Download Chapter 15 Secession and the Civil War 1861-1865

Chapter 15
Secession and the Civil War
1861-1865
• Abraham Lincoln
– elected to the White
House in 1860
– 6’4” tall, but seemed
taller with his long legs
and habit of wearing a
high silk “stovepipe”
hat
– born to poor and
illiterate parents
– had a few months of
formal schooling, but
mostly educated
himself
– worked as a surveyor,
shopkeeper, local
postmaster, and
merchant
– found a path to success
in law and politics
• studied law on his own
and managed to get
elected to the state
legislature
– leader of the Whig party
in Illinois
– after one term in
Congress, did not seek
re-election
• had a strong stand
against the MexicanAmerican War that
alienated much of his
constituency
– campaigned vigorously for President Zachary Taylor who
failed to give him a patronage job
– concentrated instead on building his law practice
– had long believed slavery was an unjust institution that
should be tolerated only to the extent the Constitution and
long-standing tradition of sectional compromise required
– attacked Douglas’s plan of popular sovereignty
• claimed it broke with federal precedents for containment or control
of the growth of slavery
– found favor with the
Republicans who appointed
him to run for president in
1860
• his election would provoke
southern secession
– had less experience relevant
to a wartime president than
any previous chief executive
• had never been a governor,
senator, cabinet officer, vicepresident, or high-ranking
military office
– he identified
wholeheartedly with the
northern cause and could
inspire others to make
sacrifices for it
– Civil War put the
very principle of
democracy on
trial
– showed the
shortcomings of
a purely white
man’s
democracy and
brought the first
hesitant steps
toward black
citizenship
– it was the
struggle to
preserve and
extend the
democratic ideal
The Storm
Gathers
• Lincoln’s election provoked
the secession of seven states
of the Deep South
• did not lead immediately to
armed conflict
• two things had to happen:
– 1.) final effort to defuse the
conflict through compromise
and conciliation had to fail
– 2.) North needed to develop a
firm resolve to maintain the
Union by force
• was not clear until Fort Sumter
that the sectional crisis would
have to be resolved on the
battlefield
The Deep South
Secedes
• South Carolina – was the
frontrunner of southern
rights and proslavery
agitation and the first state to
secede
• constitutional theory behind
secession:
– the Union was a “compact”
among sovereign states, each
of which could withdraw from
the Union by the vote of a
convention similar to the one
that had ratified the
Constitution in the first place
• “cooperationists” – believed the slave states
should act as a unit
– but, South Carolina’s unilateral action set a
precedent that weakened their cause
• by February 1, 1861 seven states had left the
Union – South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas
• calls for immediate secession in the Upper
South were unsuccessful
– leaders in the border slave states were more
willing than those in the lower South to seek a
sectional compromise
• delegates from the Deep
South met in Montgomery,
Alabama (the temporary
capital) on February 4 to
establish the Confederate
States of America
– acted as a provisional
government and drafted a
permanent constitution
• moderate leaders dominated
the proceedings and defeated
or modified some of the
schemes of the radical faction
of extreme southern
nationalists
– voted down proposals to
reopen the Atlantic slave
trade, to abolish the 3/5
clause, and to prohibit the
admission of free states to the
new Confederacy
President
Jefferson Davis
Vice-President
Alexander Stephens
• the Confederate constitution was surprisingly similar to the
U.S. Constitution
• showed traditional southern interpretations:
– central government was denied the authority to impose
protective tariffs, subsidize internal improvements, or interfere
with slavery in the states
– was required to pass laws protecting slavery in the territories
• provisional president: Jefferson Davis (Mississippi)
• vice-president: Alexander Stephens (Georgia)
– men who had resisted secessionist agitation
• moderation showed a
desire to win support for
the cause of secessionism
in the reluctant states of
the upper South
– radical measures like
reopening the slave trade
were unpopular there
• most Southerners had been
opposed to dissolving the
Union and repudiating their
patriotic loyalty so long as
there had been good
reasons to believe slavery
was safe from northern
interference
– Lincoln’s election caused
Southerners to fear that
Northerners would no
longer keep their “hands
off” southern slavery
• the goal of the new converts to secessionism
was not to establish a slaveholder’s utopia but
to re-create the Union as it had been before
the rise of the new Republican party
– opted for secession only when it was clear that
separation was the only way to achieve this goal
• only justification for southern independence
on which a majority could agree was the need
for greater security for the “peculiar
institution”
“the great truth that the negro is not equal to
the white man – that slavery – subordination
to the superior race – is his natural condition”
Confederate Vice-President
Alexander Stephens
The Failure of
Compromise
• moderates in the North and
border slave states were trying to
find a compromise that would
stop the secessionist tide before it
could engulf the entire South
• Crittenden Proposal
– plan that was the focus of
discussion, organized by Senator
John Crittenden of Kentucky
– called to extend the protection of
slavery in the southwestern
territories and in any territory
south of the line that might be
acquired
– recommended federal
compensation to the owners of
escaped slaves
– constitutional amendment that
would prohibit the federal
government from abolishing or
regulating slavery in the states
• William Seward of New
York leaned toward
supporting a version of
the Crittenden Plan
• Republicans in Congress
turned for guidance to
the president-elect
• Lincoln refused to make
public statements on the
secession crisis, but was
opposed to the extension
of the compromise line
• his resounding no
stiffened the backbone of
congressional
Republicans who voted
against compromise in
committee
• seceding states vowed in
advance to support no
compromise unless the
majority of Republicans also
endorsed it
– wanted to obtain guarantees
that the northern sectional
party would end its attacks on
“southern rights”
• Republicans did agree to
support Crittenden’s “unamendable” amendment
guaranteeing slavery would be
immune from future federal
action
– Republicans had always
acknowledged that the federal
government had no
constitutional authority to
meddle with slavery in the
states
• some blame Lincoln and the Republicans for causing an
unnecessary war be rejecting a compromise that would
have appeased southern pride without providing any
immediate practical opportunities for the expansion of
slavery
• the South may have been satisfied with nothing less than
federal protection of slavery in all territories and the active
suppression of anti-slavery agitation in the North
• was a mistaken northern notion that the secession movement
was a conspiracy that reflected the will of only a minority of
white Southerners
• Lincoln and the Free-Soilers believed that extending the Missouri
Compromise line would not halt agitation for extending slavery
to new areas
• only way to resolve the crisis and to reunite “the house divided”
was to remove any chance that slaveholders could enlarge their
domain
– Lincoln was convinced that backing down in the face of secessionist
threats would undermine the democratic principle of majority rule
And the War Came
• by Lincoln’s inauguration, seven
states had seceded, formed an
independent confederacy, and
seized most federal forts and
other installations in the Deep
South without firing a shot
• James Buchanan (the President
before Lincoln) had denied the
right of secession and refused
to use “coercion” to maintain
federal authority
• Star of the West – sent to
reinforce the federal garrison in
Charleston Harbor, but turned
back after being fired on
• some opposed coercive action
because they thought the
nation might be better off if
“the erring sisters” (the Deep
South) were allowed “to depart
in peace”
• when the northern business community realized
conciliation would not keep the cotton states in
the Union, they put their weight behind coercive
measures
• a temporary disruption of commerce was better
than the permanent loss of the South as a market
and source of raw materials
• Lincoln called for a cautious and limited use of
force
– defend federal forts and installations not yet in
Confederate hands
• would not attempt to recapture the ones already taken
• only four were still held by U.S. forces – two in the
Florida Keys, Fort Pickens in northern Florida, and
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor
• the Confederacy was demanding the surrender
of Sumter
• the garrison was within reach of shore
batteries and running low on supplies
– could not hold out much longer and Lincoln had to
decide whether to reinforce it or let it fall
• April 4, 1861 – Lincoln ordered an expedition be
prepared to bring food and other provisions to the
troops in Charleston Harbor
– his orders to reinforce Fort Pickens in Florida had not
been carried out
• sent word to the governor of South Carolina that
the relief expedition was being sent
• Confederate authorities decided that sending
provisions was a hostile act and attacked the fort
• April 12, 1861
– morning that
shore batteries
opened fire
– bombardment
continued for
forty hours
with no loss of
life, but with
heavy damage
to the walls of
the fort
• April 13, 1861 – Union forces under Major
Robert Anderson surrendered
– Confederate flag was raised over Fort Sumter
• South had won a victory but had also assumed
responsibility for firing the first shot
– Lincoln knew that if the South was determined to
fight for its independence, they would have to start
by taking aggressive action
• April 15, 1861 – Lincoln
proclaimed that an
insurrection against federal
authority existed in the Deep
South
– called on the militia of the
loyal states to provide 75,000
troops
• Virginia then joined the
Confederacy, followed by
Arkansas, Tennessee, and
North Carolina
– slave states of the Upper
South had been unwilling to
secede just because Lincoln
was elected, but now that
they had been called on to
provide troops to “coerce”
other southern sates, they
had to choose sides
• by firing on the flag, the
Confederacy united the
North
• Confederates moved their
capital from Montgomery
to Richmond, Virginia
• contained only eleven of the fifteen states where
slavery was lawful
• border slave states of Maryland, Delaware,
Kentucky, and Missouri were stopped through a
combination of local Unionism and federal
intervention
– Kentucky – proclaimed its neutrality and eventually
sided with the Union
• Lincoln who as careful to honor the neutrality, provoked the
South into violating neutrality first by sending regular troops
into the state
– Maryland – surrounded the nation’s capital and was
kept in the Union through the use of martial law to
suppress Confederate sympathizers
– Missouri – endured the presence of regular troops
and a pro-Union German immigrant population, who
stymied the secession movement
• brutal guerrilla fighting made wartime Missouri an unsafe
and bloody place
• General Robert E. Lee –
neither a defender of
slavery nor a southern
nationalist
– he followed Virginia out
of the Union because he
was the loyal son of a
“sovereign state”
• General George Thomas –
also from Virginia, chose
the Union, believed the
Union was indissoluble
• the two opposing sides
would initially define the
war less as a struggle over
slavery than as a contest
to determine whether the
Union was indivisible