Forging the National EconomyCh. 14

Samuel Slater Robert FultonCyrus McCormick Eli WhitneyCarl Schurz Samuel F.B. MorseDeWitt Clinton Catharine BeecherIndustrial Revolution limited liabilityTransportation Revolution nativismCult of domesticity cotton ginClermont Boston AssociatesClipper ships Ancient Order of Hibernians“Molly Maguires” General Incorporation LawPony Express Commonwealth v. HuntTammany Hall Order of the Star-Spangled BannerSewing machine unionsUrbanization; urban life new citiesIrish’ potato famine GermansOld Northwest immigrationKing Cotton “peculiar institution”Denmark Vesey Nat TurnerSlavery; free African Americans planters; poor whites, mountain peopleThe West the FrontierNative American removal Great PlainsWhite settlers environmental damage

National Economy 1800-1860AP History

I. National Economy: As the 19th century progressed, the Jeffersonian dream of a nation of independent farmers was changing as an increasing percentage of American people were swept up in the dynamic economic changes of the Industrial RevolutionA. Population growth = more laborer and consumers

1. 1800 – 1825: Population doubled, doubled again in the next 25 yearsa. high birthrate in the beginningb. supplemented after 1830 by immigrants from Europe, particularly from

Britain, Germany, and Irelandc. non-white (African American and Indian) grew despite slave importation

ban of 18082. By 1830s, 1/3 lived west of the Alleghenies.

B. Transportation: Efficient network of connecting roads and canals for moving people, raw materials, and manufactured goods

1. Roads: Success of Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Turnpike (1790s) spurred construction of other privately built and relatively short toll roads that, by the mid 1820s, connected most of the country’s major cities.a. despite need for interstate roads, states’ righters blocked the spending of

funds on internal improvements. Construction of highways that crossed state lines were unusual.

b. National or Cumberland Road: One notable exception; paved highway and major route to the west extending more than 1000 miles from Maryland to Illinois1. Began in 1811 – finished in 1850s2. Federal and state funded with different states receiving ownership of

segments of the highway.c. Canals: Importance of Erie Canal to NY State (1825)

1. the success stimulated economic growth which created a frenzy of canal building in other states

2. in a 10-15 years span, canals joined all of the major lakes and rivers east of the Mississippi

3. improved transportation = lower food prices in the East, more immigrant settlement in the West, and stronger ties between both

d. Steamboats: steamboat era began in 1807 with the successful voyage of Robert Fulton’s Clermont up the Hudson River

e. Railroads: After initial safety problems of the 1820s, rails competed directly with canals as an alternative for carrying people and goods. With steamboats and canals, rapidly changed small western towns such as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit and Chicago

II. Growth of Industry: At start of 1800s, a manufacturing economy had barely begun in the United States. By mid-century, however, U.S. manufacturing surpassed agriculture in value and by the century’s end, it was a world leader. This rapid industrial growth was the result of a unique combination of factors.A. Mechanical inventions: Protected by patent laws, inventors looked forward to

handsome rewards if their ideas for new tools or machines proved practical1. Eli Whitney – 1793 cotton engine, interchangeable parts during War of 18122. Became the basis for mass production methods in new northern factories

B. Corporations for raising capital: In 1811, New York passed a state law that made it easier for a business to incorporate and raise capital ($) by selling shares of stock. Other states soon imitated.1. Owners of a corporation risked only the amount that they invested in a venture2. Changes in state corporation laws facilitated the raising of large sums of

capital necessary for building factories, canals, and railroads.C. Factory system: Samuel Slater emigrated from Britain, took with him British

secrets for building cotton-spinning machines and established the first U.S. factory in 17911. early embargo (1807) and War of 1812 stimulated domestic manufacturing

and tariffs enacted by Republican congresses allowed the new factories to prosper

2. 1820 – New England emerged as the country’s leading manufacturing center due to the abundant waterpower for new machines and good seaports for shipping goodsa. decline in New England maritime industry made capital available for

manufacturingb. decline in farming = a ready labor supplyc. other northern states with similar resources and problems – NJ, NY, PA –

followed New England’s lead3. As the factory system expanded, it encouraged the growth of financial

businesses such as banking and insuranceD. Labor: At first, finding workers for the mills and factories was a major problem

because factories had to compete with the lure of cheap land in the West.1. textile mills in Lowell, Mass, recruited young farm women and housed them

in company dorms. In the 1830s, the Lowell system was widely imitated2. many factories made use of child labor (as young as 7)3. only toward the middle of the century did northern manufacturers begin to

employ immigrants in large #sE. Unions: Trade (or craft) unions were organized in major cities as early as the

1790s and increased in number as the factory system took hold1. many skilled workers (shoemakers and weavers) had to seek employment in

factories because their earlier practice of working in their own shops (Craft System) could no longer compete with lower-priced, mass-produced goods

2. long hours, low pay, and poor working conditions led to widespread discontent among factory workers

3. prime goal of early unions was to reduce the workday to 10 hours4. obstacles were many

a. immigrant replacement workersb. state laws outlawing unionsc. frequent economic depressions with high unemployment

F. Commercial agriculture: Early 1800s, farming became more commercial and less subsistence. This was brought on by a blend of factors1. Cheap land and easy credit: Large areas of western land were made available

at low prices by federal government2. state banks also made it easy to acquire land by providing farmers with loans

at low interest rates3. Markets: The advent of canals and railroads allowed the opening of new

markets of growing factories of the EastG. Cotton and the South: Throughout the 19th century, the principle crop in the

South was cotton. Eli Whitney transformed it with the cotton engine (1793). Now that they could easily separate the cotton fiber from the seeds, southern planters found cotton more profitable than tobacco, indigo, and sugar cane. They invested their capital in the purchase of slaves and new land in Alabama and Mississippi and shipped most of it to Britain textile factories

H. Society: Specialization on the farm, growth of cities, and industrialization of the workplace meant the end to self-sufficient households and growing interdependence among people1. farmers fed workers who in turn provided farm families with mass-produced

goods2. for most Americans, the standard of living increased. Adapting to impersonal

fast changing economy presented challenges and problemsI. Women: As America became more urban and industrialized, the nature of work

and family life for women changed; no longer worked next to their husbands on family farms1. women seeking employment in a city were usually limited to two choices:

domestic service or teaching2. factory jobs, as in the Lowell system, were not common.3. the overwhelming majority of working women were single4. if they married, they left their jobs and took up duties at homes5. arranged marriages became less common and some elected to have fewer

children6. legal and political restrictions remained (no vote)

J. Economic and social mobility: real wages for most urban workers improved, but gap between very rich and very poor increased1. social mobility (moving up in income level and social status) did occur from

one generation to the next and economic opportunities in the U.S. were greater than in Europe

2. extreme examples of poor, hard-working people becoming millionaires were rare

K. Slavery: Early 1800s, many felt slavery would gradually disappear1. It was becoming economically unfeasible due to both the exhausted soil of

coastal lands of Virginia and the Carolinas and the constitutional ban on the importation of slaves after 1808

2. hopes for a quiet end were ended by the rapid growth of the cotton industry3. as the arguments over the Missouri Compromise suggested, slavery was an

issue that defied clear answers

Sectionalism (1820-1850)

Even though the nation was growing, it was both a nation of with a central government and a collection of semi-autonomous states. Be examining sectional differences, we should have a better understanding of how sectionalism led to the Union’s worst crisis.

I. The North: consisted of 2 parts, (1) the Northeast (New England and Middle Atlantic States) and (2) the Old Northwest (from Ohio to Minnesota). It was bound together by improved transportation and high rate of economic growth, which was based on both commercial farming and industrial innovation. Most northerners were involved in agriculture. The North was the most populated section from a high birth rate and increased immigration.

A. The Industrial Northeast: Industrial Revolution started with textiles and then expanded to wide range of goods1. Labor: Transfer of once independent farmers and artisans to factory workers

a. problems with low pay, long hours, unsafe working conditions = organizing labor unions (1st labor party created in Philly 1828)

b. Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842): “peaceful unions” had the right to negotiate labor contracts with employers

c. By 1850, most state legislatures in North passed laws for 10 hr. daysd. limited success because of (1) periodic depressions, (2) employers and

courts that were hostile to unions, and (3) abundant supply of cheap immigrant labor

2. Urban life: North’s urban population grew from 5% (1800) to 15% (1850)a. expansion of slums = crime, overcrowding, poor sanitation, factory

diseasesb. creation of large working-class neighborhoods

3. African Americans: circa 250,000 (15 of total pop.) in North, as free citizens. About 50% of all free African Americansa. not economically or politically equalb. no vote, land ownership, holding jobs in most skilled professions or craftsc. mid-1800s, immigrants displaced them for jobs held since the Revolutiond. denied union membership, Af. Am often hired as strike breakers, often

dismissed when strike endedII. The Agricultural Northwest: 6 states west of the Alleghenies admitted before 1860:

Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848), and Minnesota (1858). Came from territory ceded by original 13 states (procedure for statehood from Northwest Ordinance of 1787). Region became closely tied by (1) military campaigns by federal troops that drove out Native Americans and (2) building of canals and railroads that established common markets between the Great Lakes and the East Coast.A. Agriculture: Grain crops of corn and wheat most profitable

1. newly invented steel plow (John Deere) and mechanical reaper (Cyrus McCormick) = more efficiency, more planting, less hired hands.

2. output shipped to urban centers for sale, part used to feed cattle and hogs, some for making whiskey and beer

B. New Cities: Key transportation points = city growth after 18201. Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis2. served as transfer points, processing farm products for shipment to the east

and distributing manufactured goods from eastC. Immigration: 1820 – 8,000 from Europe. From 1832 on, never below

50,000/year1. from 1830s – 1850s around 4 million from northern Europe2. arriving by ship to Boston, NY, and Philly. Many stayed, others moved to

Old Northwest. Few went to South where plantation economy and slavery limited opportunities for paid labor

3. 1830 – 1860 surge result of (1) development of inexpensive, rapid transportation, (2) famines and revolutions in Europe that drove people from

their homelands, (3) growing reputation of the U.S. as a country offering economic opportunity and political freedom

4. strengthened economy with steady stream of cheap labor and increased demand for mass-produced consumer goods

D. Irish: Half of all immigrants (1830-1860), around 2 million. Mostly tenant farmers driven by potato crop failure and devastating famine in 1840s; had very little interest in farming, few skills, and little money1. usually competed with African Americans for domestic and unskilled labor2. limited opportunities = congregation for mutual support in Boston, NYC, and

Philly3. many entered politics, organizing as Democrats, which had a long tradition of

Anti-British feelings and support for common peopleE. Germans: Economic hardship and failure of political revolutions in 1848 = over

1 million in late 1840s and 1850s1. most had at least modest means and skills in farming2. moved westward in search of cheap, fertile land3. limited political power at first, but with more public life activity, became

strong supported of public education and opponents of slaveryF. Nativists: Those native-born Americans alarmed at influx of immigrants for

taking jobs and subverting culture of Anglo minority1. nativists were Protestant who distrusted Roman Catholicism of Irish and

Germans2. 1840s – opposition to immigrants led to sporadic rioting in big cities and

organization of secret anti-foreign society, the Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. Eventually turned to politics on early 1850s, creating the Know-Nothing Party

3. anti-foreign movement faded as Civil War arrived, would periodically return whenever sudden increase in immigration seemed to threaten native born majority

III. The South: Defined in economic, political, and social terms, the South as a distinct region included those states that permitted slavery, including certain border states (Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky) that did not join the Confederacy in 1861a. Agriculture and King Cotton: Agriculture was foundation of South’s economy,

though by 1850s small factories produced around 15% of nation’s manufactured goods1. tobacco, rice, and sugar cane were far exceeded by the production of cotton2. development of textile mills in England and Eli Whitney’s Cotton Engine =

cotton cloth affordable throughout the world3. Before 1860, world depended chiefly on British mills, who depended on

American South for supply of cotton fiber4. originally grown in 2 states, South Carolina and Georgia, as demand and

profits went up, planters moved west into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas

B. Slavery, the “Peculiar Institution”: Wealth in South measured in terms of land and slaves (treated as property, subject to being bought and sold). Southern

whites’ uneasiness with the fact that slaves were human beings created need to continually defend the institution. In colonial times it was justified as an economic necessity. Apologists of 19th century used historical and religious arguments to support their claim that it was good for both slave and master.

C. Population: Cotton boom = 4x the increase in number of slaves, from 1 million (1800) to 4 million (1860)1. most from natural reproduction, though thousands were illegally smuggled in

defiance of Congress’ prohibition of importing slaves in 18082. In many parts of the South, slaves > 75% of total population. Fearing slave

revolts southern legislatures added increased restrictions on the movement and education of slaves

D. Economics: slaves were employed at whatever their owners wanted. Majority in fields, many others expert in skill crafts, others as house servants, in factories and on construction gangs1. greater profits made new cotton plantations in West = many slaves sold from

Upper South to lower Mississippi Valley (“Sold Down the River”)2. By 1860, value of field slave around $2,000. One result of the heavy capital

investment in slaves was that the South had much less capital than the North to undertake industrialization

E. Slave Life: varied from plantation to plantation. All were deprived of freedom.1. families separated and women vulnerable to sexual exploitation2. despite conditions, slave families managed to maintain strong sense of

community and religious faithF. Resistance: Large scale and small scale

1. contested status through range of activities; work slowdowns, sabotage, escape and revolt

2. there were a few major slave uprisingsa. Gabriel Prosser (1801),Denmark Vesey (1822) and Nat Turner (1831)b. All were quickly suppressed (Prosser and Vesey prior to violence), but had

long lasting effects on giving hope to slaves and driving southern states to enact strict codes and demonstrating the evils of slavery

G. Free African Americans: By 1860s around 250,000 African Americans in South were free (though racial prejudice restricted their liberties)1. number had been emancipated during the American Revolution, others were

mulatto children whose fathers had decided to liberate them.2. others achieved freedom through self-purchase (few that were fortunate to

have been paid wages for extra work, usually skilled craftsmen)3. most free blacks lived in cities where they could own property. By state law,

they were not equal to whites (no vote, barred from entering certain occupations)a. constantly in danger of being kidnapped by slave traders, had to show

legal papers of manumissionb. stayed in South for various reasons - be near family members still in

bondage, others believed South to be home and the North offered no better opportunities

H. White Society: Observed a rigid hierarchy among themselves (aristocratic planters >>>poor whites, mountain people)1. Aristocracy: Owned at least 100 slaves, with 1,000 acres of land. The planter

aristocracy maintained its power politically by dominating the state legislatures of the South and enacting laws that favored large landholders’ economic interests.

2. Farmers: Vast majority with fewer than 20 slaves with several hundreds of acres. Produced bulk of cotton crop, worked with slaves, lived as modest as Northern farmers.

3. Poor Whites: ¾ of southern population that owned no slaves. Could not afford river-bottom farmland so lived in the hills (hillbillies). Defended slave system in hopes of owning their own

4. Mountain people: Frontier condition in isolation along slopes and valleys of the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains. Had disliking for planters and slaves

5. Cities: Only limited need for cities. Only New Orleans was among the nation’s top 15 in 1860 (5th). Cities like Atlanta, Charleston, Chattanooga, and Richmond were important southern trading centers but small.

I. Southern Thought: Unique culture since cotton was basis of economy, slavery became focus of political thought. White southerners felt increasingly isolated and defensive about slavery as northerners grew hostile and as England, France, and other European nations outlawed it.1. Code of chivalry: Dominated by planter class. Agricultural South was

largely feudal society and southern “gentlemen” ascribed to chivalrous conduct (strong sense of personal honor, defense of womanhood, paternalistic treatment of those who were inferior – slaves)

2. Education: upper class valued college. Acceptable professions for Southern gentlemen were limited to farming, law, the ministry, and the military. Lower-class education up to early education grades. To reduced risk of slave revolts, slaves were strictly prohibited by law from receiving any instruction in reading and writing.

3. Religion: The slavery question affected church membershipa. Methodist and Baptist (preached biblical support of slavery) gainedb. Unitarians (challenged) declined and faced hostilityc. Catholic and Episcopalian (neutral) declined

IV. The West: New definition – lands beyond Mississippi California and OregonA. Native Americans: From the time of Columbus they did not move voluntarily as

pioneers. Driven out as white settlers encroached on original homelands1. Exodus: By 1850, majority living west of Mississippi in the Great Plains.

Those east were either killed, moved reluctantly, or left by treaty or military action

2. Life on the Plains: The horse (introduced by the Spanish) allowed many tribal groups such as the Cheyenne and the Sioux to become nomadic hunters

of the buffalo and could easily move from settlers. Others maintained farming practice.

B. The Frontier: Same motivation as original colonists, possibility of fresh start and new opportunities for those willing. Gave promise to all ethnic groups1. Mountain men and early white settlers who followed Lewis and Clark and

explored Native American trails.2. Served as guides and pathfinders for settlers crossing the mountains into

California and Oregon in the 1840sC. White settlers on the Western Frontier: Daily life sucked. Worked hard from

sunrise to sunset, lived in log cabins, or other improvised shelters. More died at early age from disease and malnutrition than from Indian raids1. Women: performed many tasks (doctor, teacher, seamstress, cook, and chief

assistant in the fields). Isolation, endless work, and rigors of childbirth meant a limited life span.

2. Environmental damage: Clearing away entire forests after only 2 generations, exhausted the soil with poor farming methods. At same time trappers and hunters decimated the beaver and buffalo to brink of extinction.

The Ferment of ReformThe South and the Slavery Controversy

Chapter 15 and 16

Dorothea Dix Stephen FosterJames Russell Lowell William MillerWashington Irving Oliver Wendell HolmesLucretia Mott James Fenimore CooperElizabeth Blackwell Horace MannPeter Cartwright Noah WebsterElizabeth Cady Stanton Sylvester GrahamEdgar Allen Poe Susan B. AnthonyRalph Waldo Emerson Nathaniel HawthorneRobert Owen Henry David ThoreauHerman Melville Charles G. FinneyWilliam H. McGuffey Joseph SmithEmma Willard Louis AgassizWalt Whitman John J. AudubonHenry Wadsworth Longfellow Louisa May AlcottGilbert Stuart Margaret FullerFrancis Parkman Brigham YoungPhineas T. Barnum Stephen FosterHarriet Beecher Stowe William Lloyd GarrisonDenmark Vesey David WalkerNat Turner Sojourner TruthTheodore Dwight Weld Frederick Douglass

Arthur and Lewis Tappan Elijah P. LovejoyJohn Quincy Adams oligarchyAbolitionism “positive good”American Temperance Society ShakersMaine Law UnitarianismSecond Great Awakening Hudson River SchoolWomen’s Rights Convention Knickerbocker groupBurned-Over District Declaration of SentimentsTranscendentalists MilleritesOneida Community MormonsCotton Kingdom The LiberatorAmerican Anti-Slavery Society peculiar institutionLiberty Party Lane rebelsGag Resolution

The Ferment of Reform (1820-1860)

Many of the significant reform movements in American history began in the Jacksonian era and in the following decades. The period before the Civil War is also known as the antebellum period. During this time, a diverse mix of reformers dedicated themselves to such causes as establishing free (tax-supported) schools, improving the treatment of the mentally ill, controlling or abolishing the sale of liquors and beers, winning equal and legal and political rights for women, and abolishing slavery. The enthusiasm for reform had many historic sources: the Puritan sense of mission, the Enlightenment belief in human goodness and perfectability, the politics of the Jacksonian democracy, and changing relationships among men and women and among social classes and ethnic groups. Perhaps most important of all were the powerful religious motives behind reformers’ zeal.

I. Religion: The Second Great Awakening: Religious revivals swept through the U.S. during the early decades of the 19th century. They were partly reaction against rationalism (belief in human reason) that had been fashioned during the Enlightenment and the American Revolution. Calvinist (Puritan) teachings of original sin and predestination had been rejected by believers in more liberal and forgiving doctrines, such as those of the Unitarian Church. Calvinism began a counterattack against liberal views in 1795. Reverend Timothy Dwight became president of Yale College in Connecticut and started a series of campus revivals, which motivated a generation of college educated young men to become evangelical preachers of the Christian gospels. Unlike the early Calvinists, the new breed allowed for free will, or “free agency,” to play a role in salvation.A. Revivalism in New York: 1823 Presbyterian minister, Charles G. Finney started

a more radical form of revivalism in upstate NY where many New Englanders had settled.1. instead of rational argument sermons, Finney appealed to emotion and fear of

damnation, persuaded thousands to publicly declare their faith.

2. preached that all were free to be saved through faith and hard work – ideas that strongly appealed to the rising middle class.

3. because of Finney’s influence, western NY became known as the “burned over district” for its frequent “hell and brimstone” revivals

B. Baptists and Methodists: In the South and on the advancing western frontier, Baptist and Methodist circuit preachers, such as Peter Cartwright, would travel from one location to another and attract thousands to hear their dramatic preaching at outdoor revival, or camp meetings1. converted many of the unchurched into respectable members of the

community2. by 1850s, the Baptists and the Methodists had become the largest Protestant

denominations in the countryC. Millenialism: Much of the enthusiasm of the time was based on the widespread

belief that the world was about to end with the 2nd coming of Christ1. their preacher, William Miller, gained tens of thousands of followers by

picking a specific date (Oct. 21, 1854) when the coming would occur.2. there were obvious disappointments when nothing happened on the appointed

day, but the Millerites would continue as a new religion, the Seventh-Day Adventists

D. Mormons: Another religious group, the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.1. Smith based his religious thinking on a book of scripture – the Book of

Mormon – which traced a connection between the Native Americans and the list tribes of Israel.

2. Smith gathered a following and moved from NY to Ohio, Missouri, and finally Nauvoo, IL. There, the Mormon founder was murdered by a local mob

3. to escape persecution, the Mormons under the leadership of Brigham Young migrated to the far western frontier, where they established the New Zion (as they called their religious community) on the banks of the Great Salt Lake in Utah

4. their cooperative social organization helped the Mormons to prosper in the wilderness. Their practice of polygamy (allowing a man to have more than one wife), however, aroused hostility of the U.S. government

* The Second Great Awakening, like the first, caused new divisions in society between newer, evangelical sects and the older Protestant churches. It affected all sections of the country. But it was in only the northern states from Massachusetts westward to Ohio that the Great Awakening played a significant role in social reform. Activist religious groups provided both the leadership and the well-organized voluntary societies that drove the reform movements of the antebellum era

II. Ferment in Ideas, the Arts, and Literature: In Europe, during the early years of the 19th century, a romantic movement in art and literature stressed intuition and feelings, individual acts of heroism, and the study of nature. At the same time, in the U.S. from 1820-1860, these romantic and idealistic themes were best expressed by the transcendentalists, a small group of New England writers and reformers.

A. The Transcendentalists: Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau questioned the doctrines of established churches and the capitalistic habits of the merchant class.1. they argued for a mystical and intuitive way of thinking as a means for

discovering one’s inner self and looking for the essence of God in nature2. they challenged the materialism of American society by suggesting that

artistic expression was more important that the pursuit of wealth3. although the transcendentalists were highly individualistic and viewed

organized institutions as unimportant, they supported a variety of reforms, especially the antislavery movement

B. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882): Best known transcendentalist was among most popular American lecturers of the 19th century1. his essays and lectures expressed the individualistic mood of the period2. 1837 – address at Harvard College (“The American Scholar”), Emerson

evoked the nationalist spirit of Americans by urging them not to imitate European culture but to create an entirely new and American culture

3. his essays and poems argued for self-reliance, independent thinking, and the primacy of spiritual matters over material ones

4. as a northerner, Emerson became a leading critic of slavery on the 1850s and then an ardent supporter of the Union during the Civil War

C. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): Lived in the same town as Emerson (Concord, MA) and were close friends. To test his transcendentalist philosophy, Thoreau conducted a 2 year experiment of living by himself in the woods outside of town1. he used observations of nature to discover essential truths about life and the

universe2. his writings of those years were published in Walden (1854). Thoreau is

remembered as a pioneer ecologist and conservationist3. through his essay “On Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau established himself as an

early advocate of nonviolent protesta. the essay presented his argument for not observing unjust lawsb. his own act was to refuse to pay a tax that might be used as an “immoral”

war – U.S. war with Mexico (1846-1848). Forced to spend 1 night in jailc. his essay and actions would inspire the nonviolent movements of both

Mohandas Ghandi in India and Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S.D. Brook Farm: Could a community of people actually live out the transcendentalist

ideals? In 1841, George Ripley, a Protestant minister, launched a communal experiment at Brook Farm, MA1. goal was to achieve “a more natural union between intellectual and manual

labor”2. living at Brook Farm at different times were some of the leading intellectuals

of the period - Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Theodore Parker

3. 1849 – a bad fire and heavy debts forced the end of the experiment

4. was remembered for its atmosphere of artistic creativity and an innovative school that attracted the sons and daughters of New England’s intellectual elite.

III. Communal Experiments: The idea of withdrawing from conventional society to create an ideal community, or utopia, in a fresh setting was not a new idea. But never before were the social experiments so numerous as during the mid-1800s. The open land of the United States before the Civil War proved fertile ground for over 100 experimental communities. The early Mormons may be considered an example of a religious humanistic and Brook Farm an example of a humanistic, or secular, experiment. Many were short-lived, “back woods” utopiasA. The Shakers: One of the earliest religious communal movements, the Shakers

had about 6,000 members in various communities by the 1840s1. held property in common and kept women and men strictly separate

(forbidding marriage and sexual relations)2. lacking of new recruits, the Shakers virtually died out by the mid-1900s3. the Amana settlements founded in Iowa by German pietists were also

dedicated to an frugal life, but allowed for marriage, which helped to ensure their survival

B. New Harmony: The secular (non-religious) experiment in New Harmony, IN was the work of the Welsh industrialist and reformer Robert Owen1. hoped his utopian socialist community would provide an answer to the

problems of inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution2. Failed as a result of both financial problems and disagreement among

numbersC. Oneida Community (1848): After a religious conversion, John Humphrey Noyes

started a cooperative community in Onieda, NY.1. dedicated to an ideal of perfect social and economic equality, members of the

community shared property and later even shared marriage partners2. critics attacked the Oneida system of planned reproduction and communal

child-rearing as a sinful experiment in “free love.”3. managed to prosper economically by producing and selling silverware of

excellent qualityD. Fourier Phalanxes (1840s): Many Americans, including newspaper editor

Horace Greeley, became interested in the theories of French socialist Charles Fourier.1. to solve the problem of a fiercely competitive society, Fourier advocated that

people share work and living arrangements in communities, popularly known as Fourier Phalanxes

2. died out very quickly as Americans proved to be too individualistic to adapt to communal living

E. Arts and Literature: Expressions of democratic and reforming impulses1. Painting: Genre painting – portraying everyday life of ordinary people –

became the vogue of artists in the 1830sa. George Caleb Bingham – common people riding riverboats, voting on

election day, carrying out domestic choresb. William S. Mount – lively rural compositions

c. Thomas Cole and Frederick Church – heroic beauty of American landscapes, especially in uplifting dramatic scenes along the Hudson River in NY and the western frontier wilderness. Their Hudson River School of Art expressed the romantic age’s fascination with the natural world

2. Architecturea. reflecting upon the democracy of ancient Athens, American architects

adapted classical Greek styles to glorify the democratic spirit of the republic

b. columned facades like those of ancient Greek temples graced the entryways to public buildings, banks, hotels, and even private homes

3. Literature: In addition to the Transcendentalists authors (notably Emerson and Thoreau) other writers helped to create a literature that was distinctly Americana. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper wrote fiction using

American settings1. Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales (1824-1841) – Last of the Mohicans,

The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer all glorified the frontiersman as nature’s nobleman

b. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s – The Scarlet Letter (1850) questioned the intolerance and conformity in American life

c. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1855) – reflected the theological and cultural conflict of the era

IV. Reforming Society: Reform during the Antebellum period went through several stages. At first, the leaders of reform hoped to improve people’s behavior through moral persuasion. After they tried sermons and pamphlets, however, reformers often moved on to political actions and to ideas for creating new institutions to replace the old.A. Temperance: Excellent example of the shift from moral exhortation to political

action1. 1826 – Protestant ministers and others concerned with the effects of excessive

drinking founded the American Temperance Society. Using moral arguments, the Society tried to persuade drinkers not just to moderate their drinking, but to take a pledge of total abstinence

2. the Washingtonians (1840s) – began by recovering alcoholics, who urged that alcoholism was a disease that needed practical, helpful treatment

3. by the 1840s, the various temperance societies had more than a million members and it was becoming respectable in middle-class households to drink only cold water

4. German and Irish immigrants were largely opposed to the temperance reformers’ campaign but did not have the political power to prevent state and city governments from siding with the reformers

5. factory owners and politicians joined with reformers because temperance measures would reduce crime and poverty and increase workers’ output on the job

6. 1851 – Maine went beyond simply taxing the sale of liquor and became the first of 13 states to prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor before the Civil War

7. late 1850s – issue of slavery overshadowed the temperance movement but would gain strength again in the late 1870s (with strong support from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union) and achieve national success with the passage of the 18th amendment in 1919.

8. given the high rate of alcohol consumption (five gallons of hard liquor/person in 1820) = temperance movement one of the most popular pre-war reforms

B. Movement for Public Asylums: Humanitarian reforms of 1820s and 1830s called attention to increasing # of criminals, emotionally disturbed persons and paupers who were often forced to live in wretched conditions and were regularly either abused or neglected1. to alleviate, reformers proposed setting up new institutions – state-supported

prisons, mental hospitals, and poor houses2. hope that the inmates would be cured of their anti-social behavior as a result

of being withdrawn from squalid surroundings and treated to a disciplined pattern of life in a rural setting

3. Mental hospitals: Dorothea Dix, a former Massachusetts school teacher, was horrified to find mentally ill persons locked up with convicted criminals in unsanitary cellsa. dedicated her life to improving conditions for emotionally disturbed

personsb. 1840s – traveled across the country to report awful treatment, causing state

after state to build new or improve old institutionsc. as a result, mental patients began receiving professional treatment at state

expense4. Schools for the blind and deaf persons: Two other reformers founded special

institutions to help people with physical disabilitiesa. Thomas Gallaudet – founded a school for the deafb. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe – founded a school for the blind

5. Prisons: changes from the crude jails and lock-upsa. penitentiaries: experimented with the technique of placing prisoners in

solitary confinement to force them to reflect on their sins and repentb. this experiment was dropped because of high rate of prisoner suicidesc. they reflected a major doctrine of the asylum movement: structure and

discipline would bring about moral reformd. Auburn system (NY): enforced rigid rules of discipline while also

providing moral instruction and work programsC. Public education: Another reform movement focused on the need for

establishing public schools for all children of all classes. Middle class reformers were motivated in part by their fears for the future of the republic posed by the growing number of the uneducated poor – both immigrant and native born. Workers’ groups in cities generally supported the reformers’ campaign for free (tax-supported) schools

1. Free common schools: Horace Mann (1769 – 1859) was the leading advocate of the common (public) school movementa. Sec. of newly formed Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann worked to

improve schools, have compulsory attendance for all children, a longer school year, and increased teacher preparation

b. 1840s – movement for tax-supported schools spread rapidly2. Moral education: Besides teaching basic literacy, Mann and other

educational reformers wanted children to be instructed in principles of moralitya. William Holmes McGuffey: A Pennsylvania teacher who created a series

of elementary textbooks that became widely accepted as the basis of reading and moral instruction in hundreds of schools

b. The McGuffey Reader extolled the virtues of hard work, punctuality, and sobriety – the kind of behaviors needed in an emerging industrial society

c. objecting to the evangelical Protestant tone of the public schools, Roman Catholic groups formed private schools for the instruction of Catholic and foreign-born citizens

3. Higher education: The religious enthusiasm of the 2nd Great Awakening helped fuel the movement for educational reforma. 1830s- various Protestant denominations founded small denominational

colleges, especially in the newer western states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa)

b. several new colleges, including Mt. Holyoke (MA) founded by Mary Lion (1837) and Oberlin College (OH), began to admit women

c. adult education was furthered by lyceum lecture societies, which provided speakers like Emerson to small-town audiences

V. The Changing American Family and Women’s Rights Movement: Though still overwhelmingly rural in the mid 19th century, the growing part of society that was urban and industrial underwent fundamental changes. In the cities, as a result of the creation of office and factory jobs in the Industrial Revolution, the roles of men and women, husbands and wives were redefined. Men left home to work for salaries or wages 6 days a week in the office or the factory; middle class women typically remained at home to take charge of the household and children.

Industrialization reduced the economic value of children. In middle class families, birth control was used to reduce the average family size – 7.04 members (1800) to 5.42 (1830). More affluent women now had the leisure time to devote to religious and moral uplift organizations. The New York Female Moral Reform Society worked to prevent impoverished young women from being forced into lives of prostitution.A. Cult of Domesticity: gender roles that expected men to be responsible for

economic and political affairs while women concentrated on the care of home and children. Idealized view of women as moral leaders in the home and educations of children.

1. Origin of the Women’s Rights Movement: Women reformers, especially those involved in the anti-slavery movement, resented the way men relegated them to secondary roles in the movement and prevented them from taking part fully in policy discussions.

2. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began campaigning for women’s rights after they had been barred from speaking at an anti-slavery conventiona. Seneca Falls Convention (1848): Leading feminists met at Seneca Falls,

NY and created the 1st women’s rights convention in historyb. issued a document that was closely modeled after the Declaration of

Independence in that it declared “all men and women are created equal,” and listed women’s grievances against laws and customs that discriminated against them

c. Following the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led the campaign for equal voting, legal, and property rights for women. They were overshadowed by the crisis over slavery.

VI. Antislavery Movement: Opponents ranged from moderates who proposed gradual abolition to radicals who urged immediate abolition and freeing of slaves without compensation to their owners. The 2nd Great Awakening encouraged northerners to view slavery as a sin. This view limited the possibilities for compromise and promoted radical abolitionism.A. American Colonization Society (1817): originated the idea of transporting freed

slaves to an African colony1. appealed to politicians because large numbers of whites with racist attitudes

hoped to remove, or banish, free blacks from U.S. society2. 1822 – ACS established an African American settlement in Monrovia, Liberia3. never was a practical option since between 1820 and 1860, the slave

population grew from 1.5 to nearly 4 million, while only about 12,000 were settled in Africa in those years.

B. American Antislavery Society (1831): William Lloyd Garrison began publication of The Liberator, marked the beginning of the radical abolition movement1. advocated immediate abolition in all states and territories with no

compensation2. condemned the Constitution as a proslavery document3. Argued for “no Union with slaveholders” until they repented for their sins by

freeing their slavesC. Liberty Party: Garrison’s radical stance led to a split in the abolition movement.

1840, group of northerners from the Liberty Party believed that political action was more practical than Garrison’s moral crusade.1. ran James Birney as their candidate for president in 1840 and 18442. party’s one campaign pledge was to bring about the end of slavery by political

and legal meansD. Black abolitionists: escaped slaves and free blacks were among the most

outspoken and convincing critics of slavery.1. Frederick Douglass spoke about the brutality and degradation from first-hand

experience.

a. an early follower of Garrison, Douglass later advocated both political and direct action to end slavery and racial prejudice

b. 1847 – started The North Star, anti-slavery journal2. Other black leaders such as Harriet Tubman, David Ruggles, Sojourner

Truth, and William Still, helped organize the effort to assist fugitive slaves escape to free territory in the North or Canada where slavery was prohibited

E. Violent abolitionism: David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet were 2 northern blacks who advocated the most radical solution to slavery1. argued that slaves should take action themselves by rising up in revolt against

the “masters”2. 1831 – Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, led a revolt which killed 55 whites. In

retaliation, whites killed hundreds of blacks to put down actions3. before this, there had been some anti-slavery sentiment and discussion in the

South. After the revolt, fear of future uprisings as well as Garrison’s inflamed speech put an end to anti-slavery talk in the South

F. Other reforms: Efforts to reform individuals and society were not limited to movements for temperance, asylums, women’s rights, and the abolition of slavery1. 1828 – American Peace Society founded with the objective of abolishing war.

Led some New Englanders to oppose the Mexican War2. dietary reforms: eating whole wheat bread and Sylvester Graham’s crackers

to promote good digestion3. dress reform for women: Amelia Bloomer’s pantalettes instead of long skirts4. new pseudoscience: Phrenology – study of the skull’s shape to assess a

person’s character and abilityVII. Southern Reaction to Reform: The Antebellum reform movement was largely a

regional phenomenon. It succeeded at the state level in the northern and western states but had little impact on many areas of the South. While “modernizers” worked to perfect society in the North, southerners were more committed to tradition and slow to support public education and humanitarian efforts. Increasingly, they viewed social reform as a northern conspiracy against the Southern way of life.

Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, 1841-1848Terms, Names, Events

Chapter 17

John Tyler John SlidellWinfield Scott Lord AshburtonZachary Taylor Nicholas Trist

James K. Polk Stephen W. KearnyDavid Wilmot Robert GrayJohn C. Fremont joint resolutionManifest Destiny Fiscal BankWebster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) “spot” resolutionsTariff of 1842 “conscience” WhigsCalifornia: Bear Flag Republic CarolineHudson Bay Company Treaty of Guadalupe-HidalgoCalifornios Liberty Party“all of Mexico” Aroostook WarWalker Tariff Wilmot ProvisoTexas AlamoOregon Territory “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”Rio Grande: Nueches River Mexican War (1846-1847)Franklin Pierce Ostend Manifesto (1852)Walker Expedition Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)Gadsden Purchase (1853) Great American DesertMountain men Far WestOverland trails mining frontierGold Rush; silver rush farming frontierUrban frontier industrial technologyElias Howe Samuel F.B. MorseRailroads; federal land grants foreign commerce; exports and importsMatthew C. Perry; Japan Panic of 1857

Territorial and Economic ExpansionChapter 17

The theme of America’s expansion plan would be known as Manifest Destiny, a term penned by John L. Sullivan. It spread across the land as a rallying cry for westward expansion. At first, in the 1840s and 1850s expansionists wanted to see the United States extend westward all the way to the Pacific and southward into Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. In the later decade, the 1890s, expansionists fixed their sights on acquiring islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

The phrase “manifest destiny” expressed the popular belief that the United States had a divine mission to extend its power and civilization across North America. Enthusiasm reached a fevered pitch in the 1840s. It was driven by a number of forces: nationalism, population increase, rapid economic development, technological advances, and reform ideals. But by no means were all Americans behind the idea of manifest destiny and expansionism. Northern critics agreed vehemently that at the root of the expansionist drive was the southern ambition to spread slavery into western lands.

I. Conflicts over Texas, Maine, and Oregon: U.S. interest in pushing its borders southward into Texas (a Mexican province) and westward into the Oregon territory

(claimed by Britain) was largely the result of American pioneers migrating into these lands during 1820s and 1830s.

A. Texas (1823): Mexico won its independence form Spain, hoped to attract settlers even Anglos, to form sparsely populated northern frontier province of Texas.1. Moses Austin, Missouri banker, had obtained a large land grant in Texas, but

died before he could recruit American settlers.2. Stephen F. Austin, son of Moses, succeeded in bringing in 300 families into

Texas, beginning of steady migration.3. By 1830, Americans (both white farmers and black slaves) outnumbered

Mexicans in Texas 3 to 1.4. 1829 – Mexico outlawed slavery and required all immigrants to convert to

Roman Catholicisma. when American settlers refused to obey, Mexico closed Texas to

additional immigrants.b. land-hungry Americans ignored Mexican law and kept coming

B. Revolt and Independence (1834): Change in Mexico’s government intensifies conflict. Antonio Lopez Santa Anna abolishing existing Mexican federal government system insisted on enforcing Mexico’s laws in Texas.1. March 1836 - Samuel Houston leads group to revolt and declare Texas as an

independent republic2. Santa Anna leads Mexican army to capture Goliad and attack the Alamo in

San Antonio, killing all defenders.3. Battle of San Jacinto River: army under Sam Houston caught Mexicans by

surprise and captured general Santa Anna4. Under threat of death, forced Santa Anna to sign treaty that recognized Texas

independence and granted the new republic all territory north of the Rio Grande

5. Mexico’s legislature rejected treaty and insisted on its ownership of Texas.C. Annexation denied: 1st President of Texas, Sam Houston applied to be added as a

new state.1. Both Jackson and Van Buren put off Texas’ request primarily because of

political opposition from northerners with fear of expansion of slavery and the potential of adding five new slave states created out of Texas territories.

2. The threat of a costly war with Mexico also dampened expansionist zeal3. The next president, John Tyler (1841-1845), was a southern Whig, who was

worried about the growing influence of the British in Texas. He worked toannex Texas, but the U.S. Senate rejected.

D. Boundary dispute in Maine (1840s): Diplomatic problems of ill-defined boundary between Maine and New Brunswick (still under British rule)1. Still an attitude of Britain as public enemy #1 (from Revolution and War of

1812)2. The Aroostook War or “Battle of the Maps” – Rival groups of lumbermen

opened fighting3. Resolved by Sec. of State Daniel Webster and British ambassador, Lord

Alexander Ashburton.

4. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842): Land was split between Maine and British Canada. Also, settled boundary of Minnesota territory, leaving what proved to be the iron-rich Mesabi Range on the U.S. side

E. Boundary dispute in Oregon: Vast land stretching to Alaska was, at one time, claimed by four different nations (U.S., Russia, Great Britain, and Spain, who gave up their in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819)1. Britain based its claim on the Hudson Fur Company’s profitable fur trade with

Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. But by 1846, there were fewer than 1,000 British living north of the Columbia River.

2. The U.S. based its claim on (1) the discovery of the Columbia River by Capt. Robert Gray in 1797, (2) the overland expedition of Pacific Coast by Lewis and Clark in 1805, and (3) the fur trading post and fort in Astoria, Oregon, established by John Jacob Astor in 1811.

3. Protestant missionaries and farmers from the U.S. settled the Willamette Valley in 1840s. Their success caused 5,000 Americans to catch “Oregon Fever” and travel 2,000 miles over the Oregon Trail and settle just south of the Columbia River.

4. By election of 1844, many believed it to be “manifest destiny” to take undisputed possession of all of Oregon, annex Texas, and persuade Mexico to give up its West Coast province of California.

F. Election of 1844: Many northerners were against the annexation of Texas because it allowed slavery.1. Northern Democratic Party candidate – former president Martin Van Buren

vs. challenger, proslavery, pro-annexation Southerner, John C. Calhoun (S.C.)2. After hours of wrangling and no decision, the Democratic Party chose “dark

horse” (lesser known candidate) James K. Polk3. Polk was a protégé of Jackson, firmly committed to expansion and manifest

destiny.a. favored annexation of Texasb. favored the “reoccupation” of Oregonc. favored the acquisition of California

4. Democratic slogan of “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” (line of latitude marking the border of Oregon territory and Russian Alaska) appealed to westerners

5. Henry Clay (KY), the Whig nominee, wavered on his decision, thus alienating groups of voters (the Liberty Party of New York)

6. In a close election, the Whigs’ loss of New York electoral votes proved decisive and Polk, the Democratic Party dark horse, wins

7. Democrats take election as mandate to annex TexasG. Annexing Texas: Outgoing President Tyler took Polk’s election as signal to push

for annexation. Pushed through Congressional resolution that only needed a simple majority vote; left Polk the problem of dealing with Mexico’s reaction

H. Oregon Question: Polk decided to compromise and not fight with Britain and British and American negotiators agreed to divide the Oregon Territory at 49th parallel.1. U.S. agreed to grant Vancouver Island to Britain and guaranteed its right to

navigate the Columbia River.2. 1846 – brought to Senate for ratification. Some northerners viewed it as a

sell-out to southern interests because it removed British Columbia as a source for potential free states.

3. War had broken out with Mexico; U.S. didn’t want to fight both Britain and Mexico at same time

II. War with Mexico: Annexation of Texas immediately caused problems with Mexico. Shortly after taking office (1845), Polk dispatched John Slidell as his special envoy to Mexico City. His goals were to (1) persuade Mexico to sell the California and New Mexico territories to the U.S., and (2) settle a dispute concerning the Mexico-Texas border

Slidell failed on both accounts. The Mexican government refused to sell California and insisted that Texas’s southern border was the Nueces River. Polk and Slidell thought that it was on the Rio Grande River.A. Immediate Causes: Waiting for Mexico City’s reply, Polk ordered General

Zachary Taylor to move army toward the Rio Grande.1. April 24, 1846 – Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande, captured an

American army patrol, killing 11.2. Polk used incident to send already prepared war message to Congress3. Northern Whigs (among them, freshman Illinois Congressman Abraham

Lincoln) opposed going to war over the incident and doubted that blood was shed on American soil as Polk had claimed.

4. Large majority in both houses approved war resolutionB. Military Campaigns: Most of war was fought in Mexican territory by relatively

small armies1. General Stephen Kearney succeeded in taking Santa Fe, the New Mexico

territory and southern California2. (June 1846) – Backed by only several dozen soldiers, a few navy officers, and

American civilians who had recently settle in California, John C. Fremont quickly overthrew Mexican rule in northern California and proclaimed California to be an independent republic with a bear on its flag (the Bear Flag Republic)

3. Taylor’s force of 6,000 drove Mexican forces from Texas, crossed the Rio Grande into northern Mexico and won a major victory at Buena Vista (Feb. 1847)

4. Polk selected Gen’l Winfield C. Scott to invade Mexico. Army of 14,000 took the coastal city of Vera Cruz and captured Mexico City. It was the largest amphibious assault in American history (replaced by D-Day)

C. Consequences: Mexico forced to surrender and to the treaty table.1. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexican Cession (1848): Negotiated by

American diplomat Nicolas Twist2. Mexico would recognize the Rio Grande as southern border of Texas

3. U.S. would take possession of California and New Mexico by paying $15 mil4. In the Senate, some Whigs apposed the treaty because they saw the war as an

immoral effort to expand slavery5. Some southern Democrats disliked the treaty because they wanted all of

MexicoD. Wilmot Proviso (1846): Congressman David Wilmot (PA), proposed that an

appropriations bill be amended to forbid slavery in any of the new territories acquired from Mexico. It passed the House twice, but died in the Senate

E. Prelude to War?: Do new territories = inevitable Civil War? Some saw the Wilmot Proviso as round one of escalating political conflict that led to war.

III. Manifest Destiny to the South: Many southerners dissatisfied with territorial gains from Mexican War. In early 1850s, hoping to acquire new territories, especially in areas of Latin America where plantations were worked by slaves were thought to be economically feasible. Cuba was most eagerly sought after.A. Ostend Manifesto: Polk offers to buy Cuba from Spain for $100 mil, Spain

refused to give up last part of former empire.1. several southern adventurers led small expeditions to Cuba in an effort to take

the island by force. They were easily defeated and executed by Spanish firing squads

2. Elected to President in 1852, Franklin Pierce adopted pro-southern policies, dispatching American diplomats to Ostend, Belgium, where they secretly negotiated to buy Cuba from Spain.

a. The Manifesto was leaked to U.S. press and provoked angry reaction from anti-slavery members of Congress

b. President Pierce was forced to drop the schemeB. Walker Expedition (1853): Southern adventurer William Walker tried

unsuccessfully to take Baja California from Mexico. (1855) He then led a force of southerners, tried to take over Nicaragua; even gained temporary recognition from the United States.1. Plan to develop a pro-slavery Central American empire collapsed2. Coalition of Central American countries invaded and defeated Walker and he

was executed by Honduran authorities in 1860C. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1855): Concerned with building a canal through Central

America. Wanting to check each other from seizing the opportunity, Great Britain and U.S. agree to treaty1. Neither would attempt to take exclusive control of any future canal route in

Central America2. Treaty would last until end of the century

D. Gadsen Purchase (1853): President Pierce added a strip of land to the American Southwest for a railroad pass. $10 mil for thousands of acres that forms southern sections of present day New Mexico and Arizona

* Expansion after the Civil War: From 1855 0 1870, the issues of Union, slavery, Civil War, and postwar Reconstruction would overshadow the drive to acquire new territory. Even so, Manifest Destiny continued to be an important force for shaping U.S. policy. In 1867, for example Sec. of State William Seward succeeded in purchasing Alaska while we were recovering from the Civil War

IV. Settlement of the Western Territories: Following the peaceful acquisition of Oregon and the more violent acquisition of California, the migration of Americans into these lands began in earnest. The arid area between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast was popularly known in the 1850s and the 1860s as the “Great American Desert.” Emigrants passed quickly over the vast, dry region to reach more inviting lands on the West Coast. Therefore, California and Oregon were settled several decades before people attempted to farm the Great Plains.

A. Fur Traders’ Frontier: Mountain men were the earliest non-native group to open the Far West1. 1820s – held yearly rendezvous in the Rockies with Native Americans to trade

for animal skins2. James Beckwourth, Jim Bridger, Kit, Carson, and Jedediah Smith were among

those who provided much of the early information about trails and frontier conditions

B. Overland Trails: The next and much larger group of pioneers took the hazardous journey west in hopes of clearing forests and farming the fertile valleys of California and Oregon1. By 1860, hundreds of thousands went westward following the Oregon,

California, Santa Fe, and Mormon Trails2. Usually began in St. Joseph or Independence, Missouri or Council Bluffs,

Iowa and followed the river valleys through the Great Plains3. Dealing with harsh winters at 15 miles a day, daily experience of disease and

depression on the trail were more serious than the threat of Indian attacksC. Mining Frontier: Discovery of gold in 1848 set off 1st of many migrations to

mineral rich mountains of the West1. Gold Rush (1848-1850) followed by gold and silver rushes in Colorado,

Nevada, and the Black Hills of the Dakota, and other western territories2. Mining boom brought tens of thousands of men (and women afterwards) into

the western mountains and sprung up mining camps and towns when and wherever a “strike” was reported

3. As a result, California’s population – 14,000 (1848) to 380,000 (1860)4. By 1860s, almost 1/3 of the miners in the West were Chinese

D. Farming Frontier: Most pioneer families moved west to start homesteads and began farming1. Congress Pre-emption Acts: 1830s and 1840s gave squatters the right to

settle public lands and purchase them for low prices once the government put them up for sale.a. Government made it easier for settlers by offering parcels of land as small

as 40 acres for saleb. The move, however, was typically a middle class movement since they

would need at least $200 - $300 to make the overland trip2. Isolation of frontier made life especially difficult during the first years, but

rural communities soon developed. Settlers brought institutions (schools, churches, clubs, and political parties) from the east or from their native countries.

E. Urban Frontier: The era of territorial expansion coincided with a period of remarkable economic growth, especially during the years of 1840-18551. Industrial technology: Before 1840, production mainly in textile mills of

New England, and after 1840, it spread to other states of the Northeast.a. The new factories produced shoes, sewing machines, ready to wear

clothes, firearms, precision tools, and iron products for railroads and other technologies.

b. Sewing machine (Elias Howe) took much production out of the home and into the factory. Electric telegraph (Samuel F.B. Morse) went hand in hand with the growth of railroads, enormously speeding up communication and transportation across the country.

F. Railroads: The canal building era of the 1820s and 1830s was replaced in the next two decades with the rapid expansion of rail lines, especially across the north and Midwest. The railroads soon emerged as America’s largest industry.1. Required immense amounts of capital and labor and gave rise to a complex

system of business organizations2. Local merchants and farmers often would buy stock in the new railroad

companies in order to connect their areas to the outside world.3. Local and state governments also helped railroads by granting special loans

and tax breaks.4. In 1850, U.S. government granted 2.6 million acres of federal land to build the

Illinois Central Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico, the first such federal grant

5. Cheap and rapid transportation particularly promoted western agriculture. Farmers in Illinois and Iowa were more closely linked by rail than by river routes to the South. The new economic linkages between the northeast and the Midwest would give the North a critical advantage in the Civil War

G. Foreign Commerce: Growth in manufactured goods, as well as in agricultural products (both western grains and southern cotton), caused a significant growth of exports and imports. Other factors also played a role in the expansion of U.S. trade in the mid 1800s1. Shipping firms encouraged trade and travel across the Atlantic by having their

sailing packets depart on a regular schedule (instead of the unscheduled departures that had been customary in the 18th century)

2. The demand for whale oil to light homes of middle class America caused a whaling boom between 1830 and 1860, in which New England merchants took the lead

3. Improvements in the design of ships came just in time to speed gold seekers on their journey to California gold fields. The development of the Yankee Clipper ship cut the 5-6 month trip from New York around the Horn to San Francisco to as little as 89 days

4. Steamships took the place of clipper ships in the mid-1850s because they had greater storage capacity; could be maintained at a lower cost, and could more easily follow a regular schedule

5. The federal government sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan to persuade that country to open up its ports to trade with Americans. In 1854,

Perry convinced Japan’s government to agree to a treaty that opened 2 Japanese ports to U.S. trading vessels

* The mid-century economic boom ended in 1857 with a financial panic. It was marked by serious drop in prices, especially for Midwest farmers and increased unemployment in northern cities. The South was less affected, for cotton prices remained high. This gave some southerners the idea that their plantation economy was superior and that would continue even if the northern economy was not needed.

The Union in Peril (1848-1860)Chapter 18

Nobody disagrees about the sequence of major events from 1850 to 1861 that led ultimately to the outbreak of the Civil War between the northern and southern states. Facts in themselves, however, do not automatically assemble themselves into a convincing interpretation of why war occurred when it did. Historians have identified at least four main causes of the conflict between the North and the South: (1) slavery, as a growing moral issue in the North, versus its defense and expansion in the South; (2) constitutional disputes over the nature of the federal Union and states’ rights; (3) economic differences between the industrializing North and the agricultural South over such issues as tariffs, banking, and internal improvements; (4) political blunders and extremism on both sides, which some historians conclude resulted in an unnecessary war. These notes summarize the events leading up to Lincoln’s election and the secession of the southern states from the Union. In attempting to understand the events and the issues, it remains you task to decide to decide the relative importance of the causes of this national tragedy.

I. Conflict over Status of Territories: The issue of slavery in the territories gained in the Mexican War became the focus of sectional differences in the late 1840s. The Wilmot Proviso, which excluded slavery from the new territories, would have upset the Compromise of 1820 and the delicate balance of 15 free and 15 slave states. Its defeat only intensified sectional feelings. On the issue of how to deal with these new western territories, there were essentially three conflicting positions.A. Free-Soil Movement: Northern Democrats and Whigs supported the Wilmot

Proviso and the position that all blacks – free and slave – should be excluded form the Mexican Cession (territory annexed to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848)1. In the North, antislavery forces and racists alike found common ground in

their support for the free-soil position.a. unlike abolitionists, who insisted on eliminating slavery everywhere, the

Free-Soilers did not demand the end of slavery.b. sought to keep the West a land of opportunity for whites only so that the

white majority would not have to compete with slave labor of slaves or free blacks.

2. 1848: Northerners favored this approach to the territories and organized the Free-Soil Party, which adopted the slogan, “free soil, free labor, and free men.” In addition to its chief objective – preventing the extension of slavery

– the new party also advocated free homesteads (public land grants to small farmers and internal improvements).

B. Southern Position: Most southern whites viewed any attempts to restrict the expansion of slavery as a violation of their constitutional right to take and use their property as they wished.1. Saw both abolitionists and the Free-Soilers as intent on the ultimate

destruction of slavery.2. more moderate Southerners favored extending the Missouri Compromise line

of 36 30’ westward to the Pacific, permitting territories north of that line to have no slaves.

C. Popular Sovereignty: Lewis Cass, a Democratic senator from Michigan, proposed a compromise solution that would show considerable support from both moderate Northerners and moderate Southerners.1. Instead of Congress determining whether to allow slavery in new western

territory or state, Cass suggested that the matter be determined by a vote of the people who settled the territory.

2. Cass’ approach to the problem was known as “squatter” or “popular sovereignty.”

D. Election of 1848: The Democrats nominated Senator Cass and adopted a platform pledged to popular sovereignty. The Whigs nominated Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor, who had never been involved in politics and took no position on slavery in the territories.1. A third party, the Free-Soil Party, nominated former president Martin Van

Buren. The party consisted of “conscience” Whigs (who opposed slavery) and antislavery Democrats; the latter group was ridiculed as “barnburners” because their defection threatened to destroy the Democratic Party.

2. Taylor defeated Cass, in part because of the vote given to the Free-Soil Party in such key northern states as New York and Pennsylvania.

E. The Compromise of 1850: The gold rush of 1849 and the influx of about 100,000 settlers into California created the need for law and order in the West. In 1849, Californians drafted a state Constitution that banned slavery. Even though President Taylor was a southern slaveholder himself, he supported the immediate admission of both California and New Mexico as free states. (At this time, however, the Mexican population of the New Mexico territory had little interest in applying for statehood).* Taylor’s plan sparked talk of secession among the “fire-eaters” (radicals) in the South. Some southern extremists even met in Nashville in 1850 to discuss secession. By this time, however, the astute Henry Clay had proposed another compromise for solving the political crisis.1. Admit California to the Union as a free state2. Divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into two territories – Utah and

New Mexico – and allow settlers in these territories to decide the slavery issue by majority vote, or popular sovereignty

3. Give the land in dispute between Texas and the New Mexico territory to the new territories in return for the federal government assuming Texas’ public debt of $10 million.

4. Ban the slave trade in the District of Columbia but permit whites to hold slaves as before.

5. Adopt a new Fugitive Slave Law and enforce it rigorously.* In the ensuing Senate debate over the compromise proposal, the three

congressional giants of their age – Henry Clay (KY), Daniel Webster (MA), and John C. Calhoun (SC) – delivered the last great speeches of their lives. Webster courageously argued for compromise in order to save the Union, and in so doing alienated the Massachusetts abolitionists who had supported him. Calhoun argued against the compromise and insisted that the South be given equal rights in the acquired territory.

Northern opposition to the compromise came from younger antislavery lawmakers, such as Senator William H. Seward (NY), who argued that there was a higher law than the Constitution. The opponents managed to prevail until the sudden death in 1850 of President Taylor, who had opposed Clay’s plan. Succeeding him was a strong supporter of compromise, Vice President Millard Fillmore. Stephen A. Douglass, a politically astute young senator from Illinois, engineered different coalitions to pass each part of the compromise separately. President Fillmore readily signed the bills into laws.

The passage of the Compromise of 1850 bought time for the nation. Because California was admitted as a free state, the Compromise added to the North’s political debate and deepened the commitment to save the Union from secession. On the other hand, parts of the compromise became sources of controversy, especially the new Fugitive Slave Law and the provision for sovereignty.

II. Agitation over Slavery: For a brief period – the four years between the Compromise of 1850 and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act – sectional tensions abated slightly. Even during the years, however, the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and the publication of a best-selling antislavery novel kept the slavery question in the forefront of public education in both the North and in the South.A. Fugitive Slave Law: It was the passage of a strict Fugitive Slave Law that

persuaded many southerners to accept the loss of California to the abolitionists and the Free-Soilers. Yet, the enforcement of the new law in the North was bitterly and sometimes forcibly resisted by antislavery northerners. In effect, therefore, enforcement of the new law added to the aggrieved feelings on both sides.1. Enforcement and opposition: The law’s chief purpose was to track down run

away (fugitive) slaves who has escaped to a northern state, capture them, and return them to their southern owners.a. placed fugitive slave cases under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal

government.b. special U.S. commissioners were authorized to issue warrants for the

arrest of fugitives.c. any captured person who claimed to be a free black and not a runaway

slave (a common occurrence) was denied the right of trial by jury.d. citizens who attempted to hide a runaway or obstruct enforcement of the

law were subject to heavy penalty.

B. Underground Railroad: The fabled network of “conductors” and “stations” to help escape slaves reach freedom in the North or in Canada, was neither well organized nor dominated by white abolitionists as is sometimes believed.1. both northern free blacks and courageous ex-slaves led other blacks to

freedom.2. the escaped slave Harriet Tubman made at least 19 trips into the South to

help some 300 slaves escape.3. free blacks in the North and abolitionists also organized vigilance committees

to protect fugitive slaves from the slave catchers.4. once the Civil War broke out black leaders such as Frederick Douglass,

Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth continued to take an active role in the emancipation of slaves and supported black soldiers in the Union cause.

C. Literature on Slavery - Pro and Con: Popular books as well as unpopular laws stirred the emotions of the people of all regions.1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The most influential book of its day was novella bout

the conflict between a slave named Tom and the brutal white slave owner Simon Legreea. publication in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe moved a generation of

northerners as well as many Europeans to regard all slave owners as cruel and inhuman

b. Southerners condemned the “untruths” in the novel and looked upon it as one more example of Northern prejudice against the South

c. Lincoln to Stowe: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

2. Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton R. Helper (1857): Nonfiction book that attacked slavery from angle that slavery had a negative impact on the South’s economy. Southern states quickly banned the book, but it was widely distributed in the North by anti-slavery and Free-Soil leaders.a. responding to the northern literature that condemned slavery as a terrible

evil, proslavery whites counterattacked by arguing that slavery the opposite – a positive good for master and slave alike.

b. slavery was sanctioned in the Bible and firmly grounded in philosophy and history.

c. southern authors contrasted the conditions of northern wage workers or “wage slaves” forced to work long hours in factories and mines

d. George Fitzhugh, the boldest and best known of the proslavery authors questioned the principle of equal rights for “unequal men” and attacked the capitalist wage system as worse than slavery. Wrote Sociology for the South (1854) and Cannibals All (1857)

III. National parties in Crisis: Occurring simultaneously in the mid 1850s were two tendencies that caused further political instability: (1) the weakening of the two major parties – the Democrats and Whigs – and (2) a disastrous application of popular sovereignty in the western territory of KansasA. The Election of 1863: Scott vs. Pierce

1. Whigs nominated another hero from the Mexican War and General Winfield Scott

a. ignoring the slavery issue, the Whig campaign concentrated on the party’s plans for improving roads and harbors

b. Scott soon discovered that sectional issues could not be held in check, as the antislavery and southern factions of the party fell to fighting

2. The Democrats nominated a New Hampshire politician, Franklin Piercea. acceptable to southern Democrats because of his support for the

Fugitive Slave Law3. In the electoral college vote, Pierce and Democrats won all but 4 states in

a sweep that proved the days of Which Party were numbered.B. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): With the Democrats firmly in control of

national policy both in the White House and Congress, a new law was passed that was to have terrible consequence1. Senator Stephen Douglas (IL) devised a plan for building a railroad and

promoting western settlement (while at the same time increasing the value of his own real estate holdings in Chicago

2. Needed to win southern approval for his plan to build a transcontinental railroad through the central U.S., and with a major terminus in Chicago (southern Democrats preferred a more southerly route)

3. Proposed that the Nebraska Territory and settlers there be free to decide whether or not to allow slavery

4. Since these territories were located north of the 36°30’ line, Douglas’s bill gave southern slave owners an opportunity that previously had been closed to them by the Missouri Compromise

5. After 3 months of bitter debate, both houses of Congress passed Douglas’s bill as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and President Pierce signed it into lawa. renewed the sectional controversy that had been at least partly restored

with the Compromise of 1850b. in effect, it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820c. northern Democrats condemned the law as a surrender to the “slave

power”d. a new political party emerged whose membership was entirely

northern and western. Its overriding purpose was to express opposition to the spread of slavery in the territories. This new antislavery party called itself the Republican Party

C. New Parties: In hindsight, it is clear that the breakup of truly national political parties in the mid 1850s paralleled the breakup of the Union. Two new parties came into being at this time – one temporary, the other permanent. Both played a role in bringing about the demise of a major political party, the Whigs.1. Know-Nothing Party: In addition to sectional divisions between North

and South, there was also in the mid 1850s growing ethnic tensions in the North between native-born Protestant Americans and immigrant German and Irish Catholics

a. hostilities led to the formation of the American Party – or the Know-Nothing Party, as it was commonly known(because party members commonly responded “I know nothing” to political questions

b. Drew support from the Whigs at a time when that party was reeling from the 1852 election

c. their one burning issue was opposition to Catholics and immigrants who, in the 1840s and 1850s, were entering northern cities in large #s

d. although the Know-Nothings won a few local and state elections in the mid 1850s and helped to weaken the Whigs, they quickly lost influence as sectional issues again became paramount

2. Birth of the Republican Party: The Republican Party was founded in Racine, WI (1854) as a direct reaction to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.a. coalition of Free-Soilers and antislavery Whigs and Democrats made

up the new party.b. its first platform of 1854 called for the repeal of both the Kansas-

Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Lawc. Although abolitionists were later to join the party, its leaders were

chiefly northern and western moderates who were united in the opposition to slavery in the territories. They were content to see slavery continue as long as it was confined to the old slave states of the South.

d. From 1854-1860, the Republican party grew rapidly in the North and soon established itself as the 2nd largest political party

e. It remained in these years strictly a northern or sectional party, its success could only alienate and threaten the South

D. The Election of 1856: Republicans 1st major test of strength came in the 1856 election1. Republicans nominated young explorer and “pathfinder” John C.

Fremont, senator from Californiaa. Republican platform called for no expansion of slavery, free

homesteads, and a pro-business protective tariff2. The Know-Nothing Party competed strongly, winning 20% of the popular

vote for Millard Fillmore3. As the one major national party, the Democrats were expected to win

a. nominated James Buchanan (PA), rejecting President Pierce and Stephen Douglas because they were too closely identified with the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act

b. The Democratic Party won a majority of both the popular and electoral vote

4. Republicans made strong showing for a sectional party. In the Electoral College, Fremont carried 11 of the 16 free states. It was becoming evident that the antislavery Republicans would win the White House without a single vote from the South.

5. The election of 1856 foreshadowed the emergence of a powerful political part that would win all but four presidential elections between 1860-1932.

IV. Extremists and Violence: The conflicts between antislavery and proslavery forces were not confined to politics and public debate. By the mid-1850s both sides resorted to violence.A. Bleeding Kansas: Well before the 1856 election, the tragic and bloody

consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had become obvious to all. Stephen Douglas, the sponsor of the measure, expected the slavery issue in the territory to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the Midwest who migrated to Kansas. These settlers did in fact constitute a majority of the population. But slaveholders from the neighboring state of Missouri also set up homesteads in Kansas chiefly as a means of winning control of the territory for the South. Northern abolitionists and Free-Soilers responded by organizing the New England Emigrant Aid Society, which paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas. Fighting soon broke out between the proslavery and the antislavery groups, and the territory became known as “bleeding Kansas.”1. Proslavery Missourians, mockingly called “border ruffians” by their enemies,

crossed the border to create a proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas2. Anti-slavery settlers refused to recognize this government and created their

own legislature in Topeka3. 1856 – proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of Lawrence, killing 2

and destroying homes and businesses.4. Two days later, John Brown, a stern abolitionist from Connecticut, retaliated

for the Lawrence incident by leading his sons on an attack of a proslavery farm settlement at Pottawatomie Creek. The Browns brutally killed five settlers

5. In Washington, the Pierce administration kept aloof from the turmoil in Kansas. It did nothing to keep order in the territory and failed to support honest elections there.

6. As “bleeding Kansas” became bloodier, the Democratic party became ever more divided between its northern and southern factions.

B. The Caning of Charles Sumner: The violence in Kansas spilled over into the halls of the U.S. Congress1. 1856 – Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner verbally attacked the

Democratic administration in a mean-spirited speech, “The Crime Against Kansas”

2. His intemperate remarks included personal charges against South Carolina Senator Andrew Butlera. Butler’s distant cousin, congressman Preston Brooks, defended his absent

cousin’s honor by walking into the Senate chamber and beating Sumner over the head with a cane, putting him in the hospital to recover for years

b. Brook’s explained that dueling was “too good for Sumner, but a cane was fit for a dog”

3. Brook’s action outraged the North, and the House voted to censure him. He quit anyway, but not before southerners applauded him for his actions and sent him numerous canes to replace the one he broke beating Sumner. The Sumner-Brooks incident was another sign of growing passions of hatred on both sides.

V. Constitutional Issues: Both the Democrats’ position of popular sovereignty and the Republican’s stand against the expansion of slavery received serious blows during the Buchanan administration (1857-1861). Republicans attacked Buchanan as a weak president under southern control.A. Lecompton Constitution: One of Buchanan’s first challenges as president in

1857 was deciding whether to accept or reject a proslavery state constitution for Kansas submitted by the southern legislature at Lecompton1. It was obvious that the Lecompton Constitution did not have the support of

the majority of settlers2. Even so, President Buchanan asked Congress to accept the document and

admit Kansas as a slave state3. Congress did not accept because many Democrats, including Stephen

Douglas, joined with the Republicans in rejecting the Lecompton Constitution4. 1858 – the proslavery document was overwhelmingly defeated by the majority

of Kansas settlers, most of whom were antislavery RepublicansB. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): After congressional folly and presidential

wavering, the Supreme Court infuriated the North with its controversial proslavery decision in the Dred Scott case

Dred Scott had been held as a slave in Missouri and then taken to the free territory of Wisconsin where he lived for two years before returning to Missouri. Arguing that his period of residence of free soil made him a free citizen, Scott went to a Missouri court, which rendered its decision in March 1857 only two days after Buchanan was sworn in as president. Presiding over the Court was Chief Justice Roger Taney, a southern Democrat.

A majority of the Court decided against Scott and gave the following reasons:1. Dred Scott had no right to sue in a federal court because the framers of the

Constitution did not intend for people of African descent to be U.S. citizens2. Congress did not have the power to deprive any person of property without

due process of law; and, if slaves were a form of property, then Congress could not exclude slavery from a federal territory

3. Because Congress’ Law of 1820 (Missouri Compromise) excluded slavery from Wisconsin and other northern territories, that law was unconstitutional

* Southern Democrats delighted, Northern Republicans were shocked. In effect, the Supreme Court declared that all parts of the western territories were open to slavery. Because of the timing of the decision, right after Buchanan’s inauguration, many northerners suspected that the Democratic president and the Democratic majority on the Supreme Court, including Taney, had secretly planned the Dred Scott decision, hoping that it would settle the slavery question once and for all. The decision increased northerners’ suspicion of a slave power conspiracy and induced thousands of former Democrats to vote Republican.

Northern Democrats like Senator Douglas were left with the almost impossible task of supporting popular sovereignty without rejecting the Dred Scott decision. Douglas’ hope for a sectional compromise and his ambitions for the presidency were both in jeopardy.

C. Lincoln-Douglas Debates: In 1858, the focus of the nation was on Stephen Douglas’ campaign for re-election as senator in Illinois. Challenging him for the Senate seat was a successful trial lawyer and former member of the IL legislature, Abraham Lincoln.1. Lincoln had served only one 2-year term in the IL Congress in the 1840s as a

Whig. Nationally he was an unknown compared to Douglas (the Little Giant), the champion of popular sovereignty and possibly the last hope for holding the North and South together if elected president in 1860

2. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. As a moderate who was against the expansion of slavery, he could effectively speak of slavery as a moral issue (“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”)

3. Accepting the IL Republican nomination, Lincoln delivered the celebrated “House-Divided” speech that was reported in the nation’s press. “This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free,” a statement that made southerners view Lincoln as a radical.

4. In 7 campaign debates held in different IL towns, Lincoln shared the platform with his famous opponent, Douglas. The Republican challenger attacked Douglas’ seeming indifference to slavery as a moral issue.a. In Freeport, Lincoln questioned how Douglas could reconcile popular

sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision.b. In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas responded that

slavery could not exist in a community is the local citizens could not pass and enforce laws (slave codes) for maintaining it.

c. This doctrine angered southern Democrats because from their point of view, Douglas did not go far enough in supporting the implications of the Dred Scott decision.

5. Douglas ended up winning his campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate. In the long run, however, he lost ground in his own party by alienating southern Democrats

6. Lincoln emerged from the debates as a national figure and a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

VI. The Road to Secession: Outside IL, the Republicans did well in the congressional elections of 1858, a fact that alarmed many southerners. They worried not only about the Republicans’ economic program, which favored the interests of northern industrialists at the expense of the South. The higher tariffs pledged in the Republican platform could only help northern business and hurt the South’s dependency on the export of cotton. Southerners feared therefore that a Republican victory in 1860 would spell disaster for their economic interests and also threaten the “constitutional right,” as affirmed by the Supreme Court, to hold slaves as property. As if this were not enough cause for alarm, northern radicals provided money to John Brown, the man who had massacred five farmers in Kansas in 1856.A. John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry: The fanatical and unstable John Brown

confirmed the South’s worst fears of radical abolitionism when he tried to start a slave uprising in Virginia.1. October 1859: Brown led a small band of followers, including his four sons

and some former slaves, in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry

a. plan was to use guns from the arsenal to arm Virginia’s slaves, whom he expected to rise up in general revolt.

b. federal troops under the command of Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his band after a two-day siege

c. Brown and six of his followers were tried for treason, convicted, and hanged.

2. Moderates in the North, including Republican leaders, condemned Brown’s violence3. Southern whites saw the raid as final proof of the North’s true intentions –

to use revolts to destroy the South4. Because John Brown spoke with simple eloquence at his trial of is

humanitarian motives, he was hailed as a martyr by many antislavery northerners

5. A few years later, when the Civil War broke out, John Brown was celebrated by advancing northern armies singing, “Glory, glory, hallelujah! His soul is marching on.”

B. The Election of 1860: The final event that triggered the South’s decision to leave the Union was the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, as president in 18601. Breakup of the Democratic Party: After John Brown’s raid, most

Americans could see the chance for disunion. As 1860 began, the Democratic party represented the last political hope for coalition and compromise.a. Democrats held convention in Charleston, S.C. Stephen Douglas was

clearly the leader and most capable of winning.b. His nomination was blocked by a combination of angry southerners and

supporters of Buchanan.c. After a deadlock, Democrats held a 2nd convention in Baltimore.

1. many delegates from slave states walked out, enabling the remaining delegates to nominate Douglas on a platform of popular sovereignty and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act

2. Southern Democrats held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated John C. Breckinridge (KY)

d. The southern Democratic platform called for the unrestricted extension of slavery in the territories and the annexation of Cuba as another land where slavery could flourish.

2. Republican nomination of Lincoln: When the Republicans met in Chicago, they enjoyed the prospect of an easy win over the divided Democratic partya. drafted a platform that appealed strongly to economic self-interest of

northerners and westerners1. exclusion of slavery from the territories2. protective tariff for industry3. free land for homesteaders4. internal improvements to encourage western settlement, including a

railroad to the Pacific.

b. The Republicans turned away from the better known but more radical William H. Seward to the strong debater from IL, Abraham Lincoln – a candidate who could carry the key Midwestern states of IL, OH, and IN.

c. On the dark cloud side in the South, secessionists warned that if Lincoln was elected president, their states would leave the Union.

3. A Fourth Party: Fearing the consequences of a Republican victory, a group of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and moderate Democrats formed a new party: The Constitutional Union Partya. Nominated John Bell (TN)b. Platform pledged enforcement of the laws and the Constitution and, above

all, preserving the Union.4. Election results: While Douglas campaigned across the country, Lincoln

confidently remained at home in Springfield, IL, meeting with Republican leaders and giving statements to the press. The election results were predictable.a. Lincoln carried every one of the free states of the North, which

represented a solid majority of 59% of the electoral votes.b. Lincoln won only 39.8% of the popular vote, however, and would

therefore be a minority presidentc. Breckenridge, the southern democrat carried the Deep South, leaving

Douglass and Bell with just a few electoral votes in border states.d. Together, Douglas as a northern Democrat and Breckinridge as a southern

Democrat received more votes in the border states.e. Nonetheless, the new political reality was that the populous free states had

enough electoral votes to select a president without the need for a single electoral vote from the South.

C. Secession of the Deep South: The Republicans controlled neither the Congress nor the Supreme Court. Even so, the election of Lincoln was all that southern secessionists needed to call for immediate disunion.1. 1860: Special convention in South Carolina voted unanimously to secede.

Within the next 6 weeks, other state conventions in FL, GA, AL, MI, LA, and TX did the same.

2. Feb 1861: representatives of the seven states of the Deep South met in Montgomery, AL and created the Confederate States of America.a. The constitution of this would-be southern nation was similar to the U.S.

Constitution, except that the Confederacy placed limits on the government’s power to impose tariffs and restrict slavery.

b. Elected president and vice-president of the Confederacy were Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander Stephens of Georgia.

D. Crittenden Compromise: A lame-duck president (a leader facing imminent retirement), Buchanan had five months in office before President-elect Lincoln was due to succeed him.1. Buchanan was a conservative who had done nothing to prevent the secession of the

seven states. Congress was more active.a. In a last-ditch effort to appease the South, Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky

proposed a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to hold slaves in all territories south of 36°30’.

b. Lincoln, however, said that he could not accept this compromise because it violated the Republican position against the extension of slavery into the territories.

2. Southern whites who voted for secession believed they were acting in the tradition of the Revolution of 1776.a. argued that they had a right to national independence and to dissolve a

constitutional compact that no longer protected them “tyranny” (the tyranny of northern rule).

b. Many of them also thought that Lincoln, like Buchanan, might permit secession without a fight. Were they mistaken????

Chapter 19

Harriet Beecher Stowe Hinton R. HelperJohn Brown James BuchananCharles Sumner John C. FremontDred Scott Roger TaneyJohn C. Breckenridge John BellAbraham Lincoln Jefferson DavisJohn Crittenden self-determinationSouthern nationalism Uncle Tom’s CabinThe Impending Crisis of the South New England Immigrant Aid SocietyPottawatomie Creek massacre Lecompton Constitution“Bleeding Kansas” American (Know-Nothing Party)Dred Scott decision panic of 1857Lincoln-Douglas debates Freeport DoctrineHarper Ferry’s Raid Constitutional Union PartyCrittenden Compromise

1. Was the Compromise of 1850 a wise effort to balance sectional differences or a futile attempt to push the slavery issue out of sight?

2. Why did the North so strongly resent the Fugitive Slave Law, and why did the South resent northern resistance to enforcing it?

3. Explain how the events of the late 1850s developed in a chain reaction, with each crisis deepening sectional hatreds, thus paving the way for another critical event.

4. Analyze the Kansas conflict as a small-scale rehearsal for the Civil War. The focus might be on the way sectional violence fed on itself, producing extremist figures like Brown and the “border ruffians.”

5. Use the Lincoln-Douglass debates to explain the rise of Lincoln and the Republican party, and the issues in the northern debate about how to deal with slavery. Focus on Lincoln’s rise to national prominence to the slavery issue.

6. Examine the 1860 election and its consequences. Emphasize the Democratic split, the sectional character of the voting, and the Deep South’s clear determination to secede as soon as Lincoln took office.

7. How did each of the major crisis events of the 1850s contribute to the advent of the Civil War?

8. How could a fanatical and violent man like John Brown come to be regarded as a hero by millions of northerners.

9. Why did Douglas’ “popular sovereignty” approach to the slavery question prove to be unworkable in Kansas and elsewhere?

10. Why was sectional compromise impossible in 1860, when such compromises had previously worked in 1820 and 1850? Since Lincoln had guaranteed to protect slavery in the states where it existed, why did seven southern states secede as soon as he was elected?

11. Rank the following in order of their importance to the coming of the Civil War; Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott decision, John Brown’s raid, Lincoln’s election. Justify your ranking.

Civil War NotesAP History

The Civil War between the North and the South (1861-1865) was the most costly of all American wars in terms of the loss of human life – and also the most destructive war ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. The deaths of 620,000 men was a true national tragedy, but constituted only part of the impact of the war years on American society. As a result of the Civil War, 4 million people were freed from slavery, which gave the nation, as President Lincoln said at Gettysburg, a “new birth of freedom.” The war also transformed American society by accelerating industrialization and modernization on the North and largely destroying the plantation system in the South. These changes were so fundamental and profound that some historians refer to the Civil War as the 2nd American Revolution. While these notes summarize the major military aspects of the Civil War, you should place at least equal emphasis on the understanding of the social, economic, and political changes that took place during the war.

I. The War Begins: When Lincoln was inaugurated as the first Republican president in March 1861, it was not at all clear that he would employ military means to challenge the secession of South Carolina and other states. In his inaugural address, Lincoln assured southerners that he had no intention of interfering with

slavery or any other southern institution. At the same time, he warned that no state had the right to break up the Union.

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict

without being yourselves the aggressors.”

A. Fort Sumter: Despite the president’s message of both conciliation and warning, the danger of a war breaking out was acute. Most critical was the status of two forts in the South that were held by federal troops but claimed by a seceded state.1. Ft. Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. was cut off from vital supplies and reinforcements by southern control of the harbor.

a. rather than giving up the fort or attempting to defend it, Lincoln announced that he was sending provisions of food to the small federal garrison.

b. He thus gave S.C. the choice of either permitting the fort to hold out or opening fire with its shore batteries

c. Southern guns thundered their reply and thus, on April 12, 1862 the war began. The attack on Ft. Sumter and its capture after two days of incessant pounding united most Northerners behind a patriotic fight to save the Union.2. Use of Executive Power: More than any previous president, Lincoln acted in unprecedented ways, drawing upon his powers as both chief executive and commander in chief, often without the authorization or approval of Congress.

a. called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the “insurrection” in the Southb. authorizing the spending for the warc. suspending the privilege of the writ of habeus corpus

1. since Congress was not in session, the president acted completely on his own authority

2. Lincoln later explained that he had to take strong measures without congressional approval as “indispensable to the public safety.”

B. Secession of the Upper South : Before the attack of Ft. Sumter, only 7 states of the Deep South had seceded. After it had become clear that Lincoln would use troops in the crisis, four states of the Upper South – VA, NC, TN, ARK – also seceded and joined the Confederacy. The capital of the Confederacy was then moved to Richmond, VA

C. Keeping the Border States in the Union: Four other slave holding states might have seceded, but instead remained in the Union.1. The decision of DE, MD, MO, and KY not to join the Confederacy was partly due to the Union sentiment in those states and partly as a result of shrewd federal policies.

a. In MD, pro-secessionists attacked Union troops and threatened the railroad to Washington

b. The Union army resorted to martial law to keep the state under federal control.

D. Wartime Advantages

1. Military: the South entered the war with the advantage of having to fight only a defensive war to win, while the North had to conquer an area as large as Western Europe.

a. South had shorter supply linesb. South had a long, indented coastline that was difficult to blockadec. most importantly, South had experienced military leaders and high troop

moraled. North had 22 mil against South’s free population of 5.5 mil – war of

attritione. North’s advantage enhanced by 800,000 immigrants who enlisted in large

#sf. Emancipation brought over 180,000 African Americans into the Union

army in large #sg. The North could also count on a loyal U.S. Navy which ultimately gave it

command of the rivers and territorial waters.2. Economic: North’s great strength was an economy that controlled most of the banking and capital of the country, over 85% of factories and manufactured goods, over 70% of railroads and 65% of farmlands

a. The skills of northern clerks and bookkeepers also proved valuable in the logistical support of large military operations

b. Hope of Southern economy was that overseas demand for its cotton would bring recognition and financial aid

c. History supports the belief that outside help is essential if wars for independence are to be successful3. Political: Its struggle for independence may seem to have given the South more motivation than the North’s task of preserving the Union. However, the South’s ideology of states’ rights proved a serious liability for the new Confederate government.

a. The irony was that in order to win the war, the South needed a strong central government with strong public support.

b. The South had neither, while the North had a well-established central government and in Lincoln and in the Republican and Democratic parties, it had experienced politicians with strong popular base.

c. The ultimate hope of the South was that the people of the North would turn against Lincoln and the Republicans and quit the war because it was too costly.

E. The Confederate States of America: The constitution of the Confederacy was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, but it provided a non-successive six year term for the president and vice-president and a presidential item veto.1. The Constitution denied the confederate Congress the powers to levy a protective tariff and to appropriate funds for internal improvements, but it did prohibit the foreign slave trade.2. Jefferson Davis tried to increase his executive powers during the war, but Southern governors resisted attempts at centralization, some holding back men and resources to protect their own states.

3. At one point, VP Alexander Stephens, in defense of states’ rights even urged the secession of Georgia in response to the “despotic” actions of the Confederate government4. The Confederacy always faced a serious shortage of money

a. tried loans, income taxes (include taxes on produce), and even impressments of private property, but these revenues paid for only a small percentage of the war’s cost.

b. forced to issue more than $1billion in inflationary paper money, which reduced the value of a Confederate dollar to less than 2 cents by the closing days of the war.5. Confederate Congress nationalized the railroads and encouraged industrial development

F. The Confederacy sustained nearly 1 million troops at its peak, but as a war of attrition boomed its efforts, the real surprise is that the South was able to persist for four years.

II. First Years of a Long War: 1861-1862 Northerners at first expected the war was to last no more than a few weeks. Lincoln called up the first volunteers for and enlistment period of only 90 day. “On to Richmond” was the optimist cry, but as Americans soon learned, it would take almost four years of ferocious fighting before northern troops finally did march into the Confederate capital.

A. First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861): In the first battle of the war 30,000 federal troops marched from Washington D.C., to attack Confederate forces near Bull Run at Manassas Junction, VA1. Just as the Union forces seemed close to victory, Confederate reinforcements under General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson counterattacked and sent the inexperienced Union troops in disorderly and panicky flight back to D.C. (together with civilian curiosity-seekers and picknickers).2. The battle ended the illusion of a short war and also promoted the myth that the Rebels were invincible in battle.

B. Union strategy: General Winfield Scott, the senior commander of the federal forces, devised a three part strategy for winning a long war1. Use the U.S. Navy to blockade Southern ports (the Anaconda Plan) and thereby cutting off essential supplies from reaching.2. Divide the Confederacy in two by taking control of the Mississippi River3. Raise and train an army 500,000 strong to Richmond

As it happened, the first two parts of the strategy were easier to achieve than the third, but ultimately all three aspects of Scott’s plan were important in achieving northern victory. After the Union’s defeat at Bull Run, federal armies experienced a succession of crushing defeats as they attempted various campaigns in VA, each less successful than the one before

1. Peninsula campaign: General George C. McClellan, the new commander of the Union army in the East, insisted that his troops be given a long period of training and discipline before going into battle.

a. finally after many delays that sorely tested Lincoln’s patience, McClellan’s army invaded Virginia in March 1862.

b. The Union was stopped as a result of brilliant tactical moves by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who emerged as the commander of the South’s eastern forces.

c. After 5 months, McClellan was forced to retreat and ordered back to the Potomac, where he was replaced by General John Pope2. Second Battle of Bull Run: Lee took advantage of the change in Union generals to strike quickly at Pope’s army.

a. Drew Pope into a trap, then struck the enemy’s flank, and sent the Union army backward to Bull Run.

b. Pope withdrew to the defenses of Washington3. Antietam: Following his victory at Bull Run, Lee led his army across the Potomac into enemy territory in Maryland. In doing so, he hoped that a major Confederate victory in the North would convince Britain to give official recognition and support to the Confederacy.

a. By this time (Sept. 1862), Lincoln had restored McClellan to command of the Union army.

1. McClellan had the advantage of knowing Lee’s battle plan, because a copy of it had been dropped accidentally by a Confederate officer.

2. the Union army intercepted the invading Confederates at Antietam Creek in the Maryland town of Sharpsburg.

3. Here the bloodiest single day of combat in the entire war took place, a day in which over 22,000 men were either killed or wounded.

b. Unable to break through enemy lines, Lee’s army retreated to Virginia.1. Disappointed with McClellan for failing to pursue Lee’s weakened and

retreating army, Lincoln removed him for a final time as commander of the Union army.

2. The president complained that his general had a “bad case of the slows.”

c. While technically a draw, Antietam in the long run proved to be a decisive battle, because it stopped the Confederates from getting what they so urgently needed-open recognition and aid from a foreign power.

d. Lincoln too found enough encouragement in the results from Antietam to claim it as a Union victory. Grasping at a rare opportunity to make a bold change in policy, Lincoln used the partial triumph of Union arms to announce plans for the Emancipation Proclamation.4. Fredericksburg: Replacing McClellan with the more aggressive General Ambrose Burnside, Lincoln discovered that a strategy of reckless attack could have even worse consequences that McClellan’s strategy of caution and inaction.

a. Dec. 1862: a large Union army under Burnside attacked Lee’s army at Fredericksburg, VA and suffered immense losses: 12,000 dead or wounded compared to 5,000 Confederate casualties.

b. Both Union and Confederate generals were slow to learn that improved weaponry, especially the deadly fire from enemy artillery, took the romance out of heroic charges against entrenched positions.

c. By the end of 1862, the awful magnitude of the war was all too clear – with no prospect of military victory for either side.

The 2nd year of the war, 1862 was a disastrous one for the North except for two engagements, one at sea and the other on rivers in the West.5. Monitor v. Merrimac: The North’s hopes for winning the war depended upon its ability to maximize its economic and naval advantages by shutting down the South’s sources of supply.

a. Establishing an effective blockade of southern ports (the Anaconda Plan) was crucial to this objective.

b. During McClellan’s Peninsula campaign, the North’s blockade strategy was placed in jeopardy by the Confederate ironclad ship the Merrimac (a former Union ship, rebuilt and renamed the Virginia) that could attack and sink the Union’s wooden ships almost at will.

c. The Union navy countered with an ironclad of its own, the Monitor, which fought a five-hour duel with the Southern ironclad near Hampton Roads, VA, in March 1862.

d. Although the battle ended in a draw, the Monitor prevented the South’s formidable new weapon, an ironclad ship, from seriously challenging the U.S. naval blockade.6. Grant in the West: The battle of the ironclads occurred at about the same time as a far bloodier encounter in western Tennessee, a Confederate state.

a. The North’s campaign for control of the Mississippi River was partly under the command of a West Point graduate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had joined up for the war after an unsuccessful civilian career.

b. Striking south from IL in early 1862, Grant used a combination of gunboats and army maneuvers to capture Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River (a branch of the Mississippi River).

c. These stunning victories, in which 14,000 Confederates were taken prisoner, opened up the state of Mississippi to Union attack. A few weeks later, a Confederate army under Albert Johnston surprised Grant at Shiloh, TN, but the Union army held its ground and finally forced the Confederates to retreat after terrible losses on both sides (over 23,000 dead and wounded).

d. Grant’s drive down the Mississippi was complimented in April 1862 by the capture of New Orleans by the Union navy under David Farragut.

II. Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy: The South’s hope for securing its independence hinged as much on its diplomats as on its soldiers. Confederate leaders fully expected that cotton would indeed prove to be “king” and induce Britain or France, or both, to give direct aid to the South’s ear effort. Besides depending on southern cotton for their textile mills, wealthy British industrialists and members of the British aristocracy looked forward with pleasure to the breakup of the American democratic experiment. From the North’s point of view, it was critically important to prevent the Confederacy from gaining the foreign support and recognition that it so desperately needed.

A. Trent Affair: Britain came close to siding with the Confederacy in late 1861 over an incident at sea.1. Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell were traveling to England on a British steamer, the Trent, on a mission to gain recognition for their government.

2. A union warship stopped the British ship, removed Mason and Slidell, and brought them to the United States as prisoners of war.3. Britain threatened war over the incident unless the two diplomats were released.4. Although he faced severe public criticism for doing so, Lincoln gave in to the British demands. Mason and Slidell were set free, but after again sailing for Europe, they failed to obtain full recognition of the Confederacy either from Britain or France.

B. Confederate Raiders: The South was able to gain enough recognition as a belligerent to purchase warships from British shipyards. Confederate commerce-raiders did serious harm to U.S. merchant ships.1. One of them, the Alabama, captured over 60 vessels before being sunk off the coast of France by a Union warship.2. After the war, Great Britain eventually agreed to pay the U.S. $15.5 mil for damages caused by the South’s commerce raiders3. the U.S. minister to Britain, Charles Francis Adams, prevented a potentially much more serious threat.

a. Learning that the Confederacy had arranged to purchase Laird rams (ships with iron rams) from Britain to use against the North’s naval blockade, Adams persuaded the British government to cancel the sale rather than risk war with the United States.

C. Failure of Cotton Diplomacy: In the end, the South’s hopes for European intervention were disappointed. “King Cotton” did not have the power to dictate another nation’s foreign policy since Europe quickly found ways of obtaining cotton from other sources1. By the time shortages of southern cotton hit the British textile industry,

adequate shipments of cotton began arriving from Egypt and India.2. Also, materials other than cotton could be used for textiles, and the woolen and linen industries were not slow to take advantage of their opportunity.3. Two other factors went into Britain’s decision not to recognize the Confederacy

a. General Lee’s setback at Antietam played a role; without a decisive Confederate military victory, the British government would not risk recognition.

b. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (January, 1863) made the end of slavery an objective of the North, a fact that appealed strongly to Britain’s working class.

c. While conservative leaders of Britain were strongly sympathetic to the South, they could not defy the pro-northern, anti-slavery, feelings of the British majority.

III. The End of Slavery: Even though Lincoln in the 1850s spoke out against slavery as “an unqualified evil,” as president he seemed hesitant to take action against slavery as advocated by many of his Republican supporters. Lincoln’s concerns included (1) keeping the support of the border states, (2) the constitutional protection of slavery, (3) the prejudices of many northerners, and (4) the fear that premature action could be overturned in the next election. All of these concerns made the timing and method of freeing the slaves fateful decisions. Slaves were

freed during the Civil War as a result of military events, governmental policy, and their own actions.

A. Confiscation Acts: Early in the war (May 1861), Union General Benjamin Butler refused to return captured slaves to their Confederate owners, arguing that they were “contraband of war.”1. The power to seize enemy property used to wage war against the United States was the legal basis for the first Confiscation Act passed by Congress in August 1861.2. Soon after the passage of this act, thousands of “contrabands” were using their feet to escape slavery by finding their way into Union camps.3. In July 1862 a second Confiscation Act was passed that freed the slaves of persons engaged in rebellion against the United States.4. The law also empowered the president to use freed slaves in the Union army in any capacity, including battle.

B. Emancipation Proclamation: By July 1862 Lincoln had already decided to use his powers as commander in chief of the armed forces to free all slaves in the states then at war with the U.S.1. He would justify his policy by calling it a “military necessity.”2. Lincoln delayed announcement of the policy, however, until he could win the

support of conservative northerners.3. At the same time, he encouraged the border sates to come up with plans for

emancipating slaves, with compensation to the owners.4. After the Battle of Antietam (Sep 1862), Lincoln issued a warning that slaves

in all states still in rebellion on Jan. 1, 1863 would be “then, and thenceforth, and forever free.

5. As promised, on the first day of the new year, 1863, the president issued his proclamation. After listing the states from Arkansas to Virginia that were in rebellion, the proclamation stated:…I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities therof, shall recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

6. Consequences: Since the president’s proclamation applied only to slaves residing in Confederate states outside Union control, it did not immediately free a single slave.a. slavery in the border states was allowed to continue.b. of major importance – committed the U.S. government to a policy of

abolition in the South and enlarged the purpose of the war. Now for the first time, Union armies were fighting against slavery, not merely against secession and rebellion.

c. the proclamation gave added weight to the Confiscation acts, increasing the number of slaves who sought freedom by fleeing to Union lines. Thus, with each advance of northern troops into the South, more slaves were liberated.

d. as an added blow to the South, the proclamation also authorized the recruitment of freed slaves as Union soldiers.

C. Thirteenth Amendment: Standing in the way of full emancipation were phrases in the U.S. Constitution that seemed to legitimize slavery. The free the slaves in the border states, a constitutional amendment was needed.1. Even the abolitionists gave Lincoln credit for playing an active role in the

political struggle to secure enough votes in Congress to pass the 13th Amendment.

2. By December 1865 (months after Lincoln’s death), this amendment abolishing slavery was ratified by the required number of states.

3. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

D. Freedmen in the War: After the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1863), hundreds of thousands of southern blacks – approximately ¼ of the slave population walked away from slavery to seek protection of the approaching Union armies.1. Almost 200,000 African Americans, most of whom were newly freed slaves,

served in the Union army and navy.2. Segregated into all-black units, such as the Massachusetts 54th Regiment,

black troops performed courageously under fire and won the respect of northern white soldiers.

3. Over 37,000 African American soldiers died in what became known as the Army of Freedom.

IV. The Union Triumphs, 1863-1865: By the beginning of 1863, the fortunes of the war had turned against the South. Although General Robert E. Lee started the year with another victory at Chancellorsville, VA, the Confederate economy was in desperate shape, southern planters and farmers were losing control of their slave-labor force, and an increasing number of poorly provisioned soldiers were deserting from the Confederate army.A. Turning Point: The decisive turning point in the war came in the first week of

July when the Confederacy suffered two crushing defeats in the West and the East.1. Vicksburg: In the West, by the spring of 1863, Union forces controlled New

Orleans and most of the Mississippi River and the surrounding valley.a. The Union objective of securing complete control of the Mississippi River

was close to an accomplished fact when General Grant began his siege of the heavily fortified city of Vicksburg, MS.

b. Union artillery bombarded Vicksburg for seven weeks before the Confederates finally surrendered the city (and nearly 29,000 soldiers) on July 4.

c. Federal warships now controlled the full length of the Mississippi and cut off Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the rest of the Confederacy.

2. Gettysburg: Meanwhile, in the East, Lee again took the offensive by leading an army into enemy territory: the Union states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. If he could either destroy the Union army or capture a major northern city, Lee hoped to force the North to call for peace – or at least to gain foreign intervention for the South.

a. On July 1, 1863, the invading southern army surprised Union units at Gettysburg in southern PA.

b. What followed was the most crucial battle of the war and also one of the bloodiest, with over 50,000 casualties.

c. Lee’s assault of Union lines in the 2nd and 3rd days of the battle proved futile, and a good part of the Confederate army was destroyed.

d. What was left of Lee’s forces retreated to VA, never to regain the offensive.

B. Grant in Command: Lincoln finally found a general who could fight and win. In early 1864 he brought Grant east to VA and made him the commander of all the Union armies.1. Grant’s approach to ending the war was simply to outlast Lee in fighting a

war of attrition.2. Recognizing that the South’s resources were dwindling, he aimed to wear

down the southern armies and systematically destroy their vital lines of supply.

3. Fighting doggedly for months, Grant’s army of the Potomac suffered heavier losses than Lee’s forces in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor.

4. But by never letting up, Grant succeeded in reducing Lee’s army in each battle and forcing it into a defensive line around Richmond. In this final stage of the Civil War, the fighting foreshadowed the trench warfare that would later characterize World War I.

5. No longer was this a war “between gentlemen” but a total modern war against civilians as well as soldiers.

C. Sherman’s March: The chief instrument of Grant’s aggressive tactics for subduing the South was a hardened veteran, General William Tecumseh Sherman. Leading a force of 100,000 men, Sherman set out from Chattanooga, TN, on a campaign of deliberate destruction that went clear across the state of Georgia and then swept north into South Carolina.1. Sherman was a pioneer of the tactics of total war. Marching relentlessly

through Georgia, he troops destroyed everything in their path, burning cotton fields, barns and houses – everything the enemy might use to survive.

2. Sherman took Atlanta in September 1864 in time to help Lincoln’s prospects for reelection.

a.. He marched into Savannah in December and completed his campaign in February 1865 by setting fire to Columbia, the capital of South Carolina and the cradle of secession.

3. Sherman’s march had its intended effect, helping to break the will of the South and destroying its ability to fight on.

D. The election of 18641. The Democrat’s nominee for president was the popular General George

McClellan.a. The Democrats’ platform calling for peace had wide appeal among

millions of voters who had grown weary of war.

2. The Republicans renamed their party the Unionist party as a way of attracting the votes of “War Democrats” (those who disagreed with the Democratic platform).

3. A brief “ditch-Lincoln” movement fizzled out, and the Republican (Unionist) convention again chose Lincoln as its presidential candidate and a loyal War Democrat from Tennessee, Senator Andrew Johnson, as his running mate.

4. The Lincoln-Johnson ticket won 212 electoral votes to the Democrats’ 21. The popular vote, however, was much closer, for McClellan took 45% of the total votes cast.

E. The End of the War: The effects of the Union blockade, combined with Sherman’s march of destruction, spread hunger through much of the South in the winter of 1864-1865. On the battlefront in VA, Grant continued to outflank Lee’s lines until they collapsed around Petersburg, resulting in the fall of Richmond (April 3, 1865). By now, everyone knew that the end was near.1. Surrender at Appomatox: The Confederate government tried to negotiate for

peace, but Lincoln would accept nothing short of restoration of the Union and Jefferson Davis nothing less than independence.a. Lee retreated from Richmond with an army of less than 30,000 men.b. He tried to escape to the mountains only to be cut off and forced to

surrender to Grant at Appomatox Court House on April 9, 1865.c. The Union general treated his longtime enemy with respect and allowed

Lee’s men to return to their homes with their horses.2. Assassination of Lincoln: Only a month before Lee’s surrender, Lincoln

delivered one of his greatest speeches – the 2nd inaugural address.1. He urged that the defeated South be treated benevolently, “with malice

toward none, with charity for all.”2. On April 14, John Wilkes Booth, an embittered actor and southern

sympathizer, shot and killed the president while he was attending a performance in Ford’s Theater in Washington.

3. On the same night, a co-conspirator attacked but only wounded Secretary of State William Seward.

4. These shocking events aroused the fury of northerners at the very time that the South most needed a sympathetic hearing.

5. The loss of Lincoln’s leadership was widely mourned, but the extent of the loss was not fully appreciated until the two sections of a reunited country had to cope with the overwhelming problems of postwar Reconstruction.

V. Effects of the War on Civilian Life: Both during the war and in the years that followed, American society underwent deep and wrenching changes.A. Political Change: The electoral process continued during the war with

surprisingly few restrictions.1. Secession of the southern states had created Republican majorities in both

houses of Congress.a. within the Republican ranks, however, there were sharp differences

between the radical faction (those who championed the cause of immediate abolition of slavery) and the moderate faction (Free-Soilers who were chiefly concerned about economic opportunities for whites).

b. most Democrats supported the war but criticized Lincoln’s conduct of it.2. Peace Democrats and Copperheads opposed the war and wanted negotiated

peace.3. The most notorious Copperhead, Congress Clement L. Vallandigham of

Ohio, was briefly banished from the U.S. for his “treasonable,” pro-Confederacy speeches against the war.

B. Civil liberties: In wartime, governments tend to be more concerned with prosecuting the war than with protecting citizens’ constitutional rights.1. Lincoln’s government was no exception. Early in the war, Lincoln suspended

the writ of habeus corpus in Maryland and other states where there was much pro-Confederate sentiment.a. Suspension of this constitutional right meant that persons could be arrested

without being informed of the charges against them.b. During the war, an estimated 13,000 people were arrested on suspicion of

aiding the enemy; without a right to habeus corpus, many of them were held without a trial.

2. How flagrant was Lincoln’s abuse of civil liberties?a. At the time, Democrats said that Lincoln acted no better than a tyrant, but

few historians today would go that far in their judgment of the habeus corpus issue.

b. Especially in the border states, it was often hard to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants. Moreover, the Constitution does state that the writ of habeus corpus “shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

c. After the war, in the case of Ex Parte Milligan (1866), the Supreme Court ruled that the government had acted improperly in Indiana, where during the war, certain civilians had been subject to a military trial.

d. The Court declared that such procedures could be used only when regular civilian courts were unavailable.

C. The Draft: At first, those who fought in the Civil War were volunteers, but as the need for replacements became acute, both the North and the South resorted to laws for conscripting, or drafting men into service.1. The Congress’ first Conscription Act, adopted in March 1863, made all men

between the ages of 20 and 45 liable for military service but allowed a draftee to avoid service by either finding a substitute to serve or paying a $300 exemption fee.

2. The law provoked fierce opposition among poorer laborers, who feared that – if and when they returned to civilian life – their jobs would be taken by freed African Americans.

3. In July 1863, riots against the draft erupted in New York City, in which a mostly Irish American mob attacked blacks and wealthy whites. Some 117 people were killed before federal troops and a temporary suspension of the draft restored order.

D. Political dominance of the North: The suspension of habeus corpus and the operation of the draft were only temporary. Far more important were the long-

term effects of the war on the balance of power between two sectional rivals, the North and the South.1. With the military triumph of the North came a new definition of the nature of

the federal union.a. The southern emphasis on states’ rights and arguments for nullification

and secession ceased to be a major issue.b. After the Civil War, the supremacy of the federal government over the

states was treated as an established fact.2. The abolition of slavery – in addition to its importance to freed African

Americans – gave new meaning and legitimacy to the concept of American democracy.a. In his address at Gettysburg (Nov. 1863), Lincoln reminded Americans

that their nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

b. Lincoln was probably alluding to the Emancipation Proclamation when he spoke of the war bringing “a new birth of freedom.”

c. His words – and even more, the fact of slavery being abolished – advanced the cause of democratic government in the United States and inspired champions of democracy around the world.

E. Economic Change: The costs of the war in both money and men were staggering and called for extraordinary measures by both the Union and the Confederate legislatures.1. Financing the War: The North finances the war chiefly by borrowing $2.6

billion, obtained through the sale of government bonds.a. Even this amount was not enough, so Congress was forced to resort to

raising tariffs (Morrill Tariff of 1861), adding excise taxes, and instituting the first income tax.

b. The U.S. Treasury also issued over $430 million in paper currency known as Greenbacks.1. This paper money could not be redeemed in gold, a fact that

contributed to creeping inflation; prices in the North rose about 80% from 1861 – 1865.

2. To manage all the added revenue moving in and out of the first unified banking network since Andrew Jackson vetoed the recharter of the Bank of the United States in the 1830s.

F. Modernizing northern society: The war’s impact on the northern economy was no less significant. Economic historians differ on the question of whether, in the short run, the war promoted or retarded the growth of the northern economy.1. On the negative side, workers’ wages did not keep pace with inflation.2. On the other hand, there is little doubt that many aspects of a modern

industrial economy were accelerated by the war.a. because the war placed a premium on mass production and complex

organization, it speeded up the consolidation of the North’s manufacturing businesses.

b. War profiteers took advantage of the government’s urgent need for military supplies to sell shoddy goods at high prices.

c. Fortuned made during the war (whether honestly or dishonestly) produced a concentration of capital in the hands of a new class of millionaires, who would finance the North’s industrialization in the post war years.

3. Republican politics also played a major role in stimulating the economic growth of the North and the West. Taking advantage of their wartime majority in Congress, the Republicans passed an ambitious economic program that included not only a national banking system but also the following…a. The Morrill Tariff (1861): raised tariffs to increase revenue and protect

American manufacturers. Its passage initiated a Republican program of high protective tariffs to help industrialists.

b. The Homestead Act (1862): promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering parcels of the 160 acres of public land free to whatever person or family would farm that land for at least five years.

c. The Morrill Land Grant Act (1862): encouraged states to use the sale of federal land grants to maintain agricultural and technical colleges.

d. The Pacific Railway Act (1862): authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad over a northern route in order to link the economies of California and the western territories with the eastern states.

G. Social Change: Although no part of American society away from the battlefield was untouched by the war, those most directly affected were women of all ages, whose labors became more burdensome, and African Americans, who were emancipated from slavery.1. Women at work: The absence of millions of men from their normal

occupations in fields and factories added to the labors and responsibilities of women at home.a. Southern and northern women alike stepped into the labor vacuum created

by the war.b. They operated farms and plantations by themselves or, a critical role as

military nurses and as volunteers in soldiers’ aid societies.2. When the war ended and the war veterans returned home, most urban women

vacated their jobs in government and industry, while rural women gladly accepted male assistance on the farm.

3. Of course, for the women whose men never returned – or returned disabled - the economic struggle continued for a lifetime.

4. The Civil War had at least two permanent effects on American women.a. The field of nursing was now open to women for the first time; previously

hospitals employed only men as doctors and nurses.b. The enormous responsibilities undertaken by women during the war gave

impetus to the movement to attain equal voting rights for women. (The suffragists’ goal would not be achieved until women’s efforts in another war – World War I – finally convinced male conservatives to adopt the 19th Amendment.

H. End of Slavery: Both in the short run and the long run, the group in American society whose lives were most profoundly changed by the Civil War were those African Americans who had been born into slavery.

1. After the adoption of the 13th Amendment in 1865, 4 million people (3.5 million in the Confederate states, 500,000 in the border states) were “freed men” and political oppression would continue for generations, but even so, the end of slavery represented a momentous step.

2. Suddenly, slaves with no rights had become free citizens whose rights were guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

* While four years of nearly total war, the tragic human loss of 620,000 men, and an estimated $15 billion in war costs and property losses had enormous effects on the nation, far greater changes were set in motion. The Civil War destroyed slavery and devastated the southern economy, and it also acted as a catalyst to transform America into a complex modern industrial society of capital, technology, national organizations, and large corporations. During the war, the Republicans were able to enact a pro-business Whig program that was designed to stimulate the industrial and commercial growth of the United States. The characteristics of American democracy and its capitalist economy were strengthened by this Second American Revolution.

Chapter 20 Summary

South Carolina’s firing on Fort Sumter aroused the North for war. Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress the rebellion drove four upper South states into the Confederacy. Lincoln used and effective combination of political persuasion and force to keep the deeply divided Border States in the Union.

The Confederacy enjoyed initial advantages of upper-class European support, military leadership, and a defensive position on its own soil. The North enjoyed the advantages of lower-class European support, industrial and population resources, and political leadership.

The British upper classes sympathized with the South and abetted Confederate naval efforts. But effective diplomacy and Union military success thwarted those efforts and kept Britain as well as France neutral to war.

Lincoln’s political leadership proved effective in mobilizing the North for war, despite political opposition and resistance to his infringement on civil liberties. The North eventually mobilized its larger troop resources for war and ultimately turned to an unpopular and unfair system.

Northern economic and financial strengths enabled it to gain an advantage over the less-industrialized South. The changes in society opened new opportunities for women, who had contributed significantly to the war effort in both the North and the South. Since most of the war was waged on Southern soil, the South was left devastated by the war.

Napoleon III Maximilian

Charles Francis Adams Clara Barton

William H. Seward Edwin M. Stanton

Jefferson Davis Morrill Tariff Act

National Banking Act Trent Affair

Alabama Laird rams

King Cotton Draft Riots

1. How justified were Lincoln’s wartime abridgements of civil liberties and his treatment of the Copperheads?

2. How was the impact of the Civil War different for the soldiers and civilians of the North and South?

3. Did the results of the Civil War justify its cost? Does the answer to that question depend partly on whether you are a Northerner or a Southerner, black or white?

4. What made Lincoln a great president? Was it primarily his political leadership, or his personal qualities and character?

5. In looking at the attack on Fort Sumter and the secession of the upper South, explain how Lincoln was successful in maneuvering South Carolina into firing the first shot, thereby arousing the North for a war it had previously been reluctant to fight.

6. Explain the various internal political conflicts in the North, focusing on Copperheadism and the 1864 campaign. Why were military victories so important for Lincoln when trying to overcome such opposition?

7. Examine Lincoln the wartime leader and Lincoln the martyr and hero. Contrast the many contemporary criticisms of his leadership with those qualities that now constitute his greatness.

8. Explain the effects of the Civil War on the “homefront,” North and South, including ways the war affected women.

9. List a few “might-have-beens” that could have resulted in a Confederate victory.

Chapter 21 ItemsAP History

The Union defeat at Bull Run ended Northern complacency about a quick victory. George McClellan and other early Union generals proved unable to defeat the tactically brilliant Confederate armies under Lee. The Union naval blockade put a slaw but devastating economic noose around the South.

The political and diplomatic dimensions of the war quickly became critical. In order to retain the border states, Lincoln de-emphasized any intention to destroy slavery. But the Battle of Antietam in 1862 enabled Lincoln to prevent foreign intervention and turn the struggle into a war against slavery. Blacks and abolitionists joined

enthusiastically in a war for emancipation, but white resentment in part of the North created political problems for Lincoln.

The Union victories at Vicksburg in the West and Gettysburg in the East finally turned the military tide against the South. Southern resistance remained strong, but the Union victories at Atlanta and Mobile assured Lincoln’s success in the election of 1864 and ended the last Confederate hopes. The war ended the issues of disunion and slavery, but at a tremendous cost to both North and South.Clement L. Vallandigham Andrew Jackson

John Wilkes Booth Robert E. Lee

Thomas J. Jackson Ulysses S. Grant

George B. McClellan William T. Sherman

George B. Meade Salmon P. Chase

David G. Farragut George Pickett

Merrimack Monitor

Emancipation Proclamation Thirteenth Amendment

Copperheads Union party

First Battle of Bull Run Battle of Antietam

1. How did the different political and military perspectives and respective advantages that the North and the South (see chapter 20) brought to the war affect their respective strategies.

2. Explain why the North won the Civil War and the South lost. Examine the factors of military strategy, political leadership, and economic resources and how they might be related to key turning points of the war, such as Vicksburg and Gettysburg.

3. Examine the politics of the war, especially the way Lincoln gradually turned it from being strictly a “war to preserve the Union” into a war for black emancipation. Show how Lincoln first kept the war aims limited to appease the Border States but later used the Emancipation Proclamation to strengthen the North’s moral position.

4. What was the role of slavery and the “race question” in the changing politics of the Civil War?

5. Consider the various crucial “What Ifs?” of the Civil War (see p. 476) in relation to the possibilities of a) a confederate victory or negotiated settlement and b) a war that might have preserved the Union but not ended slavery. Critically analyze the text’s assertion that even though Vicksburg and Gettysburg were the decisive military battles of the war, Antietam was probably the political and diplomatic turning point.

6. Compare Grant and Lee as military leaders. The focus might be on Lee as the greatest of the “traditional” strategists, whereas Grant represents the new age of total war.

7. What role did race and racism play in the Civil War? How did the war itself reflect and affect American attitudes toward race? Why were the black Union soldiers so critical in this regard?

Chapter 22 Items

Andrew Johnson’s political blunders and Southern white recalcitrance led to the imposition of congressional military Reconstruction on the South. Reconstruction did address difficult issues of reform and racial justice in the South and achieve some successes, such as the 14th Amendment (citizenship and equal protection of laws) and the 15th (black voting rights) Amendments. But its ultimate abandonment meant those provisions remained unfulfilled promises, while Reconstruction left behind a deep legacy of racial and sectional bitterness

With the Civil War over, the nation faced the difficult problems of rebuilding the South, assisting the freed slaves, reintegrating the Southern states into the Union, and deciding who would direct the Reconstruction process.

The South was economically devastated and socially revolutionized by emancipation. As slaveowners reluctantly confronted the end of slave labor, blacks took their first steps to freedom. Black churches and freedmen’s schools helped the former slaves being to shape their own destiny.

The new president Andrew Johnson was politically inept and personally contentious. His attempt to implement a moderate plan of Reconstruction, along the lines originally suggested by Lincoln, fell victim to the Southern whites’ severe treatment of blacks and his own political blunders.

Republicans imposed harsh military Reconstruction on the South after their gains in the 1866 congressional elections. The Southern states reentered the Union with new radical governments, which rested partly on the newly enfranchised blacks, but also had support from some sectors of the southern society. These regimes were sometimes corrupt but also implemented important reforms. The divisions between moderate and radical Republicans meant that Reconstruction’s aims were often limited and confused, despite the important 14th and 15th Amendments.

Embittered whites hated radical governments and mobilized reactionary terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to restore white supremacy. Congress impeached Johnson but failed to narrowly to convict him. In the end, the poorly conceived Reconstruction policy failed disastrously.

Oliver O. Howard Andrew JohnsonAlexander Stephens Charles SumnerThaddeus Stevens William SewardFreedmen’s Bureau 10 percent planWade-Davis Bill “conquered provinces”

Moderate/radical Republican Black CodesSharecropping Civil Rights Act14th Amendment “swing around the circle”Military Reconstruction Act 15th AmendmentEx parte Milligan “radical” regimesScalawags carpetbaggersKu Klux Klan Force ActsTenure of Office Act “Seward’s Folly”