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ANTE-BELLUM ERA AND THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR
Objective: Understand the forces behind a new American Intellectual trend, and how those forces
contributed to the political events that led to the separation of North and South in 1860.
I. The American Mind in Mid Nineteenth Century
A. Questioning the Neo-Classical ideal which said:
1. Truth comes from reason and harmony
2. Study Greece and Rome
Parthanon
Second Bank of the US
3. Enlightenment and science
a. Jefferson
1. Classical Symmetry vs. Medieval a-symmetry
Monticello
2. Stress Noble emotions
a. Courage
b. Leadership
c. Patriotism
Death of Wolf-West
Agripina
3. Meritocracy should rule
Washington-Jean-Antione Houdon
b. Franklin
1. Science over Religion
2. Education over Mysticism
Artist and Museum-Peal
B. Bold New America needs a Bold New Culture
1. Jackson and the rise of the common man
a. Politics
b. Social--genre
Breaking Home Ties--Hovenden
Shooting for the Beef--Mount
Coming to the Point--Mount
Story Telling Time-Bingham
Verdic of the People--Bingham
Fur Traders--Bingham
2. The West, Myth and Manifest Destiny
a. Tyler and Texas
b. Polk emodied the Young American Ideal
c. Results were War and Territory
3. Rise of Transcendentalism--The American Romanticism
a. Transcendentalism-Anti-science, Worship individual, Glorify nature
1. First: Subordinate thought to feelings--Stress inner self
2. Second: Worship uniqueness of individual--Faith in self-Emerson
a. Uniqueness and self reliance in Industrial society
b. Institutions Unimportant--parties and churches
1. Escape past --not be bound by it.
2. Escape chains of the Enlightenment
3. Transcend reason with intuition and faith in self
3. Third: Glorify nature--Solace in Wilderness--key is solitude
a. Mystical intuitive look at life--alienation & melancholy
1. Self is part of nature and nature is God
2. Man is insignificant in Nature
3. Simplify-Thoreau
Watteau: Game of Love
Beeches--Durand
4. Express unique American values--free from Europe
a. Democracy, individuality, freedom
b. Myth of the West-Increase Nationalism--Manifest Destiny
1. F. J. Turner “Significance of theFronteir”
2. Wm Berkeley “Westward the Course of Empire. . .”
Sierra Nevada--Bierstadt
Twilight in Wilderness--Church
b. On the Other Hand:
1. Alexis de Tocqueville
a. Democracy in America--Middle class
b. America has "No institutions of inequality"
2. Second: “Dark side” of humanity: Melville
a. Dangers facing a nation
b. Overreaches because of pride
c. Excessive exalted sense of destiny
Savage State
Pastorial State-Cole
Consumation-Cole
Destruction-Cole
Return to Natural State-Cole
c. These ideas are underneath.
1. They are the foundation on which we then act politically.
2. No instittuions to restrain human nature.
The Turbulent 50
I. Reaping the Havoc of Manifest Destiny and Expansion
A. Mexican War, Territory, Slavery and the Compromise of 1850
B. Election of 1852--No major issues
1. Democrats - Franklin Pierce
a. Pro-Southern “Doughface”
b. Seen as best man to enforce the Compromise
2. Whigs-Winfield Scott--redo American System
a. Haughty
b. Whigs dump Filmore and go military again
c. Whigs split
a. S. Whigs doubt loyalty to Fugitive Slave Law
b. Huge win for Pierce
3. Election showed which party best supported Compromise 1850
II. Peace for a moment
A. Historiography! Slavery in the territories—it won’t go away.
1. Charles W Ramsdell: “The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion.”
a. Cotton could not spread past East Texas
b. Nature had stopped slavery.
c. It would probably die by 1880
d. No need for Republicans or abolitionists
2. Harry Jaffa: “The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion.”
a. Cotton and slavery were not the same thing
b. Blacks could work other fields
c. South could expand internally
1. South made profit (Stampp)
2. Southerners needed to expand
d. Thus, need Lincoln and Wilmot to stop expansion
B. Manifest destiny fever
1. Young Americans sought expansion-Japan next
a. Commodore Matthew Perry
b. US sails into Edo Bay—1853—Trade treaty
2. Gasden Purchase-1853
a. Everyone loves the Gadsden purchase
b. At least most people do
3. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty-1850
4. Perhaps Cuba and Nicaragua too
a. Ostend Manifesto
1. Pierce secret negotiation
2. Cuba for $100 million
b. Filibusters to Nicaragua
C. At this point—“The Conjunction”
1. Politics—Nationalism—Sectionalism
a. Manifest Destiny and expansion
b. Wilmot
c. Compromise
2. Economics role—RR, Cotton, Industry
3. Social issues
a. Art
b. Philosophy & Literature
D. Events move swiftly
1. Enforcing compromise of 1850 and fugitive slaves
a. Victory for the South was costly
b. Resentment grew in the North
2. Harriett B. Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin
a. Stung Northern consciousness
b. Killed chance of taking Cuba
3. Despite resentment, Slavery difficult to touch
a. Robinson
b. No policy available to stop it
c. Abolitionists had little power
1. Garrison could only burn Constitution
2. Southerners held great pol power
d. Personal Liberty Laws - Unconstitutional
1. Prigg v. Penn
2. Ableman v Booth
4. Southerners reacted quickly with hostility to Stowe's portrayal of slavery
E. 1854 “Everything flies apart”
1. Stephen A. Douglas --"I'll be like Polk"
a. Young American
b. Election showed Americans want MD
1. Let’s expand (Whitman and Melville)
2. New markets—industrial growth
3. Use RR to knit nation together
4. Aggressive foreign policy
2. KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT 1854
a. Use Railroad to knit nation together (JCC)
1. Chicago over St. Louis
2. Gadsden threaten Northern interests
3. Introduce new plan to counter Gadsden
4. Illinois as hub—“Douglas 1856”
b. To stop S. filibuster, repeal Mo. Comp 1820 (S. wants route thru Az)
1. Allow Popular Sovereignty to decide
2. Douglas expected expansion fever to unite Dems
c. Not anticipate catastrophe
1. Destroyed compromise of 1820 and 1850
2. Ended Northern help on Fugitive Slave Law
3. N. passed more Personal Liberty Laws
F. Kansas-Nebraska Bill caused chaos.
1. Many Northerners saw 36'30" as sanctified
2. South cool at first but felt needed to support
3. Harmony of Compromise of 1850 gone
a. Tension—Wilmot Dem in North unhappy
b. S. Dem supported SAD
c. Then in 1854 election 65 N. Dem defeated--their numbers drop
from 90 to 25 in HOR
d. Killed chance to buy Cuba
4. Whigs also split
a. Southern Whigs joined S. Democrats
b. Northern Whigs looked for a party
5. So, political chaos ensued
6. As a result, Rise of two new parties
a. Republican rose as nativism fizzles (Northern Whigs and Free Soil
Dems join Republicans)
b. Know Nothings become the American Party (Cotton Whigs+Anti Imig)
7. While parties fell into shambles, Kansas exploded
a. N. E. Immigrant Aid Soc. vs Boarder Ruffians
b. Lecompton v. Topeka
1. First elections
2. Two capitals
3. One based on fraudulent election; the other illegal
c. Pierce did nothing
d. HOR sat frozen in inaction
e. John Brown Raids
8. Debate on Kansas in Congress
a. Key issue: SAD and Pop Sov now? When?
2. Hyperbole and Sumner-Brooks Affair galvanized the North
G. In the Midst of all this--Election of 1856
1. Democrats
a. Dump Douglas
b. James “out of the country” Buchanan
c. Keep Pop Sovereignty
2. Whigs gone--Split into two new parties
a. American Party-(Know Nothing) Anti Immigration’--Fillmore
b. Republicans-John C Fremont-”Free Soil”
"I oppose twin barbarians of slavery and polygamy in territories"
3. Buchanan wins
a. But Republicans see IL, PN, IN, NJ
b. Find a more conservative candidate wo past
H. Was war inevitable at this point? "Irreconcilable Conflict"?
1. Buchanan said let the Supreme Court decide slavery in the territory issue
2. Dred Scott v. Sanford-1857 and return of R. Taney
a. Slaves can’t sue
b. 5th Amendment; 36’30” void
c. “Thunderclap”
d. South delighted
e. SAD “stunned”
3. Lecompton again
a. Buchanan told Congress to Pass it.
b. But ironically, Douglas now opposed Lecompton
1. As a result, the South turned against Douglas
2. After the Dred Scott decision, the South did not need Douglas
c. So, by mid 1850s where does American stand on issue of slavery?
1. Is Wilmot the same as abolition?
2. Should South worry about Wilmot rhetoric?
3. What if Ramsdell is right?- If so, is Douglas also right?
4. If Douglas is right, is Wilmot a concern?
d. But, if Jaffa is right, is Wilmot a threat to slavery in the territories?
1. If North follows Wilmot, is slavery in South threatened?
2. If Phillips & Wilmot are right, is Southern society threatened?
3. Finally, is the Republican party a threat to slavery in the 1850s?
4. Rise of Lincoln –1858: Abe became a national figure-Threat to Slavery?
a. Lincoln-Douglas Debates—High level debates made AL nationally known
1. Abe’s thesis was-“Douglas is part of a plot to expand slavery”
a. Lincoln said: SAD could not be counted on to stop slavery
1. “I am different from SAD” (Of course, he has to say this)
2. “House Divided” (Radical or not?)
a. Nation has reached a crisis point between slavery
and freedom
b. A house divided against itself cannot stand
c. KA & Dred Scott are evidence of plot to nationalize slaves
d. Stop spread & put it on road to ultimate extinction
e. This is as radical as Abe ever gets.
“Let’s take slavery out of the realm of moral and legal dispute. It is an issue of ‘free labor and self
interest’. There will be another Supreme Court decision declaring that the Constitution does not
permit a state to exclude slavery. We shall lie down pleasantly, dreaming that the people of
Missouri are on the verge of making their state free and we shall awake to the reality instead that
the court has made Illinois a slave state... Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of
ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the
states, old and new”
b. Douglas response—“You see!! I told you. Lincoln is an Abolitionists”
1. He plans to use the Republican party to destroy slavery
2. He is pro abolition; he is a negrophile.
3. SAD=UB Phillips here
c. Lincoln answered at Charleston, IL
“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of brining about in any way the social and political equality of the white a
races (applause); that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualify
hold office nor to intermarry with white people. And as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain togeth
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any man am in favor of having the superior posit
assigned to the white race.
“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate
amalgamation of the white and black races.” A natural
disgust in the minds of all white people.
Douglas is trying to tar and feather me with this, and l don’t buy it.
Douglas wants you to believe that I’m for the amalgamation of the races, and I’m not. Now l
protest against this counterfeit logic, which concludes that because I do not want a black woman
for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave
her alone. ln some respects she is certainly my equal; in others
she is not; but in her natural right
to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of anyone else, she is my equal,
and the equal of all others.
This notion that blacks have natural rights does not mean that they have equal standing in society.
Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of mixing blood by the white and black races.
Agreed for once-a thousand times agreed. There are white men enough to marry all the white
women, and black men enough to marry all the black women, so let them be married.”
b. Then Lincoln asked “The Question” at Freeport
1. “Do you believe in the Constitution?”
2. “If so, how can you still support Popular Sovereignty?”
3. To win in Illionis—SAD kills himself with Southern Dems here.
a. He needed Northern support
b. Yes, by denying police protection
5. The John Brown Raid--1859
a. Harper’s Ferry
b. Was violence the only way?
1. Perhaps, but what was northern attitude about Brown?
2. Lincoln: "Brown was like others who brood over the oppression
people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them.
He ventures out and ends in little else than his own execution."
c. So, Traitor or Martyr?
1. Brown seen as hero to Abolitionists in the North
2. Southerners killed 1000 blacks
d. Historical Debate—James Gilbert-Martin Duberman
of a
JAMES N. GILBERT
“A BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF JOHN BROWN: MARTYR OR TERRORIST”
I. Terrorism has become more important in modern America after 1993 and 2001.
A. Always associated with foreign ideas not as American.
B. Thesis: Brown’s action in the 1850 made him comparable to modern acts of terrorism
C. Definition: “Unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to
intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance o
political or social objectives.”
1. Psychologists believe that the most common type of terrorist has a psychopathic or
sociopathic personality.
2. Classic traits of psychopath—impulsiveness, lack of guilt, inability to experience emotion.
II. How did Brown fit this definition?
A. He was clearly a criminal.
1. He embezzled, assaulted with a deadly weapon
2. Murdered five Kansas men.
B. He was delusional. He said:
1. Society is sick and cannot be cured by half measures of reform.
2. The state is in itself violent and can be overcome only by violence.
3. No legal remedy is possible
4. Violence is justified to ensure a "higher" morality.
5. “Purge is land with blood.”
C. Why do some historians praise him?
1. Because he fought slavery.
2. For this some forgive his disturbed personality and deadly past.
MARTIN DUBERMAN,
"THE NORTHERN RESPONSE TO SLAVERY"
I. Abolitionists were most “moral” people in America
A. Denouncing them as fanatics in an evil world tells more about historians than it does abol
1. Abolitionists were small group in 1830 and 1860.
2. Many N. were anti-slavery, but became anti-extentionists because abolitionism too radical
a. Americans never believe in radicalism.
b. IT SUGGESTED DEFECTS IN THE AMERICAN DREAM-go gradually be pragmatic
c. But gradualism--only an evasion of the problem
3. N. said: Slavery will infect free North if it continues to spread.
a. This meant--not abolishing slavery but curtailing it.
b. So Northerners chose non-extension
4. But would the South end slavery even if contained
a. Jaffa: NO
b. Money and race would prevent it.
5. So why didn't Northerners take stronger actions?
a. Abolitionist had unsavory reputations
b. Moreover, they feared of the doctrine of "IMMEDIATISM"
1. Immediatism meant an assault on private property--essence of all liberties.
2. Northerners also feared for the Union
a. If Slavery were harmed, the South would leave.
b. That would destroy the union
6. Also Northerners were racists
7. However, ABOLITIONISTS WERE DIFFERENT
a. Not believe in the myth of containment and opposed gradualism as a "cop out".
b. Critics ridicule their personalities (DONALD)
c. But Abol not care about the public attitude, they were concerned with the right.
1. Abolitionists believed in emancipation immediately.
2. Some critics of abolitionists were also opposed to slavery.
3. But they say we must go slowly
d. Abolitionists said S. never abolish slavery gradually--Do it now!
8. Critics attacked the abolitionists' personalities.
a. "Abolitionists are disturbed fanatics"
1. This type of criticism begins with:
2. BECAUSE THEY PROTEST, THEY ARE DISTURBED
3. This view says injustice is never enough to justify being radical
b. MD: Some may have been neurotic, but actions more important than character
1. Duberman asked: Could protesting against slavery be too strong?
2. Saying they were crazy makes it easier to ignore the evil of slavery.
3. Should the Abolitionist be called insane, or was it the North?
Stanley Elkins “Slavery”
I. Stamp ignored Institutions--Institutions determine individual actions - beliefs
A. Slavery effected personality of slaves--produced SAMBO personality.
1. Infantilism occurred quickly
2. Detached from culture
a. Shock and adjustment to Closed System
b. No prior culture remained- thus, “depersonalization”
c. Replaced by dependency on parental type
B. Germany - Concentration camps - Closed system
1. Jewish inmates dependent upon “significant other”.
2. Existence depended on the SS guards--Jews identified with guards.
3. Difficult to shed role after freedom
C. Slavery also “Closed Systems.”
1. Survive required childlike conformity.
2. Authority from planter father figure-Real father no authority
a. Obedience, fidelity, humility, docility, cheerfulness.
b. Cruelty unnecessary
c. Once internalized not reversed overnight.
3. Few avoided dehumanization-Douglass (Northern blacks--MLK v Malcolm X)
D. Why no sambo in Latin America?
1. Both experienced “middle passage with master in charge.”
2. But in LA institutions protected personality-Priests-Catholic church
3. LA slave revolts - not in the U.S..
Eugene Genovese-“Role Jordan Role”
I. Slave personality not impacted by slave institution--“Slavery bound master & slave in bitter
antagonism-creating a relationship so complex that neither could express simplest human
feelings without references to other.”
A. PATERNALISM
1. Mutual obligations, duties, responsibilities, and even rights
2. Recognized slave’s humanity.
3. Weapon for resistance - protected against dehumanization
B. Religion also
a. Black church crucial.
b. Christianity was a cry for freedom, like Moses.
C. Family
1. Black family buffer
2. Slaves married and cared for young.
D. Resistance
1. Arson, theft, runaway,
2. Best was “putten on ol massa”
E. Thus, the slave system produced a unique ideology or world view
_____________
6. Civil War Causation--So now what is war causation?
a. Irrepressible-Irreconcilable Conflict
b. Blundering Generation
I. The Election of 1860
1. Republicans: Lincoln v. Seward
2. Democrats split
a. Southern Democrats demand SAD resend “Freeport Doctrine.”
b. Northern Dem leave and meet later – Douglas
c. Southern Democrats pick VP John Breckenridge
3. Const. Unionists-John Bell
a. Old Whigs and Know Nothings.
b. Uphold the Constitution and keep things the Union as it is.
4. Douglas becomes national statesman at this point
a. Election did not indicate strong sentiment for secession
b. Breckenridge favored extension, but not disunion
1. Breckenridge got less votes than Douglas and Bell
2. He did not carry his own state of Ky
5. Lincoln wins with 39% of the popular vote
a. Even if all other candidates joined together—he still wins
b. It signaled Northern dominance of the political processes.
J. So, Cause of the War?
1. Blundering Generation--Randall
2. Irrepressible Conflict--Schlesinger
K. South Carolina secession-December 16, 1860. But this time not alone
“It is too small to be a republic on its own, and too large to be an
insane asylum.”
1. By February 1861, the Deep South was gone
2. Buchanan not Forceful: “Can’t stop war by starting a war.”
3. Some said: “We just need Old Andrew Jackson for one hour”
4. Northerners including Lincoln said: “Wait and see.”
L. Lincoln’s First 100 days-lack of leadership?
1. South Carolina secession and its effects
a. South not in trouble
1. Supreme Court in Southern hands
2. Republicans not control Congress
3. Constitution will not touch slavery
4. Why let the Canadian border drop to the Ohio River?
b. So why secession?
1. Weary of abolitionist nagging
2. North won’t fight
3. No more debt and vassalage to north
4. Eventual threat to tariff
5. World Wide nationalism stirred south.
6. But more worrisome to the South:
a. North too powerful
b. Now “They” have Presidency & supported John Brown
c. Rep also passed those dreadful Personal Liberty Laws
d. And last, Lincoln’s election was an insult
e. In the future the North will “run all over the South.”
1. Dozens of free states will form from N territory
2. Immigrant population moves North
3. Eventually, the North will control the Supreme Court
c. At this point Crittenden proposed his Compromise
1. “Never abolish slavery—it will always be protected in the S”
2. This was ok with Lincoln
3. 36-30-- Lincoln said “No!” (Here is Lincoln at most radical)
III. Lincoln’s First Administration-- Early Problems
A. Cabinet
B. Fort Sumter
1. Resupply?
2. In April sent Star of the West
3. SC fired on Ft Sumter
4. Lincoln called for 75,000 troops
5. Upper South now leaves the Union
C. Was it a Blunder?
1. Why Ft. Sumter? Was it a strategy to start the war?
2. All other Federal Institution were gone. What’s so special
3. So, cunning president? Or was he a poor diplomat?
4. Did this help the Union? Unlikely, since upper S now gone
5. Now they have a heart beat
6. Given Lincoln’s attitude on slavery only Sumter explains the war?
D. The importance of the border states
1. AL recognized he had to shift right to hold KY
a. In 1862 he saw importance of Border States
b. Without them the war was lost
2. So, now he builds a union coalition
a. To do this need to appease Crittenden--why not earlier?
b. “I want God on my side, but must have Ky.”
1. Abe had to hustle to Crittenden
a. “You can have slavery and be in the Union too.”
b. “I won’t invade you—you will be treated as a neutral”
2. Then in 1861, Abe helped Crittenden win elections
a. Md had strong Secessionist movement
b. AL jailed 23 Md legislators--Unionists men won
c. Douglas helps too and then died
d. Crittenden talked about AL differently
1. He is good man
2. AL help JJC win & disfranchise opponents
e. Awkward: Freemont freed fugitive slaves--AL countered it
f. AL was building a new Union coalition--and it wasn’t anti-slave
g. This is different AL--why not say this before?
J.G. Randall"The Blundering Generation"
I. It was a needless war-- “A repressible conflict”
A. Conditions during the War were very poor.
1. Medicine was bad.
2. Only 170,000 dead identified. 1000s of graves unmarked
B. Hard to realize how America stumbled into this slaughter.
1. It was an era of error, intolerance, and selfish grasping. It was an era of “blundering”.
2. Wars are not for trade or economics. War stops trade.
3. The Tariff was an annoyance, not a cause--Tariffs existed before without war
C. Instead, a small minority in the North and South caused the war.
1. Neither “Fire eaters” nor radicals become leaders during the war.
2. Their role was to start the trouble--Garrison did not enlist
D. Fanatics increased rhetoric
1. Fire eaters wrong: Lincoln not a threat to the South
a. Abe voted for the same people that 1000s of Southerners did.
b. Republicans did not wish to smash slavery in the S.
2. S. not a threat to spread slavery so Wilmot not a threat
3. The Civil War was caused not by slavery but unreasoned leadership
4. In the end, it was fanaticism.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
“Morality, War, and Slavery.”
I. The Civil War was a moral war
A. Revisionists said: War as needless. They argued 3 points:
1. War caused by irresponsible emotions of politicians
2. Sectional friction occurred needlessly by failure of political leadership
3. Cause was not slavery--that was a fabricated cause.
B. Revisionists are wrong: They must show how a non-blundering generation could have solved
slavery problem and avoided the war.
1. Can we discern a way? If not, can't condemn politicians then for something you can’t do now.
2. Revisionists said: Non-violent abolition was possible.
a. They said: Internal reform was possible, but abolitionist botched it by terrifying the South.
b. They said: Slave system would become exhausted and die
c. They said: Government might also have paid for emancipation
C. What about these arguments?
1. The idea that internal reform would have worked but abolitionists botched it has no proof.
2. Economic exhaustion--South would need to see slavery as unprofitable, but it never did.
3. Govt compensated emancipation never had a chance.
4. Revisionists also said: Other countries abolished slavery, why couldn't the U.S?
a. This was not valid because American slavery was sectional not a national issue like Brazil
b. It was a constitutional issue as well, and it was racial.
D. Revisionists failed to show how slavery could have ended without war.
1. They said: Just keep the war away long enough and it will end.
2. The revisionists ignore the moral issue here
3. Slavery was evil and its defenders hurt democracy.
a. The revisionists saw no moral urgency, but they deplored the “fanatics” who saw urgency
b. Revisionists ignored N. desire to end slavery. (Here Schlesinger does not cite evidence)
4. North opposed expansion of slavery on moral grounds like UK opposed expansion of Nazi
a. We learned in WWII that we are foolish to think evil will be cured by progress.
b. Thus, this was a moral war that abolished slavery.
E. Critics of Schlesinger:
1. Schlesinger said there is no way to abolish slavery without violence
2. If a “moral” war, who in the North said “Let’s fight a war to end the immorality of slavery”
3. Schlesinger has confused cause with results of the war.
4. So, back to the revisionists. The war was a mistake.
Eric Foner
"Slavery and the Republican Ideology"
I. Slavery was the Cause of the Civil War.
A. Republicans had an anti-slavery ideology-world view.
1. Revisionists said war causation was not slavery but “blunder”
a. Not slavery because abol refused to get close to Republicans
b. Garrison refused to associate with Republicans
2. Actually, abolitionists had close ties to Republican leaders (UB)
a. Senator Charles Sumner was cordial with abolitionists.
b. Abol also contributed to Republican campaigns
3. In addition, N Dem supported anti-slavery crusade (Wilmot)
a. Northern Democrats angry S forced slavery into territories
b. Most N agreed the N opposed slavery as abstract principle
c. Even Douglas said "No one in the N. advocates for slavery
4. There was a unanimity in the N (world view) against slavery
B. So, Rep created an anti slavery ideology that blended personal & sectional interests
1. Slavery threatened a man’s free labor
a. “Republicans' hatred of slavery rested on their loyalty to free labor.”
1. A person must be free to work and make the most for themselves
2. This was Lincoln in his House Divided Speech.
b. Republicans favored a society of small scale farmer and entrepreneurs
c. An aggressive slave power threatened a free man’s pursuit of happiness.
d. But also the slaveocracy threatened Union
1. We will wake up and find we are all slave or all free
2. The South will not be content until it makes us all slave.
2. If unionism was only issue for Republicans, Lincoln would compromise with South (JJC)
a. But it wasn’t. Slavery was a key to the Northern ideology.
b. Lincoln refused Crittenden Compromise
c. This ideology rested on:
1. resentment of Southern political power,
2. devotion to the Union,
3. anti-slavery based on free labor,
4. and moral revulsion of slavery
3. “All this showed that the North and South represented two social systems whose values,
interests, and future were in sharp, perhaps mortal, conflict.”
a. NY Times: "There is an irreconcilable difference in our interests. Conflict is inevitable."
b. An attack on the southern society was thus at the heart of the Republican mentality.
C. So, the North had a world view, but so did the South and slavery was the key
1. Both ideologies believed that their social system had to expand for their own survival
and they had to stop the evils of the other.
a. Rep said a free society with promise of social mobility required territorial expansion.
b. But Southerners also had a grand desire to expand.
c. So West represented the prize for two expansive societies--Only one could prevail.
2. If the South accepted non-extension, it would be admitting that slavery was wrong
3. So, Southerners never took seriously Rep claim that they would leave slavery alone.
a. By attacking slavery in the territories, the Republicans had attacked slavery itself
(This is key to Foner--Non extention is same as abolition)
b. S thought “non-extention” was just the first step in a N. strategy to attack slavery in the S.
5. So Southerners recognized that slavery would never be permanently safe.
IV. War and Politics
A. Northern Domestic issues
1. Balance of Forces between North and South
2. South better off than 13 colonies, but North had major advantages
a. Huge farms and factories
b. Man power 22 to 6 (+3.5 million slaves)
c. 3/4 all RR (30,000 mi)
d. All sea lanes for shipping to North
B. Foreign involvement (always important)
1. S. counted on the silent looms of England
2. UK has huge over supply of cotton + Stowe
C. The Confederate Constitution & Government
1. Fatal Weaknesses of Confederate Congress--States hold power
2. Jefferson Davis
a. No party system--it was Bell v. Breckenridge in 1860
b. Anti-secession silent-Fire-eaters no CSA offices
c. So factions grow-Davis v Governors (try keep militia) Big weakness
d. Douglas supporters left reluctantly and kept quiet
D. Politics of War
1. What about anti-Slavery in the North?
a. Lincoln’s position in 1861
b AL to blacks: Voluntary colonization?
c. AL: War for Union (to appease JCCrittenden)
2. How do we view the South?
3. Slavery?
a. Non-extent ion is moot--Congress abolishes slavery in territories
b. Wilmot passes
c. Then 1862 Radicals abolished slavery in DC
4. AL said nothing but sensed change:
a. He proposed compensation in Border states--“Drop Dead”
b. AL frustrated with JJC--To Greeley: "I'll Free them if it helps"
( My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,
and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would
and if could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others
alone I would also do that. But no one will be free if we lose--so it’s Union first)
5. At this point, Northern Generals need came and said we black troops
6. That settled it-Emancipation in two parts.
a. Slaves in South—"Forever free"
b. Border states angry but radicals too
1. Crittenden felt betrayed, but by ‘62 he could not secede
2. Radicals claimed he had not touched slavery at all.
c. Regardless, there was now no possible compromise with the South
7. On the other hand, historians who love Lincoln have another view:
a. There had to be a higher meaning to all this death and suffering.
b. God has made this a “moral” war and transformed America.
c. “It simply could not be a blundering mistake.”
d. Over the course of Civil War, he saw Union and Slavery as linked
1. Lincoln historians begin: “He always opposed slavery”
a. But they know this is a tricky statement so they add:
b. “Opposition to the expansion of slavery was a cause he
championed.”
2. Then they conclude: “The war was for union, but he’s on
Rushmore because he freed the slave.”
3. Alen Guezelo:
a. “The war itself was the crucible for Lincoln’s
transformation. It
transformed his vision of why the
Union was worth preserving.
To Lincoln, the Union
stood for something other than just an aggregation that
was perpetual-it stood for something significant. This
transformation resulted from the intersection of the
Declaration of Independence, and the carnage that the
war brought to Americans, both North and South.”
b. The evidence was his famous House Divided and of course,
the Gettesburg Address in 1863-- “He used the Declaration to
attack expansion of slavery.” (But of
course, equality here meant for immigrants to the territories)
4. Of course, all this caused a huge mixed reaction in North
a. Election of 1862
1. Democrats win
2. Claim Republicans were pro black
b. Lincoln shifted again
c. Downplayed emancipation
8. Civil Rights for whites
a. Undeclared war raised question: What is treason?
1. It is good for Rep to label Dem as traitors
2. 1862 suspend Habius Corpus--arrests begin-13,000
b. Made it hard to ask logical questions:
1. How is war going, Abe? (N. not win many battles)
2. Is secession legal?
3. Why don’t we negotiate?
c. Clement L. Vallandingham-”Copperhead”
1. Pro South
2. Negotiate
a. Abolition caused war
b. Republicans are negrophiles
3. Military charged him with treason
d. So 1862 AL in a fix
1. Alienated boarder states
2. Angered Radicals
3. Revitalized Democratic Party
e. AL back to middle
1. Not discuss Black rights
2. Only preserving Union
3. ‘Sympathetic” plan for returning Southern States
V. Economic Stress and Economic Boom of the War
A. Northern wealth
1. Recreated American System
a. National Banking System (using multitude of state banks)
1. Greenback and $2 Billion in bonds
2. Income tax + Tariff
b. Homestead Act in 1862
2. Tariff, Bank, Internal Improvements
B. South refused to tax
1. Printed $1 Billion
2. Inflation
VI. The War
A. Union strategy-total war
1. Pivotal Point: Antietam and emancipation
2. Lee’s Last Lunge (Gettysburg)
a. Why go North?
1. Needed supplies --Va war torn and poor
2. Help Democrats in North with upcoming elections in 62
a. Free Maryland from Lincoln's bayonet
b. Effect: Britain and France will recognize the South
b. Failure got the South nothing
3. Grant captured Vicksburg & Lincoln found a general
B. The Election of 1864
1. AL controlled convention and got re-nomination
a. Platform changed name of party from Rep to Union
1. Lincoln wanted to shed image as pro-black party
2. AL picked Andrew Johnson as new running mate—A War Democrat from Tenn.
b. Too few wins—too many deaths worried AL
1. Lincoln’s election in doubt
2. Radicals pass Wade-Davis bill (50% swear loyalty)
3. Lincoln’s Veto
4. Radicals react by calling for new convention
2. Then Democrats nominated George B. McClelland
a. Peace plank-Played into Lincoln’s hand
b. Helped AL -- looks very pro-north
1. Back to center
2. “Candidate of the Three Bears”
c. Sherman helped
d. Real difference between parties was the extremes
1. Extreme Democrats were pro South
2. Extreme Republicans were abolitionists
e. Lincoln won a 2nd term with his southern strategy
C.
Grant Outlasts Lee
D. Martyrdom and Consequences
A Fool’s Errand: Reconstruction wo Radicalism
Objective: Understanding the problems that Republicans faced as they attempted to bring the white and black South
into the Union.
Thesis: The Era of Reconstruction was largely the South’s fault due to its intransigence over the slave issue.
Significantly, the Republican plans for protecting the Freedmen had little chance of success in the 1870s.
I. Political issues 1863-1868
A. How to Redeem the Confederate States?
1. What changes necessary in South? (Drastic? Gradual?)
2. What would status of Freedmen be? (Citizens? Equal?)
3. Who would be in control? (Radicals? Moderates?)
4. How Drastic? (Albion Tourgee)
5. What would “black freedom” look like?
B. Historical debate
1. Radical view
a. Albion Tourgee’s A Fool’s Errand. 1880
1. Northerner carpetbagger
2. Only 5 years
a. Threatened
b. Disheartened-Discouraged
b. Tourgee’s thesis: Changing S culture--a generation
1. North no heart - negrophobia
2. Violence discouraged N.
3. Preferred to exploit West
2. Dunning School--Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
a. The "tenacious myth" of Reconstruction
1. "Poor Scarlet and the abuse of the South
2. Corruption by Carpetbagger, Scalawag, and Freedmen
b. Denounce Republican Radicalism
3. Revisionist-1960
a. Kenneth Stampp
b. Democracy comes to Mississippi
1. Blacks controlled only 5% of offices
2. Corruption in the North worse
4. Post-Revisionists-1980 – Back to Tourgee
a. Civil Rights ended after M. L. King’s death
1. 2nd Reconstruction ended in disappointment
2. Northern whites abandoned Civil Rights
b. Democracy doomed
c. Southern intransigence
d. US racist-U.B. Phillips was right
e. After Obama?
C. Presidential Recon: How to bring back South & Freedmen
1. Moderates:
a. Lincoln’s 10% plan
b. Tension between Abe and Congress (AL too lenient "With Malice . . .")
2. Radical Republicans: Wade-Davis
a. Lincoln’s 10% is ‘anathema’
b. AL will not protect freed slaves
3. Andrew Johnson - the Conservative Republican
a. Personality and background shape his view
1. Little man who opposed large Southern planter
2. But he was also very opposed to black rights
b. Johnson is alone in summer of 1865 and overseas the beginning of
Presidential Reconstruction and return of the Confederate States
1. New Southern leaders are elected with 10% plan
a. Formerly Union men
b. Johnson’s Southern governors (favors 10% plan)
2. AJ insisted they disfranchise large planters & repeal secession
3. Also the new governments had to repudiate Confederate debt
4. And then ratify 13th Amendment (Irony-increased S. reps)
5. But Johnson sought little change to Southern social-racial attitudes.
c. But during summer of 65, problems emerged & the North grumbled
1. Johnson issues blanket pardons to former Confederates
2. Southerners elect former Confederates to office
3. Southern resistance continued in form of violence and riots
4. More worrisome to Radicals, the South passed Black Codes
D. Congressional Reconstruction 1865-1877
1. Northern reaction to ‘intransigence of the South.”
2. But it was the radical Republicans who grumbled loudest
a. Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner led the way
b. Stevens was notorious for his sarcasm
c. The Radical demands were steep
1. Black rights
2. Voting for freedmen
3. Land ownership
4. Harsh treatment of “traitors”
d. Moderates feared a white backlash like happened in 1862
3. Moderates rejected Radicals and Johnson
a. Formed Join Committee
b Created Freedmen’s Bureau Bill in 1866
1. Designed to assist freedmen with education
2. Supply food to those in need.
c. Civil Rights Act of 1866
4. Johnson veto Civil Rts & Freedman’s Bureau
a. CR was first veto over-ridden by Congress in history
b. Freedmen's Bureau passed again in 1866
5. Then Radical and Moderate Republicans passed 14th Amend
a. Citizenship for all people born in the US-5th applied to states
b. Equal protection for all citizens of the US (Crucial for US Business later)
c. No guarantee black vote
d. CSA debt repudiated
e. All pardons for Civil War issues to be done by Congress
f. Embroiled in Women’s issues
6. Ratification of the 14th Amendment
a. Johnson opposed 14th so, "Swing Around the Circuit"
b. Election of 1866--Rep sweep
c. Clearly most Northerners reject AJ
d. Support some rights for Freedmen
e. But most Northerners opposed social equality
f. Republicans now control ¾ of Congres
7. Reconstruction Acts of 1867-- Congress took charge--Radical??
a. Divided South into Five military districts
b. Call Const conventions & rewrite constitutions using Wade-Davis
c. All Confederate states must ratify 14th and protect freedmen
d. Radical?
8. How enforce Reconstruction?
a. Impeachment
b. Results
F. Politics after Johnson
1. Election of 1868--Grant vs. Horacio Seymour
a. The General vs War Democrat
1. Who should run Reconstruction?
2. Republican Radicals call for Black Vote--Moderates resist
3. Dem: "Return to White supremacy in the South"
4. Dirty campaign: Bloody shirt vs "Negrophile"
b. Grant wins but. . .
1. The “Negro” Factor
2. Grant 3 million to Seymour 2.7
3. 700,000 blacks in south
4. Lose 2/3 majority, but Rep have Grant now
2. So, now Republicans turn to 15th Amendment--Suffrage for Freedmen
a. Republicans see results and change mind
b. Only 10 of 21 Northern States allowed Black voters
G. Historiography
1. William Gillette: Moderation was the key
a. The 15th Amendment was a moderate issue
b. Passage required compromises
c. In the end it was only 1/2 a loaf
1. No provisions for black office holders
2. No positive phrasing
3. But the real reason Republicans passed it was
not for blacks in the South, but to guarantee black votes in the N.
a. Elections in Northern states always close
b. Republicans saw black votes as important to win close elections
c. They knew Southerners would eliminate black votes there
d. So, they proposed a “modest” amendment
d. Extreme Radicals like Sumner voted vs it
e. He hated its moderation
1. Idealists - “moralistic in tone, absolutist in demand, rigid in method”
2. They ruin compromise
2. Politicians should not be idealistic.
a. Help self and help others at the same time.
b. Without expediency there would be no 15th Amend
c. Republican moderates could not get more than this in 1868.
d. “All men can vote” would never have passed the North
e. So it was good politics to compromise and take ½ a loaf
f. the compromises that produced the 15th Amendment were “both
good politics and the highest statesmanship.”
d. John and LaWanda Cox-Radicals sincere-Had too much to lose
1. Gillette wrong -- too cynical about Radicals
2. “The Republican party played a crucial role in committing US to black
voting not because of pol expediency but in spite of political risk.”
a. "Race prejudice was so strong in the North that Negro suffrage
constituted a clear danger to Republicans.”
b. Exploitation of prejudice by Democrats was blatant and unashamed."
1. Republicans took a beating in 1862 after Emancipation
2. And again in CN, NY, PA, and NJ after passing Reconstruction Acts
3. Also a suffrage amendment in Ohio was defeated handily in 1867.
4. There was a common hostility to black suffrage everywhere in the North.
5. So Republican sponsorship of Negro suffrage meant flirtation with political
disaster.
e. Gillette rebuttal
1. Coxes are simpy liberals & don’t understand that the 15th was all about “Motivation”
2. The story of 15th was more complex than the Coxes suggested
a. In 1867 Republicans did not champion suffrage.
1. They saw Northern states opposed to it and defeated it every time it came up
2. Rep really wanted black vote in the North in order to win close
3. They used questionable methods to get the 15th passed.
a. They praised black voting in the S and did not discuss it in N in 1868
b. They used “lame duck” Rep state legislatures that were still in secession
to ratify the 15th
b. Also, the key to their success was not what was in but what was left out of the
amendment
1. Again, it was phrased negatively
2. No black office holding since moderate whites in the North would not allow
office holding
3. Nothing illustrated this more than politics in Connecticut
a. Before 15th was ratified, CN Reps pressured Grant Administration to get the
Negro vote.
1. They said “The crucial CN gubernatorial election was at stake”
2. In the end, Dems won the governorship by 843 votes
3. A year later the 15th was ratified, Reps won by a slim margin of 100 votes.
4. The Hartford Courant declared “victory was "due to our colored voters”
b. Reps knew this, acted upon it, and said so at the time in Connecticut and
throughout the North.
f. The Coxes wrote one last time
1. It was true, Republicans could always count on black support
a. But that did not mean that Rep passed the 15th in order to get it.
b. Small number of blacks they got would be counter-balanced by whites who
would vote vs them.
2. “So, if they were really interested only in their own political well being, they
would have seen the 15th as too big a risk for the small gain to be gotten.
3. If Gillette was right, Republicans would NOT have worked to pass this legislation.”
4. What was surprising then was not that they avoided the the issue of black
suffrage, but that they were its champion.
g. Why is it important which one is right?
1. Given violence from the KKK, Freedmen needed white allies
2. But which Republicans could they count on--Gillette or Cox?
h. Booker T. Washington
1. “Cast down your buckets. . .”
a. Cement friendship among races
b. No need to start at the top
2. North must help--especially money
a. Earn a dollar, not spend it on art
b. Don’t need an elite
c. Black rights must come from the South not North
d. Black must act moderately
e. Should have the vote, but we can wait and earn it
i. William Edward Burghardt DuBois
1. B.T submits to white racism
a. He accepts black inferiority
b. If you surrender rights, you aren’t worth civilizing
2. As a result, Blacks were disfranchised & caste occurred.
a. BT contributed to these conditions
b. Blacks must have political rights
c. BT’s propaganda made white S feel ok to lynch
d. Blacks must stand on their own
3. But Blacks must have white help too--NAACP
h. Derrick Bell
1. Golightly is black conservative economist
2. Jasper is black Baptist minister
3. Opponents of Alien plan:
a. Liberal whites: “It can’t happen here”
b. Businessmen
1. We will lose customers
2. Coal companies don’t want new energy
3. Need blacks to oppress--or poor whites may rebel
4. Abraham Specter opposed trade.
4. New Dread Scott Decision
a. Where is Nat Turner?
b. Is this Washington or DuBois
i. Why is this important?
II. Black and Tan Politics in the South
(If you were advising the president regarding reconstructing the Confederate states, which historian would you
and what would be your advice regarding the freedmen?)
A. Southern Republicans--disorganized group.
1. Carpetbagger & Freedmen
2. Scalawag--White Southerner, but who are they?
a. Pejorative term used by former Confederates
b. What role did they play?
B. The new S Rep governments faced severe political and economic challenges
1. Ravage of war required massive revenue
2. Bridges, railroad, and artificial limbs required taxes be raised
3. It put pressure on “poor Scarlet” to find money for the taxes.
C. Successes and failures
1. Stampp was right: No elected black Governors-Few elected to office
a. Freedmen sought land, education, and the vote
b. Southern whites sought to limit gains for blacks
2. Reconstruction governments
a. Rebuilt schools, roads, bridges
b. They raised taxes to Northern levels
3. Was there Corruption as Dunning charged?
4. Grant encountered other issues
a. More Corruption-Credit Moblier, Whiskey Ring and Indian Ring
b. Panic of 1873 and Greenback issue
1. Should we return to hard money?
2. West wanted more “soft” money.
D. Social Changes in the South during Reconstruction
1. South destroyed in war
2. $4Billion in slaves evaporated
a. Need new labor system to replace slavery
b. Sharecropping and Crop Lien
E. Republican Retreat from Reconstruction
1. Republicans rely on 15th Amendment
2. Terrorism increased vs. S. Rep. govts.
a. “Mississippi Plan”
1. Terror tactics by White South
2. Congress enacts Force Acts-1870-71 (also called KKK Acts)
b. By 1875 the 15th Amendment in jeopardy
c. Reign of terror was effective because of Northern indifference
1. Grant refused to send troops to help after 1874
2. Blacks were intimidated and few voted
3. Election 1872-H. Greeley Liberal Republicans
a. Rise of Liberal Republicans shows disgust with Grantism
1. "Lets have peace and end Reconstruction"
2. Civil Service Reform to end government corruption
3. Amnesty for all ex-Confederates
b. Old Republicans: "Stay the course"
c. By 1874-Democrats win House of Representatives
d. Northerners tired of hearing about Southern problems
e. "Let's focus on the economy.
4. Last Ditch effort—radical final try
a. Civil Rights Acts of 1875
b. Supreme Court Overturned in 1883
1. Called the Slaughterhouse Cases
2. Supreme Court declared 1875 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional
F. Election of 1876--Reconstruction’s Last Gasp
1. Rep R. B. Hayes vs. Dems S. J. Tilden
2. “Miss. Plan” & disputed results in LA, FL, SC
3. Compromise of 1877 and a truce to end Reconstruction
a. Southerner in cabinet
b. Remove last union troops
c. Blacks in hands of white southerners
d. South is back in control of race issue
VII. Langston Hughes “Long View” and W.E.B. DuBois and Black Reconstruction
Langston Hughes “The Long View: Negro”
Emancipation: 1865
Sighted through the
Telescope of dreams
Looms larger,
So much larger,
So it seems,
Than truth can be.
But turn the telescope around,
Look through the larger end-And wonder why
What was so large
Becomes so small
Again.
WEB Du Bois “Black Reconstruction”
After that glorious moment, when men threw off the chains of oppression from mother England, America thus stepped
the first blossoming of the modern age and added to the gifts of the Renaissance and to the vision of democratic self-go
What an idea! And what a land of promise! The new nation possessed endless natural resources such as earth seldom e
before; it held a population infinite in variety, self-reliant and unafraid of man or devil.
Yes, America was the supreme adventure in the last great battle of the West, which would release the human spirit from
and set it free to dream and sing.
And then some unjust God leaned, laughing, over the ramparts of heaven and dropped a black man in the midst.
It transformed America. It turned democracy back toward Fascism; it restored caste and oligarchy; it replaced freedom
it removed the name of humanity from the vast majority of human beings.
But not without struggle. Not without the writhing and the pitiful wail of lost souls. White men said: “Slavery was wron
wrong. God made black men; God made slavery; the will of God be done; Slavery to the glory of God and black men a
servants; slavery as a way to freedom--the freedom for whites; white freedom as the goal of the world and black slavery
thereto. Up with the white world, down with the black!
In 1870 the former slave stood free; Stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. The whol
America was thrown to color caste. The colored world knelt down before America; A new slavery arose, and Democrac
remembered only in the hearts of black folk.
Tony Kirshner screen play for movie “Lincoln”
"I think that what Lincoln was doing at the end of war was a very, very smart thing. And it is maybe one of the great tra
American history that people didn't take him literally after he was murdered. The inability to forgive and to reconcile w
South in a really decent and humane way, without any question, was one of the causes of the kind of resentment and pe
alienation and bitterness that led to . . . the rise of the Klan and Southern self-protection societies.
"The abuse of the South after they were defeated was a catastrophe, and helped lead to just unimaginable, untellable hu
suffering. So had Lincoln not been murdered, and had he really been able to guide Reconstruction, I think there's a good
believe that he would have acted on those principles, because he meant them. We know that he meant them literally, be
told [Ulysses S.] Grant to behave accordingly."
9. Was the Compromise of 1877 inevitable?
10. Eric Foner asked you for your opinion on the questions:
“Was Reconstruction radical?” What is your answer to Foner and why?