Transcript File - History With Abbott

Thanks to:
Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
Following Lincoln’s election in 1860, seven southern
states seceded from the Union. Remind us why.
These states
formed the
Confederate
States of America,
electing former
Mississippi
Senator Jefferson
Davis as
President, and
located their
nation’s capital in
Montgomery,
Alabama.
The question for the U.S. government was “What
should be done with these states?”
Some argued
that the U.S.
should let them
go. Good
riddance!
The President
thought otherwise.
Lincoln believed
states did not have
the Constitutional
right to secede.
Furthermore, secession
caused numerous
potential problems:
1. Sharing of national
debt?
2. Splitting territories out
West?
3. What should be done
with fugitive slaves?
4. What did secession
mean for the experiment
of American democracy?
Lincoln would not
start a war over
these issues. He
said as much in his
first inaugural
address. If civil war
was to come, it
would have to be the
CSA that started it.
That war came at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861 at Ft.
Sumter in Charleston S.C. What was the
immediate cause of the “battle?”
In response to
this “act of war”
Lincoln issued a
call for 75,000
volunteer troops.
The southern response was more secession as VA, AK,
NC, and TN joined the CSA. The Confederates then
moved their capital to Richmond, VA.
Both sides began to prepare for war. Who
was going to win?
Both sides attempted to develop a strategy
to achieve their goals.
Lincoln, and his military, advisors had one
immediate goal.
Lincoln’s best
general in
1861, Winfield
Scott,
developed the
three piece
“Anaconda
Plan” for the
Union.
#1 Scott proposed to use the
dominant US navy to blockade the
South. Why?
#2 Next, the navy would take the
Mississippi River and split the
Confederacy.
#3 While that was going on, the
army would march from Washington
and take Richmond.
As we will
see, parts one
and two were
relatively easy
to achieve
compared
with part
three.
Confederate
president
Jefferson
Davis
seemingly
had the
harder task.
The Confederates
hoped to take a
page from George
Washington
during the
Revolution. They
didn’t need to win,
they just needed
to not lose.
The Confederacy also hope to encourage the
border states to secede giving the South a huge
increase in men and in industrial capabilities.
Confederate
strategy rested
most squarely upon
acquiring a
European ally.
However, several
factors made this
unlikely.
The majority of
Britain’s population
had read Uncle
Tom’s Cabin and
would not support
a government that
perpetuated
slavery.
The South believed they had an ace up
their sleeve. They were wrong.
1. British warehouses had a surplus of
cotton due to large crops grown between
1857 and 1860.
2. As the Union invaded the South and
captured cotton they sold it to Europe.
3. Egypt and India ramped up production of
cotton of their own which was purchased by
Britain.
4. Europe wanted wheat and corn from the
North more than it wanted cotton from the
South.
While the vast
majority of men
fighting for the
Union were
volunteers, the
United States
implemented the
first conscription, or
draft, in U.S. history
in 1863.
Riots broke
out over
the draft in
New York
in July of
1863.
What were
the
protestors
angry
about?
How did the
Confederate draft
compare with the
conscription in the
Union?
Both sides also had to
find a way to pay for
their massive war
efforts. Union and
Confederate soldiers
needed to be fed,
armed equipped,
housed, and paid.
None of that stuff
came cheap.
To pay these costs the
Union:
1. Increased taxes on
tobacco and alcohol.
2. Passed the nation’s
first income tax.
3. Passed the Morrill
Tariff Act increasing the
tariff 5-10%.
To pay these costs the
Union:
4. Issued “greenbacks” a
national paper currency.
5. Sold over $ 2 billion
in government bonds.
6. Established the
National Banking system
in 1863 to help distribute
the national paper money.
To pay these costs
the Confederacy:
1. Attempted to
collect duties on
imported goods.
However the
Anaconda Plan
limited this.
To pay these costs
the Confederacy:
2. Sold over $ 400
million in bonds.
3. Imposed a
national tax on farm
products, although
the emphasis on
states rights limited
this as well.
To pay these costs
the Confederacy:
4. Printed over $1
billion in increasingly
worthless paper
money. The
Confederacy suffered
over 4000% inflation
as a result.
The Union
economy
expanded
as a direct
result of
the war.
Increased
tariffs and
wartime
demands
allowed for
the growth of
a
“millionaire”
class of
wealthy
industrialists.
A continued
increase in
mechanization, both
in the factory and on
the farm, allowed for
increased
production despite a
dramatic decrease
in labor as men
went off to war.
Other factory jobs
were increasingly
filled by women.
They also found
employment
working for the
U.S. government
largely in
secretarial or
clerking jobs.
Women also proved their worth on the field of
battle in medical positions.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
Dorothea Dix
Clara Barton
Over the course of the war
Lincoln greatly expanded the
power of the president:
- He suspended the writ of
habeas corpus.
- He imposed martial law in
southern cities like Baltimore
and New Orleans which were
taken by Union forces.
- Arrested citizens without
probable cause.
- Shut down newspapers that
criticized the government.
As the war progressed,
the business of the U.S.
Congress continued.
- Morrill Act (1862):
Gave federal land to
states, who would then
sell that land and fund
state colleges to teach
agricultural science.
- Homestead Act
(1862): Gave 160 acres
to any settler who would
live on it and “improve” it
for no less than 5 years.
Overall, it
seemed as if
the Union had
the larger
advantages.
Yet the
Confederacy,
largely due to
the genius of
Robert E.
Lee, would
make things
interesting.