1861
c. circus-like atmosphere - Congressmen brought picnic baskets, ladies
d. neither side used to manuveuring this volume of men
e. smoke from black powder obscured the battle field
f. variations in uniform led to confusion
g. Jackson’s “stonewall” stand and reinforcements turn the tide
h. Union beats a hasty and disorganized retreat - staggering in to Washington for three days, sleeping in alleyways, etc.
i. Confederates too disorganized in victory to follow up
EXAMINE BAILEY’S CONTENTION THAT THE DEFEAT AT BULL RUN WAS BETTER THAN A VICTORY FOR THE UNION - ALERTED THEM TO THE PROSPECT OF A LONG STRUGGLE (ESTABLISHED A WORKABLE MINDSET), GAVE THE CONFEDERACY LESS OF A SENSE OF URGENCY ABOUT THEIR CAUSE
I. George McClellan placed in command of the Army of the Potomac
1. very popular general with his men - sincerely concerned for his troops
2. extremely skilled in preparation of men - meticulous in his planning - Lee considered him his most able opponent
3. very ambitious politically
4. pro-slavery
5. his strategy was to whip the army into shape through preparation and drill
6. McClellan’s “slows” become a joke - newspaper headlines sarcastically proclaim - “ALL QUIET ON THE POTOMAC” - becomes known as “Tardy George”
7. writes incessant notes to Lincoln asking for instructions - “I’ve captured two prisoners and a cow. Will awaited further instruction” - Lincoln replied - “Interrogate the prisoners and milk the cow”
8. Lincoln standard line - “If McClellan isn’t using his army, I’d like to borrow it”
9. McClellan consistently snubbed Lincoln - referred to him as “That hairy baboon” - on one visit to McClellan’s camp the General purposely went to bed before Lincoln arrived - Lincoln response - “I’ll hold McClellan’s horse if he will only bring us success.”
10. Morison contends that McClellan’s slowness was good military strategy - why - time was on the side of the North - it would give the blockade time to take effect
11. it was, however, poor political judgment - in a democracy citizens will not make sacrifices for a phony war - results, good or bad, are necessary to keep the attention of the people
12. my view is that it was poor military strategy as well for it wasted the North’s advantage of superior numbers
J. the war in the West
1. Grant quickly emerges as the rising star in the West
a. Mexican War background - drunkenness - failure as a real estate agent - eventually became a clerk in his father-in-law’s store
b. ordered to dislodge a Confederate regiment in Missouri - he was so afraid that he almost ran –
descends to the position only to find that the Confederates had retreated - “It occurred to me at once
that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a new view of the question
I never had taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards.”
2. Grant receives reluctant agreement from General Halleck to attack Forts Donaldson and Henry - the significance of these is that they control access to rivers which open up the heartland of the Confederacy
a. Fort Henry taken 2-6-62
b. Fort Donaldson 2-13-62
d. Grant is forced to wait for reinforcements and Halleck and is badly surprised at Pittsburg Landing
(Shiloh ) 4-6-62
1. he had poorly prepared his position not thinking he was in danger
2. rallied troops from almost certain defeat
3. losses – Union - 13,000/55,000
Confederate - 11,00/42,000
4. Shiloh foreshadows immense casualties associated with the war - more were lost in this battle
than in the American Revolution, War of 1812, and Mexican War combined
4. newspapers accuse Grant of drunkenness and call on Lincoln to remove him - but Lincoln stands firm - “I can’t spare the man, he fights.”
5. despite 100,000 troops, Halleck fails to follow up - advances 23 miles in 30 days allowing Confederate troops to regroup and retreat
6. Union gains control of the Mississippi (except Vicksburg) in 1862 - emphasize the significance of that
K. the Peninsular Campaign - May-June 1862
1. Lincoln finally orders McClellan to do something
2. opts for an assault on Richmond by means of an amphibious landing on the York peninsula
3. initially very successful, but a case of the slows sets in (wait for reinforcements)
4. Lee is able to turn the tide - Lincoln removes McClellan from command and General Halleck bring the
army back to Washington
5. McClellan removed because of insolence, hysteria - politically he could no longer be carried - possible cabinet jealousy
L. John Pope placed in command - he had (Morison) “slight military ability and even less common sense” - He bragged that in the West his troops had seen “only the backs of our enemies.” - ensured Lincoln he would be active - “My headquarters will be in the saddle,” - Lincoln remarked that it would be a “better place for his hindquarters.”
1. Halleck orders a second assault of Richmond
2. Second Battle of Bull Run - August 29-30 - 1862
3. superb tactical victory for Lee and Jackson
M. Second Bull Run emboldens Lee to invade Northern territory - perhaps cutting railroad ties at Harrisburg
1. McClellan reassumes command of the Army of the Potomac
2. Lee counts on McClellan’s meticulous preparation to slow him down
3. a rare burst of enemy and quick movement foils Lee’s plan
4. McClellan has Lee’s battle plans dropped by a courier
5. the confrontation emerges ad the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) - 9-14-62
N. the Battle of Antietam - Bailey - “The indecisive Battle of Antietam was one of the most decisive battles of world history.”
1. the battle is basically a draw, though Lee is forced to recross the Potomac in retreat
2. a series of uncoordinated attacks which exhausted Lee’s army
3. casualties - Union- 12,000/43,000
CSA - 10,700/36,000
4. McClellan resorts to a case of the slows and fails to follow up despite having 40,000 fresh reinforcements at his disposal - Lincoln replaces McClellan for the final time
5. why is this indecisive battle so decisive?
a. leads to the Emancipation Proclamation - announced in Sept. 1862
b. Lincoln was waiting for a Union victory to announce it because he didn’t want it to give the appearance of a desperate move - Antietam was close enough
c. states that all slaves held in areas still controlled by rebel forces on 1-1-63 - will be freed
d. in essence, it frees no slaves - why? - instead, it is primarily a statement of principle “where he could he would not, where he would he could not”
e. what then was its function
1. designed to prevent a British/French alliance with the Confederacy
2. changes the moral rightness of the Northern cause to the point where popular opinion in England
will not support the South - NOTE - IT DOES NOT RESULT IN A BRITISH/UNION ALLIANCE –it
is merely designed to keep Britain neutral
3. he had to do this without antagonizing the border states any more than necessary
4. letter to Horace Greeley August 22, 1862 - “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and not to either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
f. the Emancipation Proclamation leads to increased desertions in the Union army and significant setbacks for Republicans in the Congressional elections of 1862 - what does that demonstrate?
O. Fredericksburg - 12-13-1862 - Burnside elevated to command - “But no one could imagine how incompetent
Burnside would prove to be. Burnside, to do him justice, didn’t want the new command, felt inadequate; but
went in and did his best, which unfortunately was very bad indeed.”
1. Fredericksburg results from another attempt at a frontal assault of Richmond
2. description of the battle - see Morison 437
3. Lee - “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow to fond of it.”
4. description of the battlefield - see Morison 438
5. Union losses - 12,653
CSA - 5309
P. the prospects of each side at the beginning of 1863
1. Union coming off a major defeat at Fredericksburg
2. Lincoln - 12-19 - “We are now on the brink of destruction.”
3. hopes for the Confederacy are dim
a. no longer a possibility of a foreign alliance
b. blockade is becoming increasingly effective
c. Northern industrial advantage is cranking up to full potential
4. though not apparent at the time - the North was clearly in the driver’s seat
Q. Chancellorsville - 5-1-63
1. fighting Joe Hooker takes command
2. “brave, handsome, vain, insubordinate, plausible, and untrustworthy”
3. Lincoln - “I have heard of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but is spite of it , that I have given you command. Only those generals who gain success can set up as dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”
4. Hooker totally caught by surprise and badly beaten
5. major loss for the Confederacy as stonewall Jackson is killed by his own men as he returned from a patrol
6. victory at Chancellorsville emboldens Lee to an invasion of Northern territory designed to strengthen a growing peace movement in the North - Davis remains lukewarm toward the scheme and fails to commit enough troops to the effort
R. the Battle of Gettysburg - 7-(2-4)-63
1. General Hooker is replaced by Meade
2. Gettysburg almost occurs by accident, neither side wanting to fight it when and where it was fought
3. Pickett’s charge - some call it a Fredericksburg in reverse - almost successful but beaten back
4. Lee is forced to retreat to Sharpburg - Meade is ordered to pursue at all costs because the Potomac is
flood swollen and Lee is trapped
5. Meade calls a three day council of war - the river subsides - Lee escapes - Meade is replaced
6. READ THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS - MORISON 469
S. Vicksburg - controls the Mississippi - June and July 1863
1. impregnable fortress from frontal assault (like Quebec)
2. Grant launches a brilliant campaign fighting trough swamps and underbrush to the east
3. lays siege to the town and starves it into surrender (they were reduced to eating rats, etc
4. Pemberton surrenders 30,000 troops on the same day as victory at Gettysburg
5. Grant is elevated to command over Meade
T. Wilderness Campaign - summer of 1864
1. “I determined to hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, the military rebellion was entirely broken.” - In Grant, Lincoln finds a commander willing to use the superior numbers of the Union, regardless of the cost
2. 5-4-64 - The Wilderness - Grant loses 17,700
3. 5-(8-10)-64 - Spotslyvania Courthouse - Grant loses 12,227
4. 5-26-64 - Cold Harbor - Grant loses 12,000
5. 6-(15-18)-64 - Petersburg Grant loses 8,000 - lays siege to Petersburg for nine months
6. Grant’s relentless surge was matched by Lincoln’s resolve - Morison - 480 - “We accepted this war for an
object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. I hope it will never end until that
time. This war has taken three years...and as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I say we are
going through on this line if it takes three more years.”
7. Grant and Lincoln are the necessary combination for Union victory
U. the war in the West - 1864
1. strategy is to advance to Atlanta - then to Savannah, thus splitting the Confederacy
2. September 1, 1864 Confederates abandon Atlanta
V. interlude of the presidential election of 1864
1. Lincoln was very pessimistic about reelection - August 23, 1864 - Morison 484 - “It seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected.”
2. Davis could have exploited Northern discontent by offering to open peace talks
3. instead, “Say to Mr. Lincoln from me that I shall at any time be pleased to receive proposals for peace on
the basis of our independence. It will be useless to approach me on any other.” - this rips the heart out on
any compromise
4. McClellan is the Democratic nominee
5. Lincoln wins relatively easily - EV - 212-21, PV - 2.2m - 1.8m - why?
a. the capture of Atlanta helps
b. more importantly, Democrats have nothing substantially different to offer
W. Sherman’s march to the sea - begins October 17, 1863
1. duel purpose
a. destroy needed supplies in the “garden spot of the Confederacy”
b. more importantly - to break the will of the south to continue
2. Sherman background info - Morison 476
3. description of the type of the campaign - Morison - 487
4. Lincoln loses contact with Sherman until he reappears at Savannah, December 10, 1864
5. Sherman then marches north to hook up with Grant
X. Lee slips out of Petersburg - April 2-3, 1865
1. Philip Sheridan has cut off his retreat to the Shenandoah Valley
2. Lee bypasses Richmond so that it will not suffer the brunt of a battle
3. surrounded by Grant at Appamaddox Courthouse on April 9, 1865
4. must decide whether to fight a last major battle or surrender - decides on surrender to spare a needless loss of life
5. formal signing April 12, 1865
XII. The war on the home front
A. naval power
1. North’s blockade significantly weakened the South
2. South concentrated on the development of new weapons like the torpedo and ironclads (Farragut’s “Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead.”)
a. Merrimack (Virginia) - sunken Union ship raised and iron clad
b. French had successfully used this technology
c. armed with a 1500 pound ram designed to sink Union ships or run them aground they were an attempt to beak the Union blockade
d. 1862 during the Peninsular campaign the Merrimack sank or ran aground the largest Union ships
e. one day late the famous Monitor/Merrimack duel ended in a draw - but the Merrimack was forced to return to port and later sunk
B. the South also concentrated on disrupting the Union commercial fleet
1. contracted with foreign governments to build raiders (particularly Great Britain where the two most famous the Alabama and Florida were built) - six built in all
2. the Alabama sank 69 Union vessels worth $6m
3. still, they had little overall impact on the ability of the Union to conduct foreign trade
C. the Trent Affair - April 1861 - Union ships stop the British steamer Trent and remove Confederate agents Slidell and Mason (a kind of impressment in reverse)
1. British protest and receive a Union apology
2. why? - fear of a British/Confederate alliance necesitates good relations
D. finances
1. taxes
a. taxes financed 21% of the Union war effort - protective tariff, excise taxes, and first graduated income tax (10% in highest bracket)
b. finance only 1% of the Confederate war effort - why? - perhaps Southern dislike of protective tariffs and the nature of the Union
2. bonds
a. Northerners purchased more than $2b in government bonds
b. Southerners were reluctant to buy Confederate bonds
c. what does this say about each side?
3. currency inflation
a. Union passes a series of National Banking Acts which create a uniform national currency for the first time - place excessive taxes on state bank notes - prior to this more than 7000 types of currency in the form of state bank notes were in cirrculation
b. Union prints $150m in Greenbacks
c. Confederacy prints $100m in crudely engraved bills
d. what is the inevitable result of this? - inflation - *0% inflation in the North during the course of the war – in the South, goods ran as much as 92 times what they had at the beginning of the war
e. inflation results in unrest in both sections as demonstrated by food riots in both the North and South
1. the streets of Richmond were said to be clean because there was no problem with garbage
disposal
2. 1863 women armed with revolvers and bowie knives demanded affordable food - when the gathering got out of control they looted jewelry and clothing stores
3. 1863 - 14 women armed with “guns, pistols, knives, and tongues” seized a supply of flour
E. conscription
1. Confederates institute it in March of 1862
a. drafted those 18-35 - later increased the range to 17-50 (1863)
b. 6% of the Confederate army was made up of draftees
f. 20 nigger law - on exemption for every twenty slaves made it appear a “rich man’s war but a poor
man’s fight”
2. Union institutes draft in July of 1862 (or March of 1863)
a. $300 dollars or a substitute enlistment for three years brought an exemption
b. 30% of the union army was comprised of draftees
c. drafted those between 20-45
d. after the emancipation Proclamation there were draft riots in Northern cities, particularly among the Irish
F. political dissention North and South
1. CSA had no party system so criticism of Davis remained personal and petty
2. 1864 some serious peace movements developed, but came to naught
3. serious political dissention in the North - particularly after the Emancipation Proclamation
a. Copperheads or “Peace Democrats” favored compromise or a political solution
b. Republicans divided between extreme radicals who wished to severly punish the South and more moderate supports of a lenient peace
c. to some degree these were dealt with through the normal political process, but Lincoln also dealt with them through the suspension of civil liberties
1. ExParte Merrimen (Maryland case) Taney rules that lincoln has overstepped his constitutional authority
2. Lincoln ignores the decision justifying it on the basis that if the Confederacy is successful the Constitution is meaningless - therefore he is fighting for a higher cause
3. trials are also held in military courts, even though civil courts are open
a. General Burnside is arrested and held without trial for criticzing the war effort in 1863
b. Ex Parte Vallandingham (1866) - military court ordered him banished to the Confederacy – Supreme court rules that civilians must be tried in civilian courts if they are open - meaningless decision because it was rendered after the war
G. Women and the war
1. Northern women
a. increasingly forced into low paying industrial jobs because of the absence of husbands and the demand for manufactured goods
b. when the war ends they are quickly replaced by men returning from the war
c. also serve as nurses - Drs. Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross)
2. Southern women were also forced to adapt to new roles
a. Scarlett O’Hara was probably a little melodramatic, but women did have to manage plantations in the absence of men and adopt a less gentile manner
b. puke women were forced into field service
H. Blacks and the war effort
1. originally not accepted into military service for the Union
2. after 1863 it became much more common
3. they fought in segregated units with white commanders and were paid less than white soldiers
4. provide very distinguished service
5. ultimately more than 186,000 serve and more than 38,000 are killed
6. in the South, blacks served in slave and servant capacities in the army
7. increasingly they were pressed into industrial service which provided many with trade or skill
8. near the end of the war, Lee proposes enlisting blacks with their owners, but the war ends before much of that happens
9. obvious problems with enlisting slaves in the Confederate army
I. changing economy of the South
1. increased diversity in crop production because of the need for foodstuffs and the fact that cotton couldn’t be exported in large quantities because of the blockade
2. need to industrialize - significant strides were made, particularly in iron production, but much of the new industrial capacity is destroyed by advancing Union armies
XIII. Results of the Civil War
A. the nature of the union is firmly decided
1. federal system is solidly entrenched
2. dominance of the federal government over the states is assured
3. further governmental centralization is also an outcome
B. slavery is abolished
C. industrial dominance is guaranteed
1. tremendous expansion of Northern industry during the war
2. industrial leaders gain significant political clout following the war
3. to some degree, industrialism supplants agriculture as the preferable lifestyle
D. political domination by the north is guaranteed (Republican dominance as well)
1. between 1860 and 1932 only two Democratic Presidents are elected
2. reputation as the savior of the Union and an alliance with industry give the sectional republican party enough dominance to control elections
E. economic development of the South is firmly placed in the hands of the North
1. necessary capital for reconstruction could only come from the North
2. this meant that the North could dictate the type of economic development that would occur in the South
3. what type did they choose? - extractive and processing industries - otherwise continued dominance in the production of necessary raw materials - does this represent a new (or perhaps return) colonial status for the South?
F. westward expansion was encouraged
1. Homestead Act 1862 - provided free homesteads of 160 acres for families who would make improvements on the land within five years
a. had to pay a filing fee of $5
b. had to erect a 12x14 dwelling (look at various scams)
g. while it encouraged the westward expansion it did not fully populate the plains
1. law was passed by Easterners who failed to realize 160 acres was not sufficient land for that type
of agriculture
2. new problems made farming difficult on the plains
a. lack of water
b. lack of shelter
c. locust plagues
2. Morrill Act
a. 30,000 acres of land per member of Congress
b. state universities develop as a result N.C. State, Ohio State, etc.
3. transcontinental railroad is begun, completed in 1869
G. executive power is increased (time of sovereignty)
H. protracted bitterness and distrust between the North and South
\XIV. Reconstruction
A. the hope of Reconstruction is outlined in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural - “With malice toward none; with
charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work
we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow and orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves, and with all nations.”
B. Morison - “Ten thousand curses on the memory of that foulest of assassins, J. Wilkes Booth. Not
only did he kill a great and good President; he gave flesh life to the very forces of hate and vengeance
which Lincoln himself was trying to kill. Has Lincoln lived, there is every likelihood that his
magnanimous policy towards the South would have prevailed; for even after his death, it almost went
through despite the radicals. Never has a murderer wrought so much evil.”
C. the major issue of Reconstruction may have had very little to do with the North and the South
1. in any great conflict the legislative branch abdicates a great deal of its power to the executive
2. in fact, some contend that Lincoln was a virtual dictator during the war
3. following any great conflict there is always a power struggle within government
a. the legislative branches attempts to repossess authority which it has given to the nexecutive while the executive attempts to retain as much additional power as possible
b. thus the relative prestige of the branches of government is at stake
c. examine this following WW I, WW II, and the war in Vietnam
Review Billington’s factors involved in Reconstruction
D. the constitutional factor
1. the nature of the Union must be determined by practice following the Civil War
2. was the Union federal or confederal at the outset
3. Northern perspective - at the beginning of the war it was the contention of the North that states could not legally secede
a. if that were the case, there should be no conditions attached to their reentry since they had technically never left
b. following the war the North refuses to buy the notion that the South was never out of the Union
4. Southern perspective - at the beginning of the war the South contended they had a legal right to secede from the Union
a. if that were the case, the South might expect certain conditions to be attached to their reentry
b. following the war the South will contend that since they were never out of the Union, there should be no conditions for reentry
E. the economic factor
1. the Union had a war debt of $3b which many Northerners wished to impose on the South
2. Northern manufacturers were eager to maintain political control of the Union, thus controlling the economic destiny of the nation (protective tariff)
3. significant physical damage to the South that had to be rebuilt
4. demand of Northerners that the Confederate debt be repudiated
F. social factor
1. significant humanitarian concerns - what would happen to the mass of freed blacks
2. desire to punish plantation owners for the moral wrong of slavery
3. Constitutional amendments became necessary because of the lack of faith Northerners had in the integrity of Southern governments
G. psychological factor
1. hatred bred by the war led many Northerners to demand a vindictive peace
2. led many Southerners to magnify the abuses of Reconstruction
H. political factor
1. desire of the Republican party to maintain dominance in the national government - waving the bloody shirt
2. the role of black suffrage in the equation to maintain political control
3. realignment of post-war powers between the executive and legislative branches - who will control Reconstruction
4. review impeachment proceedings - Tenure of Office Act
XV. The stages of Reconstruction
A. Lincoln (Presidential - 10% Plan) Plan - Dec. 8, 1863
1. all confederates (except military and political leaders) could regain citizenship by taking an oath to support the Constitution and the Thirteenth Amendment
2. when 10% of the people who voted in 1860 met that qualification, a government could be reestablished and the state readmitted
3. must recognize permanent freedom of slaves and provide for black education, but need not grant suffrage
4. Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana followed this procedure
B. Wade-Davis Bill (early Congressional) July 8, 1864
1. Congress would administer Reconstruction
2. the majority of citizens in a state must take the oath before a government could be organized
3. high ranking military and political Confederate leaders or anyone who had voluntarily borne arms against the U.S. would be disenfranchised
4. state constitutions had to abolish slavery
5. Confederate debts had to be repudiated
6. the Wade-Davis Bill does not pass but demonstrates a harsher attitude toward the South than Lincoln’s Plan
C. Johnson’s Plan
1. general amnesty - except for those with wealth over $20,000 - more restrictive than Lincoln’s plan
2. reentry based on the following
a. repudiation of debts
b. abolition of slavery through ratification of the 13th Amendment
c. disavowal of secession
3. by Dec. 4, 1865 all states except Texas had met these requirements and recommended for readmission
4. Congressional Radicals (Wade, Sumner, Stevens) reject this plan for several reasons
a. ratification of the 13th Amendment has increased Southern (therefore Democratic) representation in the House - Republicans want to control it
b. lack of serious efforts to reconcile difference on the part of the South
1. Georgia elects Alexander Stephens to the Senate though he is still in federal prison
2. other states also elect Confederate leaders to House and Senate
c. Southern state governments instituted “black codes” designed to control freed blacks, circumvent the 13th Amendment, and establish a segregated social system
D. Congressional Reconstruction - 1866
1. life of the Freedman’s Bureau extended - designed to aid the transition for freed slaves
2. passage of a civil rights act designed to secure “equal protection under the law” to all citizens
3. ratification of the 14th Amendment
a. equal protection clause
b. Negro suffrage or the loss of representation
c. pardon of Confederate leaders only by Congress
d. repudiation of state debts
e. Congressional administration of the program
E. Military Reconstruction - 1867
1. results in part from the Congressional elections of 1866
a. Johnson was determined to gain support for Presidential Reconstruction
b. makes the famous “swing ‘round the circle” - (takes to the stump) to gain support for less radical candidates
c. fails badly for several reasons
1. undignified of the President to take to the stump
2. vindictive towards radicals - remember, Johnson was a Democrat
3. often times there was only a choice between a Radical Republican and a Copperhead Democrat
d. result was that Radicals were more firmly in control after the election of 1866
2. results in part from election of Confederate leaders and violence against blacks in the South - 48 blacks killed in a riot in Memphis in 1866
3. stated that no lawful Southern governments exist except in Tennessee
4. South divided into five military districts with federal troops present
5. no readmission until the states ratify the 14th (and later the 15th) amendments
6. Johnson urges states not to ratify the 14th amendment - thus a serious power struggle develops and Congress moves to formally restrict the power of the President - politically, philosophically - Johnson -
after a meeting with Frederich Douglass concerning suffrage - "Those damned sons of bitches thought they had me in a trap. I know that damned Douglass, he's just like any other nigger, he would sooner cut a white man's throat than not."
a. passes the Tenure of Office Act
1. President can remove appointed officials only with the consent of the Senate
2. is there a Constitutional basis for this? - a precedent?
b. Radicals know that Johnson will be forced to remove Edwin Stanton - Radical Secretary of War
c. Johnson removes Stanton and asks for Congressional consent - refused
d. Johnson orders him out anyway - Stanton barricades himself in his office
e. articles of impeachment are drawn and the trial is held - convictions falls one vote short of the necessary two thirds majority - moderate Republicans stand with Democrats because Radical Benjamin Wade is next in line for the Presidency
7. who were the radicals? mixed bag of political opportunists and true believers in racial equality
F. Congressional Reconstruction, despite its bad press, was more moderate than it might have been
1. no major Confederate leaders were imprisoned for long except Jefferson Davis
2. no long-term probationary period before states could reenter the Union
3. no reorganization of local governments - where day to day decisions are made
4. no national program of education for former slaves is demanded
5. only minor confiscation and redistribution of land
G. the election of 1868 forces Republicans to propose the 15th Amendment to ensure black suffrage - Grant carries several states by very close margins
1. no love for Black suffrage in the North
2. 15th Amendment had been proposed twice and failed to carry
3. eight of ten Northern states rejected Black suffrage referendums - some had disenfranchised Blacks within their own states
4. the need for Black votes both North and South led Republican to propose the Amendment
5. ratified by 1870 - disappointment for women;s rights advocates
H. Republican rule in the South
1. Military Reconstruction led Republicans to control of Southern state governments
a. local Republicans took advantage of the inability or refusal of many Southerners to vote - thus they controlled state constitutional conventions
b. “Despite the popular belief, state governments were not dominated by illiterate black majorities intent on Africanizing the South”
c. they were not unusually corrupt - deal with this in relative terms - Bailey - "legislatures purchased as legislative supplies such "stationary" as hams, perfumes, suspendeers, bonnets, corsets, champagne, and a coffin. One thrifty carpetbag governor in a single year "saved" $100,000 from a salary of $8000."
d. they were not financially extravagant - deal with this in relative terms
e. there were not massive numbers of federal troops to enforce their will
2. make-up of governments, called black and tan by opponents
a. they were predominantly white (except the lower House of SC)
b. Whiggish bankers and industrialists more interested in economic growth and sectional reconciliation than in social reform (Scalawags)
c. Northern Republicans who had come South
1. seeking economic opportunity
2. retired Union officers seeking a warmer climate
3. missionaries and teachers bent on social reform
4. lumped together these are unjustly referred to as carpetbaggers
5. moderate black politicians - seeking access to government and education but not bent of revenge
3. accomplishments
a. removal of undemocratic features of many state constitutions
1. universal male suffrage
2. reduced office holding qualifications
3. reapportion ment giving interior areas greater representation
b. social reform
1. abolition of imprisonment for debt
2. relief of poverty and care for the handicapped
3. modernization of penal codes
c. physical reconstruction
1. harbors, roads, bridges rebuilt
2. state supported public education (though segregated as in the North)
a. black school attendance - 1867 - 5% - 1880 - 40%
b. white school attendance - 1867 - 20%- 1880 - 60%
4. resulted in greatly increased taxes and state debt
5. there was graft and corruption - “The kind of graft that had become a way of life in American politics.”
6. net result of Reconstruction interpreted differently by historians
a. Nash - “Dragged the South screaming and crying into the modern era.”
b. Morison - “After all that can be said in their favor, the congressionally reconstructed state governments were a disgrace, and in the end neither the freedmen nor the Republican party profited.”
I. Republican control of state governments is short lived - it varies from place to place - in Virginia it was never effectively established - it survives longest in the deep South
1. violence and redemption - identify “Redeemers”
2. ultimately Democrats use racial violence, intimidation, and coercion to restore power to Bourbons
a. 1867 Ku Klux Klan is organized (also the Knights of the White Camelia)
b. “We must render this either a white man’s government, or convert the land to a Negro man’s cemetary”
c. the Mississippi plan - intimidation and fear
d. Nash page 560
3. three Force Acts and the Ku Klux Klan Act of the early 1870s give President authority to deal with this violence, but Grant eventually loses interest, afraid supporting the rights of Blacks might lose him Northern votes - also Republican reformers were reluctant to continue support because blacks voted for Grant who opposed reform
a. 1874 - parts of the Force Acts are declared unconstitutional
b. waning interest in the North also dooms their enforcement
J. changes in the condition for freed slaves -
1. Morison - “The North may have won the war, but the South won the peace. It preserved the essence of slavery; a pool of cheap subservient labor but eascaped the capital outlays and social obligations that slavery imposed on the master.”
2. Nash - If this war has smashed the Southern world, it has left the Southern mind and will entirely unshaken.”
3. division occurs within the South
a. the established old order was determined to resist Reconstruction (Redeemers)
b. minority wanted reconciliation with the new order (Readjusters)
4. slave reactions to freedom
a. some fled their masters going they knew not where
b. some stayed with their former masters
c. many sought employment in towns and cities
d. legal marriage was gratefully engaged in
e. surnames adopted - some took the names of former masters others names associated with symbols of freedom
f. dropped old habits and engaged in self-expression - to whites they appeared to be “puttin’ on airs”
g. primarily freedmen sought land - believed that they would receive “forty acres and a mule” but that was neither promised nor did it come about because there was no widespread confiscation and redistribution of land
5. Southern whites were fearful of freedmen vengeneance and within a year after the war the initial Democratic governments enacted black codes which both granted and restricted the rights of freedmen
a. they were granted rights to sue. marry, and hold property
b. no right to inter-racial marriage, bear arms, possess alcohol, be on the city streets at night, or congregate in large crowds
c. no right to testify against whites in court
d. vagrancy laws were specifically aimed at blacks - could be jailed or forced into contract labor
e. maurading bands of whites terrorized blacks and “held them in line”
H. the Freedman’s Bureau - designed to serve several functions
1. provide emergency food, shelter, and clothing to freeden
2. established medical care
3. provided transportation for those seeking to reunite families
4. served as an advocate for blacks during court proceedings
5. attempted to educate former slaves
6. served as an employment agency, setting up work contracts - double-edged sword
a. many Freedman Bureau workers were ex-army officers concerned primarily with maintenence of social order
b. thus, freedmen were encouraged to obey whites
c. severe penalties for violation of labor contracts
G. the establishment of a system of subservient labor
1. in 1870, land ownership was concentrated in fewer hands than it had been at the beginning of the war - 10% owned 60% of the land
2. increasingly the South reverted back to a one crop system - cotton - grown with contract labor
3. freemen desire for land and the “feeling” of freedom led to the development of the sharecrop and tenant farm systems
4. sharecroppers were given needed implements, seed, etc. in return for one half (or some portion) of their crop - land ownership stayed in the hands of others
5. credit was advanced at high interest rates at owners (or middleman’s) store
6. generally the sharecropper ended up owing more at the end of the year than their crop was worth - thus it it sometimes known as the debt peonage system or crop lien system
7. despite this, Black land ownership did increase
a. 1880 - 2-5%
b. 1900 - 20%
8. poor whites were increasingly forced into sharecropping as well
a. reliance on one crop meant that they had to purchase food
b. restrictive fencing laws cut down on their ability to raise hogs and other livestock
c. restrictions on hunting and fishing made it more difficult to supplement their diet
9. nevertheless, poor whites remained socially and legally better off than freedmen - also tend to develop intense racial hatred - “The poorer classes of white people..have the most intense hatred of the Negro, and swear they shall never be reckoned as part of the population.”
10. poorer whites show a propensity to join groups of intimidation
11. alliance between redeemers and poor whites - votes for continued segregation
H. Black self-help organizations
1. churches organized and provided a kind of society within a society
2. ministers assumed the role of Black community leaders and spokesmen
3. establishment is very tenuous - 1869 - 37 Black schools were burned - House testimony warned that building a school for blacks in Virginia would result in death
4. Northern philanthropists establish some institutions of higher learning for blacks - Fisk, Hampton Institute, Morehouse, Washington Institute (later Washington and Lee) - many emphasized skilled trades (vocational)
XVI. The end of Reconstruction
A. Compromise of 1877 - Hayes elected over Tilden
B. why does it end - more than anything the North just tires of it - never dramatic commitment to an equal society
C. results of Reconstruction
1. less able leaders were placed in authority positions
2. the racial issue was intensified (Black leaders, Black codes, KKK)
3. frugal fiscal policy will dominate the South as a reaction against “spendthrift Reconstruction governments
4. one party system comes to dominate the South (Solid South) - effect on the Southern mind
5. sectional hatred intensified
6. mild redistribution of property
7. social welfare and educational legislation initiated
8. less brutal than it might have been
Compromise of 1877 – insert
L. election of 1876
1. Republicans Grant is interested in a third term but the House passes a resolution warning him of dictator ambitions - two term precedent is strong
2. major Republican candidate is James G. Blaine - but he is tinted by the Mulligan letters
3. Republicans settle on the dark horse candidate Rutherford B. Hayes
4. platform provisions
a. permanent pacification
b. sound money
c. civil service reform
5. Democrats settle on Samuel Tilden - lawyer who helped smash the Tweed Ring
6. he has some machine and robber baron ties
7. the impact of the “bloody shirt” - Robert Ingersoll - “Every man that shot a Union soldier was a Democrat. The man that assassinated Lincoln was a Democrat. Soldiers, every scar you have on your heroic body was given you by a Democrat.”
8. results - Hayes 4.0m - 165 - Tilden 4.3m - 184
9. four states in doubt - Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida
10. Tilden needed only one of the twenty electoral votes in question to be elected
11. “visiting statesmen” from both parties visit all states in question
12. each state submits two sets of electoral ballots
13. electoral commission is established to be made up of fifteen members - five each from the House, Senate, and Supreme Court
14. seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and Justice Davis - considered to be neutral
15. Davis resigns and the only remaining members of the Supreme Court are Republicans
16. initial vote finds for Hayes in each state - 8-7 in every case
17. Democrats threaten a filibuster - danger of not having an elected President
18. The Compromise of 1877
a. Hayes take office
b. Republicans agree to withdraw federal troops from the South
1. end military Reconstruction
2. allow Democratic governments to take over from Republican ones
c. federally funded internal improvements for the South - especially designed to overcome war
damage
d. Republicans promise at least one Southern cabinet member with patronage at his disposal
e. unofficial acceptance of non-enforcement of the 14th and 15th Amendments
19. thus Hayes is seated - “old 8-7”, “his fraudulency”
20. known as the “cold water” administration because “Lemonade Lucy” refused to serve alcohol at state functions
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