APUSH PERIOD 5
Chapter 17
Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy
1841-1848
The Accession of "Tyler Too"
At the beginning of Henry Harrison's presidency, Daniel Webster (secretary of state) and Henry Clay (leader of Whigs in the Senate) expected to control the Presidency because Harrison was not a very commanding figure. Only 4 weeks into Harrison's presidency, though, Harrison died. This disrupted the plans of Webster and Clay.
John Tyler: Vice President to Henry Harrison; successor as President following Harrison's death; "Tyler too"; a Democrat at heart and contradicted many of the Whig Party's ideas.
John Tyler: A President without a Party
The Whigs introduced many policy changes when the party won the presidency with Harrison (and then Tyler). The first change was financial reform. The independent treasury system was ended. A bill for a "Fiscal Bank," which would establish a new Bank of the United States went through Congress, but President Tyler vetoed it. The Whigs presented a "Fiscal Corporation," but Tyler again vetoed it.
President Tyler was rejected by his former Whig Party.
Tyler reluctantly signed the Tariff of 1842 because he recognized the government's need for revenue.
A War of Words with Britain
The 19th Century was marked by periods of public disdain for Britain. This sparked the "Third War with England." This war was only fought with editorials in papers.
In 1837, there was a small rebellion in Canada. Although it was supported by many Americans, the rebellion failed because it was backed by few Canadians.
In 1837, the American ship, the Caroline, was carrying military supplies to the rebelling Canadians when it was sunk by a British ship. Washington officials made ineffective protests against the attack.
In 1841, British officials in the Bahamas offered asylum to 130 Virginia slaves who had rebelled and captured the American ship Creole.
Manipulating the Maine Maps
In 1842, the British wanted to build a road linking the seaport of Halifax to Quebec. The proposed road ran through disputed territory in northern Maine, though. Skirmishes between locals broke out and these skirmishes were referred to as the Aroostook War.
To prevent a wider-reaching war, the London Foreign Office sent Lord Ashburton to Washington to settle the dispute. He and Daniel Webster negotiated and agreed to a new boundary for Maine that put the disputed road in Canadian territory.
The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone
In the 8 years following 1836, Mexico considered Texas one of their provinces that was in revolt. Mexico refused to recognize Texas's independence. Mexico threatened war if America protected Texas.
Texas made treaties with France, Holland, and Belgium. Britain was interested in seeing an independent Texas because they hoped it could be used to fragment and weaken America. The British were also interested in having Texas as a trading partner who was more friendly than the Americans.
The Belated Texas Nuptials
Texas was a leading issue in the presidential campaign of 1844. The Democrats were pro-expansion and supported the annexation of Texas, while the Whigs were against it.
The Democrats (James Polk) won the election of 1844, and lame duck (outgoing) President Tyler took that as a sign to acquire Texas before he left the presidency. He signed a resolution in 1845 that invited Texas to become the 28th state in America.
Oregon Fever Populates Oregon
Four nations claimed parts of the Oregon Country at one time: Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States. Spain gave up its American territory with the Florida Treaty of 1819, and Russia gave up its land with the treaties of 1824 and 1825.
Britain controlled the Oregon territory north of the Columbia River, while American controlled the southern territory. Britain had a smaller population in the Oregon territory, but it did not want to give up its claims. The disputed territory in the Oregon Country became an issue in the election of 1844.
A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny
For the election of 1844, the Whigs chose Henry Clay, and the Democrats chose James K. Polk. Polk was the Speaker of the House of Representatives for four years and governor of Tennessee for two terms. He beat Henry Clay to win the election of 1844. He was known as "Young Hickory", he said he would protect Texas, and he avoided the issue of slavery.
In the 1840s and 1850s, the idea of Manifest Destiny spread across America. Many Americans felt that God had destined them to spread their democratic institutions over the entire continent and over South America as well.
Democrats strongly supported the idea of Manifest Destiny.
Polk the Purposeful
Polk had four main goals for his presidency: 1) A lower tariff; 2) Restore the independent treasury, which the Whigs dropped in 1841 because the Whigs won the presidency; 3-4) The acquisition of California and the settlement of the Oregon Country dispute without violence.
Robert J. Walker: Secretary of Treasury to James Polk; devised the Walker Tariff of 1846, a tariff-for-revenue bill that reduced the tariff from 32% to 25%.
The independent treasury was restored in 1846.
Britain presented Polk with the Oregon Country up to the 49th parallel. This offer was approved without a shot fired.
Misunderstandings with Mexico
The population of California in 1845 consisted of Spanish-Mexicans and Indians.
Polk wanted to buy California (The Bear Flag Republic) from Mexico but relations with Mexico were poor due to the annexation of Texas.
John Slidell: sent by Polk to Mexico City in 1845 to buy California for $25 million; the offer was rejected.
American Blood on American (?) Soil
On January 13, 1846, Polk ordered 4,000 men under General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande. On May 9, 1846, Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico of the basis of unpaid claims and Slidell's rejection of the purchasing of California. Prior to this request, Mexican troops had already attacked American troops. War was subsequently declared.
Many people in Congress accused Polk of provoking war. Mexico was not willing to sell California and war seemed to be the only way that America could get California.
The Mastering of Mexico
Polk wanted California, not war. He hoped that America could pull out of the war with California.
American generals in Mexican-American War:
- General Stephen W. Kearny: led 1,700 troops to Santa Fe.
- General Zachary Taylor: won many victories including a victory over a large Mexican force at Buena Vista; future President
- General Winfield Scott: succeeded in battling his way to Mexico City by September 1847; became President Abraham Lincoln's first choice to lead the Union army in the Civil War.
Fighting Mexico for Peace
Nicholas P. Trist: chief clerk of the State Department; signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded Texas and the area that included California to America for $15 million. This area was about half of Mexico. The antislavery Whigs in Congress ("Conscience Whigs") opposed the treaty because they had originally opposed the war. Expansionists also opposed the treaty because they wanted all of Mexico, not just part of it.
Profit and Loss in Mexico
The Mexican War provided field experience for the officers who became generals in the Civil War, including Captain Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant.
David Wilmot: proposed an amendment that stated that the territory from Mexico should remain slave-free. This Wilmot Proviso never passed the Senate because the Southern members did not want to remove the possibility of future slave states from this territory.
Chapter 18
Renewing the Sectional Struggle
1848-1854
The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
Popular Sovereignty: the idea that the people of a territory should determine their territory's status of slavery. It was popular with politicians because it was a compromise between the abolitionists and the slaveholders.
At the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, the Democrats chose General Lewis Cass, a veteran of the war of 1812, as their candidate for presidency. Cass was not against slavery; he supported popular sovereignty.
Political Triumphs for General Taylor
The Whigs, who met in Philadelphia, chose Zachary Taylor as their candidate for presidency. Taylor did not have an official stance on slavery, but he did own many slaves. Henry Clay had not been chosen because he had too many enemies.
The Free Soil Party was created by antislavery men of the North who didn't trust Cass or Taylor. They supported federal aid for internal improvements. They argued that with slavery, wage labor would wither away and with it, the chance for the American worker to own property.
Zachary Taylor won the election of 1848 (sworn into office in 1849).
"Californy Gold"
In 1848, gold was discovered in California. The influx of people associated with the California gold rush brought violence and disease that overwhelmed the small Californian government. Needing protection, the Californians bypassed the territorial stage of a state, drafted their own Constitution (excluding slavery) in 1849, and applied to Congress for admission into the Union.
The southerners objected to California's admission as a free state because it would be upset the balance of free and slave states in the Senate.
Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman: an illiterate runaway slave who helped rescue hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad, a network of anti-slavery homes that passed slaves from the slave states to Canada.
By 1850, southerners started to demand stricter fugitive-slave laws. (The old fugitive-slave law passed by Congress in 1793 was very weak.)
Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
The congressional debate of 1850 was called to address the admission of California to the Union and threats of secession by southerners. Known as the "immortal trio," Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster spoke at the debate.
Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser," proposed a series of compromises. He suggested that the North enact a stricter fugitive-slave law.
John Calhoun, the "Great Nullifier," proposed to return runaway slaves, give the South its rights as a minority, and restore the political balance. His ultimate plan was for America to have two presidents, one from the South and one from the North, each yielding one veto.
Daniel Webster called for people to make concessions and support Clay's proposals, for the sake of maintaining the Union (Seventh of March Speech). He was against slavery, but he viewed the collapse of the Union as worse.
Deadlock and Danger on Capital Hill
William H. Seward: senator of New York; opposed slavery and because of this, he opposed Clay's proposals; argued that God's moral law was higher than the Constitution.
President Zachary Taylor opposed slavery and seemed ready to veto any compromise between the North and South that went through Congress.
Breaking the Congressional Logjam
In 1850, President Taylor died suddenly and Vice President Millard Fillmore took the presidency. President Fillmore signed a series of compromises contained within the Compromise of 1850. In regards to slavery, California was admitted as a free state, but the territories of New Mexico and Utah were open to popular sovereignty. Additionally, slave trade was outlawed in the District of Columbia, but a stricter fugitive-slave law was enacted.
During this time period, a second Era of Good Feelings came about. Talk of secession subsided and the Northerners and Southerners were determined that the compromises would end the issue of slavery.
Balancing the Compromise Scales
Because the Compromise of 1850 allowed California and the New Mexico/Utah territories to be free, the Senate became unbalanced in favor of the North.
The Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, the Bloodhound Bill, said that fleeing slaves could not testify on their own behalf and they were denied a jury trial. Northerners who aided slaves trying to escape were subject to fines and jail time. This law was the South's only real gain from the compromise.
Some historians argue that the Compromise of 1850 strengthened the Northerner's desire to keep the Union together.
Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
In the Democratic Convention of 1852 in Baltimore, the Democrats chose Franklin Pierce as their candidate for president. He supported the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.
Meeting in Baltimore, the Whigs chose Winfield Scott as their candidate for president. He also supported the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.
The votes for the Whig party were split between Northern Whigs, who hated the party's platform (support of Fugitive Slave Law) but accepted the candidate, and Southern Whigs, who supported the platform but not the candidate (they doubted his support of the Fugitive Slave Law).
Franklin Pierce won the election of 1852. The election of 1852 marked the end of the Whig party. It died on the issue of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
The victory of the Mexican War stimulated the spirit of Manifest Destiny.
Americans started to take an interest in Central America. A canal route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that ran through Central America would be vitally important to America.
The Americans and New Granada agreed to a treaty in 1848 that guaranteed America's right to use the isthmus in return for America's pledge to allow any other country to also use the isthmus. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 said that neither America nor Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control over any isthmian waterway.
Because the Compromise of 1850 prohibited slavery in the land gained in the Mexican War, southern Americans sought new territory to expand slavery. These people were known as "slavocrats." One slavocrat, William Walker, installed himself as the President of Nicaragua in July 1856. He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by surrounding Central American countries and killed in 1860.
Southerners wanted to annex Cuba and turn it into a set of slave states. This would restore the balance in the Senate.
President Polk offered $100 million to buy Cuba from Spain, but Spain refused. In 1850-1851, two expeditions of Southern men descended upon Cuba, with the hopes of taking it over. Both expeditions were defeated.
Spanish officials in Cuba seized an American ship, the Black Warrior, in 1854. This accelerated President Pierce's interest in taking Cuba from Spain, either by force or by purchasing it.
The secretary of state instructed the American ministers in Spain, England, and France to prepare confidential recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba. This document was known as the Ostend Manifesto. It stated that if Spain didn't allow America to buy Cuba for $120 million, then America would attack Cuba on grounds that Spain's continued ownership of Cuba endangered American interests. The document eventually leaked out and the Northerners foiled the President's slave-driven plan.
The Allure of Asia
Opium War: fought between Britain and China over the rights of British traders to trade opium in China; Britain won in 1842, gaining control of Hong Kong.
Treaty of Wanghia: the first diplomatic agreement between America and China; signed in 1844; expanded trade between the two countries.
Treaty of Kanagawa: opened up a small amount of trade between America and Japan; signed in 1854; it was Japan's first real interaction with the Western world in over 200 years.
Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase
After California and Oregon were acquired, the transcontinental railroad was proposed. The open question was: Where to put the railroad's terminus? In the North or the South?
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had James Gadsden buy an area of Mexico from Santa Anna through which the railroad would pass. Gadsden negotiated a treaty in 1853 and the Gadsden Purchase area was ceded to the United States for $10 million.
Southerners argued that the railroad should run through Texas and the New Mexico territory because Texas was already a state and the New Mexico territory was a formally organized territory (it had federal troops to provide protection from Indians). The proposed Northern railroad route ran through the Nebraska territory, which was not protected by troops. The Northerners proposed plans for organizing this territory.
Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
Stephen A. Douglas: senator who tried to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion; proposed the Territory of Nebraska to be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. Their status on slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Kansas would be presumed to be a slave state, while Nebraska would be a free state.
This Kansas-Nebraska Act conflicted with the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which forbade slavery in the proposed Nebraska Territory. Douglas was forced to propose the repealing of the Missouri Compromise. President Pierce fully supported the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
Congress Legislates a Civil War
The Kansas-Nebraska Act wrecked two compromises: the Compromise of 1820 was repealed by the act; the Compromise of 1850 was henceforth rejected by Northerners.
The blunder of the Kansas-Nebraska Act hurt the Democratic Party.
The Republican Party was formed in the Mid-West and it was morally against slavery. The party included Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Southerners hated the Republican Party.
Chapter 19
Drifting Toward Disunion
1854-1861
The Kansas Territory erupted in violence in 1855 between the proslavery and antislavery factions. In 1857, the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision permitted slavery in all Western territories, invalidating the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was white, published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 as an attempt to show the North the horrors of slavery. The novel was published abroad, including France and Britain. It helped to start the Civil War and for the North to win it.
Hinton R. Helper, a non-aristocrat from North Carolina, wrote The Impending Crisis of the South in 1857. He hated both blacks and slavery, and he attempted to use statistics to prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery.
The North-South Contest for Kansas
Most of the people who came to Kansas were just westward-moving pioneers. The New England Emigrant Aid Company, a group of abolitionists, paid some people to move to Kansas to make it a free state. (The Kansas and Nebraska territories had popular sovereignty in choosing slavery, according to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Nebraska was so far north that its future as a free state was never in question.)
In 1855 when Kansas was having its legislature elections, many pro-slavery people came from Missouri to vote. They sought to elect pro-slavery officials. The slavery supporters won the elections and set up their own government at Shawnee Mission. The abolitionists then set up their own government in Topeka, giving the Kansas territory two governments.
In 1856, the civil war in Kansas started when a group of pro-slavery riders burned down part of the abolitionist's town of Lawrence.
Kansas in Convulsion
John Brown: fanatical abolitionist who, in May of 1856, hacked to death 5 presumed pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek in response to the pro-slavery events in Lawrence.
Civil war flared up in Kansas in 1856, and continued until it merged with the nation's Civil War of 1861-1865.
In 1857, Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood. Its citizens were going to vote again on whether or not to have slavery in the state of Kansas. To keep the abolitionists from creating a free state, the pro-slavery politicians created the Lecompton Constitution. The document stated that the people were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole, rather, they could vote on whether the constitution would be "with slavery" or "without slavery." If slavery was voted against, then one of the provisions in the constitution would protect those who already owned slaves in Kansas. Many abolitionists boycotted voting, so the constitution was approved to include slavery.
James Buchanan, a Democrat, succeeded Pierce as the President of the United States in the election of 1856. He had a strong southern influence and approved of the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Stephen Douglas was strongly opposed to the document and he campaigned against it. Eventually, a compromise was reached that enabled the people of Kansas to vote on the Lecompton Constitution, itself. It was revoked by the abolitionists voters, but Kansas ended up remaining a territory until 1861, when the southern states seceded from the Union.
President Buchanan divided the powerful Democratic Party by enraging some Democrats of the North. He divided the only remaining national party and with it, the Union.
"Bully" Brooks and His Bludgeon
In 1856, abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a provoking speech condemning pro-slavery men. During this speech, Sumner also personally insulted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Two days later on May 22, 1856, Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner with a cane to unconsciousness.
The speech made by Sumner was applauded in the North, angering the South.
The clash between Sumner and Butler showed how violent and impassioned the Northerners and Southerners were for their cause.
"Old Buck" Versus "The Pathfinder"
Meeting in Cincinnati, the Democrats chose James Buchanan as their presidential candidate to run in the election of 1856 because he wasn't involved with the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Democratic platform campaigned for popular sovereignty.
Meeting in Philadelphia, the Republicans chose Captain John C. Fremont because he was also not influenced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Republican platform campaigned against the extension of slavery.
The American Party, also called the Know-Nothing Party, was formed by Protestants who were alarmed by the increasing number of immigrants coming from Ireland and Germany. They chose former president Millard Fillmore as their candidate for the election of 1856.
The Electoral Fruits of 1856
James Buchanan won the election of 1856.
It was a good thing that the Republican Party did not win the election because some southerners said that if a Republican had won, then they would secede.
This election was a small victory for the Republican Party because the party was just 2 years old, yet it put up a fight for the Democrats.
The Dred Scott Bombshell
Dread Scott, a slave who had lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, sued for his freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. In Dred Scott vs. Stanford, the Supreme Court first ruled that because Scott was a black slave and not a citizen, he could not sue in Federal courts. The Court also ruled that because a slave was private property, he could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery. The Fifth Amendment forbade Congress from depriving people of their property without the due process of law. The Court went further and stated that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and that Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories, no matter what the territorial legislatures themselves wanted.
This victory delighted Southerners, while it infuriated Northerners and supporters of popular sovereignty.
The Financial Crash of 1857
The panic of 1857 was caused by over-speculation in the West and currency inflation due to the inrush of Californian gold. The North was the hardest hit, while the South continued to flourish with its cotton.
Northerners came up with the idea of the government giving 160-acre plots of farming land to pioneers for free. Two groups opposed the idea: Eastern industrialists feared that the free land would drain its supply of workers, and the South feared that the West would fill up with free-soilers who would form anti-slavery states, unbalancing the Senate even more. Congress passed a homestead act in 1860, making public lands available at $0.25/acre, but it was vetoed by President Buchanan.
The Tariff of 1857 lowered import taxes to about 20%. The North blamed it for causing the panic, because they felt they needed higher duties for more protection. This gave the Republicans two economic issues for the election of 1860: protection for the unprotected and farms for the farmless.
An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
In Illinois's senatorial election of 1858, the Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run against Democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature as a Whig politician and he served one term in Congress.
The Great Debate: Lincoln versus Douglas
Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates that were arranged from August to October 1858 (Lincoln-Douglas debates).
The most famous debate happened in Freeport, Illinois. Lincoln asked Douglas, "What if the people of a territory should vote down slavery?" The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision had said that the people could not do this. Douglas's reply to him became known as the "Freeport Doctrine." Douglas argued that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down. Laws to protect slavery would have to be voted on by the territorial legislatures.
Douglas won the senatorial election, but Lincoln won the popular vote.
John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
Abolitionist John Brown developed a plan to secretly invade the South, call upon the slaves to rise, give the slaves weapons, and establish a black free state.
In October 1859, he seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Because many of his supporters failed to show up, he was caught and sent to death by hanging. When Brown died, he lived on as a martyr to the abolitionist cause.
The Disruption of the Democrats
For the election of 1860, the Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina to choose their candidate. The northern part of the party wanted to nominate Stephen Douglas, but the southern "fire-eaters" saw him as a traitor for his unpopular opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and his unpopular Freeport Doctrine reply. After the delegates from most of the cotton states walked out, the Democrats met again in Baltimore to elect a candidate. This time, Douglas was elected, despite the fact that the southerners again walked out.
The southern Democrats met in Baltimore to choose their own Democratic presidential candidate. They chose vice-president John C. Breckenridge. The platform favored the extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of slave-populated Cuba.
The Constitutional Union Party was formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings. They nominated John Bell as their presidential candidate.
A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
The Republican Party met in Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate.
The Republican platform appealed to nearly every part of the nation. For the free-soilers, the Republicans supported the non-extension of slavery. For the northern manufacturers, they supported a protective tariff. For the immigrants, the supported no abridgement of rights. For the Northwest, they supported a Pacific railroad. For the West, they supported internal improvements at federal expense. For the farmers, they supported free homesteads (plots of land) from the public domain.
The Southerners said that if Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, the Union would split.
The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, but he did not win with the popular vote. 60% of the nation voted for another candidate. 10 southern states didn't even allow Lincoln to appear on the ballot.
South Carolina was happy at the outcome of the election because it now had a reason to secede.
Even though the Republicans won the presidential election, they did not control the House of Representatives, the Senate, or the Supreme Court.
The Secessionist Exodus
In December 1860, South Carolina's legislature met in Charleston and voted unanimously to secede. 6 other states joined South Carolina: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
The 7 seceders met at Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861 and created a government known as the Confederate States of America. The states chose Jefferson Davis, a recent member of the U.S. Senate from Mississippi, as President.
During this time of secession, Buchanan was still the "lame duck" president, because Lincoln was not sworn in until 1861. President Buchanan did not hold the seceders in the Union by force because he was surrounded by pro-southern advisors and he could find no authority in the Constitution to stop them with force. Another reason that force was not used was because at the time, the Union's army was needed to control the Indians of the West. The Northerners were not eager to use force against the Southerners because that would have ended the possibility of peaceful negotiations.
The Collapse of Compromise
The Crittenden amendments to the Constitution were designed to appease the South. The amendments prohibited slavery in territories north of 360 30', but it permitted slavery in the territories south of this line. Future states (north and south of this line) would get to vote on the issue of slavery. President Lincoln rejected the amendments.
Farewell to the Union
The southern states seceded, fearing that the Republican Party would threaten their rights to own slaves.
Many southerners felt that their secession would be unopposed by the North. They assumed that the northern manufacturers and bankers, dependent upon southern cotton and markets, wouldn't dare cut off the South.
Chapter 20
Girding for War: The North and the South
1861-1865
The Menace of Secession
President Abraham Lincoln declared that secession was impractical because the North and South were not geographically divided. He also stated that with secession, new controversies would arise, including the national debt, federal territories, and the fugitive-slave issue.
South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter
When President Lincoln was elected, there were only two significant forts in the South that flew the Union's flag. Fort Sumter, in the Charleston harbor, needed supplies in order to support its men. Therefore, Lincoln adopted a middle-of-the-road solution. He told the South that the North was sending provisions to the fort, not supplies for reinforcement. Taking the move by Lincoln as an act of aggression, the South Carolinians fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee all seceded after the attack on Fort Sumter. The 11 seceded states were known as the "submissionists."
Lincoln now had a reason for an armed response. He called upon the Union states to supply militiamen.
Brothers' Blood and Border Blood
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia were the Border States. They were the only slave states that hadn't seceded from the Union. The Border States contained the Ohio River, a vital necessity for both the North and South.
Lincoln's official reason for the war was to preserve the Union, not to end slavery. Supporting an end to slavery would likely have caused the pro-slavery Border States to also secede.
The Five Civilized Tribes (Native American) (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) sided with the Confederacy. These tribes were allowed to send delegates to the Confederate congress. Most of the Plains Indians sided with the Union.
The Balance of Forces
The South had the advantage of fighting defensively on its own land and it did not have to win in order to preserve the Confederacy; it just had to fight to a draw.
Abraham Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee to command the Northern army, but Lee turned down the job after his home state of Virginia seceded. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was Lee's chief lieutenant.
There were not a lot of factories in the South, but the South was able to seize federal weapons from the Union.
The North held ¾ of the nation's wealth and ¾ of the nation's railroad system. It also had nearly twice as large of a population as the South, partly because more European immigrants arrived in the North.
Dethroning King Cotton
The South counted on foreign intervention to help win the war.
The common people of Britain & France supported the North, hoping to end slavery. Because of this, these countries refrained from breaking the Union naval blockades.
The British manufacturers depended on cotton from the South, but before the war, a surplus of cotton had developed in Britain, allowing it to function without purchasing cotton from the South. In 1861, this cotton supply ran out and many British factory workers were laid off. As Union armies penetrated the South, they sent cotton to Britain. King Wheat and King Corn, which were produced in great quantities in the North, proved to be more powerful than King Cotton. Therefore, Britain couldn't afford to break the Union blockade to access cotton. If it had done this, then it would have lost the wheat and corn from the North.
The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
The Trent affair occurred in late 1861. A Union warship stopped a British mail steamer, the Trent, and removed 2 Confederate diplomats who were heading to Europe. Britain started to send troops to Canada in retaliation, but the situation was resolved when President Lincoln freed the Confederate prisoners.
British shipyards were surreptitiously producing Confederate commerce-raiders. The British ships left their ports unarmed, picked up arms elsewhere, and captured Union ships. One notable ship was the Alabama. The British attempted to end this practice in 1863.
Foreign Flare-Ups
In 1863, two Confederate warships were being built by a British shipyard. These ships had large iron rams would have destroyed the Union blockade. To avoid infuriating the North and potentially starting a war, the London government bought the ships for the Royal Navy.
The British established the Dominion of Canada in 1867. It was partly designed to strengthen the Canadians against the possible vengeance of the United States.
Emperor Napoleon III of France installed a French government in Mexico City in 1863. Maximilian was the French emperor of Mexico City. These actions were in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Napoleon hoped that the Union would not retaliate due to its weakness from fighting the Civil War. When the Civil War ended in 1865, though, America threatened to invade Mexico. Napoleon was forced to abandon Maximilian and Mexico City.
President Davis versus President Lincoln
The one defect of the South's constitution was that its own states could secede. Some state troops refused to serve outside their borders.
President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy often had disputes with his own congress. Davis's task as President proved to be beyond his powers. Lincoln and the North enjoyed a long-established government that was financially stable and fully recognized at home and abroad.
Limitations on Wartime Liberties
Because Congress was not in session when the war started, President Lincoln took several actions that normally had to be approved by Congress. He initiated a blockade, increased the size of the Federal army, directed the secretary of the Treasury to advance $2 million without appropriation or security to 3 private citizens for military purposes, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus (stated that a citizen could not be held without a trial).
Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
Due to lack of volunteers, Congress passed a federal draft law in 1863. Men who were called in the draft could pay $300 to buy a replacement. The Confederacy also passed a draft law.
The Economic Stresses of War
The North increased tariffs and excise taxes to financially support the war. It also created the first income tax.
In early 1861, after enough anti-tariff Southern members had seceded, Congress passed the Morrill Tariff Act. It was a high protective tariff that increased duties by 5%-10%. This was designed to raise additional revenue and provide more protection for the Northern manufacturers. A protective tariff became identified with the Republican Party.
The Washington Treasury issued paper money. The greenback currency was not backed by gold; it was backed by the Union's perceived credit. Because of this, the value of the greenback was constantly changing.
In 1863, Congress authorized the National Banking System. It was designed to stimulate the sale of government bonds and to establish a standard currency. Banks who joined the National Banking System could buy government bonds and issue paper money that was backed by the bonds.
The Confederate government also issued bonds and raised taxes. It was forced to print blue-backed paper money that was subject to runaway inflation.
The North's Economic Boom
Newly invented, labor-saving machinery enabled the North to expand economically. Mechanical reapers (farm machines used to harvest grain) allowed men to leave the farms for the war, while increasing harvesting capacity.
Petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania in 1859 and it led to a rush of people known as the "Fifty-Niners." The Homestead Act of 1862 provided free land to many people.
The Civil War opened up many jobs for women that were originally occupied by men. The U.S. Sanitary Commission was organized by women to provide medical support to Union armies in the field.
A Crashed Cotton Kingdom
The North's blockade severely hampered the South's economy. Transportation in the South collapsed during the Civil War. Cotton capitalism had lost out to industrial capitalism.
Chapter 21
1861-1865
Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-Day War"
President Abraham Lincoln decided to attack a small Confederate force at Bull Run. If successful, the victory would show the superiority of Union arms and might eventually lead to the capture of Richmond.
On July 21, 1861, the Union and Confederate forces met. Unexpectedly, the Confederates won as "Stonewall" Jackson held his line of Confederate soldiers until reinforcements arrived. The loss for the Union dispelled the allusion of a quick end to the war.
"Tardy George" McClellan and the Peninsular Campaign
In 1861, General George B. McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac.
Starting the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan's army launched a waterborne attack in the spring of 1862 that moved towards Richmond. He came to within sight of Richmond and attacked "Stonewall" Jackson. General Robert E. Lee launched a counterattack against the Union forces, known as the Seven Days' Battles, from June 26 to July 2, 1862 and drove McClellan's forces back to the sea.
The Northern military plan had 6 components:
1) Slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts.
2) Liberate the slaves and undermine the economic foundation of the South.
3) Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River.
4) Dismember the Confederacy by sending troops through Georgia and the Carolinas.
5) Capture its capital at Richmond.
6) Try everywhere to engage the enemy and grind it into submission.
The War at Sea
The Northern sea blockades were concentrated at the South's main ports.
To overcome the strong blockades, fast ships were developed to run through them. These ships made a lot of profit by exchanging cargoes of arms for cotton.
In 1862, the Confederates created the Merrimack and renamed it the Virginia. It was an old U.S. wooden ship that was plated with metal armor. It threatened the Northern blockades because it could crush through the Union's wooden ships.
On March 9, 1862, the Union ironclad, the Monitor, and the Confederate Merrimack met and fought to a standstill.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
After General Lee crushed McClellan's forces in Richmond, Lee moved northward. In the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862), General Lee defeated General Pope's Union forces.
As Lee moved into Maryland, he met McClellan's forces again at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. McClellan managed to halt Lee's forces after his forces discovered Lee's battle plans. Although not a victory, the Union stopped the Confederate march northward.
Antietam provided Lincoln with the military backing to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 23, 1862. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued a final proclamation. Lincoln now made the Civil War a war to end slavery.
A Proclamation without Emancipation
The Emancipation Proclamation called for the freeing of all slaves in Confederate territory, except in locations where the Union had mostly regained control. Lincoln did not require slaves to be freed in the Border States because he feared that they would secede. The proclamation fundamentally changed the nature of the war because it effectively removed any chance of a negotiated settlement between the North and the South.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1865, 8 months after the Civil War ended. This legally ended slavery.
Editor's Note: Wikipedia has a great map that shows the regions covered by the Proclamation (right side of page).
With the Emancipation Proclamation, many people in the South said that Lincoln was just trying to stir up slave rebellion.
The North now had a much stronger moral cause. It had to preserve the Union and free the slaves.
Blacks Battle Bondage
After the Emancipation Proclamation and as manpower ran low, blacks were allowed to enlist in the Union army. Towards the end of the war, the Confederacy allowed blacks to enlist, but by then it was too late.
Lee's Last Lunge at Gettysburg
After Antietam, Lincoln replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with General A. E. Burnside. Due to Burnside's massive defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862, he was replaced by Hooker. During the battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia on May 2-4, 1863, Hooker was badly beaten, but not before Jackson was mortally wounded. Hooker was replaced by General George G. Meade.
As Lee moved his Confederate force to the north again (this time to Pennsylvania), he was met by Meade's force at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863. The failure of General George Pickett's charge enabled the Union to win the battle. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was planning to deliver negotiators to Washington D.C. after Confederates won at Gettysburg. Since the Union ended up winning the battle, Lincoln did not negotiate with the South.
At a cemetery dedication in Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
The War in the West
Ulysses S. Grant became a colonel in the Union volunteer army. His first victory was when he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862. He next planned to capture a line of railroads in the Mississippi Valley in Corinth. His plan was foiled when he was defeated by a Confederate force at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862.
General Grant was given command of the Union forces attacking Vicksburg. The city fell and surrendered on July 4, 1863.
Due to back-to-back Union military victories at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Vicksburg, all Confederate hopes for foreign help were lost.
Sherman Scorches Georgia
General Grant won the battle at Chattanooga, and the state of Tennessee was cleared of Confederates. Grant was made general in chief due to this win.
General William Tecumseh Sherman led the invasion of Georgia. He captured Atlanta in September of 1864 and burned it in November. He destroyed rail lines and burned buildings. Sherman's March continued on through Georgia, intent on destroying supplies destined for the Confederate army. By waging war on their homes, Sherman also sought to reduce the morale of the men at the front. Sherman captured Savannah on December 22, 1864. He moved up through South Carolina, capturing and burning Columbia on February 17, 1865.
The Politics of War
Critics in President Lincoln's own party were led by secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase.
The Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, formed in late 1861, was dominated by radical Republicans who resented emancipation and the expansion of presidential power in wartime.
After Stephen A. Douglas, the leader of the Democratic Party in the North, died, the party split between those who supported Lincoln (War Democrats) and those who didn't (Peace Democrats).
Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham was a prominent member in a group called the Copperheads, which were radical Peace Democrats. Vallandigham was banished from the North to the South by Lincoln but he later returned after the war had ended.
The Election of 1864
Fearing defeat, the Republicans joined with the War Democrats to form the Union Party in the election of 1864. Lincoln's running-mate was Andrew Johnson, a local War Democrat.
The Democrats, including the Copperheads, nominated General McClellan was their presidential candidate.
The Northern Democrats lost the election of 1864. This was a big defeat for the South; the removal of Lincoln was the last hope for a Confederate victory.
Grant Outlasts Lee
President Lincoln chose General Grant to lead the assault on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Grant had 100,000 men and engaged Lee in a series of battles in the Wilderness of Virginia (Wilderness Campaign).
On June 3, 1864, Grant ordered the frontal assault on Cold Harbor. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed within a matter of minutes, but Grant's strategy of losing two Union men to one Confederate man worked. He captured Richmond and cornered Lee. On April 9, 1865, Lee was forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia (a significant portion of the Confederate army) at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.
The Martyrdom of Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford's Theater by southerner, John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson took over as President.
The Aftermath of the Nightmare
The Civil War claimed over 600,000 lives and cost over $15 billion (year 2001 dollars).
Britain extended the right to vote to more of its people with the Reform Bill of 1867. American democracy had proven itself and the disfranchised British people used this to justify their own democracy.
Chapter 22
The Ordeal of Reconstruction
1865-1877
The Problems of Peace
All rebel (Confederate) leaders were pardoned by President Johnson in 1868. After the war, Southern people continued to believe that their view of secession was correct.
Freedmen Define Freedom
Emancipation took effect unevenly in different parts of the conquered Confederacy. Some slaves resisted the liberating Union armies due to their loyalty to their masters.
The church became the focus of black community life in the years following emancipation. Blacks formed their own churches pastured by their own ministers, and they had an opportunity for education. Blacks could now learn to read and write.
The Freedmen's Bureau
Because many freedmen (people who were freed from slavery) were unskilled, without property or money, and had little knowledge of how to survive as free people, Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3, 1865. It provided clothing, medical care, food, and education to both freedmen and white refugees. Union general Oliver O. Howard led the bureau. The bureau's greatest success was teaching blacks to read. Because it was despised by the President and by Southerners, the Freedmen's Bureau expired in 1872.
Johnson: The Tailor President
When Andrew Johnson was in Congress, he refused to secede with his own state of Tennessee.
Johnson was listed as the Vice President on Lincoln's 1864 election ticket to gain support from the War Democrats and other pro-Southern elements. Johnson was a strong supporter of state's rights and of the Constitution. He was a Southerner who did not understand the North and a Democrat who had not been accepted by the Republicans.
Presidential Reconstruction
In 1863, Lincoln released his "10 percent" Reconstruction plan which dictated that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide by emancipation. Then, a formal state government would be constructed within the state, and the state would be re-admitted into the Union.
Due to Republican fears over the restoration of planter aristocracy and the possible re-enslavement of blacks, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. It required that 50% of a state's voters take the oath of allegiance and it demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation. President Lincoln refused to sign the bill.
The disagreement between the President and Congress revealed differences in Republicans and two factions arose within the party: a majority that agreed with Lincoln and believed that the seceded states should be restored to the Union as quickly as possible, and a radical minority that felt the South should suffer greatly before its re-admittance - this minority wanted the South's social structure to be uprooted, the planters to be punished, and the newly-emancipated blacks to be protected by federal power.
President Johnson issued his own Reconstruction plan on May 29, 1865. It called for special state conventions which were required to: repeal the decrees of secession, repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the slave-freeing 13th Amendment. States that agreed to these concessions would be re-admitted.
The Baleful Black Codes
The Black Codes was a series of laws designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated slaves. Mississippi passed the first such law in November 1865.
The Black Codes aimed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force.
Blacks were forced to continue to work the plantations after their emancipation due to the system of "sharecropping." Plantation owners would rent out pieces of their land to blacks and make the cost of rent higher than the return the land produced. The renters of the land were bound by contract to continue to work the land until debts were repaid to the plantation owner. Unable to repay the debts, blacks began to "jump" their contracts.
The codes imposed harsh penalties on blacks who "jumped" their labor contracts, some of which usually forced the blacks to work for the same employer for one year. The codes also sought to restore the pre-emancipation system of race relations. The codes forbade a black to serve on a jury or to vote. The Black Codes mocked the idea of freedom and imposed terrible hardships on the blacks who were struggling against mistreatment and poverty to make their way as free people.
The Republicans were strongly opposed to the Black Codes.
Congressional Reconstruction
In December 1865, Southern states represented themselves in Congress with former Confederate generals and colonels. This infuriated the Republicans who were apprehensive about embracing their Confederate enemies in Congress.
The Republicans had enjoyed their supreme rule in Congress during the Civil War, but now there would be an opposing party. This time, the South would have much more control in Congress due to the fact that slaves were now counted as a whole person, not just 3/5. (This gave the South a larger population.) Republicans feared that the South would take control of Congress.
President Johnson announced on December 6, 1865 that the Southern states had met his conditions and that the Union was now restored. This statement angered the Republicans.
Johnson Clashes with Congress
In February 1866, the president vetoed a bill extending the controversial Freedmen's Bureau (later re-passed). In response to this, Congress (controlled by the Republicans) passed the Civil Rights Bill in March 1866, which gave blacks the privilege of American citizenship and struck at the Black Codes. Congress overruled the President's veto for this bill.
Fearing that the Southerners might someday repeal the Civil Rights Law, Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1866. The amendment had the following components: 1) Gave civil rights, including citizenship, to the freedmen; 2) Reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress and in the Electoral College if it denied blacks the right to vote; 3) Disqualified from federal and state offices former Confederates who, as federal officeholders, had once sworn to support the Constitution of the United States; 4) Guaranteed the federal debt, while the Union assumed all Confederate debts.
With the ability to overrule a presidential veto, Congress began to develop into the dominant role in controlling the government.
All Republicans agreed that no state should be welcomed back into the Union without ratifying the 14th Amendment.
Swinging 'Round the Circle with Johnson
In anticipation of the congressional elections of 1866, President Johnson went on a tour of giving speeches denouncing the radical Republicans in Congress.
Over 2/3 of the ballots cast in the congressional elections of 1866 went to the Republicans.
Republicans Principles and Programs
Charles Sumner led the Republican radicals in the Senate for black freedom and racial equality. Thaddeus Stevens led the radicals in the House of Representatives.
The moderate Republicans, the majority in Congress, preferred policies that restrained the states from cutting citizens' rights, rather than policies that directly involved the federal government in individual lives.
Reconstruction by the Sword
On March 2, 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act. It divided the South into 5 military districts, each commanded by a Union general and policed by Union soldiers. It also required that states wishing to be re-admitted into the Union had to ratify the 14th Amendment, and that states' constitutions allowed former adult male slaves to vote. The moderate Republican goal was to create voters in Southern states that would vote those states back into the Union and thus free the federal government from direct responsibility for the protection of black rights.
The 15th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1869. It granted black men the right to vote.
Military Reconstruction of the South took control of certain functions of the president and it set up a military rule of the South.
In 1877, the last federal troops were removed from the South and Democracy returned to the South (in theory).
No Women Voters
Feminists were angered that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments gave rights to black males, but not to women.
The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South
After gaining the right to vote from the 15th Amendment, blacks began to organize politically. They were strong participators in the Union League, originally a pro-Union organization. Freedmen turned the Union League into a network of political clubs that educated members and campaigned for Republican candidates. The League also built black churches and schools, represented black grievances before local employers and governments, and recruited militias to protect black communities from white retaliation.
From 1868-1876, blacks began to hold major offices in government.
"Scalawags" were Southerners who were accused of plundering the treasuries of the Southern states through their political influence in the radical governments.
"Carpetbaggers" were sleazy Northerners who had come to the South to seek power and profit.
The Ku Klux Klan
The "Invisible Empire of the South", otherwise known as the Ku Klux Klan, was founded in Tennessee in 1866. It was formed by disgruntled white Southerners who were angered by the success of black legislators. The group worked through intimidation.
Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 in response to murders that the Klan had committed. The Acts enabled Federal troops to stop the atrocities of the Ku Klux Klan. The Acts came too late, though, as the Klan had already intimidated many people.
Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. It required the president to secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his cabinet members once they had been approved by the Senate. Its purpose was to keep the secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton (a spy for the Republican party), in the president's cabinet. When Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson
The House of Representatives prosecuted the president, while the Senate served as the court to try Johnson on the impeachment charges.
President Johnson argued that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and that he had fired Stanton to challenge the Act before the Supreme Court.
On May 16, 1868, the Senate voted the president "not guilty" by a margin of one vote. The radical Republicans failed to gain the necessary 2/3 majority vote in the Senate to remove the president.
Some Senators voted "not guilty" because they feared creating a bad precedent of abusing the checks and balances system. These Senators also did not like the economic policies of Johnson's presidential replacement, Ben Wade.
The Purchase of Alaska
In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with Russia that gave Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million.
Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. because it felt that it was over-expanded in North America. Russia also wanted to strengthen the United States as a barrier against its enemy, Britain.
Although the American people were focused on Reconstruction and anti-expansion, they supported the purchase of Alaska because they did not want to offend the Russians, who had helped them during the Civil War. All Americans did not support this purchase, though, and some referred to it as Seward's Folly.
The Heritage of Reconstruction
Many white Southerners felt that Reconstruction was more painful than the war itself.
During Reconstruction, the Republican Party wanted to protect the freed slaves and to promote the fortunes of the Republican Party. These principles removed the party from the South for nearly 100 years.
Despite good intentions by the Republicans, Reconstruction did not really change the way that the South treated or viewed blacks.
Thaddeus Stevens had a radical program of drastic economic reforms and extensive protection of political rights. This program was never enacted.