Lesser Known Historical Excerpts Relevant to The
War for Southern Independence
Author: Eric Patterson
Below are but a few excerpts from history that reveal that the
war between the United States of America and the Confederate States
of America was not a battle of good versus evil, or even a true
civil war. The facts reveal the shallow, one-sided, sound-bite "history"
and stereotypes of the Antebellum South, the War, the Union, and
the Confederacy that most of us have been taught. We are all familiar
with the War between the North and South as told through Northern
eyes and texts. My objective is to challenge what are usually accepted
as the causes of Southern secession and of the War that followed
by offering alternative insights based on excerpts of neglected
American history.
The South did not intend to take control of the United States government,
but to peacefully form their own sovereign nation. They had no more
intention of conquering Washington than the patriots of 1776 had
in conquering London. This was, in fact, a war between two nations
and cultures, the South having declared her independence from the
North just as the thirteen American Colonies had done from England,
and Texas had done from Mexico. The right of a State to secede from
the Union had been widely assumed, though untested, in both the
North and South, from the time the Constitution was written and
ratified, until South Carolina took that bold step on December 20,
1860. Drawing heavily on the American Revolution and the Declaration
of Independence one people declared their independence, and another
determined to use all necessary measures to forcefully restore the
former Union. Under the cover of war and through bullets and bayonets,
the relationship between the States and the Federal government would
be radically changed. The term "union," having once been
understood to mean voluntary cooperation for the mutual benefit
of each State, had taken on the notion of indivisible–held
together by force, and at all costs. It became clear that "government
of the people, for the people, [and] by the people" as well
as the noble idea of "the consent of the governed" was
now defined by those who wielded the greater military force, relegating
the defeated peoples to the status of "rebels" and traitors.
In short, a declaration of independence became laudable only if
those desiring independence win in their struggle – a philosophy
of "might makes right." Finally, the victors write the
prevailing history.
We must look into history to find the true roots of that tragic
War. Care must be taken to draw a distinction between the causes
of the secession of the Southern States, and the reasons why war
broke out between the North and South. History reveals the likelihood
of a great conflict between the North and South–two distinct
peoples and cultures. Many of the differences between the North
and South coalesced in the issues of sectional political struggles
for power in Congress, Federal encroachment on the rights reserved
and retained by the States, differing regional economic interests,
regional cultural differences, the moral question of slavery, and
the regional effects of federal tariffs. It all came to a head as
political power shifted in Congress and then in the Presidency.
The South, feeling her back was against the wall, declared herself
to be an independent nation, just as the Founding Fathers had done
as they broke away from England, and the Texans had done when they
broke away from Mexico.
Unfortunately, the topic of slavery has served as a red herring
to distract from the more fundamental reasons for the conflict between
the North and South that led to secession. To understand the role
of slavery in this conflict, one must ask why it was an issue, both
for the North and the South. But first, because we are so far removed
from that time in history, it is also important to remember that
the institution of slavery had widely acknowledged constitutional
protection, being an issue for each State, North and South, to deal
with as it’s citizens saw fit. A basic principle in understanding
the people and events of history is to interpret them within their
historical context. In historical context, prior to the Thirteenth
Amendment, slaves were held in legally binding servitude. While
such a notion is shocking to modern ears, it was the law and sentiment
of the land with a strong constitutional argument. Abraham Lincoln
openly shared these sentiments.
Most modern observers cannot–or will not–see beyond
the issue of slavery to the many foundational issues of the growing
division between North and South, many of which had simmered from
before the birth of the Nation. Though a growing point of contention,
slavery was but one of the differentiating factors between the agrarian
economy and culture of the South, and the increasingly industrial
economy and culture of the North. Slavery, in and of itself, was
not the reason for Southern secession nor the cause of the War for
Southern Independence. The citizens of the Northern States were
not willing to fight and die to end slavery, nor did they do so.
Lincoln himself had made this clear. The abolitionist’s voice at
the national level was still a small political minority. Besides,
the voices of Northern racial prejudice and white laborers who feared
the loss of jobs through an influx of emancipated slaves rang in
the ears of Northern politicians.
The mostly one crop economy of the South was itself a slave to
slavery, for mechanization had not yet embraced the growing of cotton.
The terms "Cotton States" and "Slave States"
encompassed Southern interests in general, whether economic, political,
or cultural. To control slavery through national politics was perceived
by the South as a threat to her economic interests, her influence
in national politics on a wide range of other issues vital to her
agrarian foundations, an assault on the Constitution, and a threat
to historic States’ rights.
For one thing, limiting slavery to the existing Southern States,
while the United States continued to spread West and the population
growth in the North outpaced that of the South, would reduce Southern
political influence in many areas of unique concern to her to a
hopeless minority position. Yet, by favoring the protection of slavery
where it currently existed, the Republicans could cloud partisan
and sectional debate by claiming not to be an enemy of the South.
But the Republicans did not have to end slavery in the South. All
they had to do was contain it where it was in order to stifle Southern
political and economic power as Congressional representation from
the West and North grew in strength.
No doubt, their were those few in the North did not want to see
slavery spread for moral reasons. However, this would not move beyond
a minority position until Lincoln used abolition as political a
tactic midway through the war. Yet the real reason for the opposition
to the spread, not only of slavery, but even of free black settlers
to the frontier was to reserve these lands for white settlers.
It was these threats to the South through the institution of slavery
that were among the many contributing factors leading to the secession
of the first seven Southern States, but to simplistically raise
up slavery as the reason both distorts and obscures the truth. After
all, the North shared in keeping slavery viable by her growing appetite
for Southern cotton and tobacco, and by providing direct financing
for slave ownership.
The opposing sides in debates over tariffs followed this same division,
as did other issues of a sectional nature as Northern industrial
influence in national politics grew. The Southern Democrats had
long been a thorn in the side of Northern industrial interests by
fighting import tariffs–tariffs that protected the Northern
industrial economy from foreign competition. To reduce Southern
influence in national politics would mean smoother sailing for protectionist
trade legislation. But, at the same time, those same tariffs collected
at Southern ports were the major source for all Federal revenue–most
of which was spent on the burgeoning industrial infrastructure of
the North. This last point would figure prominently in shaping Northern
opinion and sentiments over Southern secession.
Had the South threatened the roots of Northern economics and culture
from a position of superior political strength, the North would
have reacted similarly. Indeed, this scenario had been played out
in the Nation’s past on numerous occasions. Political and economic
grievances such as these were not new, for New England had voiced
similar ones at various times throughout American history, threatening
secession herself multiple times.
Finally, history records that the secession of the remaining Southern
States of the Confederacy was precipitated by Federal aggression
mobilized against the first seven States that had already seceded.
The major companion question to the one regarding slavery that
must be answered is, "Why did Lincoln deem it worth ‘preserving’
the Union at the cost of over 600,000 lives and the near total destruction
of the Southern economy and infrastructure–which would take
over 100 years to recover; by what legal or moral grounds did he
do this?" In the months just prior to Lincoln’s decision to
march on the South, the voice of Northern merchants and financiers
grew more desperate at the prospect of entering into a trade and
tariff war with the South. With the high import tariffs of the North
and the low tariffs of the South, foreign manufactured goods would
naturally enter through the South. It was also feared that the Southern
market for Northern manufactured goods would shrivel, if not dry
up. On this issue, the agrarian South had nothing to lose and everything
to gain, while Northern merchants, financiers, and the Federal coffer
stood only to lose. The South did not need the North for their economic
well being nearly as much as the growth and prosperity of the North
depended on the South’s continued membership in the Union. Surely
it is not hard to believe that economics was a major factor in both
the secession of the Southern States and the ultimate cry from the
North for war once the economic realities settled in. And surely
it is not unrealistic to think that the combined outcry of powerful
Northern capitalists was heeded by Lincoln and the Republicans,
especially with the threat of economic catastrophe should the South
be permitted to remain out of the Union. In short, the North feared
it could not survive in the competitive arena of free trade.
While slavery was legal in the Confederate States of America for
4 years (1861-1865), slavery was legal in the United States of America
for 89 years (1776-1865). But, does the existence, practice and
acceptance of slavery in 1776 America nullify the honor and valor
associated with the spilling of Patriot blood in the struggle for
independence from our mother country? Likewise, does the existence,
practice and acceptance of slavery in 1830’s Texas strip the honor
and valor from those Texans who died at Goliad and at the Alamo
as they fought for independence from Mexico? Did the words and sentiments
expressed in the Declaration of Independence no longer apply to
people in the several States of the United States once the Constitution
was ratified? Are these struggles for independence any less legitimate
because political unions were torn apart? Nor should the South be
judged any differently for its own struggle for independence in
1861-65. As economist, professor, author, and columnist Walter E.
Williams wrote in his December 2, 1998, article The Civil War Wasn’t
About Slavery, "the only good coming from the War Between the
States was the abolition of slavery."
Should you find the preceding analysis too alien to what you were
taught and had always believed, at least read and consider the following
chronology of lesser known excerpts of American history related
to the long standing tension between the North and South. Be open
to the possibility that politics, competing philosophies of government,
and money might have been much greater factors in both Southern
secession and the war cry of the North than are commonly acknowledged,
and that the insistence of the unconditional and immediate abolition
of slavery was a minority position in the North.
According to the Declaration of Independence, political unions
are not sacrosanct. Truly precious is liberty and government instituted
by the people that remains under the consent of the people.
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth,
the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation […] That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the right of the people to altar or to abolish
it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness" (The
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776).
"The Declaration was the outcome of prolonged discussion,
and of hopelessness in resisting arbitrary measures, while in union
with the mother country. When no other course was compatible with
self-respect, the pressure of liberty compelled the tearing asunder
of the ties of allegiance and union, and Virginia and Massachusetts
went hand in hand in leading the rupture" (JLMC p. 33).
The members of the Second Continental Congress were not members
of a governing body, but were delegates and ambassadors sent by
governors and legislatures of the thirteen States–independent
States that tenaciously asserted and guarded their respective sovereignty
(WEW p. 232; JLMC p. 64-65, 68-82).
John Adams, Massachusetts delegate to the Second Continental Congress,
wrote to his wife of the stark differences between the two peoples
of the Northern and Southern colonies, and that the proposed union
could not be held together "without the utmost caution on both
sides" (JRK p. 24).
The sovereignty and independence, not of one nation, but of each
of the individual thirteen States was recognized by King George
III after the "Articles of the proposed Treaty" of peace
were signed between England and "Commissioners of the United
States of America" in Paris on November 30, 1782. As stipulated
by Benjamin Franklin in the preamble of the treaty with England,
and in cooperation with France, formal independence from and peace
with England for each of the thirteen individually recognized States
was finalized as peace was made between France and England. This
definitive "Treaty of Peace" between England and "the
United States of America" was signed on September 3, 1783.
The entire transaction for peace was referred to as the "Peace
of Paris" (WEW p. 212-13; SEM p. 266-67; JLMC p. 35). Article
I of both documents contain these words:
"His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States,
viz. New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, [Delaware,]
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia,
to be free sovereign and independent States; that he treats with
them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes
all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights
of the same, and every part thereof."
Given their history of inter-colonial rivalries, many observers
doubted that any compact between the newly independent thirteen
States would last. "Josiah Tucker, dean of Gloucester, who
was one of the leading economic and political authorities of Great
Britain, said, ‘The mutual antipathies and clashing interests of
the Americans […] their difference of governments, habitudes,
and manners, indicate that they will have no centre of union and
no common interest. They never can be united into one compact empire
under any species of government whatever’" (WEW p. 213).
Alexander Hamilton, a staunch Federalist strongly opposed to democracy,
and even a republican form of government, lobbied during the Constitutional
Convention of 1787 for a government patterned after the European
monarchies. He proposed that the government of the United States
consist of a president and senate who were to be elected by electors,
with the members of the senate serving for life, and a lower house
consisting of persons elected by popular vote for a three year term.
He also proposed that the governors of the States be appointed by
the federal administration and that the president or congress have
veto power over the State legislatures (WEW p. 234-35, 294). In
summary, the Hamiltonians, or Federalists, distrusted the individual
State governments’ for judicious self-government, and argued for
a strong central government with a corresponding decrease of States’
rights (WEW p. 267; SEM p. 328-29; MLD p. 62-63, 69-70).
Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican and staunch advocate
of democracy, and believing that the Union was a group of sovereign
States that had carefully delegated specific powers to an administrative
agent, stated his view of States’ rights within the Union as follows,
"My plan would be to make the states one as to everything connected
with foreign nations, and several as to everything purely domestic"
(WEW p. 294). In summary, the Jeffersonians, or Antifederalists,
considered the United States as a league of sovereign States that
had delegated a few of the States’ inherent and inalienable powers
to a federal authority, that Government was regulating force imposed
upon the people from without, and that there should be as little
of it as possible (WEW p. 267; SEM p. 328-29; JLMC p. 93).
The Antifederalists of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Constitutional
Convention opposed ratification saying that "the powers vested
in Congress by this constitution, must necessarily annihilate and
absorb the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the several
states and produce from their ruins one consolidated government,
which from the nature of things will be an iron-handed despotism"
of the central government (MLD p. 123).
On October 25, 1787, George Clinton, Governor of New York, himself
quite sectional in his sentiments and exhibiting hostility toward
the Southern States, wrote as "Cato" in Antifederalist
No. 14 in The New York Journal. Here, he states his trepidation
over forming a union whose federal government is granted so much
power over States with such dissimilar interests. He fears that
such a diverse union can, ultimately, only be held together by force,
and at the cost of liberty. He even warns of the necessity of a
standing army to enforce collection of federal revenues from the
States–a fear that would become a reality as sectional battles
over tariffs became increasingly contentious during the 1800’s.
"[…] whoever seriously considers the immense extent of territory
comprehended within the limits of the United States, together with
the variety of its climates, productions, and commerce, the difference
of extent, and number of inhabitants in all; the dissimilitude of
interest, morals, and politics, in almost every one, will receive
it as an intuitive truth, that a consolidated republican form of
government therein, can never form a perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty to you and your posterity, for to these
objects it must be directed. This unkindred legislature therefore,
composed of interests opposite and dissimilar in their nature, will
in its exercise, emphatically be like a house divided against itself.
"[…] Will this consolidated republic, if established, in
its exercise beget such confidence and compliance, among the citizens
of these states, as to do without the aid of a standing army? I
deny that it will. The malcontents in each state, who will not be
a few, nor the least important, will be exciting factions against
it. The fear of a dismemberment of some of its parts, and the necessity
to enforce the execution of revenue laws (a fruitful source of oppression)
on the extremes and in the other districts of the government, will
incidentally and necessarily require a permanent force, to be kept
on foot. Will not political security, and even the opinion of it,
be extinguished? Can mildness and moderation exist in a government
where the primary incident in its exercise must be force?
"[…] Is it, therefore, from certainty like this, reasonable
to believe, that inhabitants of Georgia, or New Hampshire, will
have the same obligations towards you as your own, and preside over
your lives, liberties, and property, with the same care and attachment?
Intuitive reason answers in the negative…." (Antifederalist
No. 14)
The ratification of the new Constitution, beginning on November
6, 1787, and ending May 29, 1790, took place within State conventions.
It was not submitted to the collective people of a nation. It was
the will of the citizens of each individual State that was sought.
Inherent in this process was the possibility that the citizens of
a State might choose not to enter into the proposed constitutional
confederacy. The proposed Union would come into being after nine
states ratified the new Constitution, with or without the remaining
States. (JLMC p. 77, 98).
During the ratification process of the proposed constitution, George
Mason, in a letter to the Virginia Ratification Convention dated
June 4, 1788, warned of the inevitable tension in the union of States
of "so extensive a country, embracing so many climates, and
containing inhabitants so very different in manners, habits, and
customs" under a national government (JRK p. 24; PBK ch. 8,
doc. 37).
The June 26, 1788, Virginia Act of Ratification of the United States
Constitution contained clarifying language stating that the people
of Virginia reserved the right to recall the powers they delegated
to the newly formed federal government if "the same shall be
perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not
granted thereby remains with them and at their will" (JRK p.
189; GLD p. 65; JLMC p. 81; CA p. 15). Clearly, recalling the powers
they had delegated would cause the State to revert back to their
pre-ratification status, not by permission of the other States,
but by her own will.
As with Virginia, prior to ratifying the U.S. Constitution, the
States of New York and Rhode Island reserved the right to recall
the powers they were delegating to the new federal government by
stating that "the powers of government may be reassumed by
the people whenever it shall become necessary to their happiness"
(GLD p. 65-66; JLMC p. 77).
Dissenting States would not ratify the Constitution without the
assurance that a bill of rights to the Constitution, declaring the
privileges inviolably retained by the people of the States and limiting
the reach of the Federal government, would be put through in the
first session of the new Congress (WEW p. 247; MLD p. 58).
The Federalist position argued against a bill of rights in the
new Constitution; stating that it was "unnecessary" since
sufficient restraint upon the government already exists within the
body of the Constitution, being understood by the prominent phrase
"WE THE PEOPLE", and also because of inherited respect
for British common-law. They also surmised that a specific list
of rights would provide a rationale for the national government
to violate other rights not listed. The Federalist were especially
opposed to a declaration of rights which exclusively placed limits
on the national government, while not similarly addressing the State
governments (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, Number 84; MLD
p. 58-60).
As typified in New York’s ratification document, the Antifederalist
position argued that a bill of rights was a "legal weapon to
keep the national government within its specified sphere of constitutional
trust […] in the event of a constitutional contest between itself
[a State] and the national government" (MLD p. 61). This document
reads in part:
"That the sovereignty, freedom, and independency of the several
states shall be retained, and every power, jurisdiction, and right
which is not by this constitution expressly delegated to the United
States in Congress assembled."
Raphael Semmes in his 1869 work, Memoirs of Service Afloat, writes
of the nervousness of the States toward the proposed new government
in relation to the retained powers of the States (JRK p. 206).
Prior to ratifying the new constitution, the State of Massachusetts
insisted "that it be explicitly declared, that all powers not
delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are reserved to the several
States, to be by them exercised."
Pennsylvania likewise insisted that the new constitution be amended
to include language guaranteeing that "[a]ll the rights of
sovereignty which are not, by the said Constitution, expressly and
plainly vested in the Congress, shall be deemed to remain with,
and shall be exercised by the several states in the Union."
The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution addressed the
basic Antifederalist distrust of a central government to not usurp
the reserved rights of the States (MLD p. 5; JRK p. 177-78, 206).
James Madison, "the father of the Constitution," expressed
his view of the proposed new government and the sovereign status
of the States as they ratified the new constitution when he stated,
"In order to ascertain the real character of the government,
it may be considered in relation to the foundation on which it is
to be established; to the sources from which its ordinary powers
are to be drawn; to the operation of those powers; to the extent
of them; and to the authority by which future changes in the government
are to be introduced.
"On examining the first relation, it appears, on one hand,
that the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification
of the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special
purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is
to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire
nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to
which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and ratification
of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each
State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore,
establishing the Constitution, will not be a NATIONAL, but a FEDERAL
act.
"That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these
terms are understood by the objectors; the act of the people, as
forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate
nation […] Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered
as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound
by its voluntary act" (James Madison, Federalist Papers, Number
39).
American slave ships flew the Stars and Stripes (not the flags
of the Confederate States of America) (JRK p. 69-70).
The slave trade had early roots in New England, going back as early
as 1640. The sailing ship Desire, sailing from Salem, Massachusetts,
is designated as the first slave ship outfitted in America (JRK
p. 66).
In 1750, Newport, Rhode Island’s fleet of slaving ships numbered
one hundred and seventy (FWS p. 28).
West Indian molasses provided the basis of the New England slave
trade. The molasses was used in the making of rum by New England
distillers. New England based slave ships would then take on a cargo
of rum to be used in trading for African slaves (JRK p. 66-67).
According to the research of author Francis W. Springer:
"[A]s early as the 1750’s there were 63 distilleries in Massachusetts
and 30 in Rhode Island busy converting molasses into rum for the
[slave] trade. When an import duty was levied on molasses, it was
never collected because it was claimed that it would ruin the slave
trade, throw 5,000 men out of work and cause 700 ships to rot"
(FWS p. 42; also JRK p. 67).
According to author Daniel P. Mannix in his book, Black Cargoes,
the colony of Rhode Island registered a protest to the English Board
of Trade in 1763 over the tax on molasses claiming it would greatly
harm her slave trade, a mainstay of her economy (JRK p. 67).
The July, 1916 issue of the Hartford Current summarized the operation
of the New England slave trade and its contribution to slavery in
the South:
"Northern rum had much to do with the extension of slavery
in the South. Many people in this state [Connecticut] as well as
in Boston, made snug fortunes for themselves by sending rum to Africa
to be exchanged for slaves and then selling the slaves to the planters
of Southern states" (SCV p. 14).
According to the Boston News Letter, at least twenty-three thousand
blacks were brought from Africa to Massachusetts between 1755 and
1766 (FWS p. 28).
The gradual reduction of slavery in the North was due in large
part to the growth in the number of white laborers (JRK p. 54).
According to author Lorenzo Johnson Green, in his 1966 book The
Negro in Colonial New England 1620-1776, John Adams insisted that
the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts was due to the protest
of competing white laborers rather than for ethical or moral reasons.
Adams stated,
"Argument might have some weight in the abolition of slavery
in Massachusetts, but the real cause was the multiplication of labouring
white people, who would no longer suffer the rich to employ these
sable rivals so much to their injury. The common people would not
suffer the labor, by which alone they could obtain a subsistence,
to be done by slaves. If the gentlemen had been permitted by law
to hold slaves, the common white people would have put the slaves
to death, and their masters too perhaps" (JRK p. 84; SCV p.
13).
George H. Moore, in his 1866 book Notes on the History of Slavery
in Massachusetts, documents that in 1788 Massachusetts, having instituted
a process of gradual emancipation of its slaves, passed a law stating
that blacks, mulattos, and Indians who came into the State and remained
two months would be publicly whipped (JRK p. 76).
In 1799 New York declared that children born to slaves after July
4, 1799 were to be free. In order to recoup the loss in value of
their slave holdings, New York slave owners shipped their slaves
South to be sold at auction (CA p. 133).
In 1798 and 1799, the legislatures of Virginia, inspired by James
Madison, and Kentucky, inspired by Thomas Jefferson, asserting their
belief that they had the sovereign right to nullify any illegal
or harmful acts of the Federal government, declared that both the
Alien and Sedition Acts, passed by the Federalist controlled Congress,
were unconstitutional and would not be enforced in their States
(WEW p. 289; SEM p. 354; JRK p. 164-65; MLD p. 22).
The Virginia Resolution declared in part that "the powers
of the Federal Government" are the result of a compact "to
which the States are parties." As such, the States are "duty
bound to interpose for arresting the progress" of "deliberate,
palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by
said compact" to the Federal Government (JLMC p. 106).
The Kentucky Resolution, drawn up by Jefferson, warned that allowing
the Federal Government to be the judge of the extent of its own
power stops "nothing short of despotism since those who administer
the Government and not the Constitution would be the measure of
their powers; that the several States who formed the instrument,
being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to
judge of the infraction; and that a nullification by those sovereignties
of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument is
the rightful remedy" (JLMC p. 106-07).
It was widely proposed by New England Federalists that the New
England States secede from the Union should Jefferson be elected
president in the election of 1800. The Federalist newspaper, the
Columbian Centinel, warned, "Tremble then in case of Jefferson’s
election, all ye holders of public funds, for your ruin is at hand."
Federalist John Adams, having lost his reelection bid, was so disgusted
at the outcome of the election that he refused to welcome Jefferson
or attend his inauguration (WEW p. 290, 292).
In 1804, New Jersey adopted a mode of gradual emancipation of slaves
that was to take effect in 1827. Slaves born before 1804 were to
remain slaves for life. These remaining slaves were referred to
as "colored apprentices for life." Children of slaves
born after July 4, 1804, were "free," but had to remain
as servants of their masters. Females had to labor in this way until
age 21, and males until age 25. In 1850 there were 236 slaves for
life in New Jersey. The 1860 United States census officially enumerated
18 slaves in New Jersey.
The method of gradual emancipation used in the North respected
"property" rights of the Northern slave holders, many
of whom sold their slaves South and recouped their investment–an
investment that wasn’t especially profitable in the North, anyway
(JRK p. 75; GKW).
New England Federalists, already enraged over the Louisiana Purchase,
feared that their influence in the affairs of government would be
further diminished as western and southern territories applied for
admission into the Union. Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, in a speech
to the House of Representatives, spoke of Western "Representatives
and Senators from the Red River and Missouri pouring themselves
upon this and the other floor, managing the concerns of a seaboard
fifteen hundred miles at least from their residence" (WEW p.
308, 333). During debate in Congress on Jan. 14, 1811 over the admission
of Louisiana as a state, Josiah Quincy declared,
"If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it
is virtually a dissolution of the Union; that it will free the States
from their moral obligation; and as it will be the right of all,
so it will be duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation–amicably
if they can, violently if they must" (WEW p. 331; GLD p. 28;
SDC p. 28).
American ship owners and merchants, especially in New England,
were very much against United States participation in the War of
1812. New England Federalists organized political and economic opposition
to the United States war effort. New England merchants and privateers
carried on illicit and profitable commerce with British merchant
ships and conducted business with the British army in Canada in
defiance of the United States embargo against trade with England
(GLD p. 33; WEW p. 329-33; MLD p. 8). A few of the more outspoken
members of the Federalist party even advocated a separate peace
between New England and Great Britain (GLD p. 32). The governors
of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, exercised their
sovereign States’ rights by refusing President Madison’s call for
their State militias to aid in the war effort against the British
(WEW p. 327; JLMC p. 114-15).
New England newspapers boldly advocated secession during the War
of 1812, arguing that "the Federal constitution is nothing
more than a treaty between independent sovereignties […] and that
any state had a right to withdraw" (WEW p. 333).
The January 13, 1813, edition of the Boston Centinel editorialized
approvingly on secession as the imminent remedy for New England’s
perceived inadequate voice in the governing of the United States
by stating,
"The sentiment is hourly extending, and, in these northern
states, will soon be universal, that we are in no better condition
with respect to the south, than that of a conquered people […]
We must be no longer deafened by senseless clamours about a separation
of the states […] Should the present administration, with their
adherents in the southern states, still persist in the prosecution
of this wicked and ruinous war–in unconstitutionally creating
new states in the mud of Louisiana (the inhabitants of which country
are as ignorant of republicanism as the alligators of the swamps)
and in opposition to the commercial rights and privileges of New
England, much as we deprecate a separation of the union, we deem
it an evil much less to be dreaded that a co-operation with them
in these nefarious projects" (GLD p. 30-31).
On February, 14 1814, with the United States still at war with
England, both houses of the Massachusetts State Legislature passed
a resolution that read, "The question of New England’s withdrawal
from the Union is not a question of power or of right to separate,
but only a question of time and expediency." On October 8,
1814, a committee of the Massachusetts legislature called for a
December 15th convention of New England States in Hartford, Connecticut
for the purpose of considering the secession of the Eastern States
from the Union and the creation of a New England confederacy (SEM
p. 383; WEW p. 331-33; SDC p. 28).
The September 10, 1814, edition of the Boston Centinel opined,
"I have, for many years, considered the Union of the Northern
and Southern States as not essential to the safety, and very much
opposed to the interests, of both sections. The extent of territory
is too large to be harmoniously governed by the same representative
body […] The commercial and non-commercial states have views and
interests so different, that I conceive it to be impossible that
they ever can be satisfied with the same laws […] each section
will be better satisfied to govern itself: and each is large and
populous enough for its own protection […]" (GLD p. 31).
The December 15, 1814, edition of the Boston Centinel argued,
"By a commercial treaty with England, which shall provide
for the admission [into the New England republic] of such states
as may wish to come into it, and which shall prohibit England from
making a treaty with the South and West, our commerce will be secured
to us, our standing in the nation raised to its proper level; and
New England’s feelings will no longer be sported with or her interests
violated" (GLD p. 32; GE p. 112).
The Missouri Compromise of 1820, limiting slavery to South of the
36°30′ parallel, while couched in terms of slavery, was really
a political compromise over a balance of Congressional power between
the industrial North and agrarian South. It was not concerned with
the plight of slaves. Balance was maintained with the new free State
of Maine offsetting the new slave State of Missouri. This debate
served to reinforce the sectional consciousness between North and
South (WEW p. 352-54).
Thomas Jefferson, now in private life, was greatly alarmed by the
Missouri Compromise. He considered it ill-conceived and suicidal
to the Union.
In a letter to Mark Langhorn Hill, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts,
on April 5, 1820, he wrote, "I congratulate you on the sleep
of the Missouri question–I wish I could say on its death;
but of this I dispair! The idea of a geographical line once suggested,
will brood in the minds of all those who prefer the gratification
of their ungovernable passions to the peace and Union of the country!"
(SDC p. 46).
On April 22, 1820, Jefferson wrote to John Holmes, U.S. Representative
from Maine, that this compromise "like a fire bell in the night,
awakened, and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as
the death knell of the union! It is hushed, indeed, for the moment,
but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical
line, coinciding with a marked principle moral and political, once
conceived and held up to the angry passions of men will never be
obliterated, and every irritation will make it deeper and deeper!
I can say with conscious truth that there is not a man in earth
who would sacrifice more than I would, to relieve us from this heavy
reproach [of slavery] in any practical way. The cession of that
kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle, which would
not cost me a second thought. A general emancipation and expatriation
could be effected, and gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think
it might be. But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we
can neither hold him nor safely let him go! Justice is in the one
scale and self preservation in the other […]" (SDC p. 46).
Thomas Jefferson saw a scheme of defeated Federalists behind the
Missouri Compromise, using it as a means back into power. He asserted
that they were attempting to fan the flames of passion over slavery
and capitalize on the deepening North-South geographical consciousness
that the Compromise fueled in order to win back the Presidency.
On September 20, 1820, he wrote to William Pinckney, Senator from
Maryland: "the Missouri question is a mere party trick. The
leaders of Federalism, defeated in the schemes of obtaining power,
by rallying partizans [sic] to the principle of monarchism–a
principle of personal, not if local division, have changed their
tack […] They are taking advantage of the virtuous people, to
affect a division of parties, by a geographical line. They expect
that this will insure them on local principles, the majority they
could never obtain on principles of federalism; but they are still
putting their shoulder to the wrong wheel–they are wasting
jeremiads on the evils of slavery, as if we were advocates for it"
(SDC p. 46).
On December 29, 1820, Jefferson wrote to General Lafayette: "The
boisterous sea of liberty, indeed, is never without a wave, and
that from Missouri is now rolling toward us, but we shall ride over
it as we have all others. It is not a moral question, but one merely
of power. It’s object is to raise a geographical principle for the
choice of a President, and the noise will be kept up till that is
effected" (SDC p. 47).
On August 17, 1821 Jefferson wrote to General Henry Dearborn: "I
rejoice with you that the State of Missouri is at length a member
of our Union. Whether the question it excited is dead, or only sleepeth,
I do not know. I see only that it has given resurrection to the
Hartford Convention men. They have had the address by playing on
the honest feelings of our former friends to seduce them from their
kindred spirits, and to borrow their weight into the Federal scale.
Desperate of regaining power under political distinctions they have
adroitly wriggled into its seat again in the ascendency [sic], from
which their sins have hurled them" (SDC p. 47).
The South produced nothing that benefited from protectionist tariffs,
while at the same time Northern industrialists lobbied for tariffs
to protect their domestic interests from foreign competition (WEW
p. 513). The divisive sectionalizing effect of tariffs became clear
after the passage of the Tariff Act of 1816. To the people of the
South, inexpensive imported finished goods were welcome, and they
resented the idea of paying higher prices in order to benefit New
England manufacturing interests. Tariffs were boosted even higher
in 1824 (WEW p. 364-65; BBM p. 3).
Not satisfied with the 1824 tariff rates, protectionist interests
sought a further increase in tariffs. With the presidential election
of 1828 approaching, political maneuvering by both protectionists
and free-traders went awry resulting in tariffs being raised to
unprecedented new heights under the Tariff Act of 1828. Under this
"Tariff of Abominations", as John C. Calhoun of South
Carolina called it, a roar of protests arose from the agrarian South
(WEW 365-68).
The famous Senate debate between Daniel Webster and Robert Y. Hayne
in January of 1830 epitomized the continuing Federalist vs. Antifederalist–or
nationalistic vs. States’ rights–battle of interpreting the
Constitutional authority of the Federal government. Hayne, speaking
first, emphasized the understanding that the citizens who gathered
to create a federal government were representing the interests of
the citizens of their respective States. In rebuttal, Webster minimized
the fact that these founding citizen’s first concern was to the
welfare of their own State and, instead, emphasized their coming
together en masse. By de-emphasizing the State as a political entity,
Webster attempted to minimize the relationship between a State and
its citizens and sought to build up the importance of the Federal
government over that of the States. While the issue was still not
resolved, the nationalists inched their way forward while the States’
rights advocates seemed to lose some influence, thus placing the
South even more on the defensive (WEW p. 389-92; JLMC p. 108).
With it being largely unprofitable, especially with the large influx
of immigrants, slavery had long been on the decline in the North
(JRK p. 79-80). This was commonly accomplished through gradual or
conditional emancipation. Abolitionists, however, insisted that
slavery be abolished immediately, even though it was still a more
integral and vital part of the Southern economy. In January of 1831
the famous Boston abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, urged immediate
emancipation of slaves with no compensation to the slave owners.
Failing this, he advocated secession of the Northern States from
the Union.
Labor union leaders sought his attention regarding the slavery-like
conditions of Massachusetts cotton mill workers who worked much
longer hours that did slaves, and whose meager pay kept them in
living conditions worse than those of slaves. Garrison, bitterly
opposed to labor unions, was not interested. In the first issue
of his newspaper the Liberator Garrison lashed out against union
organizers for trying to "inflame the minds of our working
classes against the more opulent and to persuade them that they
are contemned and oppressed by a wealthy aristocracy" (WEW
p. 414-15).
In November of 1832, South Carolina exercised the belief in States’
rights by passing an Ordinance of Nullification in response to the
new federal tariff law of 1832, itself a revision of the 1828 "Tariff
of Abominations." The federal tariff law of 1832 was declared
"null, void and no law, not binding upon this state, its officers
or citizens." It was further stated that should the Federal
government attempt to enforce the tariff act, the people of South
Carolina would be absolved from their political connection to the
United States. President Jackson threatened to send in troops to
force South Carolina to collect the new tariff. Jackson finally
proposed a compromise tariff, while South Carolina wasn’t able to
muster support from other Southern States. In an 1833 retrospective
statement to a friend, Jackson accused South Carolina of trying
to form a Southern Confederacy (WEW p. 393-94; MLD p. 19, 31).
In 1845, John Quincy Adams and other Northern Congressmen declared
that the controversial proposed annexation of Texas would be just
grounds for dissolution of the Union. The Legislature of Massachusetts,
along with other New England States, declared they were under no
obligation to recognize the annexation. The joint Standing Committee
on Federal Relations of the Massachusetts Legislature stated in
part:
"When Massachusetts is asked to violate the fundamental provisions
of that Constitution as well known as her own, she unhesitatingly
throws herself back on her rights as an independent State. She cannot
forget that she had an independent existence and a constitution
before the Union was formed" (JLMC p. 129).
Of the $107.5 million in import tariffs collected on goods entering
the United States during the 1830s and 1840s, $90 million or approximately
83% was collected from Southern ports of entry. In 1860, about 87%
of total tariff revenue was collected in Southern ports (CA p. 27).
On January 20, 1848, Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln affirmed
the spirit of the Declaration of Independence in a portion of a
speech before Congress.
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power,
have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government,
and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable,
a most sacred right – a right which we hope and believe is
to liberate the world. Nor is this a right confined to cases in
which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise
it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and
make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit"
Congressional Globe, Volume XIX, page 94 (GLD p. 67; SDC p. 87;
BBM p. 296).
In light of the famous 1850 Congressional oratories of Senators
John C. Calhoun, William H. Seward and others over the admission
of California into the Union and the slave status of the territories
of New Mexico and Utah, it became evident that the famous and unresolved
Federalist versus Antifederalist debate over the nature of American
federalism that began during the writing and ratification of the
United States Constitution was among the core issues of the South’s
War for Independence. By now, a North-South division within the
Congress of the United States had taken place, a division which
took place between Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats.
John C. Calhoun argued for Southern self-determination, and contended
that the Northern States were using the national government to aggressively
move against slavery and Southern commercial prosperity through
protectionist policies that favored Northern interests (MLD p. 9).
The resulting Compromise of 1850, while seeking to stave off a secessionist
movement by Southern States, actually agitated pro-slavery and anti-slavery
factions by having the effect of nullifying the Missouri Compromise
of 1820 and introducing the explosive Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
(WEW p. 455-59).
In 1852 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was
published. Writing from abolitionist stereotypes, Mrs. Stowe had
never been to the South and had no first-hand knowledge of slavery.
Nonetheless, her book filled the imaginations of Northerners with
evil white Southerners reveling in beating their thousand-dollar
slaves (WEW p. 466).
Seen as a threat to white laborers, blacks were widely disenfranchised
in Northern States, especially during the 1850s and 60s. It was
not until after the War that these so-called "black codes"
showed up in the South. Free blacks not only had restrictions placed
on opportunities to earn a living, but also upon opportunities for
education, for the privilege to vote, and even whether they could
legally reside in a given State (JRK p. 55-57, 77; CA p. 130; BBM
p. 170-72).
In 1851, the Indiana constitution was changed to state that "no
negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the state […]"
(JRK p. 55; BBM p. 171).
1853 Illinois law prevented "the immigration of free negroes
into this State." In 1862 the citizens of Illinois amended
their State constitution to say that "No Negro or mulatto shall
immigrate or settle in this state […]" (JRK p. 55, 77; CA
p. 130; BBM p. 171).
Oregon’s constitution, adopted on November 9, 1857, stated that
"[n]o free negroe or mulatto, not residing in this state at
the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside
or be within this state […]" (JRK p. 55; BBM p. 172).
New Jersey and Massachusetts had also placed similar restrictions
on blacks (JRK p. 55).
In a chain of events that began on March 11, 1854, with the rescue
by Sherman M. Booth of fugitive slave, Joshua Glover, from imprisonment
under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the State of Wisconsin declared
this Federal law and a similar one of 1793 to be unconstitutional.
In words reminiscent to those of 1798 Kentucky and Virginia over
the Alien and Sedition Acts, Wisconsin declared that the assumed
authority of the Federal Judiciary in this case and the Fugitive
Slave Act to be "void and of no force" within her boundaries.
Wisconsin was asserting its States’ rights–that is, state
sovereignty–one of which was nullification.
Booth was arrested and confined by a Federal Marshal. On May 27,
1854 Judge A. D. Smith of the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with
Mr. Booth’s contention that the Fugitive Act was unconstitutional.
The full Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed Judge Smith’s ruling on
July 19, 1854. The State court ordered Booth released (SDC p. 74-75).
During a message to the Wisconsin legislature in 1858 Republican
Governor Alexander W. Randal denounced the encroachment of the Federal
Government upon the reserved rights and sovereignty of the States,
as typified in the enforcement of the Federal Fugitive Slave Laws.
"The tendency of the action of the Federal Government has
been for many years, aided by the Federal Courts, to centralization,
and to an absorption of a large share of the sovereignty of the
States. It has trspassed [sic] upon the reserved rights of the States
and the people–assuming a jurisdiction over them in their
exercise of power undeligated. The Federal Government, so far as
there is any sovereignty under our form of Government, is sovereign
and independent in the exercise of its delegated powers, and the
States are sovereign and independent in the exercise of their reserved
powers. The safety of the States in the exercise of these powers,
in defense of the lives and properties and liberties of the people,
demands a fair, deliberate opposition and resistance to any attempt
at usurpation or aggression by the Federal Government, its Courts,
its officers, or agents upon the reserved rights of the States or
its people" (SDC p. 83; SEM p.601).
The United States Supreme Court reversed the Wisconsin Supreme
Court on March 7, 1859.
On March 19, 1859, the Republican controlled Wisconsin Legislature
passed a joint resolution in support of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
that stated in part,
"Whereas, The Supreme Court of the United States as assumed
appellate jurisdiction, in the matter of the application of Sherman
M. Booth, for a writ of habeas corpus […]
And Whereas, Such assumption of power and authority by the Supreme
Court of the United States to become the final arbiter of the liberty
of the citizen, and to override and nullify the judgments of the
State Courts […]
Resolved, the Senate concurring, That we regard the action of the
Supreme Court of the United States in assuming jurisdiction in the
case before mentioned, as arbitrary act of power unauthorized by
the Constitution and virtually superceding [sic] the benefit of
the writ of habeas corpus, and prostrating the rights and liberties
of the people, at the foot of unlimited power.
Resolved, That this usurpation of jurisdiction by the Federal Judiciary,
in the said case, and without process, is an act of undeligated
power, and therefore, without authority, void and of no force.
Resolved, That the Government framed by the Constitution of the
United States, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the
extent of the powers delegated to itself […]
Resolved,[…] that the General Government is the exclusive judge
of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short
of despotism, since the discretion of those who administer the Government,
and not the Constitution, would be the measure of their powers–that
the several states which formed that instrument, being sovereign
and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction,
and that a positive defiance of those sovereignties, of all unauthorized
acts, done, or attempted to be done, under color of that instrument,
is the rightful remedy" (SDC p. 84).
Taking advantage of the furvor over slavery in the territories,
the Republican Party was organized in 1854 at Jackson, Michigan
by gathering together the Whig remnant, Know-Nothings, Free-Soilers
and abolitionists. However, behind the scenes, party organizers
were more intent in controlling the national government, "obtain
federal subsidies for railroads and steamship lines, and have their
own way with the currency, the public lands and the tariff"
(WEW p. 466-67).
Speaking on October 16, 1854 in Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln acknowledged
the difficulty facing white society of the day in abolishing slavery.
He also voiced what he saw as the likely solution over time – gradual
emancipation and then sending blacks in the United States to Liberia,
Africa.
"When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible
for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When
it is said that the institution exists and that it is very difficult
to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate
the saying […] If all earthly power were given me, I should not
know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse
would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia–their
native land […] We cannot make them equals. It does seem to me
that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their
tardiness in this I will not undertake to judge our brethren of
the South" (BBM p. 184).
While some in the North decried slavery, Northern industrial demand,
Northern and European consumer demand, and Northern financiers kept
slavery viable in the South. The English received over 80% of exported
American cotton and employed about four hundred thousand workers
in their cotton mills (WEW p. 526).
Unlike most leading politicians of the day, some abolitionists
were unwilling to compromise on the issue of slavery, even to the
point of dissolving the Union. In 1856 abolitionist Garrison proclaimed,
"This Union is a lie! The American Union is an imposition–a
covenant with death, and an agreement with hell! […] I am for
its overthrow! […] Up with the flag of disunion, that we may have
a free and glorious Republic of our own; and when the hour shall
come, the hour will have arrived that shall witness the overthrow
of slavery" (SDC p. 56, 100).
Where the abolitionist speeches, sermons and editorials left off,
fanatical abolitionist, John Brown, picked up. He didn’t hesitate
to spill the blood of slave holders and others as necessary to do
his part in eradicating slavery.
On May 24, 1856, Brown led a raid on Pottawatomie, Kansas in which
five unarmed men were dragged from their beds at night and murdered
because of their pro-slavery views (WEW p. 476; SEM p. 601).
Brown sought to form a republic of fugitive slaves in the Appalachians
from which war would be waged against those States in which slavery
was still legal (WEW p. 501; SEM p. 601). On October 16, 1859, Brown
led his invasion into Virginia to seize the United States arsenal
at Harpers Ferry. As part of his plan, he would distribute the captured
arms to the many blacks whom Brown thought would eagerly join in
the uprising. To his bewilderment, no blacks came to his side. Even
the few slaves he came in contact with at a nearby plantation would
have nothing to do with him. Ironically, the first man killed in
the raid was a free black man who was shot while running away after
Brown’s men had ordered him to stop. Brown was captured by a detachment
of United States troops under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee
on October 17. He was tried for treason, murder, and conspiracy
with slaves to rebel and found guilty. He was hanged on December
2, 1859. Abolitionists now had a martyr, and Southern fears were
ignited. (WEW p. 501-02; SEM p. 602, 605).
The South held its breath as it awaited Northern opinion over John
Brown’s execution. While most Northern opinion was against Brown,
a few prominent voices began to raise him up as a saintly martyr.
Ralph Waldo Emerson fueled Southern fears as he wrote, "That
new saint, than whom nothing purer or more brave was ever led by
love of men into conflict and death […] will make the gallows
glorious like the cross" (SEM p. 602).
Some Northern newspapers also contributed to the mounting North-South
tension after Brown’s execution. The Fort Atchison, Wisconsin Standard
was typical of the outbreak of Northern abolitionist sympathy of
Brown.
"John Brown Dead–The first act in the tragedy has been
performed. The great State of Virginia has played the hangman’s
part, and is crowned with its bloody honors […] No mercy was expected
for the victim of southern vengeance. But the end is not yet […]
A wall of bayonets may guard the hideous bastile of cruelty and
wrong, but cannot obstruct the march of the free legions that will
spring forth from their slumber, and make the earth tremble beneath
their tread.
"Now may God help the right! and give us tongues of fire, and
hands that shall never weary, to wage an eternal crusade against
the diabolical sin of slavery.
"Peaceful be the sleep of the murdered Brown, and glorious
his awakening" (SDC p. 65).
In 1857, New Englanders held a convention at the industrial city
of Worcester, Massachusetts to determine whether they should secede
from the Southern States in direct response to the lowering of protectionist
trade tariffs pushed by Southern Democrats in Congress (WEW p. 514).
Northern bankers and manufacturing interests blamed the panic of
1857 and its lower prices on the Southern opposition to these tariffs.
Southern opposition votes also defeated attempts to obtain Federal
subsidies for improving transportation and communications that would
further benefit Northern industry and commerce (SEM p. 602-03).
During the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate on September 18, 1858,
in Charleston, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln emphatically stated his
view of the role blacks in American society.
"I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in
any way the social and political equality of the white and black
races; that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters
of the free negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office,
or having them marry with white people. I will say in addition that
there is a physical difference between the white and black races
which, I suppose, will forever forbid the two races living together
upon terms of social and political equality; and inasmuch as they
cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be
the position of the superiors and the inferiors; and that I, as
much as any other man, am in favor of the superior position assigned
to the white man" (WEW p. 500; JRK p. 27; MLR p. 113).
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, believing that slavery
was necessary and that the black man must be subject to the white
man, wrote in December of 1859, "I would not if I could abolish
or modify slavery" (WEW p. 519).
Judging from its May 18, 1860, convention in Chicago, the Republican
party was a Northern party. The convention platform advocated no
slavery in the territories of the United States, but stressed a
noninterference policy regarding slavery in the States where it
already existed. The platform also advocated a protectionist tariff
(WEW p. 505; SEM p. 602).
Lincoln’s election on November 6, 1860, was made possible by a
North-South split in the Democratic party, and was solely along
a sectional dividing line between the North and South. He received
little if any of the popular vote south of Virginia, and only 2000
votes in Virginia. He received only 40 percent of the popular vote
nationwide (WEW p. 506-10). His election was considered by many
to have been an accident, even among those who served in his own
administration (WEW p. 522).
On November 26, 1860, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune wrote,
"If the cotton states unitedly and earnestly wish to withdraw
peacefully from the Union, we think they should and would be allowed
to do so. Any attempt to compel them by force to remain, would be
contrary to the principles enunciated in the immortal Declaration
of Independence–contrary to the fundamental ideas on which
human liberty is based" (SDC p. 86).
While many Northern editorials were advocating a peaceful and calm
attitude should any Southern States decide to secede, others in
the North were thinking ahead to the possible negative consequences
to federal subsidies to the Northern industrial infrastructure,
to trade, and to commerce. After all, over 80% of federal tariff
revenue was generated in Southern ports and the Northern shipping
was highly dependent on both Southern and foreign trade. One such
expression of concern came from the December 10, 1860 Chicago Daily
Times.
"In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to
less than one-half what it now is. Our coastwide trade would pass
into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our
wharves. We should lose our trade with the South, with all of its
immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let
the South adopt the free-trade system, or that of a tariff for revenue,
and these results would likely follow"(CA p. 23, 27).
Horace Greeley, expressing the majority of Northern sentiment at
the time, stated in the December 17, 1860 New York Tribune,
"If it [the Declaration of Independence] justified the secession
from the British Empire of three millions of colonists in 1776,
we do not see why it would not justify the secession of five millions
of Southerners from the Federal Union in 1861" (GE p. 164,
SDC p. 87; BBM p. 297).
Republicans having won the congressional elections of 1858, Lincoln’s
election in 1860 "placed Northern interests in control of the
national government (MLD p. 34), their nationalism and the Southern
commitment to state sovereignty crystallized" (MLD p. 8). Feeling
that the economic, political, and sovereign interests of the States
of the South were in danger, a conference of South Carolina state
leaders in October of 1860 decided to secede from the Union if Lincoln
were elected President (WEW p. 511). To these States, the reserved
sovereign right of secession was the only peaceable escape from
a central government that had become the judge of its own authority
(MLD p. 52). On December 20, 1860, prior to Lincoln’s swearing in,
the state convention declared South Carolina to be out of the Union
(WEW p. 511).
Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina, on the day of his State’s
secession from the Union, cited Wisconsin State Supreme Court Judge
Smith in the Booth case as precedent for State action in response
to wrongs committed by the Federal Government.
"Sir, the North threaten to fight us back into the Union,
after we shall have taken our stand for Southern Independence. They
now deny the right of a State to judge of its own grievances and
to apply its own remedies, notwithstanding for years, many Northern
States, Wisconsin in particular, have asserted this right for themselves.
I want no better license for our action to-day than the decision
of Judge Smith in the Rescue cases of Wisconsin" (SDC p. 85).
Once the consequences of secession of the Southern States to Federal
revenue became clear, some Northern editorials were less gracious
toward the South. The December 21, 1860, issue of the Philadelphia
Press prophesied the nature of the actions that the North would
shortly take in preserving her economic interests.
"The government cannot well avoid collecting the federal revenues
at all Southern ports, even after the passage of secession ordinances;
and if this duty is discharged, any State which assumes a rebellious
attitude will still be obliged to contribute revenue to support
the Federal Government or have her commerce entirely destroyed"
(CA p. 24).
In December, 1860 the Chicago Tribune stated,
"Not a few of the republican journals of the interior are
working themselves up to the belief, which they are endeavoring
to impress upon their readers, that the seceded States, be they
few or many, will be whipped back in the Union […] but the drift
of opinion seems to be that, if peaceable secession is possible,
the retiring States will be assisted to go, that this needless and
bitter controversy may be brought to an end. If the Union is to
be dissolved, a bloodless separation is by all means to be coveted.
Do not let us make that impossible" (SDC p. 101).
In a speech before the Senate on December 25, 1860, Senator Stephan
A. Douglas voiced his political convictions regarding the motives
of the more radical Republicans:
"The fact can no longer be disguised that many of the Republican
Senators desire war and disunion, under the pretext of saving the
Union. They wish to get rid of the Southern States, in order to
have a majority in the Senate to confirm the appointments, and many
of them think they can hold a permanent Republican majority in the
Northern States, but not in the whole Union; for partisan reasons
they are anxious to dissolve the Union, if it can be done without
holding them responsible before the people" (SDC p. 53).
Along with their position within the Union, the Southern States
were turning their backs on what they perceived as the deterioration
of American constitutional federalism as originally set in place
by the Founding Fathers (MLD p. 1-5). Author Marshall L. DeRosa
summarizes the issue.
"But by 1861, the political divisions between North and South
regarding constitutional exegesis were so entrenched that the Constitution
ceased to be the instrument of a ‘more perfect union’ and rather
served as the vehicle for dissension and separation […] Northerners
insisted upon a model of federalism consisting of a national community
of individuals, with sovereignty being a national phenomenon–that
is, nationalism–whereas Southerners adhered to a model consisting
of a community of states, with the citizens in their respective
states functioning as the repositories of sovereignty and thereby
controlling the bulwarks of their social and economic interests–that
is, state sovereignty" (MLD p. 8-9).
The January 15, 1861, Philadelphia Press clarified that losing
the South as a source of Federal revenue, and not the secession
of the Southern States as such, was their real concern. The Southern
States could not be forced to collect revenue for Washington without
Northern military occupation of the forts located in Southern ports.
"It is the enforcement of the revenue laws, not the coercion
of the State that is the question of the hour. If those laws cannot
be enforced, the Union is clearly gone; if they can, it is safe"
(CA p. 24).
In a speech before the House of Representatives on January 15,
1861, John H. Reagan of Texas expressed the persistent frustration
of the South concerning the imbalance of the source of collected
Federal revenue. In doing so, he also highlighted those things which
were to be the primary purpose for which the North would go to war
to protect.
"You are not content with the vast millions of tribute we
pay you annually under the operation of our revenue laws, our navigation
laws, your fishing bounties, and by making your people our manufacturers,
our merchants, our shippers. You are not satisfied with the vast
tribute we pay you to build up your great cities, your railroads,
your canals. You are not satisfied with the millions of tribute
we have been paying you on account of the balance of exchange which
you hold against us. You are not satisfied that we of the South
are almost reduced to the condition of overseers of northern capitalists.
You are not satisfied with all this; but you must wage a relentless
crusade against our rights and institutions" (CA p. 80-81).
Secretary of State William Seward, during a Cabinet meeting in
the first month of the Lincoln administration, stated,
"The attempt to reinforce Sumter will provoke an attack and
involve war. The very preparation for such an expedition will precipitate
war at that point. I oppose beginning war at that point. I would
advise against the expedition to Charleston. I would at once, at
every cost, prepare for war at Pensacola and Texas. I would instruct
Major Anderson to retire from Sumter" (GE p. 160).
Governor Letcher of Virginia, while an advocate of the legal right
of a State to secede from the Union, spoke against the secession
movement precipitated by South Carolina (BBM p. 248-49). The Virginia
Assembly called for a convention in the City of Washington on February
4, 1861, of as many States "as are willing to unite with Virginia
in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversies"
(BBM p. 250).
The Virginia Assembly called for a State convention to debate the
course of action that the State should take in the current secession
crisis. At the same time, Virginia voters cast ballots in a general
election on February 4, 1861 to register their opinion. By a vote
of 100,536 to 45,161 the voters of Virginia declared their rejection
of secession, and that the findings of the State convention would
be subject to voter approval. The Convention opened on February
13, 1861. The main question that concerned the delegates was the
attitude that the new Federal administration would have toward the
seceded States. (BBM p. 256-59)
As recorded in the Congressional Globe on February 11, 1861, the
United States House of Representatives passed a resolution with
unanimous Republican support that stated in part:
"Resolved, that neither the Federal Government, nor the people,
or Governments of non-slave holding States, have a purpose or a
Constitutional right to legislate upon, or interfere with slavery
in any of the States of the Union" (SDC p. 150).
Commercial interests in the North were greatly disturbed over the
secession of the Southern States, fearing great financial harm to
Northern shipping from the lower import tariffs at Southern ports.
An editorial in the February 19, 1861, Manchester, New Hampshire
Union Democrat voiced the common concerns of Northern shipping interests.
"The Southern Confederacy will not employ our ships or buy
our goods. What is our shipping without it? Literally nothing. The
transportation of cotton and its fabrics employs more ships than
all other trade. It is very clear that the South gains by this process,
and we lose. No–we MUST NOT let the South go!" (JRK p.
52)
On February 23, 1861, Horace Greeley wrote in the New York Tribune:
"We have repeatedly said and we once more insist that the
great principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American
Independence that governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed is sound and just; and that if the Slave
States, the Cotton States, or the Gulf States only, choose to form
an independent nation they have a clear moral right to do so"
(BBM p. 297).
In an attempt to keep Southern States from leaving the Union, a
thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, very different from the
current one, was whittled out of the Crittenden Compromise by both
Republicans and Democrats, with Lincoln’s approval and even his
signature. It was approved by Congress on February 28, 1861, and
submitted to the States for ratification on March 2, 1861. It declared:
"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will
authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere,
within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including
that of persons held to labor orservice by the laws of said State."
The States of Maryland and Ohio ratified it before the War broke
out (WEW p. 520-21; SEM p. 609; CA p. 128).
On March 2, 1861, Congress passed the Morrill Tariff, and with
it the highest tariffs in American history. With this one act, Congress
further alienated the South, and aggravated Northern fears of foreign
goods abandoning Northern ports for lower tariffs in the South.
Now, with this high tariff on goods imported into the United States,
and the announced intentions of a low tariff in the Southern States
that had seceded, the secession of the Southern States took on a
new and threatening look to Northern industrial interests. By the
close of March, 1861, a growing panic over the future of Federal
revenues was echoed in newspaper editorials throughout most of the
North. The press had largely turned from "let the South go
in peace" to a call to war to preserve economic prosperity
(CA p. 23, 63-70, 81). The March 2, 1861, New York Evening Post
, in an editorial entitled What Shall Be Done for a Revenue, opined,
"That either the revenue from duties must be collected in
the ports of the rebel states, or the port must be closed to importations
from abroad, is generally admitted. If neither of these things be
done, our revenue laws are substantially repealed; the sources which
supply our treasury will be dried up; we shall have no money to
carry on the government; the nation will become bankrupt before
the next crop of corn is ripe. There will be nothing to furnish
means of subsistence to the army; nothing to keep our navy afloat;
nothing to pay the salaries of public officers; the present order
of things must come to a dead stop" (CA p. 24).
On March 4, 1861, Lincoln reiterated his support of the constitutional
protection afforded to slavery in his first inaugural address.
"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" (PMA p. 215; BBM p. 6).
He then went on to assure the Nation of his support of the Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850.
"There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written
in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:
"’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.’
"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended
by those who made it, for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive
slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law" (PMA
p. 215-16).
In his March 4, 1861, inaugural address, Lincoln placed the seceded
States on notice; that he was willing to resort to bloodshed to
nullify the secession of the Southern States, to repossess former
U.S. federal properties in the South, and to collect import tariffs
from Southern ports (BBM p. 264).
"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 to 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 doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence;
and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.
The power confided in me, will be used to hold, occupy, and possess
the property, and places belonging to the government, and to collect
the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these
objects, there will be no invasion […]" (PMA p. 218-19; SEM
p.610).
By the time of his inauguration, Lincoln had formulated his argument
against the legality of secession. Ignoring the roots of his own
country, his argument was that the Union predated the States, was
unbroken beginning with the Articles of Association in 1774 and,
therefore, secession was impossible (Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address;
PMA p. 117; FWS p. 135). Among the criticisms of Lincoln’s position
are:
That he overlooks the fact that the colonies had declared themselves
"Free and Independent States" in their Declaration of
Independence from England in 1776–a fact acknowledged by England
as well (GLD p. 71).
He ignores his own earlier affirmation of the precepts of human
liberty and the consent of the governed spelled out in the Declaration
of Independence (FWS p. 135, Congressional Globe, Volume XIX, page
94; GLD p. 67; SDC p. 87; BBM p. 296).
His view was contrary to the fact that the Union would come into
existence only after nine of the thirteen States ratified the Constitution.
Clearly, the States that did not immediately ratify the Constitution
did not blink out of existence once it was ratified by the requisite
nine States. Instead, they maintained their independent status under
their own duly instituted State constitutions until such time as
they too voluntarily ratified the new Constitution. The States were
offering to one another the opportunity to enter into a new voluntary
covenant, one that was to replace the previous relationship under
the Articles of Confederation (GLD p. 69-71).
That he overlooks the fact that some of the States had reserved
the right to recall the powers they had delegated to the federal
government prior to their entrance into the Union (FWS p. 135).
Finally, one may wonder at how the millions of citizens in the
States that seceded were denied their opportunity to peacefully
determine their own destiny. The duly elected governments of the
States had now become subservient to the will of the Federal Government,
effectively nullifying much of the original intent of the Constitution
and the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln had indicted the population
of the South for treason for doing nothing more than what the patriots
of 1776 had done. (FWS p. 136).
President Buchanan had declared that he could find no constitutional
authority for using force against any State that seceded. However,
contrary to the views he held as a Congressman in 1848, President
Lincoln declared, in effect, "I have taken an oath to uphold
the Constitution, which means, in my opinion, a union of the states.
I shall do anything in my power to sustain the Constitution and
the union, regardless of the constitutional aspect of what I do"
(WEW p. 525).
Rumor and speculation as to Lincoln’s intentions toward the South
led the March 6, 1861, edition of the New York Herald to write,
"We have no doubt Mr. Lincoln wants the Cabinet at Montgomery
to take the initiative by capturing the two forts in its waters,
for it would give him the opportunity of throwing upon the Southern
Confederacy the responsibility of commencing hostilities. But the
country and posterity will hold him just as responsible as if he
struck the first blow […]" (GLD p. 95).
On March 8, 1861, George W. Brent, a delegate to the Virginia State
Convention to debate the direction of the State, spoke words that
were representative of that body.
"Recognizing as I have always done, the right of a state to
secede, to judge of the violation of its rights and to appeal to
its own mode for redress, could not uphold the Federal Government
in any attempt to coerce the seceding states to bring them back
into the Union" (BBM p. 265-67).
Lincoln sought to influence the Virginia Convention to adjourn
without making a decision of secession, and without his assurance
that he would not attempt to coerce the seceded States back into
the Union (BBM p. 270).
In the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, its framers
sought to eliminate ambiguities that gave rise to the grievances
that led to the secession of the Southern States, at the core of
which was the centralization of government to the detriment of the
States. The issue of States’ rights as a major cause of the secession
of the Southern States becomes clear in the issue of the Confederate
States Supreme Court. Although Article III of the C.S. Constitution,
adopted on March 11, 1861, establishes the Supreme Court, federal
encroachment upon States’ rights fostered by rulings of the U.S.
Supreme Court were still fresh in the minds of the C.S. Congress.
Author Marshall L. DeRosa relates,
"In response to a bill introduced in the C.S.A. Senate to
organize the Supreme Court, William Yancey of Alabama remarked in
no uncertain terms that ‘when we decide that the state courts are
of inferior dignity to this Court, we have sapped the main pillars
of this Confederacy.’"
As a result of this mindset, the actual establishment of the C.S.
Supreme Court never took place (MLD p.75-77).
Consistent with the South’s persistent objection to protectionist
trade tariffs, the C.S. Constitution explicitly forbade them (WEW
p. 513; MLD p. 94; SF p. 42).
"The Congress shall have power–
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, for revenue
necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and
carry on the Government of the Confederate States; but no bounties
shall be granted from the Treasury; nor shall any duties or taxes
on importations from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster
any branch of industry; and all duties, imposts, and excises shall
be uniform throughout the Confederate States:" (emphasis added)(Article
1, Section 8, clause 1, Confederate States Constitution; MLD p.
139)
As slavery was legal under the United States Constitution, so it
was in the Confederate States. Under the C.S. Constitution, slavery
was explicitly recognized as an institution of the States, whereas
in the U.S. Constitution the issue of slavery in general was intentionally
vague. As in the United States, the federal government of the Confederate
States was prohibited from interfering with slavery within the States.
The States of the Confederacy, however, were not constitutionally
required to recognize or continue the practice of slavery within
their own borders. In fact, several proposals to require that each
State continue to recognize slavery were not adopted during the
Constitutional Convention. The consensus, as voiced by Senator Albert
G. Brown of Mississippi, was that "each State is sovereign
within its own limits; and that each for itself can abolish or establish
slavery for itself" (MLD p. 68-71).
The C.S. Constitution did not explicitly provide for the right
of secession because it was assumed to be an act of sovereignty
that the States had not delegated or otherwise abdicated. After
all, they had just exercised this ultimate remedy themselves. In
the preamble to the C.S. Constitution, using the words "each
State acting in its own sovereign and independent character,"
the framers implicitly allowed for secession by emphasizing the
understanding of each State’s sovereign nature (MLD p. 53; SF p.
42).
On March 12, 1861, three Confederate commissioners, who had come
to Washington seeking negotiations toward a peaceable separation
and offer payment for apportioned public debt and seized federal
property, addressed Secretary of State William Seward with an official
letter of intent. Having open the lower Mississippi River to the
free flow of commerce, the Confederate government expected reciprocal
gestures from Lincoln, including the evacuation of Fort Sumter (SF
p. 45). Seward, speaking only through Supreme Court Justice John
A. Campbell, assured the Confederate commissioners that the Union
troops in Fort Sumter in Charleston and Fort Pickens in Pensacola
would be evacuated in three days (WEW p. 522; SF p. 45-46).
In reply to Lincoln’s March 15, 1861, inquiry as to the advisability
of provisioning Fort Sumter, Secretary of State William Seward wrote,
"If it were possible to peaceably provision Fort Sumter, of
course, I should answer that it would be unwise and inhuman not
to attempt it. But the facts of the case are known to be that the
attempt must be made with the employment of military and marine
force which would provoke combat and probably initiate a civil war
which the Government of the United States would be committed to
maintain, through all changes, to some definite conclusion."
(CA p. 45; BBM p. 285)
On March 18, 1861, the Philadelphia Press demanded in part:
"Blockade Southern Ports. With no protective tariff, European
goods will under-price Northern goods in Southern markets. Cotton
for Northern mills will be charged an export tax. This will cripple
the clothing industries and make British mills prosper. Finally,
the great inland waterways, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the
Ohio Rivers will be subject to Southern tolls" (CA p. 65).
On March 22-23, 1861, the economics editor of the New York Times
reversed his position and now advocated, "At once shut down
every Southern port, destroy its commerce and bring utter ruin on
the Confederate States" (CA p. 65).
Concern over the alarming reduction in Government and commercial
revenue due to the loss Southern ports of entry highlight a powerful
motivating force in regaining the South. The New York Times made
the following points on March 30, 1861:
The predicament in which both the Government and the commerce of
the country are placed, through the non-enforcement of our revenue
laws, is now thoroughly understood […] If the manufacturer at
Manchester [England] can send his goods into the Western States
through New Orleans at less cost than through New York, he is a
fool for not availing himself of his advantage […] If the importations
of the country are made through Southern ports, its exports will
go through the same channel. The produce of the West, instead of
coming to our own ports by the millions of tons, to be transported
abroad by the same ships through which we received our importations,
will seek other routes and other outlets. With the loss of our foreign
trade, what is to become of our public works, conducted at the cost
of many hundred millions of dollars, to turn into our harbor the
products of the interior? They share in the common ruin. So do our
manufacturers […] Once at New Orleans, goods may be distributed
over the whole country duty free […] We were divided and confused
till our pockets were touched (JRK p. 51-52).
On April 1, 1861, Justice Campbell returned to find out from Seward
why Sumter had not been evacuated as he had told the Southern envoys
it would be. Seward now told the shocked Campbell, "I am satisfied
the government will not undertake to supply Fort Sumter without
giving notice to Governor Pickens [of South Carolina]." As
Campbell relayed this latest development, the Southern envoys saw
that the this likely spelled trouble. In their report back to the
Confederate government in Montgomery they said, "The war wing
presses on the President; he vibrates to that side… Their form
of notice to us may be that of a coward, who gives it when he strikes"
(SF 46-47).
The April 5, 1861, New York Tribune reported,
"Many rumors are in circulation to-day. They appear to have
originated from movements on the part of the United States troops,
the reasons for which have not been communicated to the reporters
at Washington as freely as the late Administration was in the habit
of imparting Cabinet secrets. There can be no doubt that serious
movements are on foot" (SDC p. 51).
On April 6, having ordered back in March an armed navel expedition
to be ready to sail if needed, Lincoln ordered the ships to sail
for Fort Sumter (SF p. 47; FWS p. 78).
On April 8, 1861, the United States Government informed the authorities
at Charleston, South Carolina by messenger that they desired to
send an unarmed supply ship to Fort Sumter, backed by force if needed.
United States military vessels were reported off Charleston by April
10. Ignoring attempts to negotiate, Lincoln had backed the Confederacy
into a corner. Feeling that Washington had not acted in good faith
over Sumter, and fearing that the nearby Federal fleet would also
enter the harbor, they signaled their intent to fire upon the supply
ship should it enter the harbor, but the United States sent the
ship anyway. In response to the presence of the ship, the Southern
military in Charleston prepared to attack the Fort, having anticipated
the use of force by the Federal fleet to send military reinforcements.
On April 12, after a demand for surrender made to commanding officer
Major Anderson was denied, Fort Sumter was fired upon. An article
in the April 15, 1861, New York Tribune reported that "[t]he
armed ships which accompanied the supplies took no part in the contest"
(SDC p. 51-52; FWS p. 78; SF p. 47).
Not one man was killed on either side during the Southern bombardment
of Fort Sumter. After surrendering, Major Anderson dined as a guest
with Confederate commander General Beauregard (WEW p. 524).
While the attention of the South was on Fort Sumter, the Federal
fleet succeeded in reinforcing Fort Pickens in Pensacola with men
and supplies. It became clear that the entire episode at Charleston
had been a diversion from the Federal intent to reinforce Fort Pickens.
This plan had the additional benefit of provoking the South into
firing the first shot and a inciting war fervor in the North, thus
providing Lincoln with the political and popular cover he needed
in order to use force against the South (SDC p. 50-51; WEW p. 524).
The April 15 New York Post reported,
"Gen. Scott has been averse to the attempt to reinforce Fort
Sumter. He saw that it would cost men and vessels which the Government
could not spare just now […] He saw that the two keys of the position
were Fort Pickens, in the Gulf, and Washington, the Capital. His
plans, based on these facts, were at once laid […] Every hour
the traitors spent before Sumter gave them more surely into the
hands of the master. To make assurance doubly sure, he pretended
to leave Fort Pickens in the lurch […] The Government said not
a word–only asked of the traitors the opportunity to send
its own garrison a needed supply of food. They refused, fearing
the arrival of the Federal fleet […] Scarce had they begun [their
attack], when they saw with evident terror, ships hovering about
the harbor’s mouth; […] but no ships came in to Anderson’s help
[…] The position of affairs is this–Charleston is blockaded–Fort
Pickens is reinforced by troops, which the traitors foolishly believed
were destined for Sumter […] The traitors have, without the slightest
cause, opened the war […]" (SDC p. 52-53).
Lincoln biographer, J. G. Holland, explained in his 1865 work,
Life of Lincoln, why Lincoln did not call for armed force to suppress
the secession of Southern States before the fall of Fort Sumter.
"Up to the fall of Sumter, Mr. Lincoln had no basis for action
in the public feeling. If he had raised an army, that would have
been an act of hostility, that would have been coercion. A thousand
Northern presses would have pounced down on him as a provoker of
war. After the fall of Sumter was the time to act" (GE p. 167).
On April 13, 1861, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to be raised
from State militias to march on those States which had seceded.
Up until this time, the citizens of the border States had voted
to remain in the Union. Practically overnight, Lincoln triggered
a change of sentiments in the border States. In response to the
Secretary of War regarding Virginia’s quota of troops, Governor
Letcher replied,
"I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not
be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose
as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States
and the requisition made upon me for such a object–an object
in my judgment not within the purview of the constitution or the
act of 1795, will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate
civil war; having done so we will meet you in a spirit as determined
as the Administration has exhibited toward the South."
In response to this action of the President, the Virginia Convention
adopted an ordinance of secession on April 17, 1861, and sent it
to the people of Virginia for ratification by a special vote set
for April 23. (BBM p. 279-82; SF p. 51-52). The secession of Virginia
was closely followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina
(WEW p. 512; CA p. 29, 38; FWS p. 82-83; SEM p. 611-12).
While largely Southern in sentiment, Kentucky and Missouri were
divided, but did not secede. But Governor Magoffin responded to
Lincoln’s call to arms, "Kentucky will furnish no troops for
the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern states."
Likewise, Governor Jackson of Missouri replied, "Your requisition
is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical,
and cannot be complied with" (CA p. 38; SF p. 53). In both
states, however, secession conventions were held and each sent representatives
to the Confederate Congress. (This accounts for the twelfth and
thirteenth stars on the well-known Confederate battle flag.)
By defining the secession of the Southern States from the Union
as a "rebellion," Lincoln was able to justify mustering
an army to quell the "insurrection" under the Act of Congress
of 1795 which limited the use of the specially called militia to
thirty days after the beginning of the next session of Congress.
Lincoln delayed calling Congress into special session for at least
two and a half months, thus prolonging his use of the militia against
the South before he had to obtain congressional approval for his
actions. By this time, Lincoln had set the machine of war into motion,
and Congress was left to do little other than to appropriate funding
for Lincoln’s plans (GLD p. 109-11; WEW p. 525; CA p. 41, 44, 121-22).
This effectively preempted what Lincoln referred to in his inaugural
address as the ability of the American people to "withhold
the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner" prevent
his using force against the seceded States.
The great majority of Confederate soldiers owned no slaves. The
1860 United States census revealed that about 25% of white Southern
families, or about 6% of the total white Southern population held
slaves (WEW p. 529; JRK p. 83, 86).
The loyalty of free black Southerners and even slaves toward the
Southern cause was counted on in some parts of the South. Along
with their white counterparts, there were free blacks who were anxious
to prove their bravery and patriotism against the invading Yankees
(ELJ p. 219). Even though the use of black volunteers in the Confederate
Army did not officially take place until the closing three months
of the War (ELJ p. 246), black volunteers were often employed in
state militias and local home guard units throughout the War (ELJ
p. 219; CKB p. 8-10). These black Confederates were often awarded
state pensions after the war based on their service to the Confederacy.
Historian Ervin L. Jordan documents that in 1928 the State of Virginia
awarded pensions to "black males who served on military details
or performed guard duty on behalf of the Confederacy" (ELJ
p. 226).
In June of 1861, Tennessee became the first State in the Confederacy
to authorize the use of free black soldiers. Black soldiers between
the ages of fifteen and fifty were paid $18 per month and received
the same rations and clothing as white soldiers. By September of
1861 two regiments of black soldiers were in Memphis (ELJ p. 218-19).
On July 4, 1861, before a special session of what was left of the
Congress, Lincoln rationalized his actions against the South as
he said, "These measures, whether strictly legal or not, were
ventured upon under what appeared to be a popular demand and public
necessity, trusting then as now that Congress would readily ratify
them" (GLD p, 111).
The legislature of Maryland was to convene on September 17, 1861.
Beginning on the night of September 12, under orders of Secretary
of War Simon Cameron, Major General Banks arrested all members of
the legislature who were suspected of having Southern sympathies.
These and other influential citizens were seized and imprisoned
in Fort McHenry (CA p. 41). There were no charges against them of
having committed overt acts of disloyalty or treason. They "appealed
to Chief Justice [Roger Brooke] Taney who decided that they were
held illegally, but they were not released. In this action of President
Lincoln’s a most dangerous precedent was created. Through the acquiescence
of Congress, then in session, the president had become a dictator"
(WEW p. 525-26).
In November of 1861, elections were held in Maryland. Occupying
soldiers of the Union Army voted in these elections, even though
they were not citizens of Maryland. Soldiers were also stationed
at the polls with bayonets affixed to their rifles. It was a foregone
conclusion that only Union sympathizers would be elected. "The
elections were a fraud, and finally the democratic system of government
in Maryland breathed its last breath" (CA p. 41).
In 1861, John Hughes, Archbishop of New York, warned the U.S. War
Department that his flock was "willing to fight to the death
for the support of the constitution, the government, and the laws
of the country, [but not] for the abolition of slavery" (SEM
p. 666).
English author Charles Dickens, an avid student of the forces behind
America’s War of 1861, and an opponent of slavery, made the following
observation in an article entitled "American Disunion"
in the December 21, 1861, issue of his London periodical, All the
Year Round:
"The struggle between North and South has been of long duration.
The South having the lead in the federation had fought some hard
political battles to retain it… But in the last presidential election,
which was a trial of strength between South and North, the South
considering itself subject to the North within the federation, carried
out its frequent threat and desire of secession" (CA p. 88).
Dickens biographer, Peter Ackroyd, reiterated Dickens’ view on
the popular opinion regarding slavery and the war:
"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece
of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control
of the Southern states" (CA p. 89).
In his December 28, 1861, follow-up article, "The Morrill
Tariff", in his periodical All the Year Round, Dickens summarized
his observations of the harmful effects of protectionist tariffs
on the Southern economy being at the root of the North-South conflict:
"If it be not slavery, where lies the partition of the interests
that has led at last to actual separation of the Southern from the
Northern States? […] Every year, for some years back, this or
that Southern state had declared that it would submit to this extortion
only while it had not the strength for resistance. With the election
of Lincoln and an exclusive Northern party taking over the federal
government, the time for withdrawal had arrived […] The conflict
is between semi-independent communities [in which] every feeling
and interest [in the South] calls for political partition, and every
pocket interest [in the North] calls for union […] [T]he quarrel
between the North and South is, as it stands, solely a fiscal quarrel"
(CA p. 90-91).
Union soldiers from New York on patrol out of Newport News, Virginia
on December 22, 1861, were attacked by local Confederate forces
near Newport Bridge. The attacking Confederate force was made up
of cavalry and 700 armed blacks. Local Confederate fighting units
were often formed during times of Union raids, and then were disbanded
until needed again (ELJ p. 222).
Anthony Trollope, a British citizen traveling throughout the North
and South early in the War observed, "The South is seceding
from the North because the two are not homogeneous. They have different
instincts, different appetites, different morals, and a different
culture" (JRK p. 23).
In a message to Congress on March 6, 1862, Lincoln proposed compensation
to the owners of slaves in any state–including those in the
South–that would emancipate its slaves. This would have been
consistent with how many of the slaves were freed in Northern States.
Both Lincoln’s Cabinet and Congress rejected the proposal (WEW p.
543). However, Congress did pass an act abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia. Lincoln signed the act on April 16, 1862.
Owners were compensated up to $300 apiece for their liberated slaves
(WEW p. 544; SDC p. 175).
To the surprise of many Yankee soldiers, many Southern blacks were
not slaves. Knowing of the South only through stereotypes and often
thinking that all Southern blacks were slaves, Yankee soldiers sometimes
accused free blacks of hiding their masters, especially if the person’s
home were nicely furnished. During such encounters, the Yankees
would often steal the free black person’s food and belongings, and
even destroy their homes (JRK p. 133-34).
The loyalty of Southern blacks in the presence of Yankee soldiers
was varied. Some slaves went over to the Union troops, while others
remained loyal to their white families (JRK p. 133-34). Rarely,
though, did Southern blacks give Yankee soldiers their complete
trust (ELJ p. 143).
Union soldiers reporting on the June, 1862 battle of Seven Pines
claimed that two black Confederate regiments proved themselves ruthless
opponents, showing no mercy to either dead or wounded Yankee soldiers
(ELJ p. 223).
The wife of Union general Ulysses S. Grant, a slave owner herself,
kept her slaves until the close of the War (WEW p. 518, 543).
In a letter dated August 22, 1862, to New York Tribune editor Horace
Greeley, Lincoln said,
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,
and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the
Union without freeing any slave 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" (GE p. 218; SCV p. 5-6).
On August 25, 1862, Lincoln wrote a letter to Horace Greeley of
the New York Tribune in which he again stated,
"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" (WEW p. 508).
During the battle of Antietam in September of 1862 fully armed
black Confederate soldiers were observed as an integral part of
Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia (ELJ p. 223).
On September 24, 1862, Lincoln, having especially suffered the
criticism of the Northern Democrats or "Copperheads" since
he commenced hostilities against the South, suspended the writ of
habeas corpus (the right to a speedy and public trial), a right
guaranteed in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution. A Copperhead
was a Northern Democrat who was critical of Lincoln’s war policies
and his war against the South.
An estimated 20,000 to 38,000 political prisoners were incarcerated
by Lincoln’s Provost Marshals, some of whom were sentenced before
military tribunals, while others received no trial at all, never
having known the charges against them (WEW p. 525; GLD p. 115-16;
GE p. 7; CA p. 57).
Through the power of the military, Lincoln had newspapers shut
down for coming out in direct opposition to his war time policies,
or even if they merely raised questions. Ultimately over three hundred
newspapers were closed. After enough public outrage, Lincoln simply
had unfavorable newspaper editors imprisoned, leaving their positions
to be filled by those who would support his policies (CA p.45-46,
58).
In December of 1862, Lincoln sought to alleviate the fears that
emancipated slaves would come into the North and compete for the
labor of white workers by assuring Congress that each State can
"decide for itself whether to receive them" (JRK p. 55;
BBM p. 173).
With the war losing its popularity in the North in 1862, the people
of the North were not so willing to send their husbands and sons
to die in "Mr. Lincoln’s war" to restore the Union, let
alone for the emancipation of slaves (WEW p. 544).
It was not until well into the War that Lincoln began to link abolition
of slavery with the War itself. He began to use the issue of slavery
as a political tool to give the War a moral cause to help bolster
Northern support, distance England and France from the South, solidify
his support with the growing abolitionist movement, and possibly
foster a slave revolt in the South. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
of January 1, 1863, issued under his war powers, declared only slaves
in those States that seceded to be free. Those still enslaved in
Northern or otherwise Union States (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland,
Missouri) were not freed by Lincoln’s proclamation since he knew
he could not legally deprive United States citizens of their "property."
Exemptions from Lincoln’s proclamation included "the parishes
of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Johns, St. Charles,
St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary,
St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans […]
the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the
counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York,
Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,"
much of Tennessee, the South Carolina coast, and any other areas
of the Southern States under Union control. Not one slave was actually
freed through Lincoln’s proclamation (WEW p. 545; SEM p. 654; ELJ
p. 255; PMA p. 264-66).
Therefore, contrary to popular belief, Lincoln did not "free
the slaves." Emancipation of the slaves throughout the North
and South was due to the ratification of the current Thirteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by both the Northern and Southern
States. Only in this way could an acknowledged internal matter of
the States be constitutionally dealt with at the federal level–that
is, with the States delegating authority that had been previously
reserved by them. Constitutionally, this was not a matter for Lincoln
and the Executive branch of the federal government.
During Congressional debate on January 8, 1863, Thadeous Stevens
of Pennsylvania declared on the floor of Congress that the States
of the Confederacy were a "belligerent nation" and no
longer in the Union. As such, they were no longer entitled to the
protections of the U. S. Constitution. Therefore, the taxes he proposed
as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee were to be levied upon
"conquered provinces, just as all nations levy them upon provinces
and nations they conquer." He went on to say that he would
"as a necessary war measure, take every particle of property,
real and personal, life-estate and reversion, of every disloyal
man, and sell it for the benefit of the nation in carrying on this
war." Stevens further stated that "this war must be carried
on upon principle wholly independent of it [the Constitution]"
and that the United States "must treat those States now outside
of the Union as conquered provinces and settle them with new men,
and drive the present rebels as exiles from this country […] They
have such determination, energy, and endurance, that nothing but
actual extermination or exile or starvation will ever induce them
to surrender to this Government" (GLD p. 151; The Congressional
Globe, January 8, 1863, p. 239-40, 243).
The Conscription Act of March 3, 1863, forced Northern men into
service through a military draft. The draft was biased against the
poor in that a man could pay $300 to commute his service for a particular
draft. A man could also find a permanent substitute to serve in
his place through a three year enlistment. Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation and the bringing in of black workers to break a dock
workers’ strike brought Irish immigrants in New York City to the
boiling point. The first drawing of names for the draft in the working-class
quarters on July 13, 1863, sparked four days of riots in New York
City. Blacks, having been blamed for the loss of jobs and the reason
for the existence of the draft, were indiscriminately killed or
beaten (SEM p. 666).
Northern States and cities were often officially and harshly rebuked
by the Lincoln administration for not making their quota of recruits.
Within the Confederacy, the Conscription Act of 1862 was enacted
under the watchful eyes of the States. Within the Confederacy, federal
legislation had to pass the muster of the high courts of the States.
This oversight was exercised by these State high court judges who
reserved the right to intercede on behalf of their citizens concerning
actions of the federal government. Judge Moore of Texas, aware that
conscription could be a tool of oppression in the hands of the federal
government, concluded that "a necessity exists today, and the
law is therefore constitutional, if tomorrow that necessity should
cease, its continuance would be as clearly unconstitutional"
(MLD p. 114-15). In practice, the Confederate States federal government
recognized the preeminence of the sovereignty of a State in disputes
where State and federal jurisdiction are in contest (MLD p.76).
On May 16, 1863, a convention of Democrats gathered in Albany,
New York to protest the military arrest of Clement Laird Vallandigham,
Ohio Democrat Congressman and candidate for governor of Ohio, along
with many other such military arrests of civilians, and the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus. According to findings of the military
trial, he was found guilty of accusing Lincoln "and his minions"
of rejecting a chance at peace with the South "the day before
the battle of Fredericksburg" because "the men in power
are attempting to establish a despotism in this country, more cruel
and more oppressive than ever existed before." As reported
in The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events
of the Year 1863, Lincoln answered the criticism of the Democrats
by letter on June 12, 1863. It reads in Part:
"Ours is a case of rebellion […] and the provision of the
Constitution that ‘the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall
not be suspended unless when in case of rebellion or invasion the
public safety may require it,’ is the provision which specially
applies to our present case. This provision plainly attests the
understanding of those who made the Constitution that ordinary courts
of justice are inadequate to ‘cases of rebellion’–attests
their purpose that, in such cases, men may be held in custody whom
the courts, acting on ordinary rules, would discharge […] and
its suspension is allowed by the Constitution on purpose that men
may be arrested and held who cannot be proved to be guilty of defined
crime […] arrests are made, not so much for what has been done,
as for what probably would be done […] The man who stands by and
says nothing when the peril of his Government is discussed cannot
be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is sure to help the enemy;
much more if he talks ambiguously–talks for his country with
‘but,’ and ‘ifs,’ and ‘ands’" (GLD p. 119; GE p. 209-13; SDC
p. 201-03).
In answer to Lincoln’s letter of reply, the Democrats harshly criticized
his usurpation of power in a letter dated June 30, 1863. It reads
in part:
"You seem aware that the constitution of the United States,
which you have sworn to protect and defend, contains the following
guarantees, to which we again ask your attention [recitation of
the first four Amendments to the Constitution] […] You are also,
no doubt, aware that, on the adoption of the constitution, these
invaluable provisions were proposed by the jealous caution of the
states, and were inserted as amendments for a perpetual assurance
of liberty against the encroachments of power […] The fact has
already passed into history that the sacred rights and immunities
[…] have not been preserved to the people during your administration.
In violation of the first of them, the freedom of the press has
been denied. In repeated instances newspapers have been suppressed
in the loyal states, because they criticized, as constitutionally
they might, those fatal errors of policy which have characterized
the conduct of public affairs since your advent to power. In violation
of the second of them, hundreds, and we believe thousands, of men
have been seized and immured in prisons and bastiles, not only without
warrant upon probable cause, but without any warrant, and for no
other cause that a constitutional exercise of freedom of speech
[…] For all these acts you avow yourself ultimately responsible
[…] These repeated and continued invasions of constitutional liberty
and private right have occasioned profound anxiety in the public
mind. The apprehension and alarm which they are calculated to produce
have been greatly enhanced by your attempt to justify them, because
in that attempt you assume to yourself a rightful authority possessed
by no constitutional monarch on earth […] [B]elieving as we do,
that your forbearance is not the tenure by which liberty is enjoyed
in this country, we propose to challenge the grounds on which your
claim of supreme power is based. While yielding to you as a constitutional
magistrate […] we cannot accord to you the despotic power you
claim […] [Y]our meaning is, that, while the rights of the citizens
are protected by this constitution in time of peace, they are suspended
or lost in time of war, when invasion or rebellion exists […]
You claim to have found […] within the constitution, a principle
or germ of arbitrary power, which, in time of war, expands at once
into an absolute sovereignty, wielded by one man; so that liberty
perishes, or is dependent on his will, his discretion, or his caprice
[…] An act of Congress approved by you on the 3d of March, 1863,
authorized the President to suspend it [the writ of habeas corpus]
during the present rebellion. That the suspension is a legislative,
and not an executive act, has been held in every judicial decision
ever made in this country, and we think it cannot be delegated to
any other branch of the government" (SDC p. 204-06).
It was clear that total subjugation of the South and her independent
spirit was the goal of the Union Army. Major General William T.
Sherman, while in Vicksburg on January 31, 1864, wrote the following
to a subordinate.
"The Government of the United States has […] any and all
rights which they choose to enforce in war to take their lives,
their homes, their lands, their everything […] war is simply power
unrestrained by constitution […] To the persistent secessionist,
why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the
better […]" (JRK p. 288).
In a letter to Major General Halleck on July 14, 1864, General
Grant stated his intention to strip Virginia clean:
"If the enemy has left Maryland, as I suppose he has, he should
have upon his heels veterans, militiamen, men on horseback, and
everything that can be got to follow to eat out Virginia clear and
clean as they go, so that the crows flying over it will have to
carry their provender with them" (MLR p. 76).
In a letter dated December 18, 1864, Chief of Staff, Major General
W.H. Halleck, instructed General W.T. Sherman to utterly spoil the
city of Charleston:
"Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some accident
the place may by destroyed; and if a little salt should be sown
upon the site, it may prevent the growth of future crops of nullification
and secession" (MLR p. 76).
In his reply to General Halleck, General Sherman wrote on December
24, 1864:
"I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and I do
not think ‘salt’ will be necessary. When I move, the Fifteenth Corps
will be on the right of the right wing, and their position will
bring them into Charleston first; and if you have watched the history
of this corps, you will have remarked that it generally does its
work pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning with an
insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost
tremble at her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems to
be in store for her. We must make old and young, rich and poor,
feel the hard hand of war as well as their organized armies"
(MLR p. 77).
In May, 1865, Confederate POWs held at Point Lookout, Maryland
were being released if they took oaths of allegiance to the United
States. A lone black Confederate soldier refused the oath, remaining
"unreconstructed and unreconstructable." Historian Ervin
L. Jordan laments the denial of the existence and role of black
Confederates, and their being consigned to the obscurity shared
by those blacks who served in the Revolutionary War and the War
of 1812 (ELJ p. 251).
——————————————————————————–
Sources:
BBM Virginia’s Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession,
Second Edition by Beverley B. Munford, 1910. Reprinted by Crown
Rights Publishing, Dahlonega, Georgia, 2001. (A look at the many
contributing factors in the secession of the Southern States and
of the War that followed.)
CA When in the Course of Human Events by Charles
Adams, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, Ma., 2000.
(A look at the case for Southern secession and the execution of
the war by the North.)
CKB Black ConfederatesCompiled and Edited by Charles
Kelly Barrow, J. H. Segars, and R. B. Rosenburg, Pelican Publishing
Co., 2001, Originally published as Forgotten Confederates 1995.
(A fascinating compilation of first-hand accounts, newspaper articles,
photographs, and letters documenting service to the Confederacy
by blacks in military and non-military capacities.)
ELJ Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil
War Virginia by Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., The University Press of Virginia,
1995. (A fascinating work documenting the lives of and roles of
blacks in "Civil War" Virginia.)
FWS War for What? by Francis W. Springer, Nippert
Publishing, Springfield, TN, Second Printing 1997. (A history of
slavery in North America.)
GE Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War on the
South 1861-1865 by George Edmonds, Science Hall Lamb, 1904. Reprinted
by Crown Rights Publishing, Wiggins, Miss., 2000. (A compelling
view of the politics of the War for Southern Independence.)
GKW New Jersey Slavery and the Law, Gary K. Wolinetz,
Rutgers Law Review, 50 (Summer 1998): 2227 ff
GLD America’s Caesar – Abraham Lincoln and the
Birth of a Modern Empire by Greg Loren Durand, Second Edition, 2000.
(A very revealing inquiry into Lincoln’s role in radically altering
the original relationship and roles of the Federal government versus
that of the States during the War for Southern Independence.)
JLMC The Southern States of the American Union
by J.L.M. Curry, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1895. Reprinted
by Crown Rights Publishing, Wiggins, Miss., 1999. (Traces the origins
of the spirit of liberty expressed in the Declaration of Independence,
and in the South’s secession from the Northern States of the American
Union.)
JRK The South Was Right! by James Ronald Kennedy
and Walter Donald Kennedy, 1998. (A fascinating and well footnoted
look into little known facts critical in understanding the War for
Southern Independence.)
MLD The Confederate Constitution of 1861 by Marshall
L. DeRosa, University of Missouri Press, 1991. (A good look at the
intentions of the C.S.A by looking at their own Constitution and
the few, but significant differences between it and its U.S. counterpart.)
MLR Truths of History by Mildred Lewis Rutherford,
Athens, Georgia, 1920. Reprinted by Southern Lion Books, Inc., Atlanta,
Ga., 1998. (One Southerner’s blunt perspective of the War in historical
and cultural context.)
PBK The Founder’s Constitution, edited by Philip
B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, the University of Chicago Press, 1986.
(A collection of documents from the early 1600s to 1830 that shed
light on the philosophies behind our American form of government.)
PMA By These Words by Paul M. Angle, Rand McNally
& Co., 1954. (Text of selected documents of American history.)
SCV The Gray Book Published by Gray Book Committee
S.C.V., The Sons of Confederate Veterans. Reprinted by Crown Rights
Publishing, Wiggins, Miss., 2000. (A defense in response to "attacks
upon the history, people and institutions of this Southern section
of our united country.")
SDC The Logic of History by Stephen D. Carpenter,
S. D. Carpenter, Publisher, Madison, Wis., 1864. Reprinted by Crown
Rights Publishing, Wiggins, Miss., 2000. (A collection of news accounts
and analysis pertaining to the War.)
SEM The Oxford History of the American People by
Samual Eliot Morison, Oxford University Press, New York, 1965. (A
useful reference, but with a strong central government and "pro-union"
bias. Also somewhat colored by the social atmosphere of the 1960s.)
SF The Civil War, A Narrative – Fort Sumter to
Perryville by Shelby Foote, Vintage Books, New York, 1986 (A standard
of the history of the War.)
WEW A New American History by W. E. Woodward, Farrar
& Rinehart, Inc., On Murry Hill, New York, 1936. (Excellent.
Balanced, with more attention to detail than many works and quite
interesting to read.)
Originally Published at: http://www.civil-war.net/docs/lesser_known_historical_excerpts.htm