After
the War of Independence the United States of America was governed
by the Articles of Confederation. This provided for a weak central
government and strong state governments. However, it proved unworkable
and a new Constitution was adopted that resulted in a stronger Federal
government with powers which included regulating interstate commerce
as well as foreign affairs.
The different states had varying policies concerning slavery.
In some areas of the country where religious groups such as the Quakers
played a prominent role in political life, there was strong opposition
to having slaves. Rhode Island abolished slavery in 1774 and was soon
followed by Vermont (1777), Pennsylvania (1780), Massachusetts (1781),
New Hampshire (1783), Connecticut (1784), New York (1799) and New
Jersey (1804). The new states of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio,
Indiana, Kansas, Oregon, California and Illinois also did not have
slaves. The importation of slaves from other countries was banned
in 1808. However, the selling of slaves within the southern states
continued.
Conflict grew in the 19th century between the northern and southern
states over the issue of slavery. The
northern states were going through an industrial revolution and desperately
needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists in the
North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South and
provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs on imported
foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South was still
mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was
therefore against import tariffs.
In 1831 Arthur Tappan and Lewis
Tappan established the first Anti-Slavery
Society in New York. When two years
later it became a national organization, Tappan was elected its first
president. William Lloyd Garrison,
Theodore Weld, Samuel
Eli Cornish, Angelina Grimke, Sarah
Grimke Robert Purvis, Wendell
Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier,
Frederick Douglass, Lucretia
Mott, Lydia Maria Child, William
Wells Brown soon emerged as the main figures in the organization.
Its main supporters were from religious groups such as the Quakers
and from the free black community. By 1840 the society had 250,000
members, published more than twenty journals and 2,000 local chapters.
The growth in the Anti-Slavery Society
worried slaveowners in the South.
They feared that the activities of the abolitionists would make it
more difficult to run their plantation
system. Where possible they wanted to see an expansion of slavery
into other areas. They therefore supported the annexation of Texas
as they were certain it would become a slave state. They also favoured
the Mexican War and agitated for the
annexation of Cuba.
Conflict grew in the middle of 19th century between the northern and
southern states over the issue of slavery.
The northern states were going through an industrial revolution and
desperately needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists
in the North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South
and provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs
on imported foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South
was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad
and was therefore against import tariffs.
In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave
Law. In future, any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged
runaway slave could be fined $1,000. People suspected of being a runaway
slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant
on nothing more than his sworn testimony of ownership. A suspected
black slave could not ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her
behalf. Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food
or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment
and a $1,000 fine. Those officers capturing a fugitive slave were
entitled to a fee and this encouraged some officers to kidnap free
African Americans and sell them to slave-owners.
Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips,
William Lloyd Garrison and John
Greenleaf Whittier led the fight against the Fugitive
Slave Law. Even moderate anti-slavery leaders such as Arthur
Tappan declared he was now willing to disobey the law and as a
result helped fund the Underground Railroad.
In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas introduced
his Kansas-Nebraska bill to the Senate.
These states could now enter the Union with or without slavery. Frederick
Douglass warned that the bill was "an open invitation to
a fierce and bitter strife". The result of this legislation was
to open the territory to organized migrations of pro-slave and anti-slave
groups. Southerners now entered the area with their slaves while active
members of the Anti-Slavery Society
also arrived. Henry Ward Beecher, condemned
the bill from his pulpit and helped to raise funds to supply weapons
to those willing to oppose slavery in these territories.
Kansas elected its first legislature in March, 1855. Although less
than 2,000 people were qualified to take part in these elections,
over 6,000 people voted. These were mainly Missouri slave-owners who
had crossed the border to make sure pro-slavery candidates were elected.
The new legislature passed laws that imposed the death penalty for
anyone helping a slave to escape and two years in jail for possessing
abolitionist literature.
In 1856 Abraham Lincoln joined the Republican
Party and unsuccessfully challenged Stephen
A. Douglas for his seat in the Senate. Lincoln was opposed to
Douglas's proposal that the people living in the Louisiana Purchase
(Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa,
the Dakotas, Montana, and parts of Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming)
should be allowed to own slaves. Lincoln argued that the territories
must be kept free for "poor people to go and better their condition".
Abraham Lincoln raised the issue of slavery
again in 1858 when he made a speech at Quincy, Illinois. Lincoln argued:
"We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. The
Republican Party think it wrong - we think it is a moral, a social,
and a political wrong. We think it is wrong not confining itself merely
to the persons of the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong
which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the existence of
the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of
policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with
any other wrong, insofar as we can prevent it growing any larger,
and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise
of an end to it."
Lincoln's speech upset Southern slaveholders and poor whites, who
valued the higher social status they enjoyed over slaves. However,
with rapid European immigration taking
place in the North, they had a declining influence over federal government.
Opponents of slavery were also becoming more militant in their views.
John Brown and five of his sons moved to
Kansas Territory to help anti-slavery
forces obtain control of this region. With the support of Gerrit
Smith and other prominent Abolitionists,
Brown moved to Virginia where he established a refuge for runaway
slaves.
In 1859 John Brown led a party of 21 men
in a successful attack on the federal armory at Harper's
Ferry. Brown hoped that his action would encourage slaves to join
his rebellion, enabling him to form an emancipation army. Two days
later the armory was stormed by Robert E. Lee
and a company of marines. Brown and six men barricaded themselves
in an engine-house, and continued to fight until Brown was seriously
wounded and two of his sons had been killed. Brown was executed on
2nd December, 1859.
Southern
slaveholders were outraged when in 1860 the Republican
Party nominated Abraham Lincoln as
its presidential candidate in 1860. They looked to the Democratic
Party to defend its interests but when it met in Charleston in
April, 1860, it selected, Stephen A. Douglas.
Unhappy with this decision, Southern delegates decided to hold another
convention in Baltimore in June, where
they selected John Breckenridge
of Kentucky to fight the election. The situation was further complicated
by the formation of the Constitutional Union
Party and the nomination of John Bell
of Tennessee as its presidential candidate.
Abraham Lincoln won with 1,866,462 votes
(18 free states) and beat Stephen A. Douglas
(1,375,157 - 1 slave state), John Breckenridge
(847,953 - 13 slave states) and John Bell
(589,581 - 3 slave states).
In the three months that followed the election of Abraham
Lincoln, seven states seceded from the Union: South Carolina,
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Representatives
from these seven states quickly established a new political organization,
the Confederate States of America.
On 8th February the Confederate States of America adopted a constitution
and within ten days had elected Jefferson
Davis as its president and Alexander
Stephens, as vice-president. Montgomery,
Alabama, became its capital and the Stars and Bars was adopted as
its flag. Davis was also authorized to raise 100,000 troops.
At his inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln
attempted to avoid conflict by announcing that he had no intention
"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." He added: "The government will not
assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the
aggressors."
President Jefferson Davis took the view
that after a state seceded, federal forts became the property of the
state. On 12th April, 1861, General Pierre
T. Beauregard demanded that Major Robert
Anderson surrender Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbour. Anderson replied
that he would be willing to leave the fort in two days when his supplies
were exhausted. Beauregard rejected this offer and ordered his Confederate
troops to open fire. After 34 hours of bombardment the fort was severely
damaged and Anderson was forced to surrender.
On hearing the news, Abraham Lincoln
called a special session of Congress and proclaimed a blockade of
Gulf of Mexico ports. This strategy was based on the Anaconda
Plan developed by General Winfield Scott,
the commanding general of the Union Army.
It involved the army occupying the line of the Mississippi and blockading
Confederate ports. Scott believed if this was done successfully the
South would negotiate a peace deal. However, at the start of the war,
the US Navy had only a small number of ships
and was in no position to guard all 3,000 miles of Southern coast.
On 15th April, 1861, Abraham Lincoln
called on the governors of the Northern states to provide 75,000 militia
to serve for three months to put down the insurrection. Virginia,
North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee, all refused to send troops
and joined the Confederacy. Kentucky and Missouri were also unwilling
to supply men for the Union Army but
decided not to take sides in the conflict.
(1)
John Caldwell Calhoun, speech in the
Senate (4th March, 1850)
How can the Union be saved? There is but one way by which it can
with any certainty; and that is, by a full and final settlement, on
the principle of justice of all the questions at issue between the
two sections. But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the weaker
party, for it can of itself do nothing - not even protect itself -
but by the stronger. The North has only to will it to accomplish it
- to do justice by conceding to the South an equal right in the acquired
territory, and to do her duty by causing the stipulations relative
to fugitive slaves to be faithfully fulfilled and to cease the agitation
of the slave question.
(2)
William Seward, speech, Rochester, New
York (25th October, 1858)
The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion,
and watchfulness. It debases those whose toil alone can produce wealth
and resources for defense to the lowest degree of which human nature
is capable, to guard against mutiny and insurrection, and this wastes
energies which otherwise might be employed in national development
and aggrandizement.
In states where the slave system prevails, the masters directly or
indirectly secure all political power and constitute a ruling aristocracy.
In states where the free-labor system prevails, universal suffrage
necessarily obtains and the state inevitably becomes sooner or later
a republic or democracy.
The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous - they are
incompatible. They never have permanently existed together in one
country, and they never can. Hitherto, the two systems have existed
in different states, but side by side within the American Union. This
has happened because the Union is a confederation of states. But in
another aspect the United States constitute only one nation. Increase
of population which is filling the states out to their very borders,
together with a new and extended network of railroads and other avenues,
and an internal commerce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly
bringing the states into a higher and more perfect social unity of
consolidation. Thus, these antagonistic systems are continually coming
into closer contact, and collision results.
The Democratic Party derived its strength originally from its adoption
of the principles of equal and exact justice to all men. So long as
it practised this principle faithfully, it was invulnerable. It became
vulnerable when it renounced the principle, and since that time it
has maintained itself not by virtue of its own strength, or even of
its traditional merits, but because there as yet had appeared in the
political field no other party that had the conscience and the courage
to take up, and avow, and practice the life-inspiring principle which
the Democratic Party surrendered.
At last, the Republican Party had appeared. It avows now, as the Republican
Party of 1800 did, in one word, its faith and its works, "Equal
and exact justice to all men." The secret of its assured success
lies in that very characteristic, which in the mouth of scoffers constitutes
its great and lasting imbecility and reproach. It lies in the fact
that it is a party of one idea; but that idea is a noble one - an
idea that fills and expands all generous souls - the idea of equality
- the equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws, as
they are equal before the divine tribunal and divine laws.
(3)
Abraham Lincoln, debate with Stephen
Douglas in Alton, Illinois (15th October,
1858)
Stephen Douglas assumes that I am in favor of introducing a perfect
social and political equality between the white and black races. These
are false issues. The real issue in this controversy is the sentiment
on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery
as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong.
One of the methods of treating it as a wrong is to make provision
that it shall grow no larger.
(4)
Abraham Lincoln, speech at Quincy, Illinois
(1858)
We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. The Republican
Party think it wrong - we think it is a moral, a social, and a political
wrong. We think it is wrong not confining itself merely to the persons
of the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong which in its
tendency, to say the least, affects the existence of the whole nation.
Because we thing it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall
deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong,
insofar as we can prevent it growing any larger, and so deal with
it that in the run of time there may be some promise of an end to
it.
(5)
The journalist, Henry Villard, described
the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen
A. Douglas debate at Ottawa, Illinois, on 21st August, 1858.
The first joint debate between Douglas and Lincoln, which I attended,
took place on the afternoon of August 21, 1858, at Ottawa, Illinois.
It was the great event of the day, and attracted an immense concourse
of people from all parts of the State.
Senator Douglas was very small, not over four and a half feet height,
and there was a noticeable disproportion between the long trunk of
his body and his short legs. His chest was broad and indicated great
strength of lungs. It took but a glance at his face and head to convince
one that they belonged to no ordinary man. No beard hid any part of
his remarkable, swarthy features. His mouth, nose, and chin were all
large and clearly expressive of much boldness and power of will. The
broad, high forehead proclaimed itself the shield of a great brain.
The head, covered with an abundance of flowing black hair just beginning
to show a tinge of grey, impressed one with its massiveness and leonine
expression. His brows were shaggy, his eyes a brilliant black.
Douglas spoke first for an hour, followed by Lincoln for an hour and
a half; upon which the former closed in another half hour. The Democratic
spokesman commanded a strong, sonorous voice, a rapid, vigorous utterance,
a telling play of countenance, impressive gestures, and all the other
arts of the practiced speaker.
As far as all external conditions were concerned, there was nothing
in favour of Lincoln. He had a lean, lank, indescribably gawky figure,
an odd-featured, wrinkled, inexpressive, and altogether uncomely face.
He used singularly awkward, almost absurd, up-and-down and sidewise
movements of his body to give emphasis to his arguments. His voice
was naturally good, but he frequently raised it to an unnatural pitch.
Yet the unprejudiced mind felt at once that, while there was on the
one side a skillful dialectician and debater arguing a wrong and weak
cause, there was on the other a thoroughly earnest and truthful man,
inspired by sound convictions in consonance with the true spirit of
American institutions. There was nothing in all Douglas's powerful
effort that appealed to the higher instincts of human nature, while
Lincoln always touched sympathetic cords. Lincoln's speech excited
and sustained the enthusiasm of his audience to the end.
(6)
Henry David Thoreau, A Plea
for Captain John Brown (1859)
I read all the newspapers I could get within a week after this event,
and I do not remember in them a single expression of sympathy for
these men. I have since seen one noble statement, in a Boston paper,
not editorial. Some voluminous sheets decided not to print the full
report of Brown's words to the exclusion of other matter.
But I object not so much to what they have omitted as to what they
have inserted. Even the Liberator called it "a misguided,
wild, and apparently insane-effort." As for the herd of newspapers
and magazines, I do not chance to know an editor in the country who
will deliberately print anything which he knows will ultimately and
permanently reduce the number of his subscribers.
A man does a brave and humane deed, and at once, on all sides, we
hear people and parties declaring, "I didn't do it, nor countenance
him to do it, in any conceivable way. It can't be fairly inferred
from my past career." I, for one, am not interested to hear you
define your position. I don't know that I ever was or ever shall be.
I think it is mere egotism, or impertinent at this time. Ye needn't
take so much pains to wash your skirts of him. No intelligent man
will ever be convinced that he was any creature of yours. He went
and came, as he himself informs us, "under the auspices of John
Brown and nobody else."
Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal with politicians,
men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in their ignorance, that he
acted "on the principle of revenge." They do not know the
man. They must enlarge themselves to conceive of him. I have no doubt
that the time will come when they will begin to see him as he was.
They have got to conceive of a man of faith and of religious principle,
and not a politician or an Indian; of a man who did not wait till
he was personally interfered with or thwarted in some harmless business
before he gave his life to the cause of the oppressed.
I wish I could say that Brown was the representative of the North.
He was a superior man. He did not value his bodily life in comparison
with ideal things. He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted
them as he was bid. For once we are lifted out of the trivialness
and dust of politics into the region of truth and manhood. No man
in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the
dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a man, and the equal
of any and all governments. In that sense he was the most American
of us all. He needed no babbling lawyer, making false issues, to defend
him. He was more than a match for all the judges that American voters,
or office-holders of whatever grade, can create. He could not have
been tried by a jury of his peers, because his peers did not exist.
(7)
Lucius Bierce,
the uncle of Ambrose Bierce, made a
speech when John Brown was executed that
was reported in the Summit Beacon in Ohio (7th December, 1859)
The tragedy of Brown's is freighted with awful lessons and consequences.
It is like the clock striking the fatal hour that begins a new era
in the conflict with slavery. Men like Brown may die, but their acts
and principles will live forever. Call it fanaticism, folly, madness,
wickedness, but until virtue becomes fanaticism, divine wisdom folly,
obedience to God madness, and piety wickedness, John Brown, inspired
with these high and holy teachings, will rise up before the world
with his calm, marble features, most terrible in death and defeat,
than in life and victory. It is one of those acts of madness which
history cherished and poetry loves forever to adorn with her choicest
wreaths of laurel.
(8)
In his book, Life and Times, Frederick
Douglass described the 1860 Presidential Election.
The presidential canvass of 1860 was three sided, and each side
had its distinctive doctrine as to the question of slavery and slavery
extension. We had three candidates in the field. Stephen A. Douglas
was the standard bearer of what may be called the western faction
of the old divided democratic party, and John C. Breckenridge was
the standard-bearer of the southern or slaveholding, faction of that
party. Abraham Lincoln represented the then young, growing, and united
republican party. The lines between these parties and candidates were
about as distinctly and clearly drawn as political lines are capable
of being drawn. The name of Douglas stood for territorial sovereignty,
or in other words, for the right of the people of a territory to admit
or exclude, to establish or abolish, slavery, as to them might seem
best. The doctrine of Breckenridge was that slaveholders were entitled
to carry their slaves into any territory of the United States and
to hold them there, with or without the consent of the people of the
territory; that the Constitution of its own force carried slavery
and protected it into any territory open for settlement in the United
States. To both these parties, factions, and doctrines, Abraham Lincoln
and the republican party stood opposed. They held that the Federal
Government had the right and the power to exclude slavery from the
territories of the United States, and that that right and power ought
to be exercised to the extent of confining slavery inside the slave
States, with a view to its ultimate extinction.
(9)
Thomas
Johnson, Twenty-Eight Years a Slave (1909)
In the year 1860, there was great excitement in Richmond over the
election of Mr. Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States.
The slaves prayed to God for his success, and they prayed very especially
the night before the election. We knew he was in sympathy with the
abolition of Slavery. The election was the signal for a great conflict
for which the Southern States were ready. The question was: Shall
there be Slavery or no Slavery in the United States? The South said:
Yes, there shall be Slavery.
(10)
James
Garfield, letter
to Burke A. Hinsdale (15th January, 1861)
I do not now see any way this side a miracle
of God which can avoid a civil war with all its attendant horrors.
Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed, I cannot say
as I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by the
South would be hypocritical and sinful. They would neither be obeyed
nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is
one of which it may be said that "without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. I believe the doom of slavery is drawing near
- let war come - and the slaves will get a vague notion that it is
waged for them.
(11)
Jefferson Davis, inaugural address
(18th February, 1861)
The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States,
and which has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the bills of rights
of the states subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably
recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated
for the purposes of government. Thus the sovereign states here represented
proceeded to form the Confederacy; and it is by the abuse of language
that their act has been denominated revolution.
(12)
Abraham Lincoln, inaugural speech
(4th March, 1861)
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 consider the Union is unbroken. I shall take care that the laws
of the Union be faithfully executed in all States. There need be no
bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced
upon the national authority.
The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without
yourselves being 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.
(13)
William Seward, memorandum to Abraham
Lincoln (1st April, 1861)
My system is built upon the idea as a ruling one, namely, that
we must change the question before the public from one upon slavery,
or about slavery, for a question upon union or disunion. In other
words, from what would be regarded as a party question to one of patriotism
or union.
The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in fact
a slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Witness the temper
manifested by the Republicans in the free states, and even by the
Union men in the South.
I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for changing the issue.
I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the necessity.
For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all the
ports in the Gulf and have the Navy recalled from foreign stations
to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West under martial
law.
(14)
Walt Whitman wrote about his thoughts
on hearing about the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Specimen Days
(1881).
Even after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the gravity of the
revolt, and the power and will of the slave States for a strong and
continued military resistance to national authority, were not at all
realized at the North, except by a few. Nine-tenths of the people
of the free States looked upon the rebellion, as started in South
Carolina, from a feeling of one-half of contempt, and the other half
composed of anger and incredulity. It was not thought it would be
joined in by Virginia, North Carolina, or Georgia. A great and cautious
national official predicted it would blow over "in sixty days"
and folks generally believed the prediction.
(15)
Mary Livermore was staying in Boston
with her father when the American Civil
War started in 1861.
My own home had been in Chicago for years, but my aged father
was thought to be dying, and the stern speech of the telegram had
summoned me to his bedside. The daily papers teemed with the dreary
records of succession. The Southern press blazed with hatred of the
North, and with fierce contempt for her patience and her avowed desire
for peace. Northern men and women were driven from Southern homes,
leaving behind all their possessions, and thankful to escape with
life.
The day after arrival, came the news that Fort Sumter was attacked,
which increased the feverish anxiety. The telegraph, which had registered
for the astounded nation the hourly progress of the bombardment, announced
the lowering of the stars and stripes, and the surrender of the beleaguered
garrison, the news fell on the land like a thunderbolt.
(16)
Mary Livermore
wrote about her feelings when it became clear that the North was at
war with the South in her book My Story of the War (1887).
15th April, 1861: Drowning the exaltations of the triumphant South,
louder than their boom of cannon, heard above their clang of bells
and blare of trumpets, there rang out the voice of Abraham Lincoln
calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months. This
proclamation was like the first peal of a surcharged thunder-cloud,
clearing the murky air. The South received it as a declaration of
war; the North as a confession that civil war had begun; and the whole
North arose as one man.
17th April, 1861: The 6th Massachusetts, a full regiment one thousand
strong, started from Boston by rail. An immense concourse of people
gathered in the neighborhood of the Boston and Albany railroad station
to witness their departure. The great crowd was evidently under the
influence of deep feeling, but it was repressed, and the demonstrations
were not noisy. Tears ran down not only the cheeks of women, but those
of men; but there was no faltering.
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