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Name:
Politics of War
Chapter 10, Section 2
USS 10
Hour:
Trent Affair
Why did Southerners think economics would
help the South?
 Cotton was “King”
 US South sold cotton worldwide
 Europe found it in Egypt / India
James Mason and John Slidell – Southern
diplomats sent to Europe to get support from Result:
Britain and France.
 Lincoln freed the 2 prisoners and
 On the Trent, Captain Charles Wilkes
declared that Wilkes acted without
boarded the Trent and arrested these
orders.
men.
 Both countries avoided war.
 British threatened war and dispatched
8,000 men to Canada.
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln’s Views on Slavery
 He did not think he had the constitutional power to
destroy slavery.
 Garrison had asked him to fight for abolition, but he
believed the war to be to save the union, not to end
slavery.
 Rationale: emancipating slaves is taking away
enemy power (slaves built fortifications and grew
food for the south).
Emancipation as a War Strategy
 Northern abolitionism was now very strong
 Britain supported emancipation, so it made it
unlikely they would support CSA.
 Freed slaves undermined Southern support
 Free blacks could join US Army
Reactions to the Proclamation
North
South
For Emancipation:
1. Gave the war a high moral purpose by
turning the struggle into a fight to free
the slaves.
2. Free blacks welcomed the part that
allowed them to join the army.
a. They had tried to volunteer
before, but were turned away.
Against Emancipation:
1. Jefferson Davis: “the most execrable
(hateful) measure recorded in the
history of guilty man.”
2. Made the Confederacy more
determined to fight to save their way of
life.
3. Confederacy knew that if it lost now,
it’s slaveholding society was over.
Against Emancipation:
1. Some Democrats believed it was a bad
idea – it would just prolong the war by
antagonizing the South.
2. Disenfranchised some Union soldiers
who did not fight to free the slaves, but
for other reasons like $ or to save the
union.
Other Political Problems
North
Suspension of Habeas Corpus
 Requires a reason for jailing
 Used to jail any Confederate sympathizers that
could have been subversive.
 When is it ok to jail people without an official
charge?
 Copperheads – Northern Democrats who
advocated peace with the South (Copperheads
are well-camouflaged).
Conscription (1863)
 Men 20 – 45
 Could buy a substitute or pay a fee to avoid
conscription altogether
 Draft Riots – 1863 NYC (July 13-16)
 Worried about Southern blacks coming and
taking whites jobs
 NYC had rampant poverty, crime
 Poor white workers and immigrants saw it as
unfair that they should fight to end slavery
South
Jefferson originally denounced
Lincoln’s suspension of civil
liberties.
 Eventually had to suspend
habeas corpus himself.
Conscription (1862)
 All able-bodied white men 1835
 17 – 50 in 1864
 Rich people could buy a
substitute
 No drafting for any owner who
owned more than 20 slaves.
 Rich man’s war, poor man’s
fight