GROUP #1: WAR OBJECTIVES: NORTH v. SOUTH Essential Question: Why did the secession of the South lead to War?

Presentation Guidelines: 1. Objective: To use prior knowledge and primary source documents to explain the war objectives of

the North and South at the onset of the Civil War. 2. Analyze the following documents and summarize the views expressed in regard to motives for

going to war. 3. Evaluate the reasoning articulated in the documents.

How would Jefferson Davis and Lincoln respond to the following questions? Was the Constitution intended to be perpetual? Was the Civil War a war between over national supremacy versus states’ rights? Was the Civil War being fought to end slavery? Was the Civil War a struggle for political freedom, similar to the American Revolution?

4. How do the documents reveal a desire by the North to secure the loyalty of the Border States? 5. Why did the secession of the South lead to War?

South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of Secession, December 24, 1860 (Excerpts) The Constitution of the United States, in its 4th Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This stipulation was so material to the compact that without it that compact would not have been made…

On the 4th of March next this party [the Republican Party] will take possession of the government…The guarantees of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the states will be lost. The slaveholding states will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protection, and the federal government will have become their enemy.

Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address, February 1861 (Excerpt) We have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. Through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern States, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquility and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled. But if this be denied to us, and the integrity of our territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us with firm resolve to appeal to arms and invoke the blessing of Providence on a just cause. Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, March 1861 (Excerpts) Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that “I

have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so”…

… I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination...

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself...

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. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." Congressional Resolution (1861) Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern states, now in arms against the constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purposes of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union will all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.

GROUP #2:

EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY in the NORTH & SOUTH Essential Question: Is it acceptable for constitutionally protected civil liberties to be curtailed during war? Presentation Guidelines: Objective: To use prior knowledge and primary source documents to explain and evaluate the nature of executive authority during the Civil War and the resulting criticism of that authority. Present background on the increased role of executive authority during the Civil War.

1. Analyze the documents below and summarize the views expressed in regard to the increased use of executive authority.

2. Evaluate the arguments presented in the documents

How does Lincoln justify his actions? Does he believe them to be in violation of the Constitution?

How does Vallandigham characterize Lincoln’s actions? Why is Vallandigham so critical of these actions?

What is Davis’ reaction to the criticism leveled at him? What does he perceive to be the effect of this criticism?

How did Southern critics characterize Davis’ actions? What was their complaint?

3. To what extent were Lincoln’s and Davis’ actions an ironic violation of the principles over which they are fighting the war?

4. Is it acceptable for constitutionally protected civil liberties to be curtailed during war time?

Background:

During the Civil War, Lincoln exercised power not constitutionally delegated to the executive by increasing the army and navy, appropriating money and declaring a blockade without Congressional approval. Most controversial was his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the early days of the war, because of the threat that rebellion in Maryland would cut Washington off from the rest of the country.

Habeas corpus is a Latin phrase, meaning "(you should) have the person” and represents the legal right that a person in a free society has to not be whisked from his or her home without reason or cause and to not be detained or punished by the authorities without getting a fair hearing in court and a chance of self-defense. Article 1, section 9 of the Constitution, restricting powers of Congress, forbids the suspension of habeas corpus except, "when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public safety may require it."

Lincoln was firm in his conviction that the Constitution authorized the executive to determine when rebellion existed, thus when the writ might be suspended. Nonetheless, the political opposition in the North criticized the violation of civil liberties and portrayed Lincoln actions as despotic and tyrannical especially as the expanded powers of the government were used to suppress political opposition.

In the South, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress also suffered from internal criticism after enacting a conscription bill, impressing supplies, implementing martial law and attempting to centralize authority, to promote the South’s war effort.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863 I can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally take no strong measure in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in the time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man, because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger…that the American people will, by means of military arrests during the rebellion, lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and Habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite peaceful future which I trust lies before them. Clement Vallandigham (Copperhead), 1863 The people of the country endorsed it [suspension of habeas corpus] once because they were told that it was essential to “the speedy suppression or crushing out of the rebellion” and the restoration of the Union; and they so loved the Union of these states that they would consent, even for a little while, under the false and now broken promises of the men in power, to surrender those liberties in order that the great object might, as was promised, be accomplished speedily. They have been deceived; instead of crushing out the rebellion, the effort has been to crush out the spirit of liberty. The conspiracy of those in power is not so much for a vigorous prosecution of the war against the rebels in the South as against the democracy in peace at home.

Jefferson Davis, August 1862, Speech to Senate and House of the Confederate States (excerpt) The acts passed at your last session intended to secure the public defence by general enrollment [by a military draft], and to render uniform the rules governing troops in the service, have led to some unexpected criticism that is much to be regretted. The efficacy of the law has thus been somewhat impaired; though it is not believed that in any of the States the popular mind has withheld its sanction from either the necessity or propriety of your legislation… From Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson (p. 693) A Georgia crisis erupted in February 1864 when the lame-duck session of the old Confederate Congress authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to suppress disloyalty and enforce the draft. Both of Georgia’s senators voted against the bill. Vice-President Stephens condemned it as a “blow at the very ‘vitals of liberty’” by a president “aiming at absolute power….Far better that our country should be overrun by the enemy, our cities sacked and burned, and our land laid desolate, than that the people should thus suffer the citadel of their liberties to be entered and taken by professed friends.” Stephens also helped write an address by Brown to the legislature denouncing the law as a step toward “military despotism”. “What will we have gained when we achieve our independence of the Northern states if in our efforts to do so, we have…lost Constitutional Liberty at home?

GROUP #3: THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION Essential Question: Does Abraham Lincoln deserve to be called the “Great Emancipator?” Presentation Guidelines: Objective: To use information gathered from prior knowledge and primary source documents to explain and evaluate the aims, timing and significance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

1. Present background on the views of the major political factions in the North (Radical Republicans, War Democrats, Peace Democrats (Cooperheads) and Border States) regarding slavery.

2. Analyze the documents below and summarize the views and points expressed. How did Lincoln’s views on dealing with the issue of slavery and emancipation evolve? What events and considerations led to the issuance of the Proclamation?

3. Explain the goals and scope of the Emancipation Proclamation. What were its limits? Why? What role does Lincoln envision for the freed slaves? What explanation does Lincoln provide for necessity of the Proclamation? Under what authority does Lincoln issue the Proclamation?

4. What was the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation? How did the Emancipation Proclamation change the North’s objectives in the War? What was the immediate effect of the Proclamation on slavery? What were the diplomatic implications of the Proclamation?

5. Does Abraham Lincoln deserve to be called the “Great Emancipator?”

Major General John C. Fremont, the commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, 1861 “To fight against slaveholders, without fighting against slavery, is but a half-hearted business, and paralyzes the hands engaged in it… Fire must be met with water… War for the destruction of liberty must be met with war for the destruction of slavery.”

Excerpt from Letter from Lincoln to Horace Greeley (Editor of the N.Y. Tribune), August, 1862. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

Lincoln  to  Congressional  Representatives  from  the  Border  States,  July  12,  1862  How much better for you, and for your people, to take the step which, at once, shortens the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event. How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war. How much better to do it while we can, lest the war ere long render us pecuniarily unable to do it. How much better for you, as seller, and the nation as buyer, to sell out, and buy out, that without which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold, and the price of it, in cutting one another's throats.

I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization, can be obtained cheaply, and in abundance; and when numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people will not be so reluctant to go.

The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863 (excerpts) Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, 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 thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

GROUP #4: DIPLOMACY Essential Question: Were Southern hopes for diplomatic recognition and military intervention by Britain realistic?

Presentation Guidelines: Objective: To use information gathered from prior knowledge and primary source documents to explain and evaluate diplomatic relations and objectives of the North and South regarding Britain during the Civil War.

1. Present background on Cotton Diplomacy and British assistance to the South during the war. 2. Analyze the documents below and summarize the views expressed.

How did the London Times characterize the war aims of the North and South? How did Southern Illustrated News explain Britain’s refusal to recognize the Confederacy and intervene on its behalf? How does cotton figure into Britain’s policy? How does Strong explain the motivations behind Britain’s policy? What ere British reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation? What effect did the Emancipation Proclamation have on British policy? Why?

3. Were Southern hopes for diplomatic recognition and military intervention by Britain realistic?

The London Times, 1862 In this respect, as in others, the South has an immense advantage over the North. The Confederates are fighting for independence – for possession and enjoyment of their own territories, under their own laws, apart from any connection with a people from who they always differed, and whom they now most cordially detest…

But with the Northerners all is different. They are not content with their own. They are fighting to coerce others, and to retain millions of people in political union with them against their will. This, too, they are doing in spite of the principles on which all American institutions have been notoriously based – principles inculcating the most extreme doctrines of freedom, and deriving all governments from the mere will and assent of the governed.

Southern Illustrated News, October 1862 Thus, in addition to the old grudge, she [Britain] has been stimulated by the fear of losing her position among the powers of the earth. Cost what it might, she has felt that for her the greatest of all objects has been to destroy the Union. She has succeeded at last, and is it not wonderful that she should desire to see the war carried on as long as both parties may have the strength to maintain themselves. She feels that intervention would follow recognition, and this she is by no means disposed to undertake, because it might have the effect of shortening the war.

The war in question, besides removing a powerful rival from her path, is useful to her in another respect. If it should last long enough, it may be the means of getting her cotton from India into demand, and it may stimulate the production in Australia. When we consider that cotton constitutes the very basis upon which her enormous power is build, we shall see at once the importance of having it all under her control. This she hopes to accomplish by destroying the culture in this country, which can only be done by destroying the labor which produces it. The abolition of slavery in her West India possession was but the preliminary step to the abolition of slavery in this country.

From the diary of George Strong, New York, 1863 She [Britain] cannot ally herself with slavery, as she inclines to do, without closing a profitable market, exposing her commerce to [Yankee] privateers, and diminishing the supply of [Northern] breadstuffs on which her operatives depend for life. On the other side, however, is the consideration that by allowing piratical Alabamas to be built, armed and manned in her ports to prey on our commerce, she is making a great deal of money. It is fearful to think that the sympathies of England …with North or South, freedom or slavery, in this great continental battle of her children, are guided by mere considerations of profit or loss.

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1862 The past month has brought to us the veritable crisis of the great Civil War in America. Brought to bay upon their own soil, the Federals in desperation have invoked to their aid the unutterable horrors of a servile war. With their armies baffled and beaten, and with the standards of the rebel army again within sight of Washington, the President has at length owned the impossibility of success in fair warfare, and seeks to paralyze the victorious armies of the South by letting loose upon their hearths and homes the lust and savagery of four million Negroes. Letter from Richard Cobden (British Member of Parliament) to Charles Sumner, February, 1863 You know how much alarmed I was from the first lest our government should interpose in your affairs. The disposition of our ruling class, and the necessities of our cotton trade, pointed to some act of intervention; and the indifference of the great mass of our population to your struggles, the object of which they did not foresee and understand, would have made intervention easy, indeed popular, if you had been a weaker naval power.

This state of feeling existed up to the announcement of the President’s emancipation policy. From that moment our old anti-slavery feeling began to arouse itself, and it has been gathering strength ever since…And now I write to assure you that any unfriendly act on the part of our government, no matter which of our aristocratic parties is in power, towards your cause is not to be apprehended. If an attempt were made by the government in any way to commit us to the South, a spirit would be instantly aroused which would drive our government from power…

GROUP #5:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION Essential Question: Did the secession of the South from the Union assist the long term economic development of the United States? Presentation Guidelines: Objective: To use prior knowledge and primary source documents to explain and evaluate the significance of national legislation enacted by Congress during the Civil War.

1. Present background on Congressional conflicts over internal improvement and western settlement prior to the Civil War.

2. Analyze the documents below and summarize the provisions of a. The Homestead Act 1862 b. The Morrill Act of 1862 c. The Pacific Railway Act of 1862

3. Evaluate the significance of the acts.

THE HOMESTEAD ACT OF 1862 With the secession of Southern states from the Union and the removal of the slavery issue, the Homestead Act was passed and signed into law in 1682. The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: filing an application, improving the land, and filing for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land. For the next 5 years, the homesteader had to live on the land and improve it by building a 12-by-14 dwelling and growing crops. After 5 years, the homesteader could file for his patent (or deed of title) by submitting proof of residency and the required improvements to a local land office.

Daniel Freeman's Certificate of Eligibility, 1868

THE MORRILL ACT OF 1862 Senator William Allison (Iowa) 1898 He [Morrill] believed that a portion of those lands or the revenue derived from their sale should be distributed among all the states of the Union and dedicated to the instruction of the youth in scientific agriculture for the promotion of that great interest which is the foundation of our national prosperity. During that Congress he secured passage of a measure dedicating a portion of the public domain to agricultural education by means of the establishment of agricultural colleges in all the States, and granting lands to the States for this purpose, such distribution being based upon the representation, respectively, in the House of Representatives. This bill was vetoed by President Buchanan, but was reintroduced by Mr. Morrill in 1861, and those of us who knew him well here know with what pertinacity he pursued every subject that was near his heart. This bill thus reintroduced in 1861 passed both Houses and received the signature of Abraham Lincoln in 1862, and has since been known as the "agricultural college act." . . . This measure, with subsequent amendments also earnestly pressed by Mr. Morrill, placed the agricultural colleges of our country on a permanent and enduring basis, achieving year by year the great purposes contemplated by the original act. This great contribution by him to the interests of agriculture will be of lasting benefit not only to our own country, but to all countries where agriculture is an honored occupation.

THE PACIFIC RAILWAY ACT OF 1862 (excerpts) An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. . . .

Be it enacted … the said corporation [The Union Pacific Railroad Company] is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph... from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, upon the route and terms hereinafter provided... Sec. 2. That the right of way through the public lands be... granted to said company for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line; and the right... is hereby given to said company to take from the public

lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act...

Sec. 5. That for the purposes herein mentioned the Secretary of the Treasury shall... in accordance with the provisions of this act, issue to said company bonds of the United States of one thousand dollars each, payable in thirty years after date, paying six per centum per annum interest... to the amount of sixteen of said bonds per mile for each section of forty miles; and to secure the repayment to the United States... of the amount of said bonds... the issue of said bonds... shall ipso facto constitute a first mortgage on the whole line of the railroad and telegraph...

Sec. 9. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast... to the eastern boundaries of California, upon the same terms and conditions in all respects [as are provided for the Union Pacific Railroad]. Sec. 10 ...And the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California after completing its road across said State, is authorized to continue the construction of said railroad and telegraph through the Territories of the United States to the Missouri River... upon the terms and conditions provided in this act in relation to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, until said roads shall meet and connect...