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346 C

HAPTER 11

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The Politics of War

•Emancipation

Proclamation

•habeas corpus

•Copperhead

•conscription

By issuing the Emancipation

Proclamation, President

Lincoln made slavery the

focus of the war.

The Proclamation was a ﬁrst

step toward improving the

status of African Americans.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Shortly after the Civil War began, William Yancey of Alabama and

two other Confederate diplomats asked Britain—a major importer

of Southern cotton—to formally recognize the Confederacy as an

independent nation. The British Secretary of State for Foreign

Affairs met with them twice, but in May 1861, Britain announced

its neutrality. Insulted, Yancey returned home and told his fellow

Southerners not to hope for British aid.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM YANCEY

“ You have no friends in Europe. . . . The sentiment of Europe is

anti-slavery, and that portion of public opinion which forms, and is

represented by, the government of Great Britain, is abolition. They

will never recognize our independence until our conquering sword

hangs dripping over the prostrate heads of the North. . . . It is an

error to say that ‘Cotton is King.’ It is not. It is a great and inﬂuen-

tial factor in commerce, but not its dictator.

”

—quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative

In spite of Yancey’s words, many Southerners continued to hope that eco-

nomic necessity would force Britain to come to their aid. Meanwhile, abolitionists

waged a public opinion war against slavery, not only in Europe, but in the North.

Britain Remains Neutral

A number of economic factors made Britain no longer dependent on Southern

cotton. Not only had Britain accumulated a huge cotton inventory just before the

outbreak of war, it also found new sources of cotton in Egypt and India. Moreover,

when Europe’s wheat crop failed, Northern wheat and corn replaced cotton as an

essential import. As one magazine put it, “Old King Cotton’s dead and buried.”

Britain decided that neutrality was the best policy—at least for a while.

THE TRENT AFFAIR

In the fall of 1861, an incident occurred to test that neu-

trality. The Confederate government sent two diplomats, James Mason and John

Slidell, in a second attempt to gain support from Britain and France. The two men

William Yancey,

1851

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traveled aboard a British merchant ship, the Trent. Captain Charles Wilkes of the

American warship San Jacinto stopped the Trent and arrested the two men. The

British threatened war against the Union and dispatched 8,000 troops to Canada.

Aware of the need to ﬁght just “one war at a time,” Lincoln freed the two prison-

ers, publicly claiming that Wilkes had acted without orders. Britain was as relieved

as the United States was to ﬁnd a peaceful way out of the crisis.

Proclaiming Emancipation

As the South struggled in vain to gain foreign recognition, aboli-

tionist feeling grew in the North. Some Northerners believed that

just winning the war would not be enough if the issue of slavery

was not permanently settled.

LINCOLN’S VIEW OF SLAVERY

Although Lincoln disliked

slavery, he did not believe that the federal government had the

power to abolish it where it already existed. When Horace

Greeley urged him in 1862 to transform the war into an aboli-

tionist crusade, Lincoln replied that although it was his person-

al wish that all men could be free, his ofﬁcial duty was differ-

ent: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,

and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.”

As the war progressed, however, Lincoln did ﬁnd a way to

use his constitutional war powers to end slavery. Slave labor

built fortiﬁcations and grew

food for the Confederacy. As

commander in chief, Lincoln decided that, just as he could

order the Union army to seize Confederate supplies, he could

also authorize the army to emancipate slaves.

Emancipation offered a strategic beneﬁt. The abolitionist

movement was strong in Britain, and emancipation would

discourage Britain from supporting the Confederacy.

Emancipation was not just a moral issue; it became a weapon of war.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his

Emancipation Proclamation. The following portion captured national attention.

from THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ABRAHAM LINCOLN

“ 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 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.

”

The Proclamation did not

free any slaves immediately

because it applied only to

areas behind Confederate

lines, outside Union control.

Since the Proclamation was a

military action aimed at the

states in rebellion, it did not

apply to Southern territory

already occupied by Union

troops nor to the slave states

that had not seceded.

The ﬁrst page of

Lincoln’s hand-

written copy of

the Emancipation

Proclamation

▼

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

In what

way was the

Emancipation

Proclamation a

part of Lincoln’s

military strategy?

Lincoln presents

the Emancipation

Proclamation to

his cabinet, 1862.

▼

A. Answer

It allowed free

blacks to enlist

in the Union

army, helped

persuade Britain

not to support

the South, and

added moral

inspiration to

the Northern

cause.

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348 C

HAPTER 11

REACTIONS TO THE PROCLAMATION

Although the Proclamation did not

have much practical effect, it had immense symbolic importance. For many, the

Proclamation gave the war a high moral purpose by turning the struggle into a

ﬁght to free the slaves. In Washington, D.C., the Reverend Henry M. Turner, a

free-born African American, watched the capital’s inhabitants receive the news of

emancipation.

A PERSONAL VOICE HENRY M. TURNER

“ Men squealed, women fainted, dogs barked, white and colored people shook hands,

songs were sung, and by this time cannons began to ﬁre at the navy yard. . . .

Great processions of colored and white men marched to and fro and passed in

front of the White House. . . . The President came to the window . . . and thou-

sands told him, if he would come out of that palace, they would hug him to death.

”

—quoted in Voices from the Civil War

Free blacks also welcomed the section of the Proclamation that allowed them

to enlist in the Union army. Even though many had volunteered at the beginning

of the war, the regular army had

refused to take them. Now they

could ﬁght and help put an end

to slavery.

Not everyone in the North

approved of the Emancipation

Proclamation, however. The

Democrats claimed that it would

only prolong the war by antag-

onizing the South. Many Union

soldiers accepted it grudgingly,

saying they had no love for abo-

litionists or African Americans,

but they would support eman-

cipation if that was what it took

to reunify the nation.

Confederates reacted to the

Proclamation with outrage.

Jefferson Davis called it the

“most execrable [hateful] mea-

sure recorded in the history of

guilty man.” As Northern

Democrats had predicted, the

Proclamation had made the

Confederacy more determined

than ever to ﬁght to preserve its

way of life.

After the Emancipation

Proclamation, compromise was

no longer an option. The

Confederacy knew that if it lost,

its slave-holding society would

perish, and the Union knew that

it could win only by complete-

ly defeating the Confederacy.

From January 1863 on, it was a

ﬁght to the death.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

What effects

did the

Emancipation

Proclamation have

on the war?

B. Answer

It increased the

size of the Union

Army and hard-

ened the

Confederacy’s

position. It thus

intensiﬁed the

conﬂict, making

compromise

unthinkable.

JEFFERSON DAVIS

1808–1889

Jefferson Davis, who was

named after Thomas

Jefferson, was born in

Kentucky and grew up in

Mississippi. After graduating

from West Point, he served in

the army and then became a

planter. He was elected to

the U.S. Senate in 1846 and

again in 1856, resigning

when Mississippi seceded.

His election as president of

the Confederacy dismayed

him. As his wife Varina wrote,

“I thought his genius was mil-

itary, but as a party manager

he would not succeed.”

Varina was right. Davis had

poor relations with many

Confederate leaders, causing

them to put their states’ wel-

fare above the Confederacy’s.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

1809–1865

Abraham Lincoln was born to

illiterate parents, and once said

that in his boyhood there was

“absolutely nothing to excite

ambition for education.” Yet

he hungered for knowledge.

He educated himself and,

after working as rail-splitter,

storekeeper, and surveyor, he

taught himself law. This led to

a career in politics—and

eventually to the White

House. In Europe at that

time, people were more or

less ﬁxed in the station into

which they had been born. In

the United States, Lincoln

was free to achieve whatever

he could. Small wonder that

he fought to preserve the

nation he described as “the

last best hope of earth.”

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The Civil War 349

Both Sides Face Political Problems

Neither side in the Civil War was completely uniﬁed. There were Confederate sym-

pathizers in the North, and Union sympathizers in the South. Such divided loyal-

ties created two problems: How should the respective governments handle their

critics? How could they ensure a steady supply of ﬁghting men for their armies?

DEALING WITH DISSENT

Lincoln dealt forcefully with disloyalty. For example,

when a Baltimore crowd attacked a Union regiment a week after Fort Sumter,

Lincoln sent federal troops to Maryland. He also suspended in that state the writ

of habeas corpus, a court order that requires authorities to bring a person held

in jail before the court to determine why he or she is being jailed. Lincoln used

this same strategy later in the war to deal with dissent in other states. As a result,

more than 13,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers in the Union were arrest-

ed and held without trial, although most were quickly released. The president also

seized telegraph ofﬁces to make sure no one used the wires for subversion. When

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that Lincoln had gone beyond

his constitutional powers, the president ignored his ruling.

Those arrested included Copperheads, or Northern Democrats who advo-

cated peace with the South. Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham was the

most famous Copperhead. Vallandigham was tried and con-

victed by a military court for urging Union soldiers to desert

and for advocating an armistice.

Jefferson Davis at ﬁrst denounced Lincoln’s suspension

of civil liberties. Later, however, Davis found it necessary to

follow the Union president’s example. In 1862, he sus-

pended habeas corpus in the Confederacy.

Lincoln’s action in dramatically expanding presidential

powers to meet the crises of wartime set a precedent in U.S.

history. Since then, some presidents have cited war or

“national security” as a reason to expand the powers of the

executive branch of government.

CONSCRIPTION

Although both armies originally relied on

volunteers, it didn’t take long before heavy casualties and

widespread desertions led to conscription, a draft that

would force certain members of the population to serve in

the army. The Confederacy passed a draft law in 1862, and

the Union followed suit in 1863. Both laws ran into trouble.

The Confederate law drafted all able-bodied white men

between the ages of 18 and 35. (In 1864, as the Confederacy

suffered more losses, the limits changed to 17 and 50.)

However, those who could afford to were allowed to hire

substitutes to serve in their places. The law also exempted

planters who owned 20 or more slaves. Poor Confederates

howled that it was a “rich man’s war but a poor man’s

ﬁght.” In spite of these protests, almost 90 percent of eligi-

ble Southern men served in the Confederate army.

The Union law drafted white men between 20 and 45

for three years, although it, too, allowed draftees to hire

substitutes. It also provided for commutation, or paying a

$300 fee to avoid conscription altogether. In the end, only

46,000 draftees actually went into the army. Ninety-two

percent of the approximately 2 million soldiers who served

in the Union army were volunteers—180,000 of them

African-American.

ANOTHER

THE CHEROKEE

AND THE WAR

Another nation divided by the

Civil War was the Cherokee

Nation. Both the North and the

South wanted the Cherokee on

their side. This was because the

Cherokee Nation was located in

the Indian Territor y, an excellent

grain- and livestock-producing

area. For their part, the Cherokee

felt drawn to both sides—to the

Union because federal treaties

guaranteed Cherokee rights, and

to the Confederacy because

many Cherokee owned slaves.

The Cherokee signed a treaty

with the South in October 1861.

However, the alliance did not last.

Efforts by the pro-Confederate

leader Stand Watie (below) to

govern the Cherokee Nation

failed, and federal troops

invaded Indian Territor y.

Many Cherokee

deserted from the

Confederate army;

some joined the

Union. In February

1863, the pro-Union

Cherokee revoked

the Confederate

treaty.

Background

A copperhead is a

poisonous snake

with natural

camouﬂage.

Vocabulary

commutation: the

substitution of one

kind of payment

for another

C. Answer

He used federal

troops to deal

with unrest; sus-

pended habeas

corpus in some

states; ordered

the arrest of

suspected

Confederate

sympathizers;

took control of

some telegraph

ofﬁces.

MAIN IDEA

Evaluating

Leadership

What actions

did Lincoln take to

deal with dissent?

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DRAFT RIOTS

In 1863 New York City was a tinderbox waiting to explode. Poor

people were crowded into slums, crime and disease ran rampant, and poverty was

ever-present. Poor white workers—especially Irish immigrants—thought it unfair

that they should have to ﬁght a war to free slaves. The white workers feared that

Southern blacks would come north and compete for jobs. When ofﬁcials began to

draw names for the draft, angry men gathered all over the city to complain.

For four days, July 13–16, mobs rampaged through the city. The rioters

wrecked draft ofﬁces, Republican newspaper ofﬁces, and the homes of antislavery

leaders. They attacked well-dressed men on the street (those likely to be able to

pay the $300 commutation fee) and attacked African Americans. By the time fed-

eral troops ended the melee, more than 100 persons lay dead.

The draft riots were not the only dramatic development away from the

battleﬁeld. Society was also experiencing other types of unrest.

350 C

HAPTER 11

•Emancipation Proclamation •habeas corpus •Copperhead •conscription

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

In a diagram like the one shown,

note the political measures that

Lincoln took to solve each problem.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

Do you think that Lincoln’s measures

to deal with disloyalty and dissent

represented an abuse of power?

Why or why not? Think About:

• conditions of wartime versus

peacetime

• Lincoln’s primary goal

• Supreme Court Justice Roger

Taney’s view of Lincoln’s powers

4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES

“ To ﬁght against slaveholders,

without ﬁghting against slavery,

is but a half-hearted business,

and paralyzes the hands engaged

in it.

”

—Frederick Douglass, quoted in

Battle Cry of Freedom

How do you think Lincoln would have

replied to Douglass?

Slavery

Dissent

Shortage of

soldiers

In New York City

in July 1863, draft

rioters vented

their anger on

African-American

institutions such

as this orphanage.

▼

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