Download Civil War Domestic Issues

Civil War Domestic Issues
•Northern
Domestic Issues –
Prosperity and Expansion
•Morrill Tariff 1861 – Southern members left
Congress and Tariff rates were raised.
•First
to moderate Walker Tariff of 1846 levels,
but then later raised sharply.
•Tariffs sheltered new factories
•Soaring Prices (inflation) hurt day laborers
and white-collar workers to some extent
•Manufactures
and Business people
raked in the “fortunes of war”
Civil War Domestic Issues
•Northern
Domestic Issues –
Prosperity and Expansion
•Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 – 30,000
acres of land each Congressional
representative granted to each state.
Proceeds of land sales to be used to finance
public colleges
•National Bank Act 1863 – Stabilized
Currency & replaced confusing state bank
note system.
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Civil
War bred first millionaire class in
America
– Previously only extremely wealthy
 Graft
– more prevalent in North
– More to steal in North
 Military
need and innovative machinery
largely ended the production of custom
tailored clothing
– Graduated sizes were used for the 1st time
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Military
need and innovative machinery
largely ended the production of custom
tailored clothing
– Graduated sizes were used for the 1st time
 Mechanical
Reapers – as potent as guns
– Freeing farm boys to fight and feed them
at the same time
– Also produced vast surpluses of grain that,
when sent abroad helped to dethrone “King
Cotton”.
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Population
Movements
– “Fifty Niners” – petroleum gushers led
to rush of “Fifty – Niners” to
Pennsylvania in 1859.
 Birth
of new industry “petroleum plutocracy”
and “coal oil Johnnies”.
 Southern
Economy was squeezed to
2/5 its Northern counter part.
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Population
Movements
– Pioneers continued to move west during
the war. (300,000 people)
Magnets:
– Gold nuggets
– Homestead Act of 1862 – 160 acres of
land virtually free to any citizen willing to
occupy it for five years.
Propellant:
– Federal draft agents
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Women
in the Civil War
– Women to men in factory jobs
 Before
the war / 1 in 4
 After the war / 1 in 3
– Some followed loved ones to front lines
dressed as men
– Sent on spy missions
– Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (America’s first
female physician) organized the U.S.
Sanitary Commission
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Women
in the Civil War
– Clara Barton & Dorothea Dix helped to
transform nursing to a respected profession
– Sally Tompkins – ran a Richmond infirmary
for the Confederacy. Was given the rank of
Captain by President Jefferson Davis.
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Lincoln’s
enormous political problems
– Seen as inexperienced and unfit
– Challenged by members of his own
cabinet, (Chase and Seward)
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Lincoln’s
enormous political problems
– Expansion of war powers
 Call
for troops to repress rebellion w/out
declaration of war
 Arrest of unfriendly newspaper editors
 Suspension of habeas corpus
 Proclamation of naval blockade w/out
Congressional approval
 13,000 political opponents arrested for varying
periods
 Refusal to obey writ issued by Chief Justice Taney
(Ex parte Merryman)
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Lincoln’s
enormous political problems
– Emancipation Proclamation – January 1,
1863
 Freed
only slaves behind Confederate lines,
those beyond the reach of the Union Army
 Won foreign support,
 Outflanked the Radicals and confounded the
Confederates
 Gave Union soldiers the power to liberate
slaves,
 Enabled former slaves to serve in the Union
army,
 Strengthened Union’s hand
Civil War Domestic Issues
 Lincoln’s
enormous political problems
– Presidential Election of 1864
 Abolitionists
urged the Republicans to choose a
candidate who would wage total war against the
South
 Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson as his running
mate to attract “War Democrats” and formed the
Union Party
 Democrats nominated McClellan and a platform
which called for a truce and settlement with the
South
 Lincoln once again won in the electoral college,
but only had a 400,000 vote majority in the
popular vote
Northern Foreign Issues
 Relations
with England
– English support for the Confederacy
 Upper
class feared leveling effect of Union
victory on English society, felt socially close
to the Southern plantation aristocracy, and
needed cotton
 Some liberals and lower-class English
favored the South, seeing the Civil War as a
rebellion against Northern tyranny or as a
struggle to preserve the Union
Northern Foreign Issues
 Relations
with England
– English support for the Union
 Many
English workers favored the North
because a Northern victory would mean
emancipation of the slaves
 Others felt western wheat was more critical
to England than Southern cotton
Northern Foreign Issues
 Relations
with England
– Trent Affair (November 1861) –
American warships stopped a British
ship and removed two Confederate
diplomats.
 Britain
threatened war unless they were
released
 Sec. of State Seward ordered the men
released, although Northern sentiment
opposed backing down
Northern Foreign Issues
 Relations
with France
– Union defeats in 1861 and 1862
convinced France that the South would
win.
 Lincoln
delayed both France and England’s
recognition of the Confederacy by issuing
the Emancipation Proclamation
 France placed Archduke Maximilian on the
Mexican throne in challenge to Monroe
Doctrine