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Lincoln and the Civil War
Aim: How did Lincoln preserve the Union?
I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution,
the Union of these States is perpetual....
There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none,
unless it be forced upon the national authority. …there will be no
invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere....
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
- President Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
War Aims
 North – Preserve the Union
 South - Establish an
independent republic; defend
their “way of life.”
The North’s “Anaconda Plan”
Advantages of the North
A. 19 free states/4
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
slaveholding states
Pop. 22 million
90% of manufacturing
20,000 m. of RR
Controlled ¾ money
supply
Navy and Merchant
Marine
Support of the masses in
Britain
Advantages of the South
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
11 compact states
Shorter supply lines
Defensive War
Better morale
Knew the territory
Better Generals: Lee,
Jackson
Outdoor life – horses and
weapons at an early age
Friends in aristocratic
Britain and France
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief
 Lincoln quickly took on
extralegal power:
 expanding the budget
 calling up state militias
 taking other actions
without congressional
sanction
 Lincoln was the first
president to act as
commander-in-chief,
directing military policy,
tempered by his intention
to seek North-South
reconciliation.
Funding the War and Raising Troops
A. Lincoln helps the
northern economy:
1. passes first federal
income tax in U.S. history
2. created a national
currency, paper $$$
called greenbacks
3. Sold bonds
4. Established a draft to
raise troops
- “$300 men”; Draft Riots
Foreign Policy
 British interests – cotton from South, grain from North,
shipbuilding industry, abolition of slavery.
 Trent Affair – Union warship forcibly removed 2 confederate
diplomats from British Trent (this upset Britain)
 Alabama – British built and armed confederate ship
(“commerce raiders”)
 Strained Anglo-American relations, but Charles Francis Adams,
an American diplomat, helps improve relations
 Laird Rams – Adams warns Britain not to build any more
 France violated Monroe Doctrine in Mexico (Maximilian)
III. Limiting Dissent and Civil Liberties
A. Tried civilians in Military
Tribunals
Supreme Court declared
this unconstitutional in
Ex parte Milligan
-
B. Arrested disloyal
legislators in Border
States, which were
strategically important
C. Placed Kentucky under
martial law, emergency
rule by military
 Suspended writ of
habeas corpus: allowed
indefinite detention
of anyone suspected
of disloyalty or
activity against the
war

Article I, Section 9 of the
Constitution says, "The
privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus shall not be
suspended, unless when in
cases of rebellion or
invasion the public safety
may require it."
Emancipation Proclamation
A. Background:
1. Confiscation Acts (1861, 1862) – slaves would
be freed if they fell into Union hands
2. Lincoln supported gradual emancipation and
colonization
3. Emancipation would undermine Confederate
diplomacy
4. Battle of Antietam served as springboard for
Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
Announced emancipation of all slaves in rebel
states unless they rejoined Union by 1/1/1863
1.Didn’t free slaves in Border States
2.European public opinion swings toward
Union
3.Redefined the nature of war as one to end
slavery
The Great Emancipator?
Significant Civil War Battles
• Battle of Fort Sumter (1861) - First battle, Confederacy
takes Charleston Federal fort.
• Battle of Antietam (1862) - Strategic Union victory.
McClellan ends Lee's invasion of North, bloodiest day of
war.
• Battle of Gettysburg (1863) - Union victory: Lee loses to
Meade, Pickett's Charge fails, ends second invasion of
North.
– Gettysburg Address: “New birth of freedom…”
• Battle of Appomattox Court House (1865) - Final
engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert
E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered
to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Aftermath
• Heavy losses in life and property
• Preservation of the Union
• Expansion federal power
– Reaffirmed federal supremacy over states’ rights
• End of slavery (13th Amendment)
• Industrial and commercial expansion in North
• Growth of the West
– Homestead Act and Transcontinental RR
• Rise of the “New South”
– No more slavery; need for industry.