Download The Civil War - Social and Political Themes

The Civil War
Social, Economic, and Political
Themes
Two Societies
North
• Has huge advantages in
population and industrial
development
– North has one factory for
every southern
industrial worker.
– Produces 17x more textiles; 32x
more firearms; 20x more pig iron.
– has 75% of the nations railroads
• Yet many of these advantages
took time to mobilize.
South
• Largely an agrarian
society
• Had resources of
food, draft animals,
and “king” cotton.
• Southerners lived in
a more martial
society – military
institutes; militia;
well-trained officers
The Border States
• Upper South adopts a “wait and
see” attitude before Ft. Sumter.
• Importance for the Confederacy
– Natural borders (Ohio River)
– Access to river traffic
– Vital resources, wealth, population
• Major railroads run through Va
and Md
• KY is the major horse/mule
producer
• Tennessee is #1 grain producer
• Following Ft. Sumter,
VA/NC/TN/ARK secede.
• Significance in the North
– Every state that remains loyal is a pyschological
triumph for the idea of union.
– Lincoln well aware of the political, economic, and
strategic advantages of the border states.
“I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the
whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri,
nor I think Maryland. These all against us and the job on
our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to
separation and once, including the surrender of this capital
[Washington, D.C.” - Abraham Lincoln, Sept. 1861
• Lincoln uses war powers to hang onto Border
States.
– Dramatized in Maryland, where Lincoln had to travel
to his inauguration in disguise and the 6th regiment,
en route to Washington, was attacked by 10,000
confederate sympathizers in Baltimore.
– Moved legislature to Fredericksburg, Maryland (proUnion);
– Lincoln orders the arrest of 19 state legislators and the
mayor of Baltimore and held without trial.
– Ex Parte Merryman – Supreme Court rules that such
arrests were illegal; only the Congress can suspend
habeus corpus and only if the public’s safety was
endangered.
• Slavery and the Border States
– The border states forced Lincoln to adopt a
careful balancing act with regard to slavery
– 1861 – Gen. John C. Fremont orders
emancipation of slaves in Missouri; Lincoln
overturns the order.
– 1862 – Lincoln proposes to compensate states
that voluntarily emancipated slaves…backs
off plan when border states protest.
– 1862 – Confiscation Act passed…rebel
property may be confiscate (includes slaves) =
practical emancipation in the slaveholding
states.
• By summer 1862, Lincoln informs cabinet that he
intends to emancipate slaves, but was waiting
for a military victory to do so.
– Prepares north by endorsing proposals for creating
free black colonies in Haiti and Panama.
– Casts emancipation as a means of saving the Union:
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; and if I could do it by freeing some and
leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about
Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps
to save this Union.
Emancipation
Proclamation
- Released Sept.
1862; effective
January 1863
- Limited to areas
in rebellion
- Authorizes
enlistment of
“freed persons”
Reactions to the Proclamation
Abraham has gone and done it at last. Yesterday will be a day
hallowed in the hearts of millions of people of these United
States, & also by friends of liberty and humanity the world
over. - Cpl. Josian Chaney, MN
Thank God the contest is now between Slavery and Freedom,
and every man knows what he is fighting for. - Pvt. Constant
Hanks, NY
I am no abolitionist, in fact I despise the word, but as long as
slavery exists…there will be no permanent peace for America,
therefore I am for killing slavery. - Pvt. Henry Henney, OH
I did not come out to fight for the nigger or the
abolition of slavery. - Lt. Col. Henry Hubell, NY
• A study of Union soldiers diaries & letters
by James McPherson revealed that 36%
supported the E.P, 16% opposed it, and
the rest did not register an opinion.
• Ultimately, the EP provides:
– A moral impetus to the Union effort;
– An obstacle for European recognition of the
CSA;
– An opportunity to enlist soldiers.
African-Americans and the War
African-American Soldiers
• Following the Emancipation Proclamation,
many begin pushing for enlistment of AfricanAmericans in combat.
• Black leaders want to join the fight as a step
toward earning political rights:
First comes the cartridge box, then the jury box, and
finally the ballot box. – Frederick Douglass
• African-Americans had served in the war since
1861
– Cooks, laborers, teamsters, grave-diggers, carpenters,
sailors (1/4 of the US Navy)
• As casulaties rise, interest in arming black
soldiers rises.
Some tell us ‘tis a burning shame
to make the naygers fight.
And that the thrade of bein’ kilt
Belongs but to the white.
But as for me, upon my soul!
So liberal are we here.
I’ll let Sambo be murthered instead of myself
On every day of the year.
The Politics of the War
• Foreign Affairs
– Both sides realize attitudes in Europe are
critical.
• South:
– CSA wants recognition to gain credibility and
aid.
– Without foreign aid, the CSA’s long-term
survival was doubtful.
– European powers are neutral at the start…but
South believes that the need for cotton will
lure them to support the CSA.
• North
– William H. Seward (Secretary of State) threatens to
declare war against Britain if it intervenes.
– WHS is criticized for recklessness, but the policy
works.
– Issues:
• Alabama Claims
• Trent Incident
• Laird Rams
– But aside from these, no support.
New Problems, New Solutions
• Funding the War
– Taxes:
• Pay 21% of the North’s cost / 1% of the South’s
• Tariffs
• North institutes an income tax
– Bonds
• $2 billion worth bought by the North
• South is less successful in selling bonds
– Paper Money
• CSA prints $100 million in 1861, followed by millions more.
Faces runaway inflation.
• Union issues $150 million in “greenbacks” in 1861.
Moderate inflation (80%)…leads to unhappiness.
• Manpower
– Desertion a problem
• 1 of 7 in North desert; 1 of 9 in South
– Attracted with bounties.
• Bounty jumping
– Draft
• 1862 - CSA passed first Conscription Act in US History
– 18-35 with exemptions: buy substitutes; over 20 slaves
– Expanded to 17-50 in 1864; black companies by 1865
• 1863 – Union begins drafting
– $300 exemptions (“Three hundred dollar men”)
– Draft Riots in NY in July
• Jeff Davis
– Struggles to control his legislature
– States rights doctrine
• Lincoln
– Peace Democrats
• Copperheads
• Lincoln betrayed the Constitution and the Working Class
• Irish immigrants and Butternut region
– Republicans
• Some thought Lincoln was too lenient
• Election of 1864
– National Union Party
Nationalism in the War
•
Republican Congress
–
–
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Life goes on during the war…
With southern states rights representatives and
senators gone, the Republicans pass a series of
nationalistic measures:
National Banking System
Homestead Act of 1863
Pacific Railway Act
Morill Land Grant Act – create colleges in western
states.
Morill Tariff