Dialectic Notes 20 minutes

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Dialectic Notes 20 minutes

• Skim chapter 4
• Take a page of notebook paper and divide it into
  two columns.   One should be about 1/3 of the
  page and the other should be about 2/3 of the
  page.   The right side of the page should be used
  for your notes about what you read, and the left
  side of your page should be what you think about
  what you read.  That is, questions that might
  arise as you read, reactions to what you read,
  thoughts prompted by what you read, particular
  things you want to emphasize, etc.  It's a good
  idea to title and date the top of your page so
  you know what it was you were taking notes about

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Politics and the Economy During the Civil War
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Lincolns Early Presidency

• Inaugural Vowed to preserve the Union to "hold,
  occupy, and possess" Federal property in
  the South -- "Physically speaking, we cannot
  separate"
• Did not specify how he would do this
• Was careful not to offend border slave states

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Reaction

• Republicans Democratic unionists agreed with
  speechs firmness moderation
• Lower South regarded it as equal to a declaration
  of war.

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Attack on Fort Sumter

• Located at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, one of
  the last remaining federal strongholds in the
  South
• The day after inauguration, Lincoln notified by
  Major Robert Anderson that supplies to the fort
  would soon run out and he would be forced to
  surrender

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Lincolns Choices

• No supplies would mean surrender would ruin his
  credibility to "hold, possess, and occupy"
• Reinforcements would lead to an armed clash which
  would begin the Civil War, making the North
  responsible for starting it

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Lincolns Action

• Solution Notified South Carolinians of an
  expedition to provision the garrison, not to
  reinforce it.
• Lincoln would let the South start the war if it
  wished

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What Happened?

• April 9, 1861 -- A ship carrying supplies for
  Fort Sumter sailed from New York
• Seen by S.C. as an act of aggression
  "reinforcement"

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The Souths Response

• Fort Sumter bombarded by more than 70 Confederate
  canon
• Anderson surrendered after a day 1/2
• Andersons men allowed to return North
• No loss of life during bombardment fort heavily
  damaged

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Civil War Video
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Pre-Sumter View

• Before the attack, many northerners felt that if
  the South wanted to go, they should not be forced
  to stay
• The attack on Sumter provoked the North to fight
  for their honor the Union
• The attack portrayed the South as the aggressors

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Lincoln Early Actions

• Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen
• Later called for 3-year volunteers because the
  militia was not big enough
• Blockade of Southern seaports

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Southern Response

• Northern calls for troops was viewed in the south
  as Lincoln waging war

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Border Slave-States

• MO, KY, MD, later WV
• Remained in the Union since the North did not
  start the war
• Contained over 50 of the Souths white
  population fewest number of slaves

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Careful Lincoln

• Politically, Lincoln had to keep border states in
  mind when making public statements
• Declared the primary purpose of the war was to
  preserve the Union at all costs.

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Aim of the War

• Lincoln Declared the North was not fighting to
  free the slaves
• An antislavery declaration would have driven the
  border states to the South
• Lincoln heavily criticized by abolitionists who
  saw him as a sell-out

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Statement by Lincoln

• "My paramount object is to save the Union, and is
  not either to save or destroy slavery... 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 save
  it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I
  would also do that." (Aug 22, 1862)

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The Five Civilized Tribes

• Sided with the Confederacy including Cherokees
  (who owned slaves), Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws,
  and Seminoles

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Confederate Assets
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What the South had to Do

• Only had to fight defensively behind and tie
  needed fewer troops
• The North had to invade, conquer, occupy,
  forcibly return vast Southern territory to the
  Union

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Other Strengths

• Superior Moral Cause Slavery notwithstanding,
  the South was fighting for self-determination,
  self-govt, its social structure, homes, and
  fundamental freedoms (for whites)
• Talented military officers while top Union
  generals were inept during the first three years
  of the war until they were replaced

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Robert E. Lee

• One of greatest military leaders in American
  history
• Opposed to slavery and spoke against secession
  earlier
• Offered command of union army by Lincoln

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Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

• Lees chief lieutenant and premier cavalry officer

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Southern Men

• Of fighting stock and self-confident
• Accustomed to hard life and management of horses
  and bearing arms
• Made excellent cavalry and foot soldiers

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Southern Disadvantages

• Lack of significant industrial capacity South
  primarily agrarian
• During the war, severe shortages of shoes,
  uniforms, and blankets
• Breakdown of transportation, especially when
  railroads were cut or destroyed by the North
• South did not get foreign intervention

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Confederate Victory Possible If

• Border state secede
• Upper Mississippi Valley states turn against the
  Union
• Northern defeatism kicks in
• England France break the blockade

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Northern Advantages

• Population of 22 million, South only 9 million
  including 3.5 million slaves
• Manpower advantages over Lee were 3 to 2 or even
  3 to 1
• Earlier immigrants also enlisted in the Union
  army 20 of army foreign-born

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More Northern Advantages

• Had 3/4 of the nations weal\Overwhelming
  superiority in manufacturing, shipping, and
  banking
• Had 3/4 of nations railroads
• Controlled the sea through its blockade of
  Southern ports

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Union Ideal

• Devotion to Union aroused North against South
  "Union Forever
• Significant in keeping border states and upper
  Mississippi states from seceding
• Cry for Union gave the North a strong moral issue
  until slavery was added to it later

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The Confederacy

• Constitution mostly copied from the Union
• Jefferson Davis idea of a strong central govt
  bitterly opposed states rights
• Some states didnt want their troops to fight
  outside their borders
• Davis often at odds w/his congress
• Davis lacked Lincolns political savvy

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Raising Armies North and South
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Northern Troops

• Initially northern armies comprised of volunteers
  with each state given a quota to meet
• African-American soldiers fought for the north
  most came from slave states

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Draft

• Congress passed federal conscription law to make
  up for fewer numbers of volunteers
• Unfair as wealthier youth could hire substitutes
  for 300
• New York Draft Riot in 1863 sparked by
  Irish-Americans cost nearly 500 lives lost and
  buildings burned

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Southern Troops

• Mainly volunteers
• Confederacy forced to conscript men between ages
  of 17 50 in just the 2nd year of the war
• Rich men hired substitutes
• Forced slaves to fight a month before the war
  ended

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Financial Aspects
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Raising Money in the North

• First income tax nations history raised
• Taxes on tobacco and alcohol raised
• National Banking System authorized to create a
  standard currency

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Southern Finances

• Government issues bonds
• Raised taxes on farm produce
• Biggest source of revenue printed large amounts
  of paper money
• Major inflation

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War-time Prosperity in the North

• Civil War produced first millionaire class in
  U.S. history
• Beginning of the "Gilded Age" dominated by
  "Robber Barons"
• New machinery emerged and contributed to the war
  effort case in point the sewing machine
• Petroleum industry born in PA in 1859

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Westward Movement

• Homestead Act of 1862 provided free land to
  pioneers out west (many settlers headed west to
  avoid the draft)

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Westward Movement

• Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 - Each state
  received 30,000 acres of public lands for each
  senator and Congressman in Congress
• Profits from sale of lands financed agricultural
  and mechanical colleges1 in each state

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Westward Movement

• Pacific Railway Act (1863) -- established a
  transcontinental railroad to be built connecting
  northern states and territories to California

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War-time poverty in the South

• Blockade and destruction wreaked by Union armies
  ruined southern economy
• The cotton kingdom fell due to the Industrial
  Revolution in the North

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Trampling of Civil Liberties
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Acts of Lincoln

• Blockade proclaimed when Congress not in session
• Increased size of federal army and navy
• Extended volunteer enlistment to three years
• Suspended writ of habeas corpus 864 people held
  without trial in 1st 9 months

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Additional Acts

• Arranged for "supervised" voting in Border States
  -- Voters holding colored ballot indicating party
  preference had to walk between two lines of armed
  troops
• Federal officials also suspended certain
  newspapers and arrested editors
• Signed a bill outlawing slavery in all the
  national territories

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Not in the South

• Jefferson Davis, unlike Lincoln, unable to
  exercise arbitrary power
• States rights supporters displayed intense
  localism
• The South seemed more willing to lose war than
  surrender local rights