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The Slide into War - Secession
NOV 1860 - MAY 1861
The Slide Into War –
Essential Questions
What were the causes of secession?
How did secession happen?
How would history have been
altered if SC had not seceded?
NCHE Habits of the Mind
Campaign Against Monocausality
…grasp the complexity of historical
causation, respect particularity, and
avoid excessively abstract
generalizations.
Historiography
The Lost Hope of the Confederacy,
AKA the Glorious Cause
Charles Beard’s economic
interpretation
Social history – Richard Hofstader
Civil Rights movement
Sources
Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men
Wm Freehling, The Road to Disunion, 1854-1861
Wm Freehling, The South vs The South
Harper’s Weekly, 1861
James MacPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
Russell McClintock, Lincoln and the Decision for
War
Sectional Differences
Industrial Revolution
Agrarian vs Manufacturing Economy
Urban vs Rural Population
Aristocratic vs Populist political views
The Election of 1860
Abraham
Lincoln
Republican
John C.
Breckinridge
Dem - South
John Bell
Const Union Party
Stephen
Douglas
Dem -North
1860 Presidential Election
The Slave Power
SEN James Henry Hammond’s
Cotton is King speech – MAR 1858
“You dare not make war on
cotton. No power on earth
dares to make war upon it.
Cotton is king”.
The Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858
Lincoln-Liberate white majority from the
“Slave Power’s” minority control.
I believe this government cannot
endure, permanently, half slave and
half free. Lincoln
Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour
anywhere unless it is supported by
local police regulations. Douglas
President James Buchanan
The Secession Conspirators of 1860
"Whoever waited for the common
people when a great move was to be
made? We must make the move and
force them to follow."
AP Aldrich - SC Legislator &
Secessionist on suppressing SEN
James Hammond’s SC public letter
arguing for Union - 1860
Economic
DEC, 1860
18 – NYC merchants appeal
Republicans – hard on campaign promises
NORTH – Low secession threat, sympathy for Southern cause
Social
2
J Brown
Executed
SOUTH – General reluctance to secede
27
Cobb
Resigns
Political
2
13
18
20
26
31
Buch
Comm Crittenden SC
Anderson Comm
Reinforces of 13 Comp
secedes to Sumter of 13
Sumter
disbands
Ordnance of Secession – Charleston, SC,
DEC 20, 1860
Yeas 169, Nays 0
Slavery or The Tariff?
Maxcy Gregg’s dissent
“Not one word is said about the tariff, which for so many
years caused a contest in this State against the Federal
Government."
An Appeal to the States’ Rights
Party of South Carolina - 1858
Motion to table the Declaration
fails – DEC 19, 1860
124 - 31
SCs Declaration of Immediate Causes
“The Constitution of the United States, in its
fourth Article, provides as follows: No person
held to service or labor in one State, under the
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in
consequence of any law or regulation therein,
be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due."
SCs Declaration of Immediate Causes
On the 4th day of March next, this party will take
possession of the Government. It has announced
that the South shall be excluded from the
common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall
be made sectional, and that a war must be waged
against slavery until it shall cease throughout the
United States. The guaranties of the Constitution
will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the
States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no
longer have the power of self-government, or selfprotection, and the Federal Government will have
become their enemy.
Ft Sumter –Charleston, SC
Anderson Enters Ft Sumter – DEC 26, 1860
Harper’s Weekly
Seizure of Federal Forts and Arsenals
DEC 1860 – JAN 1861
Federal Arsenal, Augusta GA
JAN, 1861
Economic
Seizure of Federal Forts and Arsenals
NORTH – Change of attitude – seizures and Star of the West
SOUTH – Shift to secession – Star of the West and Anderson’s
move to Sumter
Social
3
9
10 11
19
26
DE not
MS
FL AL
GA
LA
Secede St of West
Political
12
Seward
Conciliation Speech
27
Seward
Unionist
Ltr
29
KS
admitted
JAN 9, 1861 – Star of the West & The Citadel Cadets
From Harper’s Weekly, JAN 26, 1861
Citadel cadets firing on the Star of the West
Jan 9, 1861
Big Red
Now on display at The Citadel, Charleston
William Stewart Simkins
As a Citadel Cadet, 1861
U of TX law professor, 1899-1929
University of Texas Board Rechristens Dorm
Named After Klan Organizer
AUSTIN, Texas (July 15, 2010, Associated Press) -- A University
of Texas residence hall named after a Ku Klux Klan organizer is
getting a new identity.
The school's Board of Regents unanimously decided today that
Simkins Residence Hall -- named for William Stewart Simkins,
who taught at the School of Law for 30 years -- will instead be
called Creekside Residence Hall.
Secession in the Gulf States
DEC 20, 1860 – South Carolina
JAN 9, 1861 – Mississippi
JAN 10, 1861 – Florida
JAN 11, 1861 – Alabama
JAN 19, 1861 – Georgia
JAN 26, 1861 – Louisiana
FEB 23, 1861 – Texas
Alabama Secession
January 11, 1861
61 X 39
Yea Nay
Republic of Winston
1st AL Cavalry USV
Secession in Georgia – January 19, 1861
Howell Cobb
Alexander Stephens
167 X 129
Yea
Nay
-“Razor-thin vote possibly manipulated by Gov Joe Brown
- Mountain counties along TN border threatened to secede.
- Counties along FL border become hideouts for deserters.
FEB, 1861
Economic
Seizure of Federal Forts and Arsenals
NORTH – Waits. Attitudes toward def of Fed property harden.
SOUTH – Attitudes on secession harden listening to Republicans
Social
1
11
15
18
22
23
Lincoln Lvs
Lee
Conf
Lincoln
TX
Position Sprngfld Recalled Inaug Baltimore Lincoln
Speech
in DC
Political
1
Border St
Conventions
11
Non-inter
Guarantee
27
VA Peace
Conference
Adjourns
Confederate Inauguration
FEB 18, 1861
Jefferson
Davis
Alexander
Stephens
The Bonny Blue Flag
The Stars and Bars
Lincoln vs Seward
“I can’t let Seward take the first trick.”
A Lincoln
MAR, 1861
Economic
1
Confederate Tariff
21
Morrill Tariff
NORTH – Lincoln realizes South is serious.
SOUTH – Wait and see.
Social
1
5
Cab Mtg Reinf
Forts
11
Confed
Const
19
Fox to
Chas
Political
2
4
6
8
Seward 36 th Douglas Conf
Ultimat Cong defends Comm
Corwin
Lincoln
28
Fox
rtns
27
28
Rept on Scott
Unanimity Evac
29
Reprov
Sumter
Lincoln’s Inauguration MAR 4, 1861
“I have no purpose, directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the states
where it exists. I believe I have no
lawful right to do so, and I have no
inclination to do so.”
A Lincoln, 1st Inaugural
March 3, 1861
Lincoln’s Republican Position
“My official duty is to save the Union and is 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 it by freeing all the
slaves, I would do it.”
Letter to Horace Greeley, August 1862
The Corwin Amendment the “Ghost” 13th Amendment
ART. 13. No amendment shall be
made to the Constitution which will
authorize or give to Congress the
power to abolish or interfere,
within any State, with the domestic
institutions thereof, including that
of persons held to labor or service
by the laws of said State.
March 2, 1861
“Attempting to conquer the seceded states will
entail a 2-3 year war that will require a
massive army, incur tremendous loss of life on
both sides and cost at least a quarter-billion
dollars. And the result will be 15 devastated
provinces not to be brought into harmony
with their conquerors but to be held for
generations by heavy garrisons – at an
expense quadruple the net duties or taxes it
would be possible to extract from them –
followed by a Protector or Emperor.”
GEN Winfield Scott, MAR 3, 1861 in a letter to
Lincoln
Confederate Constitution – MAR 11, 1861
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying
or impairing the right of property in negro slaves
shall be passed [by Congress]
Line item veto – could be over-ridden by
2/3rds vote
Single 6 year presidential term
Every law, or resolution having the force of law,
shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be
expressed in the title
APR, 1861
Economic
1 – Morrill Tariff in effect
NORTH/SOUTH – Wait for the inevitable.
Social
1
4
6
Anderson Linc Chas
1 week
ords batts
reprov fire
Political
4
6
Lincoln Notifies
Meets
SC of
Guvs
Reprov
10
12
14
15
Fleet Sumter Sumter
75K
sails attacked evac
volunteers
18
Lee offered
Fed Army
20
Lee
goes
South
Fort Sumter – April 12, 1861
The 75K Call for Volunteers
Why 75K??
The exact number of arms confiscated
by the Disunionists from Southern
forts and armories.
MAY, 1861
Economic
Both sides see a short war.
Social
Political
6
AR
secedes
20
NC
secedes
23
VA
secedes
Secession
DEC 20, 1860 – South Carolina
JAN 9, 1861 – Mississippi
JAN 10, 1861 – Florida
JAN 11, 1861 – Alabama
JAN 19, 1861 – Georgia
JAN 26, 1861 – Louisiana
FEB 23, 1861 – Texas
MAY 6, 1861 - Arkansas
MAY 23, 1861 – Virginia
MAY 20, 1861 – North Carolina
JUN 8, 1861 – Tennessee
OCT 31, 1861 – Missouri
NOV 20, 1861 - Kentucky
The Slide Into War –
Essential Questions
What were the causes of secession?
How did secession happen?
How would history have been
altered if SC had not seceded?