Unit 5_OCR.txt

UNIT 5 — Period 5: 1844-1877

Topic 5.1

Contextualizing Period 5

Learning Objective: Explain the context in which sectional conflict
emerged from 1844 to 1877.

Btween 1844 and 1877, the United States expanded its teritory to the
Pacific Ocean and suffered from rising sectionalism over the issue of expanding
slavery into this new territory. In 1861, tensions exploded into the Civil War
that permanently expanded the power of the federal government. After four
years of fighting and the death of 750,000 people, the country emerged with a
“new birth of freedom” as a result of the end of slavery. But racism remained.

‘The first half of the 19th century included many advances in the young
nation. Political, demographic, economic, and territorial development changed
the country. The right to vote expanded political participation. New technology
and transportation combined to support a market revolution that altered the
relationships between peoples in the different regions. Reforms in education
and other areas improved lfe. New expressions in art and literature signified
an emergent American culture. Yet these advancements were not shared by all,
and challenges, particularly over foreign affars and slavery, remained.

Growth in Land and Population Between 1844 and 1877, the United
States expanded westward, with many citizens believing it had a destiny to
control all the land to the Pacific Ocean. The country added land through
negotiations, purchase, and war. The largest acquisition came from the Mexican
War, through which the United States established its southern border and
claimed ports on the Pacific.

“This rapid expansion attracted new immigrants, who left Europe because
of famine, poverty, and political turmoil. In response to immigration,
particularly of people from Ireland and China, some native-born Americans
argued against citizenship for new residents. This resulted in the forming of
political organizations o restrict immigration and citizenship.

Political Conflicts over Slavery Expansion and sectionalism also
intensified differences over politics, economics, and, most seriously, slavery.
Slaveowners became more insistent on their right to own enslaved people and
argued for strong federal laws to return enslaved people who escaped bondage.
Abolitionists became more insistent on ending slavery. Free-Soilers argued
that the institution should not be allowed into the territories. Opponents of

260 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
slavery organized an “underground railroad” to help fugitives escape from
slavery. Congress passed a serics of compromises aftempting to settle the issue
of whether slavery could expand into new territorics.

The Civil War and Reconstruction Then, in 1860, the Republicans
nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. Though opposed toslavery, he also
opposed immediate abolition. Stil,his election frightened slaveholders. They
feared that, despite his pledge to allow slavery to continue where it existed, his
opposition to the expansion of slavery would lead to its eventual end. Eleven
states left the Union, and a four-year civil war ravaged the country.

‘The Union victory ended slavery and shifted power to the federal
government from the states. The 12 years aer the war, known as Reconstruction,
were marked by conflict. It was a period of fierce confrontations between
the executive and legislative branches and between the federal and state
governments. These confrontations reshaped how people thought about
federalism and the separation of powers among the branches of government.

Racism and Discrimination Further, the country suffered from
tremendous racial conflict. As the freed African Americans worked to
established new lives, White-dominated legislatures passed Black Codes that
restricted the basic rights of Black citizens. In place of slavery, a new labor
system known as sharecropping emerged that kept Black farmers in conditions
almost as subservient to White landowners as slavery had. Finally, White
Americans attempting to maintain racial supremacy killed thousands of Black
citizens.

‘While the Civil War preserved the Union, historians vigorously debate the
successes and failures of Reconstruction. In the future, the nation that survived
acivil war would continue to grow; expand, and industrialize. Further, it would
continue to struggle over achieving equal treatment for all of its people.

ANALYZE THE CONTEXT

1. Explain the historical context for the debate over slavery in the 1850s.
2. Explain the historical context for the varied results of Reconstruction.

LANDMARK EVENTS: 1844-1877

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TOPIC 51 CONTEXTUALIZING PERIODS 261
Topic 5.2

The Idea of Manifest Destiny

Away, away with all these cobweb issues of the rights of discovery,
exploration, settlement, contiguity [nearness}, etc.... [The American]
claim s by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess
the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the
development of the great experiment of liberty.

John L. O'Sulivan, The True Tl New York Morning News, 1645

Learning Objective: Explain the causes and effects of westward
expansion from 1844 to 1877.

Whie European settlers began assuming a right to territorial conquest
during the colonial era, writers such as John O'Sullivan promoted that idea
across the land in the 1840s and 1850s. Expansionists wanted the United States
to extend westward to the Pacific and southward into Mexico, Cuba, and
Central America. By the 1890s, expansionists fixed their sights on acquiring
islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

‘The phrase Manifest Destiny expressed the popular belief that the United
States had a divine mission to extend its power and civilization across the
breadth of North America. (For a map showing the territorial expansion of
the United States, see the multiple-choice questions in Topic 5.3.) Enthusiasm
for expansion reached a fever pitch in the 18405, It was driven by a number
of forces: nationalism, population increase, rapid economic development,
technological advances, and reform ideals. But not all Americans united behind
expansionism. Critics argued vehemently that at the root of the expansionist
drive was the ambition to spread slavery into western lands.

Conflicts Over Texas, Maine, and Oregon

US. interest in pushing its borders south into Texas (a Mexican province)
and west into the Oregon Territory (claimed by Britain) largely resulted from
American pioneers migrating into these lands during the 18205 and 1830s.

Texas

In 1823, after having won its national independence from Spain, Mexico hoped
to attract settlers—including Anglo settlers—to farm its sparsely populated
northern frontier province of Texas. Moses Austin, a Missouri banker, had
obtained a large land grant in Texas but died before he could recruit Ame:

262 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
settlrs for the land. His son, Stephen Austin, succeeded in bringing 300
families into Texas and thereby beginning a steady migration of American
seitlers into the vast frontier erritory. By 1830, Americans (both White farmers
and enslaved Black people) outnumbered Mexicans in Texas by three to one.

Friction between the Americans and the Mexicans worsened in 1829 when
Mexico outlawed slavery and required all immigrants to convert to Roman
Catholicism. Many settlers refused to obey these laws. In reaction, Mexico
closed Texas to additional American immigrants. Land-hungry Americans
from the Southern states ignored the Mexican prohibition and streamed into
Texas by the thousands;

Revolt and Independence A change in Mexico’s government intensified
the conflict. In 1834, General Antonio Lépez de Santa Anna made himself
dictator of Mexico and abolished that nation's federal system of government.
When Santa Anna attempted to enforce Mexico’s laws in Texas, a group
of American settlers led by Sam Houston revolted and declared Texas an
independent republic in March 1836. In its new constitution, Texas made
slavery legal again.

A Mexican army led by Santa Anna captured the town of Goliad and
attacked the Alamo in San Antonio, killing every one of its American
defenders. Shortly afterward, however, at the Battle of the San Jacinto River, an
army under Sam Houston caught the Mexicans by surprise and captured their
general, Santa Anna. Under the threat of death, the Mexican leader was forced
10 sign a treaty that recognized independence for Texas and granted the new
republic all territory north of the Rio Grande. However, when the news of San
Jacinto reached Mexico City, the Mexican legislature rejected the treaty and
insisted that Texas was sill part of Mexico.

Annexation Denied As the first president of the Republic of Texas (or
Lone Star Republic), Houston applied to the U.S. government for his country to
be annexed, or added to, the United States as a new state. However, presidents
Jackson and Van Buren both put off the request for annexation primarily
because of political opposition among Northerners to the expansion of slavery.
If annexed, Texas might be divided into five new states, which could mean
ten additional proslavery members of the U.S. Senate. The threat of a costly
war with Mexico also dampened expansionist zeal. The next president, William
Henry Harrison, died after a month in office. His successor, John Tyler (1841-
1845), was a Southern Whig who was worried about the growing influence of
the British in Texas. He worked to annex Texas, but the US. Senate rejected his
treaty of annexation in 1844,

Boundary Dispute in Maine
Another diplomatic issue arose in the 1840s over the ill-defined boundary
between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. At this time,

Canada was still under British rule and many Americans regarded Britain
as their country’s most significant enemy—an attitude carried over from the

TOPIC 52 THE IDEA OF MANIFEST DESTINY 263
Revolution and the War of 1812. A conflict between rival groups of lumber
workers on the Maine-Canadian border crupted into open fighting. Known
as the Aroostook War, or “battle of the maps.” the conflict was soon resolved
in a treaty negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State Danicl Webster and the British
ambassador, Lord Alexander Ashburton. In the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
of 1842, the disputed territory was split between Maine and British Canada.
‘The treaty also settled the boundary of the Minnesota territory, leaving what
proved to be the iron-rich Mesabi Range on the US. side of the border.

Boundary Dispute in Oregon

A far more serious British-American dispute involved Oregon, a vast territory
‘on the Pacific Coast that originally stretched as far north as the Alaskan border.
Atone time, this territory was claimed by four different nations: Spain, Russia,
Great Britain, and the United States. Spain gave up its claim to Oregon in a
treaty with the United States (the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819).

Britain based ts claim to Oregon on the Hudson's Bay Company’s profitable
fur trade with the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest. However, by
1846, fewer than a thousand British settlers lived north of the Columbia River.

‘The United States based its claim on (1) the exploration of the Columbia
River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792; (2) the overland expedition to the
Pacific Coast by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805; and (3) the fur
trading post and fort in Astoria, Oregon, established by John Jacob Astor in
1811. Protestant missionaries and farmers from the United States settled in
the Willamette Valley in the 1840s. Their success in farming this fertile valley
caused 5,000 Americans to catch “Oregon fever” and travel 2,000 miles over the
Oregon Trail to settle in the area south of the Columbia River.

By the 1844 election, many Americans believed that taking undisputed
possession of all of Oregon and annexing the Republic of Texas was their
country’s Manifest Destiny. In addition, expansionists hoped to persuade
Mexico to give up its province on the West Coast—the huge land of California.
By 1845, Mexican California had a small Spanish-Mexican population of some
7,000 along with a much larger number of American Indians, but American
emigrants were arriving in suffcient numbers “to play the Texas game."

The Election of 1844

‘The possibility of annexing Texas and allowing the expansion of slavery split
the Democratic Party in 1844. The party’s Northern wing opposed immediate
annexation and wanted to nominate former president Martin Van Buren
to run again. Southern Whigs who were proslavery and proannexation
rallied behind former vice president John C. Calhoun of South Carolina as a
candidate.

‘The Van Buren-Calhoun dispute deadlocked the Democratic convention.
After hours of wrangling, the Democrats finally nominated a dark horse
(lesser-known candidate). They chose James K. Polk of Tennessee, a protegé of
Andrew Jackson, who was firmly committed to Manifest Destiny. Polk favored

264 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
the annexation of Texas, the acquisition of California, and the “reoccupation’
of Oregon Territory all the way to the border with Russian Alaska at latitude 54°
40" The Democratic slogan of “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” appealed strongly
to American Westerners and Southerners who were in an expansionist mood.

Henry Clay of Kentucky, the Whig nominee, attempted to straddle the
controversial issue of Texas annexation, opposing it and then supporting it.
“This strategy alienated a group of voters in New York State, who abandoned
the Whig Party to support the antislavery Liberty Party (see Topic 4. 11). Ina
close election, the Whigs'loss of New Yok’ electoral votes proved decisive and
Polk, the Democratic dark horse, was the victor. The Democrats iterpreted the
election as a mandate to add Texas to the Union.

Annexing Texas and Dividing Oregon

Outgoing president John Tyler took the election of Polk as a signal to push
the annexation of Texas through Congress. Instead of secking Senate approval
of a treaty that would have required a two-thirds vote, Tyler persuaded both
houses of Congress to pass a joint resolution for annexation. This procedure
required only a simple majority of each house. Tyler lef Polk with the problem
of dealing with Mexico's reaction to annexation.

On the Oregon question, Polk decided to back down from his party’s
bellicose campaign slogan. Instead of fighting for 54° 40°, he signed an
agreement with the British to divide the Oregon territory at the 49th parallel
(the parallel that had been established as the northern border in 1818 for
the Louisiana Territory). Final settlement of the issue was delayed until the
United States agreed to grant Vancouver Island and the right to navigate the
Columbia River to Britain. In June 1846, the treaty was submitted to the Senate
for ratification. Some Northerners viewed the treaty as a sellout to Southern
interests because it removed British Columbia as a source of potential free
states. Nevertheless, by this time war had broken out between the United States
and Mexico. Not wanting to fight both Britain and Mexico, Senate opponents
of the treaty reluctantly voted for the compromise settlement.

Settlement of the Western Territories

Following the peaceful acquisition of Oregon and the more violent acquisition
of California (see Topic 5.3), the migration of Americans into these lands
increased. The arid region between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast
was popularly known in the 1850s and 1860s as the Great American Desert.
Emigrants passed quickly over this vast area to reach the more inviting lands on
the West Coast. Therefore, California and Oregon were scttled several decades
before people attempted to farm the Great Plains.

Fur Traders’ Frontier

Fur traders known as mountain men were the carliest nonnative individuals to
open the Far West. In the 18205, they held yearly rendezvous in the Rockics with

TOPIC 52 THE IDEA OF MANIFEST DESTINY 265
American Indians to trade for animal skins. James Beckwourth, Jim Bridger,
Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith were among the hardy band of explorers and
trappers who provided much of the carly information about trails and frontier
conditions to later settlers

Overland Trails

After the mountain men, a much larger group of pioneers made the hazardous
journey west in hopes of clearing the foress and farming the fertile valleys
of California and Oregon. By 1860, hundreds of thousands had reached their
westward goal by following the Oregon, California, Santa Fe, and Mormon
trail. The long and arduous trek usually began in St. Joseph or Independence,
Missouri, or in Council Bluffs, lowa, and followed the river valleys through
the Great Plains. Inching along at only 15 miles a day, a wagon train needed
‘months to finally reach the foothills of the Rockies or face the hardships of the
southwestern deserts. The final life-or-death challenge was to get through the
‘mountain passes of the Sierras and Cascades before the first heavy snow. While
pioneers feared attacks by American Indians, the most common and serious
dangers were disease and depression from the harsh everyday conditions on
the trail.

WESTWARD EXPANSION AND PIONEER TRAILS, 1840s

266 UNITED STATES HISTORY: A" EDITION

Mining Frontier

‘The discovery of gold in California in 1848 set off the first of many migrations
to mineral-rich mountains of the West in the 1800s. Gold or silver rushes
occurred in Colorado, Nevada, the Black Hills of the Dakotas, and other
western territories. The mining boom brought tens of thousands of men and
some women into the western mountains. Mining camps and towns—many
of them short-lived—sprang up wherever a strike (discovery) was reported.
Largely as a result of the gold rush, Californias population soared from
a mere 14,000 in 1848 to 380,000 by 1860. Booms attracted miners from
around the world. By the 1860s, almost one-third of the miners in the West
were Chinese.

Farming Frontier

Most pioneer families moved west to start homesteads and begin farming.
Congress's Preemption Acts of the 1830s and 1840s gave squatters the right
o settle public lands and purchase them for low prices once the government
put them up for sale. In addition, the government made it easier for settlers by
offering parcels of land as small as 40 acres for sale.

However, moving west was not for the poor. At a time when a typical
laborer made about $1.00 per day,a family needed ateast $200 to $300 to make
the overland trip. The trek to California and Oregon was largely a middle-class
movement

‘The isolation of the frontier made life for pioneers especially difficult
during the first years, but rural communities soon developed. The institutions
that the people established (schools, churches, clubs, and political parties) were
modeled afier those that they had known in the East or, for immigrants from
abroad, in their native lands.

Urban Frontier

Western cities that arose as a result of railroads, mineral wealth, and farming
attracted a number of professionals and business owners. For example, San
Francisco and Denver became instant cities created by the gold and silver
rushes. Salt Lake City grew because it offered fresh supplies to travelers on
overland trails for the balance of their westward journey.

Foreign Commerce

‘The growth in manufactured goods as well as in agricultural products (both
Western grains and Southern cotton) caused a large growth of exports and
imports. Other factors also played a role in the expansion of US. trade in the
mid-1800s:

1. Shipping firms encouraged trade and travel across the Atlantic
by establishing a regular schedule for departures instead of the
18th-century policy of waiting to sail until a ship was full

TOPIC 52 THE IDEA OF MANIFEST DESTINY 267
2. The demand for whale oil o light the homes of middle-class Americans
caused a whaling boom between 1830 and 1860. New England merchants
took the lead in this industry.

3. Improvements in ship design came just in time to speed gold seckers
on their journey to the California gold fields. The development of the
American clipper ship cut the six-month trip from New York around
the Horn of South America to San Francisco to as lttle as 89 days.

4. Steamships took the place of clipper ships in the mid-1850s because
they had greater storage capacity, could be maintained at lower cost,
and followed a schedule more reliably.

5. The United States expanded trade to Asia. New England merchants
conducted profitable trade with China for tea, silk, and porcelain. The
‘government sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry and a small fleet of
naval ships to Japan, which had been closed to most foreigners for over
two centuries. In 1854, Perry pressured Japan' government o sign the
Kanagawa Treaty, which allowed UsS. vessels to enter two Japanese
ports to take on coal. This treaty soon led to a trade agreement

Expansion After the Civil War

From 1855 until 1870, the issues of union, slavery, civil war, and postwar
reconstruction would overshadow the drive to acquire new territory. Even so,
Manifest Destiny continued to be an important force for shaping U.S. policy. In
1867, for example, Secretary of State William Seward succeeded in purchasing
Alaska at a time when the nation was just recovering from the Civil War.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain the reasons for and results of westward expansion from 1844 to
1877.

KEY TERMS BY THEME
Beliet (NAT) farming frontier Antonio Lépez de Santa
Manifest Destiny urban frontier Anna
Westward (MIG,GEO,  Expansion Politics (pOL) 52 Houston

ARC) John Ty Aamo
Great American Desert.  Oregon Territory Webster-Ashburton Treaty
mountain men "Fifty-Four Fortyor Fight _foreian commerce
Far West James K. Polk exports and imports.
overland trails Mitory & Diplomatic  Matthew C.pery
miing fronier Expansion (WOR) Kanagavia Treaty
goidrush Texas
silver rush S

268 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-2 refer to the following excerpt.

“Where, where was the heroic determination of the Executive to vindicate
ourtitle to the whole of Oregon—yes, si, “THE WHOLE OR NONE:

Ithas been openly avowed ... that Oregon and Texas were born and cradled
together in the Baltimore convention; that they were the twin offspring
of that political conclave [meetingl; and in that avowal may be found the
whole explanation of the difficulties and dangers with which the question
is now attended. ..

I maint:

1. That this question .. . is
and amicable adjustment

2. That satisfactory evidence has not yet been afforded that no
compromise which the United States ought to accept can be
effected.

. one for negotiations, compromise,

3. That, if no other mode of amicable scitlement remains,
arbitration ought to be resorted to?”

Representative Robert C. Winthrop (Whig), speech to the
House of Representatives,January 3, 1846

‘Winthrop's position about territory in Oregon was based primarily on
his desire to

(A) endall British power in North America
(B) obtain more land for settlers
(C) show his readiness to use military force
(D) oppose Southern desires to expand slavery
2. Which historical development llustrates the fulfillment of Winthrop’s
argument?
(A) Polk negotiated a compromise with the British over Oregon.
(B) Polk went to war to obtain the whole of Oregon from Great Britain.

(©) Polk called a meeting in Baltimore to discuss annexation of
Oregon.

(D) Polk asked foreign countries to arbitrate the Oregon dispute.

TOPIC 52 THE IDEA OF MANIFEST DESTINY 269
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. “The Manifest Destiny impulse fed off a mixture of crassness, truculence
{hostility), and high idealism. Without question, there were those who
proclaimed America’s providential mission to expand as a eulogistic
{honorary] cover for speculation in land and paper. But those were hardly
the motives of John L. O'Sullivan, the writer who coined the term .
For O'Sullivan and his allies, the expansionist imperative was essentially
democratic ... . in a supercharged moral sense, stressing America’ duties
to spread democratic values and institutions to a world still dominated by
‘monarchs and deformed superstitions””

Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy, 2005

“O'Sullivan and Young America provided a . . . set of aspirations that
could be embraced by expansionists with less lofty ambitions . .. . The
‘young American’ who would transport ‘democracy’ into new territories
was recognizably white, male, probably Protestant, and of martial
[confrontational] demeanor— . . . facing, as he saw it, a world beset by
economic backwardness, political lethargy, ignorance, superstition,
Catholicism, effeminacy, and racial mixing. Expansionism would defeat
the institutions that bred these maladies [illnesses] and offer the benefits of
“civilization' for those who wished to seize them.”

Steven Hahn, A Nation Without Borders 2016
Using the excerpts, answer (), (b), and (c).
(@ Briefly explain ONE major difference between Wilentz's and Hahn’s

historical interpretations of Manifest Destiny.

(b) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1830 to 1860 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Wilentz’s interpretation.

(©) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1830 to 1860 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Hahn's interpretation.

270 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Topic 5.3

Manifest Destiny and
the Mexican-American War

The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war.
Ulysses . Grant, Persanal Memoirs of General U Grant, 1685

Learning Objective: Explain the causes and effects of the Mexican-
American War.

The . annesation o Tesas quickly L to diplomatc trouble with Mexico.
‘The Mexicans’anger over the annexation and the newly elected President Polk's
desire to expand the nation to the Pacific Ocean combined to bring both sides
to the edge of war.

Conflict with Mexico

Upon taking office in 1845, President Polk dispatched John Slidell s his special
envoy to the government in Mexico City. Polk wanted Slidell to (1) persuade
Mexico to sell the California and New Mexico territories to the United States
and (2) settle the disputed Mexico-Texas border. Slidell’ mission failed on both
counts. The Mexican government refused to sell California and insisted that
Texas's southern border was on the Nueces River. Polk and Slidell asserted that
the border lay farther to the south, along the Rio Grande.

Immediate Causes of the War

While Slidell waited for Mexicos response to the US. offer, Polk ordered
General Zachary Taylor to move his army toward the Rio Grande, across
territory claimed by Mexico. On April 24, 1846, a Mexican army crossed the
Rio Grande and captured an American army patrol, killing 1. Polk used the
incident to justify sending his prepared war message to Congress. Northern
Whigs opposed going to war over the incident and doubted PolK’s claim that
American blood had been shed on American soil. Whig protests were in vain.
A large majority in both houses approved the war resolution.

Military Campaigns
Most of the war was fought in Mexican territory by small armies of Americans.

Leadinga force that never exceeded 1,500, General Stephen Kearney succeeded
in taking the New Mexico territory and southern California. Backed by only

TOPIC 5.3 MANIFEST DESTINY AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR 271
several dozen soldicrs, a few navy officers, and American civilians who had
recently settled in northern California, John C. Frémont quickly overthrew
Mexican rule in the region in June 1846. He proclaimed California to be an
independent republic. Because the new republics flag included a California
grizzly bear, it became known as the Bear Flag Republic.

Meanwhile, Zachary Taylor’s force of 6,000 men drove the Mexican army.
from Texas, crossed the Rio Grande into northern Mexico, and won a major
victory at Buena Vista (February 1847). President Polk then selected General
Winfield Scott to invade central Mexico. The army of 14,000 under Scotts
‘command succeeded in taking the coastal city of Vera Cruz and then captured
Mexico City in September 1847,

Consequences of the War

For Mexico, the war was a military disaster from the start, but the Mexican
‘government was unwilling to sue for peace and concede the loss ofits northern
lands. Finally, afer the fall of Mexico City, the government had little choice but
to agree to U.S. terms.

‘Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ‘The treaty negotiated by diplomat
Nicholas Trist with Mexico consisted of terms favorable to the United States:

« Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas.

+ The United States took possession of the former Mexican provinces
of California and New Mexico—the Mexican Cession. For these
territories, the United States paid $15 million and assumed
responsibility for any claims of American citizens against Mexico.

In the Senate, some Whigs opposed the treaty because they saw the war as
an immoral effort to expand slavery. A few Southern Democrats disliked the
treaty for opposite reasons. As expansionists, they wanted the United States
to take all of Mexico. Since this land was south of the line established in the
Missouri Compromise dividing slave and free territory, it was a region where
slavery could expand into. Nevertheless, the treaty was finally ratified in the
Senate.

Wilmot Proviso The issue of slavery made the USS. entry into a war with
Mexico controversial from start to finish. In 1846, Pennsylvania Congressman
David Wilmot proposed that an appropriations bill be amended to forbid
slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. This prohibition appealed to
‘many voters and lawmakers who wanted to preserve the land for White settlers
and protect them from having to compete with enslaved labor. The Wilmot
Proviso, as it was called, passed the House, where the populous Northern states
had greater power, twice. Both times, it was defeated in the Senate, where
Southern states had greater influence.

Prelude to Civil War? By increasing tensions between the North and the
South, did the war to acquire territories from Mexico lead inevitably to the
American Civil War? Without question, the acquisition of vast western lands

272 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
did renew the sectional debate over the extension of slavery. Many Northerners
viewed the war with Mexico as part of a Southern plot to extend the “slave
power” Southerners realized they could not count on Northerners to accept the
expansion of slavery. The Wilmot Proviso was the first round in an escalating
political conflict that led ultimately, though not inevitably; o civil war.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: WHY WAS MANIFEST DESTINY
SIGNIFICANT?.

Traditional historians stressed the accomplishments of westward expansion
in bringing civilization and democratic institutions to a wilderness area. The
heroic efforts of mountain men and pioneering families to overcome a hostile
environment have long been celebrated by historians and the popular media.

Attitudes about Race As a result of the civil rights movement of the 1950s
and 1960s and the continuing diversification of American society, historians
became more sensitive than their predecessors to racist language and beliefs.
‘They recognized the racial undercurrents in the political specches of the
1840s that argued for expansion into American Indian, Mexican, and Central
American territories.

Some historians argue that racist motives prompted the decision to
withdraw US. troops from Mexico instead of occupying it. They point out that
Americans who opposed the idea of keeping Mexico had asserted that it was
undesirable to incorporate large non-Anglo populations into the republic.

Diverse Contributions Recent historians have broadened their research
into westward movement. Rather than concentrating on the achievements of
Anglo pioneers, they have focused more on these topics: (1) the impact on
American Indians whose lands were taken, (2) the influence of Mexican culture
on US. culture, (3) the contributions of African American and Asian American
pioneers, and (4) the role of women in the development of western family and
community life

‘The Impact on Mexico Some Mexican historians point out that the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo took half of Mexico’ territory. They argue that the war of
1846 gave rise to a number of long-standing economic and political problems
that have impeded Mexico's development as a modern nation

Economics over Race Some historians argue that the war with Mexico,
especially the taking of California, was motivated by imperialism rather than
by racism. They argue that the United States had commercial ambitions in the
Pacific and wanted California as a base for trade with China and Japan. US.
policy makers were afraid that California would fall into the hands of Great
Britain or another European power if the United States did not move in first.

Support an Argument Explain two perspectives on either causes or effects of the
belief in Manifest Destiny important during the 19th century.

TOPIC 5.3 MANIFEST DESTINY AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR 273
REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain the reasons for and results of the Mexican War.

KEY TERMS BY THEME
Miltary & Diplomatic o Grande Winfield Scott
Expansion (WOR) Zachary Taylor Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexican-American War  Stephen Kearney Mexican Cession
California John C. Frémont Wilmot Proviso
Nueces River Bear Flag Aepublic mountain men

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3 refer to the map below.

LAND AQUISITIONS BY THE UNITED STATES, 17761853

it
s

e { e
RIAN

1. Why was the period of expansion between 1842 and 1853 so significant
10 the development of the United States?

(A) The United States established borders that still exist today.

(B) ‘The United States purchased its largest single territory in one act.
(C) ‘The United States obtained territory along the Gulf of Mexico.
(D) The United States expanded westward for the first time.

274 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION

2. The acquisitions of land in the West before 1845 were similar to land
acquisitions after 1845 because they both were motivated by the
controversial desire to

(A) expand the institution of slavery
(B) build factories near mineral resources
(C) keep foreign influences out of the country
(D) take advantage of wars among European countries
3. Which territory did the United States gain most directly by going to
war?
(A) Louisiana Purchase
(B) Texas Annexation
(C) Oregon Country
(D) Mexican Cession

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. Answer (), (b), and ().

(@) Briefly explain ONE specific reason for American expansionism
between 1840 and 1855.

(b) Briefly explain ONE specific criti
between 1840 and 1855.

() Briefly describe how ONE group of people were profoundly
impacted by America’s expansionism between 1800 and 1860.
2. Answer (a), (b), and (c).
(@) Briefly explain ONE historical event or development in the 1840s
that contributed to causing the Mexican War.

(b) Briefly explain ONE historical event or development in the 18405
that contributed to the United States victory in the Mexican War.

(c) Briefly explain ONE specific consequence of the Mexican War for
the United States.

m of American expansionism

TOPIC 5.3 MANIFEST DESTINY AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR 275
Topic 5.4

The Compromise of 1850

I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union—
a subordinate one to my own State.
Senator Henry Clay, Kentucky, July 22, 1850

Learning Objective: Explain the similarities and differences in how
regional attitudes affected federal policy in the period ater the
Mexican-American War.

IMasifest Destiny and expansion itensified th debate about th spread of
slavery. Abolitionists and White people eager to settle Western lands without
the competition of slave labor opposed expansion. Slaveowners and people
who felt they benefited from slavery wanted the continued growth of slavery.
At the same time, most Americans still hoped for compromise that could keep
the Union together.

Southern Expansion

Many Southerners resented the Missouri Compromise because it barred
slavery from the Louisiana Purchase lands. They were also dissatisfied with the
territorial gains from the Mexican War because they were not large enough. In
‘general, they were eager to find new land for cultivation using enslaved labor.

Manifest Destiny to the South

In the early 1850s, many slaveowners hoped to acquire new territories,
especially in areas of Latin America where they thought plantations worked by
enslaved people were economically feasible. The most tempting, eagerly sought
possibility in the eyes of Southern expansionists was the acquisition of Cuba.

Ostend Manifesto President Polk offered to purchase Cuba from Spain for
$100 million, but Spain refused to sell the last major remnant ofits once glorious
empire in the Americas. Several Southern adventurers led small expeditions to
Cuba in an effort to take the island by force. These forays, however, were easily
defeated, and those who participated were executed by Spanish firing squads.

Elected to the presidency in 1852, Franklin Pierce adopted pro-Southern
policies and dispaiched three American diplomats to Ostend, Belgium, where
they secretly negotiated to buy Cuba from Spain. The agreement that the
diplomats drew up, called the Ostend Manifesto, was leaked to the press in
the United States. Antislavery members of Congress reacted angrily and forced
President Pierce to drop the scheme.

276 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Walker Expedition Expansionists continued to scek new empires with
or withou the federal governments support. Southern adventurer William
Walker had tried unsuccessfully to take Baja California, the long peninsula
stretching south of San Diego, from Mexico in 1853. Then, leading a force
mostly of Southerners, he seized power in Nicaragua in 1855. Walker's regime
even gained temporary recognition from the United States in 1856. However,
his grandiose scheme to develop a proslavery Central American empire
collapsed when a coalition of Central American countries invaded his country
and defeated him. Walker was executed by Honduran authorities in 1860.

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) Another American ambition was to build
a canal through Central America. A canal would provide a shortcut to allow
ships traveling from the Northern Atlantic to the Northern Pacific to avoid
sailing around South America. Great Britain had the same ambition. To prevent
each other from seizing this opportunity on its own, Great Britain and the
United States agreed to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. It provided that
neither nation would attempt to take exclusive control of any future canal route
in Central America. This treaty continued in force until the end of the century.
Anew treaty signed in 1901 (the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty) gave the United States
a free hand to build a canal without British participation.

Gadsden Purchase Although he failed to acquire Cuba, President Pierce
succeeded in purchasing a small strip of land from Mexico in 1853 for $10
million (see map in Topic 5.2). Though the land was semidesert, it lay on the
best route for a railroad through the region. Known as the Gadsden Purchase,
it forms the southern sections of present-day New Mexico and Arizona

Conflict Over Status of Territories

‘The issue of slavery in the territories gained in the Mexican War became the
focus of sectional differences in the late 1840s. The Wilmot Proviso, which
excluded slavery from the new territories, would have upset the Compromise
of 1820 and the delicate balance of 15 free and 15 slave states. However, the
provisos defeat only increased sectional feelings.

Three Conflicting Positions on Slavery Expansion
Most people held one of three positions on whether to allow slavery in the
Western territories. No single policy would appeal to them all, but many people

hoped for a compromise that would allow each group to get something of what
it wanted.

Free-Soil Movement Northern Democrats and Whigs supported the
Wilmot Proviso and the position that all African Americans—slave and
free—should be excluded from the Mexican Cession (territory ceded to the
US. by Mexico in 1848). While abolitionists advocated eliminating slavery
everywhere, many Northerners who opposed the westward expansion of
slavery did not oppose slavery in the South. They sought to keep the West a
land of opportunity for Whites only: This meant keeping out both enslaved and

TOPIC 5.4 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 277
free African Americans. In 1848, Northerners who opposed allowing slavery
in the territories organized the Free-Soil Party, which adopted the slogan “free:
soil, free labor, and free men” In addition to its chicf objective—preventing the
extension of slavery—the new party advocated free homesteads (public land
grants to small farmers) and internal improvements such as roads and harbors.

Southern Positions Southern plantation owners, whose wealth and social
status made therm politcally powerful, viewed attempts o rstrict the expansion
of slavery as violations of their constitutional right to take their property
wherever they wished. They saw the Free-Soilers—and the abolitionists—as
intent on the destruction of slavery. Some Southerners held more moderate
views. They would agree to extend the Missouri Compromise line westward to
the Pacific Ocean and permit territories north of that line to be free of slavery.

Popular Sovereignty A Democratic senator from Michigan, Lewis Cass,
proposed a compromise solution that soon won considerable support from
moderates across the country. Instead of Congress determining whether to
allow slavery in a new western territory or state, Cass suggested that the matter
be determined by a vote of the people who settled a territory. Cass’s approach
to the problem was known as squatter sovereignty, or popular sovereignty.

The Election of 1848

‘The expansion of slavery into the territories was a vital issue in the presidential
race of 1848. Three parties represented different positions on the issue:

+ The Democrats nominated Senator Cass and adopted a platform pledged
to popular sovereignty.

+ The Whigs nominated Mexican War hero General Zachary Taylor,
who had never been involved in politics and took no position on
slavery in the territories.

+ A third party, the Free-Soil Party; opposed expansion. It nominated
former president Martin Van Buren. The party consisted of Conscience
‘Whigs (who opposed slavery) and antislavery Democrats. Members
of this latter group were ridiculed as “barnburners” because their
defection threatened to destroy the Democratic Party.

Taylor narrowly defeated Cass, in part because of the vote given the Free-
Soil Party in key Northern states such as New York and Pennsylvania,

Compromises to Preserve the Union

‘The Gold Rush of 1849 and the influx of about 100,000 settlers into California
created the need for law and order in the West. In 1849, Californians drafted
a constitution for their new state—a constitution that banned slavery. Even
though President Taylor was a Southern slaveholder himself, he supported the
immediate admission of both California and New Mexico as free states. (At this
time, however, the Mexican population of the New Mexico territory had litle
interest in applying for statehood.)

278 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
‘Taylor’s plan sparked talk of secession among the “fre-caters” (radicals) in
the South. Some Southern extremists even met in Nashville in 1850 to discuss
secession. By this time, however, the astute Kentucky senator Henry Clay had
proposed yet another compromise for solving the political crisi

« Admit California to the Union as a free state.

« Divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into two territories—
Utah and New Mexico—and allow the settlers in these territories to
decide the slavery issue by majority vote, o popular sovereignty.

+ Give the land in dispute between Texas and the New Mexico territory
to the new territories in return for the federal government assuming
‘Texas's public debt of $10 million.

+ Ban the slave trade in the District of Columbia but permit Whites to
own enslaved people there as before.

+ Adopt a new Fugitive Slave Law and enforce it rigorously.

In the ensuing Senate debate over the compromise proposal, the three
congressional giants of the age—Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of
Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina—delivered their last
great speeches. (Webster and Calhoun, who were both born in 1782, died in
1850; Clay died two years later) Webster argued for compromise in order
10 save the Union, and in so doing alienated the Massachusetts abolitionists
who formed the base of his support. Calhoun argued against compromise and
insisted that the South be given equal rights in the acquired territory.

Northern opposition to compromise came from younger antislavery
lawmakers, such as Senator William H. Seward of New York, who argued that a
higher law than the Constitution existed. Opponents managed to prevail until
the sudden death in 1850 of President Taylor, who had also opposed Clay’s
plan. Succeeding him was a strong supporter of compromise, Vice President
Millard Fillmore. Stephen A. Douglas, a young Democratic senator from
linois, engineered different coalitions to pass each part of the compromise
separately. President Fillmore readily signed the blls into law.

Passage The passage of the Compromise of 1850 bought time for the
Union. Because California was admitted as a free state, the compromise added
tothe Northis political power. The political debate deepened the commitment of
‘many Northerners to saving the Union from secession. Parts of the compromise:
became sources of controversy, especially the new Fugitive Slave Law and the
provision for popular sovereignty.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain how the different views of the individual regions influenced the
federal government in the years after the Mexican-American War.

TOPIC 5.4 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 279
KEY TERMS BY THEME

Expansion Politcs (POL)  Gadsden Purchase. Compromising (POL)

Ostend Manifesto (1352)  Battle forthe Toritories  Lewis Coss

Wilitary & Diplomatic (wic, poL) popular soverignty
Expansion (WOR) ree-soll movement Zachary Taylor

Walker Expediton Frce-Soil Party Henry Clay

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty “bamburners” Compromise of 1850

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3 refer to the following excerpts.

“It being desirable for the peace, concord, and harmony of the Union
of these States, to settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of
controversy between them arising out of the institution of slavery upon a
fair, equitable, and just basis.”

Henry Clay, Resolution on the Compromise of 1850

“We are told now .. . that the Union is threatened with subversion and
destruction.... Ifthe Union is to be dissolved for any existing causes,it will
be dissolved because slavery is interdicted [interfered with] or not allowed
to be introduced into the ceded Territories; because slavery is threatened
to be abolished in the District of Columbia, and because fugitive slaves are
not returned ... to their masters. ...

Lam for staying within the Union and fighting for my rights”

Henry Clay, Speech on the Compromise Resolution, 1850

1

“To which politician or politicians was Clay directing the last line of the
second excerpt?

(A) Southerners who were threatening to secede
(B) Senators such as Daniel Webster who rejected any compromise
(©) Advocates of popular sovereignty
(D) The president, Zachary Taylor

2. The provision of the Compromise of 1850 that appealed most to
advocates for slavery was the one regarding
(A) the conditions under which California would become a state
(B) the assumption of Texas's public debt by the federal government
(©) the status of slave trade in Washington, D.C.
(D) the features of a new Fugitive Slave Law

280 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP EDITION
3. Clay’s position on slavery in “ceded territories” was opposed by people
who were mostly concerned that they could take enslaved people into

(A) islands in the Caribbean that might be acquired, such as Cuba
(B) the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and from Mexico
(C) Texas, where slavery had been banned under Mexico

(D) Maine, which had been part of Massachussets

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

‘Source: NathrilCurir, 1848 Librory o Conress

Using the cartoon, answer (a), (b), and (c). The figure on the right side

of the cartoon is saying, “That’s you Dad! more ‘Free Soil! We'll rat em

out yet. Longlife to Davy Wilmot”

(@) Briefly explain ONE historical perspective expressed by the artist
concerning slavery in the territories in the period 1840 to 1854.

(b) Briefly explain ONE development in the period 1840 to 1854 that
supported the perspective expressed by the artist.

(c) Briefly explain ONE development in the period 1840 to 1854 that
challenged the perspective expressed by the artist.

TOPIC 5.4 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 281
Topic 5.5

Sectional Conflict:
Regional Differences

1 did not write it. God wrote it. | merely did his dictation.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, describing her book Uncie Tom's Cabin, 1879

Learning Objective 1: Explain the effects of immigration from various
parts of the world on American culture from 1844 to 1877.

Learning Objective 2: Explain how regional differences related to
slavery caused tension in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Aiong the isues that divided people politcally in the mid-1800s were
immigration, particularly by Roman Catholics, and how to promote and
respond to industrial growth. However, the dominant issue increasingly
became the possible expansion of slavery into the territories.

Immigration Controversy

As immigration increased, especially from Ireland and Germany, opposition
arose on many fronts. Some Americans disliked the ethnicity or religious faiths
of the immigrants, while others feared them as low-wage workers who might
take their jobs.

Irish

During this period, half of all the immigrants—almost 2 million—came from
Ireland. These Irish immigrants were mostly tenant farmers driven from
their homeland by crop failures and a devastating famine in the 1840s. They
came with limited interest in farming, few skills, and little money. They faced
discrimination because of their Roman Catholic religion. The Irish worked
hard, often competing with African Americans for domestic work and low-
skl jobs that required physical strength and endurance. Most stayed where
they landed, so strong Irish communities developed in Northern cities such as
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In Irish neighborhoods, people continued
the customs they brought with them. For example, perhaps one-third spoke
Irish. Several newspapers included an Irish-language section and churches
held services for Irish speakers.

282 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
“The Irish did bring two valuable skill. Since their country was dominated
by the British, most Irish spoke English well and understood electoral politics.
Using these skills, many entered local politics. They often organized their fellow
immigrants and joined the Democratic Party, which was traditionally anti-
British and pro-worker. Initially excluded from New York City’s Democratic
organization, Tammany Hall, the Irish had secured jobs and influence by the
1850s. By the 1880s they controlled Tammany Hall,

Germans

Both economic hardships and the failure of democratic revolutions in 1848
caused more than 1 million Germans to seck refuge in the United States in the
late 1840s and the 1850s. Most German immigrants had some modest means
as well as considerable skills as farmers and artisans. Moving westward in
search of cheap, fertle farmland, they established homesteads throughout the
Old Northwest and generally prospered. At fist their political influence was
limited. As they became more active in public life, many strongly supported
public education and staunchly opposed slavery.

Like the Irish, they often formed close-knit communities in cities where
the German language was commonly spoken. Germans in rural areas often
formed their own Roman Catholic or Lutheran churches

Nativist Opposition to Immigration

Many native-born Americans were alarmed by the influx of immigrants,
fearing that the newcomers would take their jobs and dilute the culture of the
Anglo majority. These ethnic tensions were closely tied to religion. Most of the
native-born opponents of immigration were Protestants and most of the Irish
and many of the German immigrants were Roman Catholics. In the 1840s,
hostility to these immigrants, known as nativism, led to sporadic rioting in the
big cities

Nativists formed a secretive antiforeign society, the Supreme Order of
the Star-Spangled Banner, which evolved into a political organization, the
American Party. Because party members often responded “I know nothing”
to political questions, the American Party was commonly called the Know-
Nothing Party. The policies they supported included increasing the time
required for immigrants to attain citizenship from five years to twenty-one
‘years and allowing only native-born citizens to hold public office.

For a short period in the early 18505, as the Whig Party disintegrated, the
Know-Nothing Party gained strength, particularly in the New England and the
Mid-Atlantic states. In the 1856 presidential election the party unsuccessfully
ran former president Millard Fillmore.

By the late 18505, antiforeign feeling faded in importance as the North and
the South grew increasingly divided over slavery. However, nativism would
periodically return when enough native-born citizens felt threatened by a
sudden increase in immigration.

TOPIC S5 SECTIONAL CONFLICT: REGIONAL DIFFERENCES 283
Ethnic Conflict in the Southwest

‘Though not immigrants, American Indians and Mexican Americans who
had become part of the United States because of the Mexican-American War
also faced religious discrimination. Many were Roman Catholics or practiced
traditional American Indian beliefs.

1820 1840 1860
Northeast 4,360,000 | 6,761,000 | 10,594,000
North Central 859,000 | 3,352,000 | 8,097,000
South 4419000 | 6951000 | 11133,000
West = —| w000
Al States 9,618,000 | 17,120,000 | 31,513,000

Source: 'S, Bureas ot Cansus istoica Sttt of h United st Coloril T 10 570

The Expanding Economy

‘Theera of territorial expansion coincided with a period of remarkable economic
growth from the 1840s to 1857.

Industrial Technology

Before 1840, factory production had been concentrated mainly in the textile
mills of New England. Afier 1840, industrialization spread rapidly to the other
states of the Northeast. New factories produced shoes, sewing machines, ready-
to-wear clothing, firearms, precision tools, and iron products for railroads and
other new technologies. The invention of the sewing machine by Elias Howe
took much of the production of clothing out of homes and into factories. An
electric telegraph demonstrated in 1844 by its inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse,
went hand in hand with the growth of railroads in enormously speeding up
communication and transportation across the country.

Railroads

“The canal-building era of the 1820s and 1830s was replaced in the next two
decades with the expansion of rail lines, especially across the Northeast and
Midwest. The railroads soon emerged as America largest industry. As such,
they required immense amounts of capital and labor and gave rise to complex
business organizations. Local merchants and farmers would often buy stocks in
the new railroad companies in order to connect their area to the outside world.
Local and state governments also helped the railroads grow by granting special
Ioans and tax breaks. Then, in 1850, the US. government made its first land
grant to railroads. It gave 2.6 million acres of federal land to build the Illinois
Central Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.

Cheap and rapid transportation particularly promoted Western agriculture.
Farmers in Illinois and lowa were now more closely linked by rail to the

284 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Northeast than by the rivers to the South. The railroads united the commercial
interests of the Northeast and Midwest and would also give the North strategic
advantages in the Civil War.

Panic of 1857

In 1857 a financial panic caused a sharp decrease in prices for Midwestern
agricultural products and a sharp increase in unemployment in Northern
cities. However, cotton prices remained high and the South was less affected.
As a result, some Southerners believed that their plantation cconomy was
superior to the Northern economy and that continued union with the Northern
economy was not needed.

Agitation Over Slavery

For a brief period—between the Compromise of 1850 and the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854—political tensions relaxed slightly. However,
the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and the publication of a best-selling
antislavery novel kept the slavery question before the public

Fugitive Slave Law
‘The passage of a strict Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 persuaded many Southerners

10 accept that California would be a free state. However, many Northerners
biterly resented the law. Asa result it drove a wedge between North and South.

Enforcement The law's purpose was to help owners track down runaway
(fugitive) enslaved people who had escaped to a Northern state, capture them,
and return them to their Southern owners. The law removed fugitive slave
cases from state courts and made them the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal
government. It also authorized special U.S. commissioners to issuc warrants to
arrest fugitives. A captured person who claimed to be free and not someone
who had just escaped slavery was denied the right of trial by jury. State and
local law enforcement offcials were required to help enforce the federal .

Opposition Anyone who attempted to hide a runaway or obstruct
enforcement of the law was subject to heavy penalties. However, Black and
White activists in the North bitterly resisted the law: Through court cases,
protests, and sometimes force, they tried to protect African Americans from
being returned—or taken for the first time—into slavery.

Underground Railroad

‘The Underground Railroad was a loose network of activists who helped
enslaved people escape o freedom in the North o Canada. Most of the
“conductors” and those operating the *tations” were free African Americans
and people who had escaped slavery themselves with the assistance of White
abolitionists. The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman, a woman who
had escaped slavery. She made at least 19 trips into the South to help some 300
people escape.

TOPIC S5 SECTIONAL CONFLICT: REGIONAL DIFFERENCES 285
Free Black citizens in the North and abolitionists also organized vigilance
comittees to protect fugitive slaves from the slave catchers. During the Civi
‘War, African American leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman,
and Sojourner Truth worked for emancipation and supported Black soldicrs.

Books on Slavery—Pro and Con
Popular books as well as unpopular laws stirred the people of all regions.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin The most influential book of its day was a novel about
the conflict between an enslaved man, Tom, and the brutal White slave owner,
Simon Legree. The publication of Uncle Tor’s Cabin in 1852 by the Northern
writer Harriet Beecher Stowe moved a generation of Northerners and many
Europeans to regard all slave owners as cruel and inhuman. Southerners
condemned the “untruths” in the novel and looked upon it as one more proof
of the Northis incurable prejudice against the Southern way of life. Later, when
President Lincoln met Stowe, he is reported to have said, “So you're the little
‘woman who wrote the book that made this great war”

In response to Stowe's book, Mary Eastment wrote the pro-slavery novel
Aunt Philliss Cabin. She portrayed a world of kind slaveowners and happily
enslaved people.

Impending Crisis of the South Appearing in 1857, Hinton R. Helper's
nonfiction book, Impending Crisis of the South, attacked slavery from another
angle. The author, a native of North Carolina, used statistics to demonstrate
o fellow Southerners that slavery weakened the Southis economy. Southern
states quickly banned the book, but it was widely distributed in the North by
antislavery and Free-Soil leaders.

'COMPARING THE FREE AND SLAVE STATES IN THE 18505

Category FreeStates | Slave States.
Population 18,484,922 9612979
Patents for New Inventions 1929 268
Value of Church Buildings 67778477 | 521,674,581
Newspapers and Periodicals 1790 740
Capital $230,100,840 | $109,078,940
Value of Exports $167,520,098 | 107,480,688 6%

‘Source Finton . Helpr imperding 1l of h Soth, 1857 Dat o various yers betwesn 1850 60 185,

Southern Reaction Respondingto the Northern literature that condemned
slavery, proslavery Southern Whites counterattacked, arguing that slavery
was good for both the master and the enslaved. They pointed out that slavery
was sanctioned by the Bible and grounded in philosophy and history. Slavery
was also permitted by the ULS. Constitution. Southern authors contrasted the

286 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
conditions of Northern wage workers—“wage slaves” forced to work long hours
in factories and mines—with the familial bonds that developed on plantations
between slaves and masters. George Fitzhugh, the best-known proslavery
author, questioned the principle of equal rights for “unequal men” and attacked
the wage system as worse than slavery. Among his works were Sociology for the
South (1854) and Cannibals All! (1857).

Effect of Law and Literature

‘The Fugitive Slave Law and the books on slavery increasingly polarized the
nation. Many Northerners who had opposed the expansion of slavery only for
cconomic reasons and had scorned abolition became more concerned about
slavery as a moral issue. At the same time, a growing number of Southerners,
particularly wealthy ones, became more convinced that Northerners would
abolish slavery and the way of life based upon it as soon as they could.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain how sectional variations related to slavery increased hostilities
in the years leading up to the Civil War.

KEY TERMS BY THEME

Expanding Economy Urban Growth (MIG) Haret Tubman
() irish Literature (ARC)
industril technology Roman Catholic Uncle Tom's Cabin
s Howe Germans Harriot Bescher Stowe
‘Samuel F. 8. Morse Changing Politics (PCE)  Hinton R. Helper
raioads, Tammany Hall Impending Crisi o the
Panic of 1857 ) South
Confliet (NAT) Fugitve Save Law George Fitzhugh
natvism Sociologyfor the South

Underground Railroad

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-2 refer to the following excerpt.

“The gentleman . . . has been anxious to proclaim the death of native
Americanism. Sir, it is a principle that can never die. .

Native Americanism seeks to defend every institution that exists under
that glorious Constitution

But we have been told that we belong to a party of one idea’ .. Our great

object is to attain to unity of national character; and, as necessary to that

end, we embrace every measure and policy decidedly American. ... We go

for every thing American in contradistinction to every thing foreign. That
. may be called one idea’; but it i a glorious idea.

TOPIC S5 SECTIONAL CONFLICT: REGIONAL DIFFERENCES 287
No alien has a right to naturalization . . . . To prevent this universal
admission to citizenship, we frame naturalization laws, and prescribe
forms that operate as a check upon the interference of foreigners in our
institutions. ... .

We are now struggling for national character and national identity
We stand now on the very verge of overthrow by the impetuous force of
invading foreigners.”

Rep. Lewis C. Levin, Speech in Congress, December 18, 1845

1. Which of the following groups would have most likely supported Levin's
concern “to attain unity of national character’?

(A) Reformers who opposed the mistreatment of Native Americans

(B) Southerners who viewed abolition as a threat to a long-standing
institution

(©) Protestants who viewed Roman Catholicism as a foreign faith
(D) Men who opposed giving women the rights of citizenship, such as.
suffrage
2. How successful were Levin and his supporters in the mid-19th century?
(A) They slowed down the growth of sectional division over slavery.
(B) They helped pass a Fugitive Slave Law that appealed to Southerners.

() ‘They supported government funding of railroads to unite the
country.

(D) They formed a secretive society that evolved into a political party.

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. Answer (a), (b), and (c).
() Briefly explain ONE specific social or political response to
immigration in the 1850s.

(b) Briefly explain ONE specific social or political response to the
conflict over slavery in the 1850s.

(© Briefly explain ONE specific example of how a piece of lterature
influenced social or political change in the 1850s.

288 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Topic 5.6

Failure of Compromise

The real issue in this controversy—the one pressing upon every
mind—is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks
upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class
that does not look upon it as a wrong.

Abraham Lincoln during a debate with Stephen Douglas in Alon, llnois, 1855

Learning Objective: Explain the political causes of the Civil War.

By 1861, pliicans attempted many compromisestoprevent war Historians
agree on the sequence of major events from 1848 o 1861 that led to the outbreak
of the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy. Facts alone, however,
do not automatically assemble themselves into a convincing interpretation of
why war occurred when it did. Three large issues, all related to slavery, divided
the North and the South: (1) attitudes about the morality of slavery, (2) views
about the constitutional rights of states, particularly the right to protect slavery,
and (3) differences over economic policies between the free-labor industrial
North and the slave-labor agricultural South. Some historians argue that
solving these ssues was possible but blundering politicians and extremism
resulted in an unnecessary war. Others argue that the war was inevitable.

National Parties in Crisis

‘The potency of the slavery controversy increased political instabiliy. The two
major parties—the Democrats and the Whigs—grew weak and divided over
how to resolve the sectional differences over slavery. One effort to settle the
issue, the application of popular sovereignty in the territory of Kansas, resulted
in disaster.

The Election of 1852

Signs of trouble for the Whig Party appeared in the 1852 election for president.
‘The Whigs nominated another military hero of the Mexican War, General
Winfield Scott. Attempting to ignore the slavery issue, the Whigs concentrated
on the party’s traditional platform: improving roads and harbors. But Scott
quickly discovered that sectional issues could not be held in check. The
antislavery and Southern factions of the party fell to quarreling, and the party
was on the verge of splitting apart.

TOPIC 56 FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 289
‘The Democrats nominated a compromise candidate, Franklin Pierce
of New Hampshire, who they hoped would be a safe choice, one acceptable
to people in all regions. A Northerner, Pierce was acceptable to Southern
Democrats because he supported the Fugitive Slave Law. In the Electoral
College, Pierce and the Democrats won all but four states, suggesting the days
of the Whig Party were numbered.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

‘The Democrats, firmly in control of both the White House and Congress, found
they could not avoid the issue of slavery in the territorics. Senator Stephen A.
Douglas of Illinois proposed building a transcontinental railroad through the
center of the country, with a major terminus in Chicago, to promote Western
settlement (and increase the value of his own real estate in Chicago)

Southerners preferred a more southerly route. To win their support,
Douglas introduced a bill o divide the Nebraska Territory into two pars, the
Kansas and Nebraska territories, and allow settlers in each territory to decide
whether to allow slavery. Since these territories were located north of the 36°30"
line, Douglas’ bill gave Southerners an opportunity to expand slavery into
lands that had been closed to it by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Many
Northern Democrats condemned the bill as a surrender to “slave power” Stil,
after three months of bitter debate, both houses of Congress passed Douglas
bill as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and President Pierce signed it into
law.

Extremists and Violence

‘The Kansas-Nebraska Act, in effect, repealed the Missouri Compromise that
had lessened regional tensions for more than three decades. Afier 1854, the
conflicts between antislavery and proslavery forces exploded, both in Kansas
and on the floor of the United States Senate

“Bleeding Kansas”

Stephen Douglas, the Kansas-Nebraska Act sponsor, expected the slavery issue
in the territory to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the
Midwest who migrated to Kansas and constituted a majority. Slaveholders from
neighboring Missour also set up homesteads in Kansas as a means of winning
control for the South. Northern abolitionists and Free-Soilers responded by
organizing the New England Emigrant Aid Company (1855), which paid for
the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas. Fighting broke out between
the proslavery and the antislavery groups, and the territory became known as
“bleeding Kansas”

Proslavery Missourians, called “border ruffians” by their enemies, crossed
the border to create a proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas. Antislavery
settlers refused to recognize this government and created their own legislature
in Topeka. In 1856, proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of Lawrence,

290 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Killing two and destroying homes and businesses. Two days later, John Brown,
a stern abolitionist, retaliated. He and his sons attacked a proslavery farm
settlement at Pottawatomie Creek, killing five.

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In Washington, the Pierce administration did nothing to keep order in
the Kansas territory and failed to support honest elections there. As Kansas
became bloodier, the Democratic Party became more divided between its
Northern and Southern factions. The plan to let territories decide on slavery
for themselves had resulted in chaos and bloodshed.

Caning of Senator Sumner The violence in Kansas spilled over into the
halls of the US. Congress. In 1856, Massachusets senator Charles Sumner
attacked the Democratic administration in a vitriolic speech, “The Crime
Against Kansas” His remarks included personal chargesagainst South Carolina
senator Andrew Butler. Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks,
defended his unclés honor by walking into the Senate chamber and beating
Sumner over the head repeatedly with a cane. Sumner never fully recovered
from the attack. The action by Brooks outraged the North, and the House voted
to censure him while Southerners applauded the deed. The Sumner-Brooks
incident was another sign of growing passions on both sides.

TOPIC 56 FAILURE OF CoMPROMISE 291

Birth of the Republican Party

‘Theincreasingtensions over slavery divided Northernand Southern Democrats,
and completely broke apart the Whig Party. Ex-Whigs scattered. Those who
were frightened about immigration joined the Know-Nothing Party. With
the support of new members, the Know-Nothings won a few local and state
elections in the mid-1850s. However, as the expansion of slavery became the
paramount political issue, the significance of immigration declined, and along
with it the Know-Nothing Party.

Ex-Whigs who supported the expansion of slavery usually joined the
Democratic Party. The South became the core of the party, although Democrats
were still strong in the North.

Former Whigs who opposed slavery expansion formed the core of a new
party. The Republican Party was founded in Wisconsin in 1854 as a reaction
to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Composed of Free-Soilers and
antislavery Whigs and Democrats, its purpose was to oppose the spread of
slavery in the territories—not to end slavery itself. Its first platform called
for the repeal of both the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law.
As violence increased in Kansas, more and more people, including some
abolitionists, joined the Republican Party, and it became the second largest
party in the country. But it was strictly a Northern, or sectional, party. Its
success alienated and threatened the South.

The Election of 1856

The Republicans’ first test of strength came in the presidential election of
1856. Their nominee was a California senator, the explorer and “Pathfinder,”
John C. Frémont. The Republican platform called for no expansion of slavery,
free homesteads, and a probusiness protective tariff. The Know-Nothingsalso
competed strongly in this clection, with their candidate, former President
Millard Fillmore, winning 20 percent of the popular votc.

As the one major national party; the Democrats expected to win. They
nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, rejecting President Pierce and
Stephen Douglas because they were too closely identified with the controversial
Kansas-Nebraska Act. As expected, the Democrats won a majority of the
popular and electoral vote. The Republicans made a strong showing for a
sectional party. In the Electoral College, Frémont carried 11 of the 16 free
states. Some predicted that the antislavery Republicans could win the White
House without a single vote from the South.

‘The election of 1856 foreshadowed the emergence of a powerful political
party that would win all butfour presidential elections between 1860 and 1932,

Constitutional Issues

Both the Democrats’ position of popular sovereignty and the Republicans’
stand against the expansion of slavery received serious blows during the
Buchanan administration (1857-1861). Republicans attacked Buchanan as a
weak president.

292 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Lecompton Constitution

One of Buchanan's frst challenges as president in 1857 was to decide whether
1o accept or reject a proslavery state constitution for Kansas submitted by
the Southern legislature at Lecompton. Buchanan knew that the Lecompton
Constitution, as it was called, did not have majority support. Even so, he asked
Congress to accept the document and admit Kansas as a slave state. Congress
did not do so because many Democrats, including Stephen Douglas, joined
with the Republicans in rejecting the constitution. The next year, 1858, the
proslavery document was overwhelmingly rejected by Kansas settlers, most of
whom were antislavery Republicans.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Congressional folly and presidential ineptitude contributed to the sectional
crisis of the 1850s. Then the Supreme Court worsened the crisis when it
infuriated many Northerners with a controversial proslavery decision in the
case of an enslaved man named Dred Scott. Scott had been held in slavery in
Missouri and then taken to the free territory of Wisconsin, where he lived for
two years before returning to Missouri. Arguing that hs residence on free soil
made hima free citizen, Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri in 1846. The case
worked its way through the court system. It finally reached the Supreme Court,
which rendered its decision in March 1857, only two days after Buchanan was
sworn in as president.

Presiding over the Court was Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Southern
Democrat. A majority of the Court decided against Scott and gave these
reasons:

« Dred Scott had no right to sue in a federal court because the Framers of
the Constitution did not intend African Americans to be US. citizens.

« Congress did not have the power to deprive any person of property
without due process of law: If slaves were a form of property, then
Congress could not exclude slavery from any federal territory.

« The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded
slavery from Wisconsin and other Northern territories.

‘The Court’s ruling delighted Southern Democrats and infuriated Northern
Republicans. In effcct, the Court declared all parts of the Western territories
open to slavery. Republicans denounced the decision as “the greatest crime
in the annals of the republic” The timing of the decision, after Buchanan's
inauguration, led Northerners to suspect the Democratic president and
majority on the Supreme Court, including Taney: had planned the decision so
that it would settle the slavery question. This increased Northern suspicions
of a conspiracy and induced thousands of Democrats to vote Republican.
Northern Democrats such as Senator Douglas were left with the impossible task
of supporting popular sovereignty without rejecting the Dred Scot decision.
Douglas’s hopes for compromise and the presidency were in jeopardy.

TOPIC 56 FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 293
Lincoln-Douglas Debates

In 1858, the focus of the nation was on Stephen Douglas’s campaign for
reelection as senator from Tlinois. Challenging him was a successful trial
lawyer and former member of the Illinois legislature, Abraham Lincoln, as the
Republican candidate. Lincoln had served one term in Congress in the 18405
as a Whig. Nationally, he was an unknown compared to Douglas (the Little
Giant), who was the champion of popular sovereignty and possibly the best
hope for holding the nation together if elected president in 1860.

Lincoln was not an abolitionist. As a moderate who was against the
expansion of slavery, he spoke effectively of slavery as a moral issue. (“If
slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”) Accepting the Illinois Republicans’
nomination, he delivered his celebrated “house-divided” speech that won him
fame. “I believe this government,” said Lincoln, “cannot endure, permanently
half slave and half free,” a statement that made Southerners view Lincoln as a
radical. In seven campaign debates in different Illinois towns, Lincoln shared
the platform with his famous opponent, Douglas. The Republican challenger
attacked Douglas’s indifference to slavery as a moral issue.

In a debate in Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile
popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. In what became known as
the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas responded that slavery could not exist in a
community if the local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes) maintaining
it. His views angered Southern Democrats because, from their point of view,
Douglas did not go far enough in supporting the implications of the Dred Scott
decision.

Douglas won his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate. In the long run,
however, he lost ground in his own party by alienating Southern Democrats.
Lincoln, on the other hand, emerged from the debates as  national figure and
a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain the political causes for the Civil War.

KEY TERMS BY THEME

Battle forthe Teritories  Kansas-Nebraska Act Stavery (POL, ARC)

(MIG, POL) Politics in Crisis (POL)  Dred Scott v. Sandford
New England Emigrant Ald — rankin pierce Roger Taney

Company Know:Nothing Party Lincoln-Douglas debates
bloeding Kansas' Repulian Party Abraham Lincoln
Pottawatomie Creek [ house-divided speech
Lecompton Consttuion et e £ Freeport Doctrine
Compromising (POL)  James Buchanan Violent Responses (POL)
Stephen A. Douglas Sumner-Brooks incident

294 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-2 refer to the following excerpt.

“Mr. President . .. 1 proposed on Tuesday last, that the Senate should
proceed to the consideration of the bill to organize the Territories of
Nebraska and Kansas . .

Now I ask the friends and the opponents of this measure to look at it as
it i. Is not the question involved the simple one, whether the people of
the Territories shall be allowed to do as they please upon the question of
slavery, subject only to the limitations of the Constitution? ..

If the principle s right, let it be avowed and maintained. If i is wrong, let
it be repudiated. Let all this quibbling about the Missouri Compromise,
about the territory acquired from France, about the act of 1820, be cast
behind you; for the simple question is, will you allow the people to legislate
for themselves upon the subject of slavery? Why should you not?”

Stephen A. Douglas, Defense of the Kansas Nebraska Bill, 1854

1. Which of the following ideas best describes what Douglas is proposing
in this excerpt?

(A) ‘The theme of The Impending Crisis of the South
(B) The concept of popular sovereignty
(©) The right of a state to secede
(D) ‘The distinction betsween a territory and a state.
2. Opponents of Douglas’s views in this excerpt were mainly concerned
that
(A) the Supreme Court had ruled popular sovereignty unconstitutional

(B) Congress was repealing a law that had held the Union together for
more than 30 years

(©) the president would not fully support implementation of a new law

(D) European powers would object to the possibility of slavery's
expansion

TOPIC 56 FAILURE OF COMPROMISE 295
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.
Question 1 is based on the following excerpts.

1. “The country had been founded in compromise, and to compromise it was
dedicated. . .. But this conception of compromise was in trouble, and the
word would ... become an epithet.

‘The underlying issue was the Norths increasing power. And that power
endangered slavery. Secessionists worried if slavery did not expand into
the territories, the black population would stay where it was, bottled up
and likely to explode. Fear motivated them. That is to say, racial anxiety
was as pervasive as economic anxiety when it came to secession, though it
was hard to separate the two, for they were threaded together with the rope
that bound secessionists and many Southerners to their land, their way of
life, their mint juleps, and their pride of race.

Lincolnis clection was thus not so much the cause of secession as its
excuses institutional restraints (read: the federal government) had insulted
Southerners, imperiled their way oflife, and held them in thrall to Northern
financiers who had forced planters to buy goods in a protected market.

Brenda Wineapple, Ecstatic Nation, 2013

“During the 1850s, however, the forces that had worked to hold the nation
together in the past fell victim to new and much more divisive pressures
that were working to splt the nation apart. Driving the sectional tensions
of the 18505 was a battle over national policy toward the western territories
which were clamoring to become states of the Union—and over the place
of slavery within them. Should slavery be permitted in the new states? And
who should decide whether to permit it or not? . .. Positions on slavery
continued to harden in both the North and South until ultimately each
region came to consider the other its enemy”

Alan Brinkiey: American History, 2003

Using the excerpts, answer (a), (b), and (c).

(@) Briefly explain ONE major difference between Wineapple's and
Brinkley’s historical interpretations of Manifest Destiny.

(b) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1848 to 1861 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Wineapple's interpretation.

(©) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1848 to 1861 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Brinkley's interpretation.

296 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Topic 5.7

Election of 1860 and Secession

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this
quilty land will never be purged away but with blood.

John Brown, December 1859

Learning Objective: Describe the effects of Lincoln's election.

I Northern states outside of Hinois where Douglas and the Democrats
defeated Lincoln, the Republicans did well in the congressional elections of
1858. This greatly alarmed many Southerners. They worried not only about
the antislavery plank in the Republicans' program but also about that party’s
economic program, which favored Northern industrialists at the expense of
the South. The higher tariffs pledged by the Republicans would help Northern
businesses but hurt the South, which depended on exporting cotton. The
events leading up to Lincoln's election and the secession of eleven Southern
states from the Union set the stage for war.

The Road to Secession

Southern fears grew that a Republican victory in 1860 would spell disaster
for their economy and threaten their “constitutional right;”as affirmed by the
Supreme Court, to own enslaved people as property. Adding to their fears were
Northern radicals supporting John Brown, the man who had massacred five
farmers in Kansas in 1856.

John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry
John Brown confirmed the Southis worst fears of radical abolitionism when he
tried to start an uprising of enslaved people in Virginia. In October 1859, he led
a small band of followers, including his four sons and some formerly enslaved
people, to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. His impractical plan was
to use guns from the arsenal to arm Virginia’s enslaved African Americans,
whom he expected to rise up in revolt. Federal troops under the command of
Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his band after a two-day siege. Brown and
six of his followers were tried for treason by the state of Virginia. At the trial,
Brown spoke with simple eloquence of his humanitarian motives in wanting to
free enslaved people. However, he was convicted and hanged.

Brown's raid divided Northerners. Moderates condemned his use of
violence, while abolitionists hailed him as a martyr. Southern whites saw the
raid, and Northern support o it,as final proof of the North’s true intentions—
to use slave revolts to destroy the South,

TOPIC 5.7 ELECTION OF 1860 AND SECESSION 297
The Election of 1860

After John Brown's raid, more and more Americans feared that their country was
moving to disintegration. The presidential clection of 1860 would test the Union.

Breakup of the Democratic Party As 1860 began, the Democratic Party
represented the last hope for compromise. The Democrats held their national
convention in Charleston, South Carolina. Stephen Douglas was the party's
leading candidate and the most capable of winning the presidency. Blocking
his nomination were angry Southerners and supporters of President Buchanan.

After deadlocking at Charleston, the Democrats held a second convention
in Baltimore. Many delegates from the slave states walked out, enabling the
remaining delegates to nominate Douglas on a platform of popular sovereignty
and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Southern Democrats then held
their own convention in Baltimore and nominated Vice President John C.
Breckinridge of Kentucky as their candidate. The Southern Democratic
platform called for the unrestricted extension of slavery in the territories and
annexation of Cuba, a Spanish colony that til practiced slavery.

Republican Nomination of Lincoln When the Republicans met in
Chicago, they enjoyed hopes of an easy win over the divided Democrats. They
drafted a platform that appealed to the economic self-interest of Northerners
and Westerners. They called for the exclusion of slavery from the territorics,
a protective tariff for industry, free land for homesteaders, and internal

mprovements to encourage Western settlement, including a railroad to the
Pacific. To win moderates on slavery, they rejected the well-known New York
Senator William Seward, a strong opponent of slavery. They turned to a litle-
known linois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, a strong debater. They believed that
Lincoln could carry the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. One
cloud darkened the Republicans’otherwise bright future. In the South, radicals
warned that if the country elected Lincoln, their states would leave the Union.

A Fourth Political Party Fearing a Republican victory, a group of former
Whigs, Know-Nothings, and moderate Democrats formed a new party: the
Constitutional Union Party. For president, they nominated John Bell of
Tennessee and pledged enforcement of the laws and the Constitution and,
above all, preservation of the Union.

Election Results While Douglas campaigned across the country, Lincoln
remained at home in Springfield, Tlinois, meeting with Republican leaders and
givingstatements o the press. The election results were predictable. Lincoln carried
every fiee state of the North, which represented a solid majority of 59 percent of
the electoral votes. Breckinridge, the Southern Democrat, carried the Deep South,
leaving Douglas and Bell with just a few electoral votes in the border states.

However, Lincoln won only 39.8 percent of the popular vote, so he would
be a minority president. The new political reality was that the populous free
states had enough electoral votes to elect a president without any electoral votes
from the South. Southern fears that the North would dominate the federal
government—and could soon threaten slavery—appeared to be coming true.

298 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Secession of the Deep South

In 1860, Republicans controlled neither the Senate nor the Supreme Court.
Even so, the election of Lincoln was all that Southern secessionists needed to
call for immediate disunion. In December 1860, a special convention in South
Carolina voted unanimously to secede, saying they needed to protect slavery.
Within six weeks, state conventions in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Texas did the same. In several states, particularly Georgia and
Alabama, many people were uncertain about or opposed to secession. However,
large slaveowners, arguing that states had a right to defend slavery, prevaled.

In February 1861, representatives of the seven states of the Deep South et
in Montgomery, Alabama, and created the Confederate States of America. The
constitution of this Southern country was like the US. Constitution, except
that the Confederacy placed limits on the governments power to impose tariffs
and restrict slavery. Elected president and vice president were Jefferson Davis
of Mississippi and Alexander Stephens of Georgia.

THE ELECTION OF 1860

e Uperrm, A

Electoral votes ~ Popular votes.

[ Lincoin (Rep) 180 1,866,000
[ Dougias (No. Dem) 2 1,475,000
[ Brockinrdge (S0.Dem) 72 848,000
[ Bell (Const. Union) B 591,000

Crittenden Compromise A lame-duck president (a leader completing a
term after someone else has been elected to his or her office), Buchanan had five
‘months in office before Lincoln succeeded him. Buchanan was a conservative
who did nothing to prevent the secession. Congress was more active. In a last-
ditch effort to appease the South, Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed
a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to hold slaves in

TOPIC 57 ELECTION OF 1860 AND SECESSION 299
all territories south of the old Missouri Compromise line, 36°30". Lincoln,
however, said that he could not accept this compromise because it violated the
Republican position against extension of slavery into the territorics

Southern Whites who voted for secession believed they were acting in
the tradition of the Revolution of 1776. They argued that they had a right to
national independence and to dissolve a consitutional compact that no longer
protected them from the “tyranny” of Northern rule. Many also thought that
Lincoln, like Buchanan, might permit secession without a fight. Those who
thought this had badly miscalculated.

A Nation Divided

When Lincoln took office as the president in March 1861, people wondered if
he would challenge the secession militarily. In his inaugural address, Lincoln
assured Southerners that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed.
Atthe same time, he warned, no state had the right to break up the Union. He
appealed for restraint: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.

Fort Sumter

Despite the president’s message of conciliation, the danger of a war was acute.

Critical was the status of federal forts in states that had seceded. Fort Sumter,
in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, was cut off by Southern control of
the harbor. Rather than either giving up Fort Sumier or attempting to defend it,
Lincoln announced that he was sending provisions of food to the small federal
garrison. He thus gave South Carolina the choice of cither permitting the fort
10 hold out or opening fire. Carolinas guns thundered and thus, on April 12,
1861, the war began. The attack on Fort Sumter and ts capture after two days of
pounding united most Northerners behind a patriotic fight to save the Union.

Secession of the Upper South

Before South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter, only seven states of the Deep South
had seceded. After it was clear that Lincoln would use troops to defend the
Union, four states of the Upper South—Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
and Arkansas—seceded and joined the Confederacy. As in the earlier states,
the decision to secede was controversial. The Confederates then moved their
capital to Richmond, Virginia. The people of western Virginia remained loyal
to the Union, becoming a separate state in 1863,

Keeping the Border States in the Union

Four other slaveholding states remained in the Union. The decisions of
Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky nof o join the Confederacy were
partly a result of pro-Union sentiment in those states and partly the result of
shrewd federal policies. In Maryland, pro-secessionists attacked Union troops
and threatened the railroad to Washington. The Union army resorted to martial

300 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
law to keep the state under federal control. In Missour, US. troops prevented
the pro-South clements from gaining control, although guerrilla forces for
the Confederacy were active during the war. In Kentucky, the state legislature
voted to remain neutral. Lincoln initialy respected its neutrality and waited for
the South to violate it before moving in federal troops.

Keeping the border states in the Union was a military and political goal for
Lincoln. Their loss would increase the Confederate population by 50 percent
and weaken the Northis strategic position. Partly to avoid alienating Unionists
in the border states, Lincoln rejected initial calls for the emancipation of slaves.

% HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: WHAT CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR?

Was slavery the primary cause of the Civil War? In the decades after the war,
Northern historians argued emphatically that the Souths attachment to slavery
wasthe principal,if not the only,cause. They blamed the war on a conspiracy of
slave owners—a small minority of Southerners—who wanted only to expand
slavery at the expense of White and Black Americans alike.

Southern historians, on the other hand, viewed the conflict between the
two sections, North and South, as  dispute over the nature of the Constitution.
‘They argued that Northern politicians violated the original compact of the
states by attacking their property rights (the ownership of enslaved people).
Therefore, the Southern states had to secede to defend their constitutional
rights and escape tyranny of the Northern majority.

By the early 20th century, passions had cooled on both sides, and scholars
of the Progressive era (1900-1917) thought economic interests were the
foundation of all political conflict. The Civil War, then, was a clash between
two opposing cconomic systems: the industrial North versus the agricultural
South. They downplayed the divisive issue of slavery.

American disillusionment with World War I led historians to question
whether the Civil War was necessary o inevitable. Previously, people had
assumed that the Civil War was an “irrepressible conflict” In the 19205
and 19305, historians challenged that assumption, arguing that blundering
politicians and fanaticism on both sides, such as radical abolitionists in the
North and secessionists in the South, were chiefly responsible for the war. The
leaders admired from this perspective were politicians of the 1850s who worked
for compromise, such as Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas. They criticized
Lincoln for his passionate “house-divided” speech.

In the 19505 and 1960s, the civil rights movement provided the backdrop for
rethinking the causes of the Civil War. Historians who were affected by African
Americans’ struggles for civil rights returned to the view that slavery was the
chief cause of disunion afier all. Arthur Schlesinge, Jr, a leading historian
of the 1950, argued: “A society closed in the defense of evil institutions thus
creates moral differences far too profound to be solved by compromise. In this
view, slavery was an inherently evil institution and the root of a conflict that
was indeed “irrepressible?”

TOPIC 57 ELECTION OF 1860 AND SECESSION 301
REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain the consequences of Lincoln’s election.

KEY TERMS BY THEME

Violent Responses Consitutionsl Union Party  The Break (NAT, POL)
(PoL) John Bell border states

John Brown secession The Fighting

Harpers Ferry Compromising (POL) (POL, GEO, CUL)

Politicsn Crisis (POL)  Critenden Compromise Fort Sumter

John C. Breckenridge.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-2 refer to the following excerpt.

“Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that
by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their
peace and personal security are endangered. There has never been any
reasonable cause for such apprehension.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the
‘momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You
can have no conflict without being yourself the aggressors. You have no
oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the
most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it

Abraham Lincoln, Fist Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

1. Which of the following actions by the Confederates was the first sign of

their rejection of Lincoln's words in the excerpt above?

(4) The secession of seven states in the Deep South

(B) The decision to locate the Confederate capital in Virginia
(©) ‘The adoption of a new constitution by the Confederacy
(D) The attack on Fort Sumter by South Carolina

2. The position of Lincoln and the Republicans on which of the following
issues caused the greatest fear among Southern defenders of slavery?

(A) The extension of slavery into the territories
(B) The Fugitive Slave Act

(C) The slave trade in Washington, D.C.

(D) The Dred Scott decision

302 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. “[In the Civil War) great issues were at stake, issues about which
Americans were willing to fight and die, issues whose resolution
profoundly transformed and redefined the United States. The Civil War
was a total war in three senses: It mobilized the total human and material
resources of both sides; it ended not in a negotiated peace but in total
Victory by one side and unconditional surrender by the other; it destroyed
the economy and social system of the loser and established those of the
winner as the norm for the future. .

‘The North went to war to preserve the Unions it ended by creating a nation.”

James M. McPherson, historian, A War That Never Goes
Away!” American Heritage, March 1990

“Should we consecrate a war that killed and maimed over a million
Americans? Or should we question . . . whether this was really a war of
necessity that justified its appalling costs? . ..

Very few Northerners went to war seeking or anticipating the destruction
of slavery. They fought for the Union, and the Emancipation Proclamation
was a means to that end: a desperate measure to undermine the South and
save a democratic nation that Lincoln called ‘the last, best hope of earth.

From the distance of 150 years, Lincoln's transcendent vision at Gettysburg
of a ‘new birth of freedom’ seems premature. . . . Rather than simply
consecrate the dead with words, he said, it s for ‘us the living'to rededicate
ourselves to the unfinished work of the Civil War?”

Tony Horwitz,journalist and writer, “150 Years of
Misunderstanding the Civil War?” The Atlantic June 2013

Using the excerpts, answer (a), (b), and (¢).

(@) Briefly explain ONE major difference between McPherson’s and
Horwitz's historical interpretations of the Civil War.

(b) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development from the
period 1861 to 1865 not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports
McPherson’s interpretation.

(©) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development from the
period 1861 to 1865 not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports
Horwitz's interpretation.

TOPIC 57 ELECTION OF 1860 AND SECESSION 303
Topic 5.8

Military Conflict in the Civil War

Itis enough to make the whole world start to see the awful amount
of death and destruction that now stalks abroad. | see no signs of a
remission till one or both the armies are destroyed.

General Willom T Sherman, June 1664

Learning Objective: Explain the various factors that contributed to the.
Union victory in the Civil War.

The Civit War between the Union and the Confederacy (1861-1865) was the
costliest American war in terms of the loss of human life, esulting in the deaths
of 750,000 people. Most important, the Civil War freed 4 million enslaved
African Americans, giving the nation what President Lincoln called a “new
birth of freedom.” The war also transformed American society by accelerating
industrialization and modernization in the North and destroying much of the
South. These changes were so fundamental and profound that some historians
refer to the Civil War as the Second American Revolution.

War

Less than 100 years after fighting a war to establish their republic, the Union
and the Confederacy each entered the Civil War with strengths and weaknesses.

Military Differences The Confederacy started with the advantage of
having to fight only a defensive war to win, while the Union had to conquer
an area as large as Western Europe. The Confederacy had to move troops and
supplies shorter distances than the Union. It had a long, indented coastline that
was difficult to blockade, experienced military leaders, and high troop morale.

‘The Unionis population of 22 million against the Confederate’s of 5.5
million free Whites would work to ts favor in a war of atrition. Its population
advantage was aided by 800,000 immigrants, and emancipation brought
180,000 African Americans into the Union army. The Union could also count
on a loyal US. Navy, which ultimately gave it command of the rivers and
territorial waters.

Economic Differences The Union dominated the nation's economy,
controlling most of the banking and capital of the country; 85 percent of the
factories, 70 percent of the railroads, and 65 percent of the farmland. The skills
of Northern clerks and bookkeepers proved valuable in the logistical support
of military operations. Confederates hoped that European demand for its

304 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
cotton wuld bring recognition and financial aid. Like other rebel movements
in history, the Confederates counted on outside help to be successful.

Political Differences The two sides had distinct goals. The Confederates
were struggling for independence, while the Union was fighting to preserve
the Union. But states’righs proved a liabilty for the Confederate government;
to win the war, they needed a strong central government with strong public
support. They had neither, while the Union had an established central
government. The ultimate hope of the Confederates was that the people of
the Union would turn against Lincoln and the Republicans and quit the war
because it was too costly.

‘The Confederate States of America The Confederate constitution was
modeled after the US. Constitution, but it denied the Confederate congress
the powers to levy a protective tariff and to appropriate funds for internal
improvements. However, it did prohibit the foreign slave trade. President
Jefferson Davis tried to increase his executive powers during the war, but
Southern governors resisted his attempts, some holding back troops and
resources to protect their own states. At one point, Vice President Alexander
H. Stephens, in defense of states' rights, even urged the secession of Georgia in
response to the “despotic” actions of the Confederate government.

The Confederacy was chronically short of money. It tried loans, income
taxes, and even impressment of private property, but these revenues paid only a
part of war costs. The government issued more than $1 billion in paper money,
causing severe inflation. By war’s end, a Confederate dollar was worth less
than two cents. The Confederate congress nationalized railroads to promote
industrial growth, but it was not enough. In a war of atrition, the Confederacy
faced the challenge of makingis resourceslast until the Union stopped fighting.

First Years of a Long War: 1861-1862
People at first expected the war to last no more than weeks. Lincoln called the
first volunteers for a period of only 90 days. “On to Richmond!” was the cry,
but it would take four years of fighting before Union troops marched into the
Confederate capital.

Union Strategy General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, veteran of the 1812 and
Mexican wars, devised a three-part strategy for winning a long war:

« Use the US. Navy to blockade Southern ports (called the Anaconda

Plan), cutting off essential supplies from reaching the Confederacy

« Take control of the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy in two
+ Raise and train an army 500,000 strong to conquer Richmond

‘The first two parts of the strategy proved casier to achieve than the third,
but ultimately all three were important in achieving Northern victory.

Afierthe Union's defeat at Bull Run, federal armies experienced a succession
of crushing defeats as they attempled various campaigns in Virginia.

TOPIC 58 MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE CIVIL WAR 305
First Battle of Bull Run In the first major battle of the war (July 1861),
30,000 federal troops marched from Washington, D.C, to attack Confederate
forces near Bull Run Creek at Manassas Junction, Virginia. As the Union forces
seemed close to victory, Confederate reinforcements under General Thomas
(tonewall) Jackson counterattacked and sent the inexperienced Union troops
in disorderly flight back to Washington. The battle ended the illusion of a short
war and also promoted the myth that the rebels were invincible in battle.

Peninsula Campaign General George B. McClellan, the new commander
of the Union army in the East,insisted that his troops be given a long period of
training before going into batle. Finally, afier many delays that tested Lincoln's
patience, McClellan's army invaded Virginia in March 1862. The Union army
was stopped by brilliant tactical moves by Confederate general Robert E. Lee,
the commander of the South's eastern forces. After five months, McClellan was
forced to retreat and was ordered back to the Potomac, where he was replaced
by General John Pope.

THE CIVIL WAR: THE UNION VS. THE CONFEDERACY

[ coetrrer [ i e

Fe woorvose e

Second Battle of Bull Run Lee struck quickly against Popes army in
Northern Virginia. He drew Pope into a trap, struck the enemy’ flank, and
sent the Union army back to Bull Run. Pope withdrew to defend Washington.

306 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION

Antietam Following his victory at Bull Run, Lee led his army across the
Potomac into Maryland. He hoped that a Confederate victory in a Union state
would convince Britain to give recognition and support to the Confederacy.
By this time (September 1862), Lincoln had restored McClellan to command.
McClellan had the advantage of knowing Lee's plan because a copy of it had been
dropped accidentally by a Confederate officer. The Union army intercepted the
Confederates at Antietam Creek in the Maryland town of Sharpsburg. Here
the bloodiest single day of combat in the entire war took place, with more than
22,000 soldiers killed or wounded.

Unable to break through Union lines, Lees army retreated to Virginia.
Disappointed with McClellan for failing to pursue Lees army, Lincoln removed
him for the final time as the Union commander.

‘While essentially a draw on the battlefield, Antietam was among the most
significant battles of the war. Because the Confederates did not win, they
failed to get what they so urgently needed—recognition and aid from Great
Britain and France. Because the Union did not lose, Lincoln found enough
encouragement in a Union victory. As explained in Topic 5.9, Lincoln used the
partial triumph to announce a direct assault on the institution of slavery.

Fredericksburg ReplacingMcClellanwith theaggressive General Ambrose
Burnside, Lincoln discovered that a strategy of reckless attack could have cven
worse consequences than McClellan's strategy of caution. In December 1862, a
Union army under Burnside attacked Lees army at Fredericksburg, Virginia,
and suffered immense losses: 12,000 dead or wounded compared to 5,000
Confederate casualties. Both Union and Confederate generals were slow to
learn that improved weaponry took the romance out of heroic charges against
entrenched positions. By the end of 1862, the awful magnitude of the war was
all too clear—with no prospect of victory for cither side.

‘The second year of war, 1862, was a disastrous one for the Union except for
two engagements, one at sea and the other on the rivers of the West

Monitor vs. Merrimac The Union's hopes for winning the war depended
upon its ability to maximize its economic advantages by an effective blockade
of Confederate ports (the Anaconda Plan). During McClellans Peninsula
campaign, the Unions blockade strategy was jeopardized by an unusual
Confederate ship, the Merrimac, that attacked and sank several Union ships
near Hampton Roads, Virginia. Unlike the standard wooden ships of the
day, the Merrimac was covered with metal plates. The “ironclad” seemed
unstoppable. However, on March 9, 1862, the Union’s own ironclad, the
Monitor, engaged the Merrimac in a five-hour duel. The battle ended in a draw,
but the Monitor prevented the Confederates’ new weapon from breaking the
US. naval blockade. The two ships marked a turning point in naval warfare, as
ironclad ships replaced wooden ones.

Grant in the West The battle of the ironclads occurred at about the same.
timeas a bloodier encounter was taking place in western Tennessce. The Union's
campaign for control of the Mississippi River was partly under the command

TOPIC 58  MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE CIVIL WA 307
of a West Point graduate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had joined up for the war after
an unsuccessful civilian career. Striking south from Iilinois in early 1862, Grant
used a combination of gunboats and army maneuvers to capture Fort Henry
and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River (a branch of the Mississippi).
‘These stunning victories, in which 14,000 Confederate soldiers were taken
prisoner, opened up the state of Mississippi o Union attack.

A flew weeks later, a Confederate army under Albert Johnston surprised
Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee, but the Union army forced the Confederates to
retreat afte terrible losses on both sides (more than 23,000 dead and wounded).
Grant’s drive down the Mississippi was complemented in April 1862 by the
capture of New Orleans by the Union navy under David Farragut.

Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy

‘The Confederacy’s hopes for independence hinged as much on s diplomats as
on soldiers. Confederate leaders expected that cotton would prove to be “king”
and induce Britain or France, or both, to give aid to their war effort. Besides
cotton for their textile mills, wealthy British industrialists and aristocrats
looked forward to ending the American democratic experiment. From the
Union's point of view, it was critically important to prevent the Confederacy
from gaining the foreign support and recognition that it desperately needed.

Trent Affair Britain came close to siding with the Confederacy in late
1861 over an incident at sea. Confederate diplomats James Mason and John
Slidell were traveling to England on a British steamer, the Trent, on a mission
to gain recognition for their government. A Union warship stopped the British
ship, removed Mason and Slidell, and brought them to the United States as
prisoners of war. Britain threatened war over the incident unless the diplomats
were released. Despite intense criticism, Lincoln gave in to British demands.
Mason and Slidell were set free, but they failed to obtain full recognition of the
Confederacy from either Britain o France.

Confederate Raiders The British did allow the Confederates to purchase
warships from British shipyards. These commerce-raiders did serious harm
to US. merchant ships. One of them, the Alabama, captured more than 60
Vessels before being sunk off the coast of France by a Union warship. Afier the
war, Great Britain eventually agreed to pay the United States $15.5 million for
‘damages caused by Confederate attacks in ships built in Britain.

Failure of Cotton Diplomacy In the end, the Confederacy’s hopes for
European intervention were disappoined. * not have the
power, as Europe quickly found ways of obtaining cotton from other sources.
Shipments of cotton began arriving from Egypt and India for the British textile
industry. Also, other materials could be used for textiles, and the woolen and
linen industries took advantage of this opportunity.

Two other factors went into Britains decision not to recognize the
Confederacy. First, General Les setback at Antietam played a role. Without
a decisive Confederate victory, the British government would not risk

308 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
recognition. Second, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (January 1863)
made the end of slavery an objective of the Union, which appealed strongly to
Britain's working class. While conservative leaders of Britain were sympathetic
to the Confederacy, they could not defy the pro-Northern, antislavery feclings
of the British majority.

The Union Triumphs, 1863-1865

By carly 1863, the fortunes of war were turning against the Confederacy.
Although General Lee started the year with a victory at Chancellorsville,
Virginia, the Confederate economy was in bad shape as planters lost control of
their slave labor, and an increasing number of starving soldicrs were deserting
the Confederate army.

Turning Point

‘The decisive turning point in the war came in the first week of July when the
Confederacy suffered two crushing defeats in the West and the East.

Vicksburg In the West, by the spring of 1863, Union forces controlled
New Orleans as well as most of the Mississippi River and surrounding valle
‘The Union objective of securing complete control of the Mississippi River
was close when General Grant began his siege of the heavily fortified city
of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union artillery bombarded Vicksburg for seven
weeks before the Confederates finally surrendered the city (and nearly
29,000 soldiers) on July 4. Federal warships now controlled the full length of
the Mississippi, which cut off Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the rest
of the Confederacy.

Gettysburg Meanwhile, in the East, Lee again took the offensive by
leading an army into Maryland and Pennsylvania. If he could either destroy the
Union army or capture a major Northern city; Lee hoped to force the Union to
call for peace—or to gain foreign intervention for the Confederacy. On July 1,
1863, the Confederate army surprised Union units at Gettysburg in southern
Pennsylvania. What followed was the most crucial battle of the war and the
bloodiest, with more than 50,000 casualties. Lee’s assault on Union lines on
the second and third days, including a famous but unsuccessful charge led by
George Pickett, proved futile and destroyed part of the Confederate army. Lee's
forces retreated to Virginia, never to regain the offensive.

Grant in Command

In Grant, Lincoln finally found a general who would fight and could win. In
early 1864, he brought Grant east to Virginia and made him commander of
all Union armies. Grant settled on a strategy of war by attrition. He aimed to
wear down the Confederacy’s armies and destroy their lines of supply. Fighting
for months, Grant’s Army of the Potomac suffered heavier casualties than
Lee’s forces in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor.
But Grant succeeded in reducing Lee’s army in each battle and forcing it into

TOPIC5:8  MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE CIVIL WAR 309
a defensive line around Richmond. Rather than a small-scale war “between
gentlemen’ over control of territory, the war had become more like a modern
“total” war in which victory depended on undercutting civilian support for the
opponent’s military.

Sherman's March The chief instrument of Grants aggressive tactics for
subduing the South was the veteran general William Tecumseh Sherman.
Leading a force of 100,000 men, Sherman set out from Chattanooga,
Tennessee, on a campaign of deliberate destruction that went across the state
of Georgia and then swept north into South Carolina. Sherman was a pioneer
of the tactics of total war. Marching through Georgia, his troops destroyed
everything, burning cotton fields, barns, and houses—everything the enemy
might use to survive. Sherman took Atlanta in September 1864 in time to help
incolns reelection. He marched into Savannah in December and completed
his campaign in February 1865 by setting fre to Columbia, the capital of South
Carolina and cradle of secession. Sherman’s march had its intended effect: to
break the spirit of the Confederacy and destroy its will to fight.

The End of the War

‘The effects of the Union blockade, combined with Sherman’s march of
destruction, spread hunger through much of the South in the winter of 1864~
1865. In Virginia, Grant continued to outflank Lee’ lines until they collapsed
around Petersburg, resulting in the fall o Richmond on April 3, 1865. Everyone
knew the end was near.

Surrenderat Appomattox The Confederate government tried to negotiate
for peace. However, Lincoln would accept nothing short of restoration of the
Union, and Jefferson Davis still demanded nothing less than independence.
Lee retreated from Richmond with an army of fewer than 30,000 men. He tried
to escape to the mountains, only to be cut off and forced to surrender to Grant
at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The Union general
treated his longtime enemy with respect and allowed Lee’s men to return to
their homes with their horses.

till to be seen were the long-term effects of the war. What would be the
impact of the many changes led by Lincoln and his government on the policies,
laws, and society of the United States? What would the nearly 4 million African
Americans freed from slavery do as free people? What would happen to
American democracy?

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain several reasons for the Union victory in the Civil War.

310 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
KEY TERMS BY THEME

The Break (NAT, POL) Fredericksburg
Confederate States of America Monitor vs. erimac
Jefferson Davis Ulysses 5. Grant

‘exander H.Stephens. Shion

Second American Revoluton David Farragut

The Fighting (POL, GEO) Vicksburg

BullRun Getyshurg

‘Thomas (Stonewal) Jackson ‘Sherman's March

Winfed Scott Wiliam Tecumseh Sherman
Anaconda Plan Appomattox Court House
George B. McClellan War Diplomacy (WOR)
Robert . Lee Trent Afir

Antetam Aabama

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3 refer to the following excerpt.

“We drift fast toward war with England, but I think we shall not reach
that point. The shopkeepers who own England want to do s all harm
they can and to give all possible aid and comfort to our slave-breeding
and woman-flogging adversary, for England has degenerated into a trader;
‘manufacturer, and banker, and has lost all the instincts and sympathies
that her name still suggests

She cannot ally herself with slavery, as she inclines to do, without closing,
a profitable market, exposing her commerce to [Yankee] privateers, and
diminishing the supply of [Northern] breadstuffs on which her operatives
depend for life. On the other side, however, is the consideration that by
allowing piratical Alabamas to be built, armed, and manned in her ports to
prey on our commerce, she is making a great deal of money

George Templeton Strong, New York lawyer, Diary; 1863

1. A major part of the Confederate strategy for winning independence was
based on

(4) building a modern navy to break the Union blockade
(B) developing factories to manufacture weapons

(C) encircling the Union capital, Washington, D.C.

(D) winning recognition and support from Great Britain

TOPIC 58 MILITARY CONFLICT INTHE CIVIL AR 311
2. Which of the following describes a reason not mentioned by Strong in this
excerpt that discouraged Britain from recognizing the Confederacy?

(A) Concern about retaliation by British leaders in Canada
(B) Desire for closer ties with Mexico by British investors
(©) Respect for the Monroe Doctrine by the British public
(D) Opposition to slavery among the British working class
3. The Union was most disturbed because they believed that Britain was
supporting the Confederates by doing which of the following?
(A) Allowing British shipyards to build warships for the Confederacy
(B) Transporting Confederate diplomats on British ships
(C) Lending money to Confederate states
(D) Supplying food to the Confederate army

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Question 1 is based on the following cartoon.

Source: . i, 1861, Ly ofCongrss

Using the cartoon, answer (a), (b), and (c).

(a) Briefly explain ONE perspective expressed by the author of this
political cartoon.

(b) Briefly explain ONE historical event or development in the period
1861 to 1865 that resulted from the Union strategy to win the war.

(©) Briefly explain ONE specific part of the Confederate strategy to
counteract the Union strategy illustrated here.

312 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Topic 5.9

Government Policies During
the Civil War

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion.
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1862

Learning Objective: Explain how Lincoln's leadership during the Civi
Wer impacted American ideals over the course of the war.

More than any previous president, Lincoln acted in unprecedented ways,
drawing upon his powers as both chief executive and commander in chief,
often without the authorization or approval of Congress. For example, right
after the Fort Sumter crisis he (1) called for 75,000 volunteers to put down
the “insurrection’ in the Confederacy, (2) authorized spending for a war, and
(3) suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Since Congress was
not in session, the president acted completely on his own authority, explai
that it was “indispensable to the public safety.”

The End of Slavery

Though Lincoln in the 1850s spoke out against slavery as “an unqualified evil,”
as president he hesitated to take action against slavery. Lincolns concerns
included (1)a wish to keep the support of the border states, 2) the constitutional
protections of slavery, (3) the racial prejudice of many Northerners, and
(4) the fear that premature action could be overturned in the next election.
All these concerns made the timing and method of ending slavery difficult.
Enslaved individuals were freed during the war as a result of military events,
governmental policy, and their own actions.

Confiscation Acts

Early in the war (May 1861), several enslaved people escaped to the Union lines.
General Benjamin Butler refused to return them to their Confederate owners,
arguing that their labor could be used to help the Confederates. Therefore, they
were “contraband,” and he was not required to return them. Building on this
example, Congress passed two laws known as the Confiscation Acts:

TOPIC 5.9 GOVERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE CIVIL WAR 313
« The law passed in August 1861 gave the Union army the power o seize
enemy property, including enslaved people, used to wage war against
the United States. The law also empowered the president to use those
freed in the Union army in any capacity, including battle.

+ The law passed in July 1862 freed persons enslaved by any individual in
rebellion against the United States.

Because of these laws, thousands of “contrabands” were using their feet to
escape slavery by going into Union camps. As they did, they added pressure on
the Union to abolish slavery. At the same time, they deprived the Confederacy
of badly needed laborers to grow food to avoid starvation.

Emancipation Proclamation

By July 1862, Lincoln had decided to use his powers as commander in chief
1o free all enslaved persons in the states then at war. He justified his policy as
a “military necessity” However, he worried that such a move would alicnate
conservative Northerners who were pro-Union and pro-slavery. Furthermore,
the action might look desperate if it came when the army was losing battles,
50 he delayed announcement of the policy: At the same time, he encouraged
the border states to plan for emancipation that provided compensation to the
owners. No one proposed providing compensation to the freedpeople.

Afier the Confederates retreated at the Batle of Antietam on September 22,
1862, Lincoln issued a warning that slaves in states still in rebellion on January
1,1863, would be “then, thenceforward, and forever free” On the first day of
the new year, 1863, he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which stated:

1do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that
the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and
naval authorities thereof, shall recognize and maintain the freedom of said
persons.

Consequences Since the presidents proclamation applied only to the
Confederatestates outside Union control, it freed onlyabout I percentofenslaved
people. Slavery in the border states also continued. Stil, the proclamation was
important because it enlarged the purpose of the war by adding weight to the
Confiscation Acts. Now Union armies were openly fighting against slavery,
not merely against secession. By the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of
enslaved people had become free by escaping to Union lines.

African Americans in the War

An even greater blow to the Confederacy was that the Union army soon had
thousands of dedicated new recruits. Almost 200,000 African Americans, most
of whom had recently escaped slavery, served in the Union army and navy.
Segregated into all-Black units, such as the Massachusetts 54th Regiment,
they won the respect of White Union soldiers for their bravery under fire. More
than 37,000 African American soldiers died in this “Army of Freedom.”

314 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Effects of the War on Civilian Life

Both during the warand in the years that followed, American society underwent
decp and sometimes wrenching changes.

Political Change

The clectoral process continued during the war with surprisingly few
restrictions. Secession of the Southern sates left Republican majorities in both
houses of Congress. Northerners were split into several factions:

+ Radical Republicans demanded immediate abolition of savery.
« Free-Soil Republicans focused on economic opportunities for Whites.
« Most Democrats supported the war but eritcized Lincoln's conduct of it

+ Some Democrats, called Peace Democrats or Copperheads, opposed
the war and wanted 2 negotiated peace.

Civil Liberties Like many wartime leaders, Lincoln focused more on
prosecuting the war than on protecting constitutional rights. Early in the war,
he suspended the writ of habeas corpus in states with strong pro-Confederate
sentiment. Suspension of this constitutional right meant that persons could be
arrested without being informed of the charges against them. During the war,
an estimated 13,000 people were arrested on suspicion of aiding the enemy.
Without a right to habeas corpus, many of them were held without trial,

Democrats accused Lincoln of tyranny, but most historians have been
less critical. In the border states, people had difficulty distinguishing between
combatants and noncombatants. Furthermore, the Constitution allows only
Congress, not the president, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus “when in
cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it” After the war,
the Supreme Court ruled in Ex Parte Milligan (1866) that the government had
improperly subjected civilians to military trials. The Court declared that such
procedures could be used only when regular civilian courts were unavailable.

‘The Draft When the war began in 1861, those who fought were volunteers.
As the need for replacements increased, both the Union and the Confederacy
resorted o laws for conscripting, or drafting, men into service. The Union's
March 1863 Conscription Act made all men aged 20 to 45 liable for military
service. However, a drafiee could avoid service by finding a substitute to serve or
payinga $300 exemption fee. The law provoked fierce opposition among poorer
Iaborers, most of whom were Irish or German immigrants. They feared that
when they returned to civilian lfe their jobs would be taken by freed African
Americans. In July 1863, protests against the draft in New York City quickly
turned into a riot against the city’s Black residents. About 117 people were killed
before federal troops and a temporary suspension of the draft restored order.

The Election of 1864 The Democrats' nominee for president was the
popular General George McClellan, whose platform calling for peace had wide
appeal among millions of war-weary voters. The Republicans renamed their

TOPIC 5.9 GOVERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE CIVIL WAR 316
party the Unionist Party as a way of attracting the votes of “War Democrats”
(those who disagreed with the Democratic platform). A brief “ditch Lincoln”
movement fizzled out, and the Republican (Unionist) convention again chose
Lincoln as ts presidential candidate and aloyal War Democrat from Tennessee,
Senator Andrew Johnson, s his running mate. The Lincoln-Johnson ticket won
212 electoral votes to the Democrats' 21. The popular vote was much closer as
McClellan took 45 percent of the total votes cast.

Political Dominance of the North The suspension of habeas corpus and
the operation of the draft were only temporary. More important were the long-
term effects of the power of the federal government and the balance of power
betwween the North and the South. With the military triumph of the Union
came a clearer definition of the nature of the federal union. OId arguments for
nullification and secession receded. After the Civil War, few people doubted
the supremacy of the federal government.

‘The abolition of slavery—in addition to its importance to freed African
Americans—gave new meaning to the concept of American democracy. In his
famous Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, Lincoln rallied Americans
10 the idea that their nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal” Lincoln was probably alluding to the Emancipation Proclamation
when he spoke of the war bringing “a new birth of freedom” His words—
and even more, the abolition of slavery—advanced the cause of demoeratic
government in the United States and inspired democracy around the world.

Economic Change

The costs of the war in both money and men were staggering and called for
extraordinary measures by the government.

Financing the War The Union financed the war by borrowing $2.6 billion
through the sale of government bonds. To gain added funds, Congress raised
tariffs, added excise taxes, and instituted the first income tax. The US. Treasury
also issued $430 million in a paper currency, greenbacks, not backed by gold,
which contributed to creeping inflation. Prices in the North rose by about
80 percent during the war. To manage the added revenue Congress created
a national banking system in 1863, the frst since Andrew Jackson vetoed the
recharter of the Bank of the United States in the 1830s.

MPLOYED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Post Office Defense Other Total

14,290 598 3150 16,038

2139 403 4480 26274

30269 945 5457 36672

3669 1183 13741 51020

56421 16,297 27302 100020

S Bureaof the s, Hitorial Statistics of e United State,Coona Times 11970

316 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP EDITION
Modernizing Northern Society Economic historians differ on  the
question of whether,in the short run, the war promoted or retarded the growth
of the Northern economy. Workers' wages did not keep pace with inflation, but
the war accelerated many aspects of a modern industrial economy. By placing
a premium on mass production and complex organization, the war sped up
the consolidation of the Northis manufacturing businesses. War profiteers
took advantage of the need for military supplies to sell shoddy goods at high
prices—a problem that decreased after the federal government took control
of the contract process away from the states. Fortunes made during the war
produced a concentration of capital in the hands of a new class of millionaires
who would finance the Norths industriaization in the postwar years.

Republican politics also stimulated the economic growth of the North and
the West. With a wartime majority in Congress, the Republicans passed the
probusiness Whig program that was designed to stimulate the industrial and
commercial growth of the United States:

« The Morrill Tariff Act (1861) raised tariff rates to increase revenue and
protect American manufacturers. Its passage initiated a Republican
program of high protective tariffs to help industrialists.

« The Homestead Act (1862) promoted scttlement of the Great Plains by
offering parcels of 160 acres of public land free to any person ot family
that farmed that land for at least five years. Like the headright system
in colonial Virginia and the sale of land in the Northwest Territory, this
act helped many White settlers, but very few African Americans.

« The Morrill Land Grant Act (1862) encouraged states to use the sale of
federal land grants to found and maintain agricultural and technical
colleges. These schools not only educated farmers, engineers, and
scientists, but they also became centers of rescarch and innovation.

+ The Pacific Railway Act (1862) authorized the building of a
transcontinental railroad over a northern route in order to link the
economies of California and the Western territories with the Eastern states.

While four years of nearly total war, the tragic human loss of 750,000 lives
and an estimated $15 billion in war costs and property losses had enormous
effects on the nation, far greater changes were set in motion. The Civil War
destroyed slavery and devastated the Southern economy. It also acted as a
catalyst to transform America into a complex modern industrial society of
capital, technology; national organizations, and large corporations,

Assassination of Lincoln
Only a month before Lees surrender, Lincoln delivered one of his greatest
speeches, the second inaugural address. He urged that the defeated South be
treated benevolently, “with malice toward none; with charity for all”

On April 14, John Wilkes Booth, an embittered actor and Confederate
sympathizer, shot and killed the president while he was attendinga performance

TOPIC 5.9 GOVERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE CIVIL AR 317
at Fords Theater in Washington. On the same night, a co-conspirator attacked
and wounded Secretary of State William Seward. These shocking events aroused
the fury of Northerners when the Confederates most needed a sympathetic
hearing, The loss of Lincolns leadership was widely mourned, but the extent of
the loss was not fully appreciated until the two sections of a reunited country
had to cope with the problems of Reconstruction.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain how Lincolns governance during the Civil War influenced
American principles during the war.

KEY TERMS BY THEME
Economic Growth (WXT)  Free Land (MIG) Wartime Politics (POL)
greenbacks Homestead Act (1862) Copperheads
Moril Tarif Act War and the Law (POL)  Social Impact (NAT, SOC)
Moril Land Grant Act habeas corpus. Gettysburg Address.
federal land grants Confiscation Acts Massachusetts 54th
Pacific Railway Act Emancipation Proclamation  Regiment

ExParte Milligan

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3 refer to the map below.

UNITED STATES, JULY 1861

318 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP EDITION
1. In July of 1861, President Lincoln was particularly concerned about how
his policies on slavery would affect which areas?

(A) The states in violet because they were slave states that remained in
the Union

(B) The states in orange because they were home to most of his political
supporters

(C) The states in red because he thought he could persuade them to
rejoin the Union

(D) ‘The region in yellow because it consisted of territories that had not
yet become states

2. Which of the following statements best describes the states in orange?
(A) Most people lived in large cities.
(B) Most people advocated abolition of slavery.
(©) They lacked good river transportation.
(D) They included most of the country’s population.

3. Which of the following statements best describes the states in red?
(A) They were economically self-sufficient.
(B) ‘They were well connected by railroads.
(C) ‘They were fighting a defensive war.
(D) They had a strong navy.

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. Answer (), (b), and ()
(@) Briefly explain ONE specific action of President Abraham Lincoln
during the Civil War that supports the view that he was one of the
‘most democratic presidents.
(b) Briefly explain ONE specific action of President Abraham Lincoln
during the Civil War that supports the view that he was one of the
‘most autocratic presidents.

(© Briefly explain how ONE president who came before Lincoln was
both democratic and autocratic.

TOPIC 5.9 GOVERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE CIVIL WAR 319
Topic 5.10

Reconstruction

“The whole fabric of Southern society must be changed, and
never can it be done if this opportunity is lost, Without this, this
government can never be, as it never has been, a true republic.”

Thacdeus Stevens, September 6, 1865

Learning Objective: Explain the effects of government policy during
Reconstruction on society from 1865 to 1877,

The sitencing of the cannons of war left th victorious Uited States ith
immense challenges. How would the South rebuild its shattered society and
cconomy after four years of war? What would be the place in that society of
4million freed Black Americans? How responsible was the federal government
forhelping former slaves adjust o freedom? Should the states of the Confederacy
be treated as though they had never left the Union—Lincoln's position—or as
conquered territory under military occupation? Under what conditions would
those states be fully accepted as equal partners in the Union? Finally, who had
the authority to decide these questions,the president or Congress?

Postwar Conditions

Slavery gradually crumbled as African Americans escaped to Union-controlled
territory. The last people to hear they were free lived in Texas. The date they
heard the news, June 19th, became a day for celcbration known as Juneteenth.

Most freedpeople began their fiee lives with no money, no land, and no
formal education. Near the end of the war, some freedpeople in South Carolina
and Georgia received “40 acres and amule” under an order from Union General
William Sherman. However,this order was soon cancelled by President Andrew
Johnson. The land they had was taken away from them.

‘The South was devastated by the war. It had lost about one-third of its
horses, cattle, and hogs. Roads, bridges, railroad tracks, and fencing had been
destroyed. Though people had not died from mass starvation as often happens
in war, chronic food shortages, particularly for African Americans, left many
in poor health and susceptible to epidemic diseases.

‘The regional, political, and cconomic conflicts that existed before and
during the Civil War continued afier the war. Northern Republicans wanted
to continue the economic progress begun during the war. Southern aristocrats
still wanted low-cost labor to work their plantations. The freedmen and

320 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP EDITION
freedwomen hoped for independence and equal rights. However, traditional
beliefs limited the actions of the federal government. Concepts of limited
government and states’ rights discouraged national leaders from taking bold
action. Little economic help was given to White or Black Southerners, as most
Americans believed that people had an opportunity and a responsibility to care
for themselves. The physical rebuilding of the South was left up to the states
and individuals, while the federal government concentrated on political issues.

Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson

‘Throughout his presidency, Abraham Lincoln held firmly to the belief that
the Southern states could not constitutionally leave the Union and therefore
never did leave. He viewed the Confederates as only a disloyal minority. After
Lincolns assassination, Andrew Johnson atiempted to carry out Lincolns plan
for the political Reconstruction of the 11 former states of the Confederacy.

Lincoln’s Policies

Lincoln believed the Southern states could regain their full place in the Union
by meeting a minimum test of political loyalty.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863) As carlyas December
1863, Lincoln set up a process for political reconstruction of the state governments
in the South so that Unionists were in charge rather than secessionists. The
president’ Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction was simple:

+ Full presidential pardons would be granted to most Confederates who
(1) took an oath of allegiance to the Union and the U.S. Constitution,
and (2) accepted the emancipation of slaves.

+ Astate government could be reestablished and accepted as legitimate
by the US. president as soon as at least 10 percent of the voters in that
state took the loyalty oath,

In practice, Lincoln meant that each Southern state would be required
to rewrite ts state constitution to abolish slavery. Lincoln's seemingly lenient
policy was designed both to shorten the war and to give added weight to his
Emancipation Proclamation.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864) Many Republicans in Congress objected to
Lincoln's 10-percent plan, arguing that it would allow supposedly reconstructed
state governments to be dominated by disloyal secessionists. In 1864, Congress
passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which required 50 percent of the voters of a state
10 take a loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new
state constitution. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill after Congress adjourned.
Congress was ready to reasser its powers, as Congresses usually do after a war.

Freedmen's Bureau In March 1865, Congress created an important
new agency: the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, or
Freedmen’s Bureau. The bureau acted as a welfare agency, providing food,
shelter, and medical aid for both Black and White Americans left destitute by

ToPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 321
the war. At first, the Freedmens Bureau had authority to resettle freedpeople on
confiscated farmlands in the South. Its cfforts at rescttlement, however, were
later frustrated when President Johnson pardoned Confederate owners of the
confiscated lands, and courts restored most of the lands to their original owners.
‘The bureaus greatest success was in education. Under the able leadership of
General Olliver O. Howard, it established nearly 3,000 schools for freedpeople,
including several colleges. Before federal funding was stopped in 1870, the
bureau’s schools taught an estimated 200,000 African Americans how o read.

Johnson and Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson’ origins were as humble as Lincoln's. A self-taught tailor, he
rose in Tennessee politics by championing poor Whites in conflict with rich
planters. Johnson was the only senator from a Confederate state who remained
loyal to the Union. He was appointed Tennessee’s governor whenit was occupied
by Union troops. Johnson was a Southern Democrat, but Republicans picked
him to encourage pro-Union Democrats to vote for Lincoln. Johnson ended
up being the wrong man for the job. As a White supremacist, he was bound to
clash with Republicans in Congress who believed that the war was fought not
just to preserve the Union but also to liberate African Americans from slavery.

Johnson's Reconstruction Policy At first, many Republicans in Congress
welcomed Johnsons presidency because of his animasity toward the Southern
aristocrats who had led the Confederacy. In May 1865, Johnson issued his
own Reconstruction plan. In addition to Lincolns terms, it provided for the
disenfranchisement (loss of the right to vote and hold office) of (1) all former
leaders and officeholders of the Confederacy and (2) Confederates with more
than $20,000 in taxable property. However, the president could grant individual
pardons to “disloyal” Southerners. This was an escape clause for the wealthy
planters, and Johnson made use of it. As a result of his pardons, many former
Confederate leaders were back in office by the fall of 1865.

Johnson's Vetoes One sign of the battle between Congress and the
presidents was his use of the veto. The three presidents before Johnson vetoed
a total of 23 bills. In his one term, he vetoed 29 bills. Johnson alienated even
moderate Republicans in carly 1866 with vetoes of two bills. One increased the
services and protection of the Freedmen's Bureau. The other was a civil rights
bill that nullified the Black Codes and guaranteed full citizenship and equal
rights to African Americans. The vetoes marked the end of the first round
of Reconstruction. During this round, Presidents Lincoln and Johnson had
restored the 11 former Confederate states to the Union, ex-Confederates had
returned to high offices, and Southern states began passing Black Codes to
restrict the rights of former slaves.

Congressional Reconstruction

By the spring of 1866, the angry response of many members of Congress to
Johnson's policies led to the second round of Reconstruction. This one was

322 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
dominated by Congress and featured policies that were harsher on Southern
Whites and more protective of freed African Americans,

Radical Republicans

Republicans had long been divided between (1) moderates, who were chiefly
concerned with economic gains for the White middle class, and (2) radicals,
who championed civil rights for Black citizens. Although most Republicans
were moderates, several became more radical in 1866, partly out of fear that a
reunified Democratic Party might again become dominant. After all, now that
the federal census counted all people equally (no longer applying the old three-
fifths rule for enslaved persons), the South would have more representatives in
Congress than before the war and more strength in the Electoral College.

‘The leading Radical Republican in the Senate was Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts. In the House, Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania hoped to
revolutionize Southern society through a period of military rule in which
African Americans could exercise their civil rights, attend schools operated
by the federal government, and take ownership of lands confiscated from
the planters. Many Radical Republicans endorsed several liberal causes:
women's suffrage, rights for labor unions, and civil rights for Northern African
Americans. Although their program was never fully implemented, the Radical
Republicans struggled to extend equal rights to all Americans.

‘Thirteenth Amendment Laws, but not the US. Constitution, banned
slavery. To free all enslaved people in the border states, the country needed to
ratify an amendment. Even the abolitionists gave Lincoln credit for playing an
active role in the political struggle to secure enough votes in Congress to pass
the 13th Amendment. By December 1865 (months after Lincoln’s death), this
amendment abolishing slavery was ratified by the required number of states.
I language was clear: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”

After the adoption of the 13th Amendment in 1865, 4 million people
(3.5 million in the Confederate states and 500,000 in the border states) were
“freedmen” and “freedwomen For these people and their descendants,
economic hardship and political oppression would continue for generations.
Even so, the end of slavery represented a momentous step. Suddenly; formerly
enslaved people who had no rights could claim protection by the US.
Constitution and had open-ended possibilities of freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1866 Among the first actions in Congressional
Reconstruction were votes to override, with some modifications, Johnson's
vetoes of both the Freedmens Bureau Act and the first Civil Rights Act. The
Civil Rights Act pronounced that all African Americans were US. citizens
(thereby nullifying the decision in the Dred Scott case) and attempted to
provide a legal shield against the operation of the Southern states’ Black Codes.
Fearing that the law could be repealed if the Democrats ever won control of

TOPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 323
Congress, Republicans looked for a more permanent solution in the form of a
constitutional amendment.

Fourteenth Amendment In June 1866, Congress passed and sent to the
states an amendment, ratified in 1868, that had immediate and even greater
long-term significance

« It declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were

zens.

+ Tt obligated the states to respect the rights of LS. citizens and provide
them with “equal protection of the laws” and “due process of law”

For the first time, the Constitution required states as well as the federal
‘government to uphold the rights of citizens. The amendment's key clauses about
citizenship and rights produced mixed results in 19th-century courtrooms.
However, in the 1950s and later, the Supreme Court used the power of the federal
government to protect individuals from encroachment of their constitutional
rights by state and local governments, making “equal protection of the laws”
and the “due process” clause the keystone of civil rights for minorities, women,
children, disabled persons, and those accused of crimes.

Other parts of the 14th Amendment applied specifically to Congress's plan
of Reconstruction. These clauses:

« disqualified former Confederate political leaders from holding either
state or federal offices

« repudiated the debts of the defeated governments of the Confederacy

« penalized a state if it kept any eligible person from voting by reducing
that state’s proportional representation in Congress and the Electoral
College

Report of the Joint Committee In June 1866, a joint commitice of the
Houseand the Senate ssued a report declaring that the reorganized Confederate
tates were not entitled to representation in Congress. Therefore, those elected
from the South as senators and representatives should not be permitted to take
their seats. The report further asserted that Congress, not the president, had
the authority to determine the conditions for allowing reconstructed states to
rejoin the Union. By this report, Congress officially rejected the presidential
plan of Reconstruction and promised to substitute its own plan, part of which
‘was embodied in the 14th Amendment

‘The Election of 1866 Unable to work with Congress, Johnson took to
the road in the fall of 1866 to attack his opponents. His specches appealed
to the racial prejudices of White citizens by arguing that equal righs for
Black Americans would result in an “Afficanized” society. Republicans
counterattacked by accusing Johnson of being a drunkard and a traitor. They
appealed to anti-Southern prejudices by “waving the bloody shir’—inflaming
the anger of Northern voters by reminding them of the hardships of war.

324 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Republican propaganda emphasized that Southerners were Democrats and, by
ajump in logic, branded the Democrats a party of rebellion and treason.

Election results gave the Republicans an overwhelming victory. After 1866,
Johnson's political adversaries—both moderate and Radical Republicans—had
more than a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate.

Reconstruction Actsof 1867 Over Johnson's vetoes, Congress passed three
Reconstruction Acts in 1867 that placed the South under military occupation.
‘The acts divided the former Confederate states into five military districts,
cach under the control of the Union army. In addition, the acts increased the
requirements for gaining readmission to the Union: an ex-Confederate state
had to ratify the 14th Amendment and place guarantees i its constitution to
grant the franchise (right to vote) to all adult males, regardless of race.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Also in 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over Johnson’s veto.
“This law prohibited the president from removing a federal official or military
commander without Senate approval. The purpose of the law was strictly
political. Congress wanted to protect the Radical Republicans in Johnson's
cabinet, such as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was in charge of the
military governments in the South.

Johnson challenged the constitutionality of the new law by dismissing
Stanton. The House responded by impeaching Johnson. He was charged with
11 “high crimes and misdemeanors,” thus becoming the first president to be
impeached. In 1868, after a three-month Senate trial, Johnson's foes fell one
vote short of the two-thirds vote needed to remove him from office.

Reforms After Grant’s Election

The impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson occurred in 1868, a presidential
election year. At their convention, the Democrats nominated another candidate,
Horatio Seymour, so that Johnsons presidency would have ended soon in any
case, with or without a conviction in Congress.

‘The Election of 1868 At their presidential convention, the Republicans
turned toa war hero, General Ulysses S. Grant, even though he had no political
experience. Despite Grants popularity in the North, he managed to win
only 300,000 more popular votes than his Democratic opponent. The votes
of 500,000 Black men gave the Republican ticket its margin of victory. Even
the most moderate Republicans began to realize that the voting rights of the
freedmen needed federal protection if their party hoped to keep control of the
White House in future elections.

Fifteenth Amendment Republican majorities in Congress acted
quickly in 1869 to secure the vote for African Americans. Adding one more
Reconstruction amendment to those already adopted (the 13th Amendment
in 1865 and the 14th Amendment in 1868), Congress passed the 15th
Amendment, which prohibited any state from denying or abridging a citizen's

TOPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 325
right to vote “on account of race, color, o previous condition of servitude” It
‘was ratified in 1870. While it banned open racial discrimination in voting laws,
it did not prevent states from passing other restrictions on voting rights that
disproportionately affected African Americans.

Civil Rights Act of 1875 The last civil rights reform passed by Congress
during Reconstruction was the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This guaranteed
equal accommodations in public places (hotels, railroads, and theaters) and
prohibited courts from excluding African Americans from juries. The law was
poorly enforced, as moderate and conservative Republicans tired of trying to
reform an unwilling South and feared losing White votes in the North. By 1877,
Reconstruction was abandoned by Congress.

Reconstruction in the South

During the second round of Reconstruction by Congress, the Republican Party
in the South dominated the governments of the former Confederate states.
Beginning in 1867, each Republican-controlled government was under the
‘military protection of the Army until Congress was satisfied that a state had
‘met its Reconstruction requirements. Then the troops were withdrawn. The
period of Republican rule in a Southern state lasted from as lttle as one year
(Tennessee) to as much as nine years (Florida), depending on how long it took
conservative Democrats to regain control.

CCONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1877

Th dao i heyear when a stte
e resamitad o e Union.

T dae in paretheses i the
year whan s stte rocstabihod
onceraie govemment

aTLANTIC
ocEAN

326 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION

Composition of the Reconstruction Governments

In every Republican state government in the South except South Carolina,
Whites were in the majority in both houses of the legislature. In South Carolina,
freedmen controlled the lower house in 1873. Republican legislators included
native-born White Southerners, freedmen, and recently arrived Northerners

“Scalawags” and “Carpetbaggers” Democratic_opponents derisively
clled Southern Republicans “scalawags” and Northern - newcomers
“carpetbaggers” (after cheap luggage made from carpet fabric). Southern
Whites who supported the Republican governments were usually former
Whigs who were interested in economic development for their states and peace
between the sections. Northerners went south afier the war for various reasons.
Some were investors interested in setting up new businesses, while others were
‘ministers and teachers with humanitarian goals. Some went simply to plunder.

African American Legislators Most African Americans who held elective
office in the reconstructed state governments were educated property holders
who took moderate positions on most issues. During the Reconstruction era,
Republicans in the South sent two African Americans, Blanche K. Bruce and
Hiram Revels, 1o the Senate and more than a dozen African Americans o the
House of Representatives. Revels was elected in 1870 to take the Mississippi
Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis. Seeing African Americans and former
slaves in positions of power caused bitter resentment among ex-Confederates.

African Americans Adjusting to Freedom

Undoubtedly; the Southerners who had the greatest adjustment to make during
the Reconstruction era were the freedmen and freedwomen. Having been so
recently emancipated from slavery, they were faced with the challenges of
securing their economic survival as well as their political rights as citizens.

Building Black Communities Freedom meant many things to African
Americans: reuniting families, learning to read and write, or migrating to
cities where “freedom was freer”” Most of all, formerly enslaved people viewed
emancipation as an opportunity for achieving independence from White
control. This drive for autonomy was most evident in the founding of hundreds
of independent African American churches after the war. By the hundreds
of thousands, Black members left White-dominated churches for the Negro
Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal churches. During Reconstruction,
Black ministers emerged as leaders in the African American community.

‘The desire for education induced large numbers of African Americans to
use their scarce resources to establish independent schools for their children
and to pay educated African Americans to become their teachers. Black
colleges such as Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Morehouse were established during
Reconstruction to prepare African American ministers and teachers.

Another aspect of African Americans' search for independence and self-
sufficiency was the decision of many freedpeople to migrate away from the
South and establish new Black communities in frontier states such as Kansas

ToPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 327
PERCENT)

‘OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN ENROLLED, 1850 TO 1

0

Year White ‘African American
1850 56 2
1860 60 2
1870 54 10
1880 02 34

The North During Reconstruction

‘The Norths economy in the postwar years continued to be driven by the
Industrial Revolution and the probusiness policies of the Republicans. As
the South struggled to reorganize its labor system, Northerners focused on
railroads, steel, labor problems, and money.

Greed and Corruption

During the Grant administration, as the material interests of the age took
center stage, the idealism of Lincoln's generation and the Radical Republicans’
crusade for civil rights were pushed aside.

Rise of the Spoilsmen In the early 1870s, Republican Party leadership
passed from reformers (Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Benjamin
Wade) to political manipulators such as senators Roscoe Conkling of New
York and James Blaine of Maine. These politicians were masters of the game
of patronage—giving jobs and government favors (spoils) to their supporters.

Corruption in Business and Government The postwar years were
notorious for the corrupt schemes devised by business bosses and political
bosses to enrich themselves at the public’s expense. For example, in 1869, Wall
Street financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk obtained the help of President
Grant's brother-in-law in a scheme to corner the gold market. The Treasury
Department broke the scheme, but not before Gould had made a huge profit.

In the Crédit Mobilier affair, insiders gave stock to influential members
of Congress to avoid investigation of the profits they were making—as high
as 348 percent—from government subsidics for building the transcontinental
railroad. In the case of the Whiskey Ring, federal revenue agents conspired
with the liguor industry to defraud the government of millions in taxes. While
Grant himself did not personally profit from the corruption, his loyalty to
dishonest men around him badly tarnished his presidency.

Local politics in the Grant years were equally scandalous. In New York
City, William Tweed, the boss of the local Democratic Party, masterminded
dozens of schemes for helping himself and his cronies steal $200 million from
New York's taxpayers before The New York Times and the cartoonist Thomas
Nast exposed “Boss” Tweed and brought about his arrest and imprisonment
in 1871

328 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
The Election of 1872

‘The scandals of the Grant administration drove reform-minded Republicans to
break with the party in 1872 and select Horace Greeley, editor of the New York
Tribune, as their presidential candidate. The Liberal Republicans advocated
civil-service reform, an end to railroad subsidies, withdrawal of troops from
the South, reduced tariffs, and freer trade. Surprisingly, the Democrats also
nominated Greeley. The regular Republicans countered by merely “waving the
bloody shirt” again—and it worked. Grant was reelected in a landslide.

The Panic of 1873

Grants second term began with an economic disaster that rendered thousands
of Northern laborers both jobless and homeless. Overspeculation by financiers
and overbuilding by industry and railroads led to widespread business
failures and depression. Debtors on the farms and in the cities argued about
what should be done. Grant finally adopted the ideas of Eastern bankers and
creditors, setting a new trend for the Republican Party: Black Southerners were
the biggest losers, s preoccupation with the financial crisis diverted the North's
attention away from what was happening in the South.

Women's Changing Roles

Every part of American society away from the battlefild was touched by the war.
“The impact of the war on the roles and opportunities of women was significant,
‘The absence of millions of men from the fields and factories added to the
responsibilities of women i all regions. They stepped into the vacuum created
by the war, operating farms and plantations and taking factory jobs customarily
held by men. In addition, women played a citical role as military nurses and as
volunteers in soldiers'aid societies. When the war ended and the war veterans
returned home, most urban women vacated their jobs in government and
industry, while rural women gladly accepted male assistance on the farm.

Women's Suffrage

The responsibiliies undertaken by women during the war also boosted
demands for equal voting rights for women. Some members of the women's
suffrage movement who had worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery
opposed the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments. While they supported
extending the franchise to African Americans, they objected to the fact that
these amendments specifically limited it to men. Ironically, this was the first
time sex was mentioned in the Constitution, in an amendment meant to extend
rights but that ended up discriminating against half the nation's citizens.

In 1869, Wyoming Territory became the first territory or state to grant
women ful suffrage rights. The suffragists' goal would not be achieved until
women's efforts in another war—World War I finally convinced enough male
conservatives to adopt the 19th Amendment, with wording that echoed that of
the 15th Amendment.

TOPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 329
REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain the consequences of government policy during Reconstruction
on society from 1865 to 1877.

KEY TERMS BY THEME

Equalty (NAT, POL) patrona Radical Republicans

13th Amendment Thomas Nast Charles Sumner

il Bighis Actof 1866 Horace Greeley Thaddeus Stephens.

14th Amendment Libera Republicans Benjamin Wade

equal protection ofthe  Panic of 1873 Reconstruction Acts
Taws. Roconstruction Tenure of Ofce Act

due process offaw, (POL, SOC, ARC) Edwin Stanton

15th Amendment Reconstruction impeachment

(Ciil Rghts Act o 1875 proclamaion of Amnesty  scalaviags

Corruption (WXT, POL) and Reconsiruction carpetbaggers

Jay Gould Wade-Davis Bl Blanche K. Bruce

Crédit Mobil Andrew Johnson Hiram Revels

Willam Tweed Freedmens Bureou Social Impact (NAT, S0C)

Poliics (POL) congressional women'ssuffage

e Reconstruction

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-2 refer to the following excerpt.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States .. . are citizens.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens . . nor shall any State deprive any person of lie,
liberty, or property, without due process; nor deny ... equal protection of
the laws.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States ... counting,
the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
But when the right to vote at any election . .. thereof, is denied to any of
the male inhabitants ... being twenty-one years of age, and citizens . . or
in any way abridged, except for . . . crime, .. . the basis of representation
therein shall be reduced. ..

No person shall . .. hold any office . . . who, having previously taken an
oath ... shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same
... But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of cach House, remove such
disability”

14th Amendment, Constitution of the United States,July 9, 1868

330 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
1. In proclaiming that all persons born in the United States were citizens,
the 14th Amendment directly repudiated which of the following?

(4) Compromise of 1850
(B) Dred Scott decision
(C) Johnson's Reconstruct
(D) Wade-Davis Bill

n plan

2. Which of the following provisions would be the basis of one of the most
contentious judicial issues of the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

(A) “nor deny ... equal protection of the laws”
(B) “Representatives shall be apportioned”

() “the basis of representation therein shall be reduced”
(D) “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion”

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. Answer (), (b), and ()

(@) Briefly explain how federal government actions taken during
Reconstruction were similar to federal government actions taken
during the Civil War.

(b) Briefly explain how federal government actions taken during
Reconstruction were different from federal government actions
taken during the Civil War.

(©) Briefly explain ONE factor that accounts for the difference in
federal government actions during the two periods.

2. Answer (a), (b), and (c).

(a) Briefly explain ONE specific part or aspect of Pre:
plan for Reconstruction.

(b) Briefly explain ONE specific part or aspect of Pres
approach to Reconstruction.

() Briefly explain ONE specific example of the efforts of formerly
enslaved African Americans to use their freedom during the period
of Reconstruction.

lent Lincoln's

ident Johnson’s

ToPIC 510 RECONSTRUCTION 331
Topic 5.1

Failure of Reconstruction

Though slavery was abolished, the wrongs of my people were not
ended. Though they were not slaves, they were not yet quite free,
Frederick Douglass, 1882

Learning Objective: Explain how and why Reconstruction resulted in
continuity and change in regional and national understandings of what
it meant to be American.

Views of Reconstruction have varied greatly. Many historians have seen it
as a missed opportunity to promote racial equality. However, some have
pointed out that the institutions and amendments from the Reconstruction era
provided the foundation for the civil rights movement that emerged nearly a
century after the Civil War ended.

Lincoln's Last Speech

In his last public address (April 11, 1865), Lincoln encouraged Northerners to
accept Louisiana as a reconstructed state. (Lovisiana had already drawn up a
new constitution that abolished slavery in the state and provided for African
Americans’ education.) The president also addressed the question—highly
controversial at the time—of whether freedmen should be granted the right
to vote. Lincoln said: “I myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very
intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers” Three days later,
Lincoln's evolving plans for Reconstruction were ended with his assassination.
His last speech suggested that, had he lived, he probably would have moved
closer to the position taken by the progressive, or Radical, Republicans. In
any event, hope for lasting reform was dealt a devastating blow by the sudden
removal of Lincoln’ skillful leadership.

Evaluating the Republican Record

As mentioned in Topic 5.10, Congress and presidents fought over specific
amendments, laws, and actions. In evaluating Reconstruction, it s particularly
useful to look at the controversial record of the Republicans during their brief
control of Southern state politics. Did they abuse their power for selfish ends
(corruption and plunder), or did they govern responsibly in the public interest?
‘They did some of each.

332 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Accomplishments On the positive side, Republican legislators liberalized
state constitutions in the South by providing for universal male suffrage,
property rights for women, debt relicf, and modern penal codes. They promoted
the building of railroads, roads, bridges, and other internal improvements.
‘They established such institutions as hospitals, asylums, and homes for the
disabled. The reformers provided for state-supported public-school systems,
which benefited Whites and African Americans alike. They paid for all of this
by overhauling the tax system and selling bonds.

Failures Long after Reconstruction ended, many Southerners and some
Northern historians continued to depict Republican rule as utterly wasteful
and corrupt. Some instances of graft and wasteful spending did occur, as
Republican politicians took advantage of their power to take kickbacks and
bribes from contractors who did business with the state. However, corruption
occurred throughout the country, in Northern states and cities as well. No
geographic section, political party, or ethnic group was immune to the decline
in ethics in government during the postwar era.

The End of Reconstruction

The way Reconstruction ended shows how it failed to fulfil the nations needs.
During Grant’s second term, it was apparent that Reconstruction had entered a
third phase, which would be its final one. With Radical Republicanism on the
wane, Southern conservatives—known as redeemers—took control of one state
government after another. This process was completed by 1877. The redeemers
had different backgrounds, but they agreed on their political program: states’
rights, reduced taxes and spending on social programs, and White supremacy.

White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan
During the period that Republicans controlled state governments in the South,
some Whites organized secret societies to intimidate African Americans and
White reformers. The most prominent of these was the Ku Klux Klan, founded
in 1867 by a former Confederate general, Nathaniel Bedford Forrest. The
“invisible empire” burned Black-owned buildings and flogged and murdered
several thousand freedmen to keep them from exercising their voting rights. To
give federal authorities the power to stop Ku Klux Klan violence and to protect
the civil rights of citizens, Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871.

Southern Governments Just eight months after Johnson took office
in 1865, all 11 of the ex-Confederate states qualified under the presidents
Reconstruction plan to become part of the Union. The Southern states drew up
constitutions that repudiated secession, negated the debts of the Confederate
government, and ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. On the
other hand, none of the new constitutions extended voting rights to Blacks
citizens. Furthermore, to the dismay of Republicans, former leaders of the
Confederacy won seats in Congress. For example, Alexander Stephens, the
former Confederate vice president, was elected US. senator from Georgia.

TOPIC 511 FAILURE OF RECONSTRUCTION 333
Black Codes The Republicans became further disillusioned with Johnson
as Southern state legislatures adopted Black Codes that restricted the rights
and movements of African Americans:

+ They could not rent land or nor borrow money to buy land.
« They could not testity against Whites in court.

« They had to sign work agreements or they could be arrested for
vagrancy. Under this contract-labor system, African Americans worked
cotton fields under White supervision for deferred wages.

‘The costs of being convicted of any crime could be disastrous for an
African American. The 13th Amendment had abolished slavery “except as a
punishment for crime.” Hence, a person convicted of a minor or even made-up
offense could be rented from the government by a landowner or business and
used as essentially slave labor.

Sharecropping The Southis agricultural cconomy was in turmoil after the
wa, in part because landowners had lost their compulsory labor force. At first,
White landowners attempted to force freed African Americans into signing
contracts to work the fields. These contracts set terms that bound the signer
to almost permanent and unrestricted labor. African Americans' insistence on
autonomy; however, combined with changes in the postwar economy; led White
landowners to adopt a system based on tenancy and sharecropping. Under
sharecropping, the landlord provided the sced and needed farm supplies in
return for a share (usually half) of the harvest.

While sharecropping gave poor people of all races in the rural South the
opportunity to work a piece of land for themselves, sharecroppers usually
remained dependent on the landowners or in deb to local merchants. By 1880,
1o more than 5 percent of Southern African Americans owned their own land.
Sharecropping had evolved into a new form of servitude.

The Amnesty Act of 1872

Seven years after Lees surrender at Appomattox, many Northerners were ready
to put the war behind them. In 1872 Congress passed a general Amnesty Act
that removed thelast restrictions on ex-Confederates, except for the top leaders.
‘The chief political consequence of the act was to allow Southern conservatives
10 vote for Democrats and thus to retake control of state governments.

The Election of 1876

By 1876, federal troops had been withdrawn from all Southern states except—
South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The Democrats had returned to
power in all of the other former Confederate states. This was important in the
presidential election.

At their convention, the Republicans looked for someone untouched by
the corruption of the Grant administration. They nominated the governor of
Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes. The Democrats chose New York's reform governor,

334 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Samuel J. Tilden, who had fought the corrupt Tweed Ring. In the popular
votes, the Democrats won a clear majority and expected to put Tilden in the
White House. However, in three Southern states, the returns were contested.
o win the election, Tilden needed only one electoral vote from the contested
returns of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana

A special electoral commission was created to determine who was entitled
to the disputed votes of the three states. In a straight party vote of 87, the
commission gave allthe votes to Hayes, the Republican. Outraged Democrats
threatened to filibuster the results and send the election to the House of
Representatives, which they controlled.

The Compromise of 1877

Leaders of the two parties worked out an informal deal. The Democrats would
allow Hayes to become president. In return, he would (1) immediately end
federal support for the Republicans in the South, and (2) support the building of
a Southern transcontinental railroad. Shortly after his inauguration, President
Hayes fulflled his part in the Compromise of 1877 and promptly withdrew the
last of the federal troops protecting African Americans and other Republicans.

‘The end of a federal military presence in the South was not the only thing
that brought Reconstruction to an end. In a series of decisions in the 18805
and 1890s, the Supreme Court struck down a number of Reconstruction laws
that protected Black citizens from discrimination. Even though some Southern
leaders called for a “New South” based on industrial development, most
Southerners, regardless of race, remained poor farmers. The region fell further
behind the rest of the nation in prosperity.

By 1877 the nation was more interested in its recent Centennial
celebration and was again looking westward and for industrial growth. Tired
of Reconstruction, the majority left it to the historians to decide the suceess or
failure of Reconstruction.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:

1D RECONSTRUCTION FAIL?

Historical opinions on Reconstruction have changed dramatically over the past
century. Scholars have disagreed over how well it worked and who deserves
praise or blame for what happened.

Blame for Too Much Equality Generations of both Northern and
Southern historians, starting with William Dunning in the carly 1900s,
portrayed Reconsiruction as a failure. Dunning and others charged that
illterate African Americans and corrupt Northern carpetbaggers abused the
rights of Southern Whites and stole vast sums from the state governments. These:
historians blamed the Radical Republicans for bringing on these conditions by
their desire to punish the South and to give formerly enslaved people too many
rights. The Dunning school of historical thought provided a rationale for the
racial segregation in the early 20th century. It was given popular expression
ina 1915 movie, D. W. Griffths The Birth of a Nation, which pictured the Ku

TOPIC 511 FAILURE OF RECONSTRUCTION 335
Klux Klansmen as heroes coming to the rescuc of Southern Whites oppressed
by vindictive Northern radicals and African Americans.

Praise for Accomplishments African American historians such as W. E. B.
Du Bois and John Hope Franklin countered Dunning by highlighting the
positive achievements of the Reconstruction governments and Black leaders.
Their view was supported and expanded upon in 1965 with the publication
of Kenneth Stampp's Era of Reconstruction. Other historians of the 1960s and
19705 also stressed the significance of the civil righs legislation passed by the
Radical Republicans and pointed out the humanitarian work of Northern
reformers.

Blame for Too Little Equality By the 1980s, some historians criticized
Congress's approach to Reconstruction, not for being too radical, but for
being not radical enough. They argued that Congress failed to provide land
for African Americans, which would have enabled them to achieve economic
independence. Furthermore, these historians argued, the military occupation
of the South should have lasted longer to protect the freedmen's political rights
Eric Foner's comprehensive Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution
(1988) acknowledged the limitations of Reconstruction in achieving lasting
reforms but also pointed out that, in the post-Civil War years, the freedmen
and freedwomen established many of the institutions in the African American
‘community upon which later progress depended: churches, schools, universites,
and businesses. According to Foner, it took a “second Reconstruction” after
‘World War II (the civl rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s) to achieve the
promise of the “first Reconstruction”

‘Support an Argument Explain two perspectives on the failures of Reconstruction.

REFLECT ON THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Explain how Reconstruction caused both continuity and change in the
regional and national views of what it meant to be Americ

KEY TERMS BY THEME
Politics (POL) Reconstruction
redeamers (POL, S0, ARC)
Rutherford B, Hayes Ku Kiux Klan
‘Samuel 1 Tilden Force Acts
Election of 1676 Black Codes.
‘Compromise of 1877 sharecropping
Amnesty Actof 1872

336 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3 refer to the map below:

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS, 1876

I Hayes (Ropublican)

B Tiden (Democratic)

itories not
eligile to vote

1. Which of the following was most important in enabling the Democratic
Party to regain political power in the South?

(A) The limits on education for the freedpeople
(B) The restrictions on the voting rights of the freedmen
() ‘The effects of the Panic of 1873

(D) The impact of the development of sharecropping

2. The victor in the 1876 presidential election was decided based on the
recommendation of

(4) a special electoral commission
(B) a meeting of state governors
(©) the Senate
(D) the Supreme Court

3. Democrats agreed to accept Rutherford B. Hayes as president in 1876
because he agreed to
(4) support a nationwide Black Code
(B) remove federal troops from the South

promote Southern industrial development

(D) support civil service reform

TOPIC 511 FAILURE OF RECONSTRUCTION 337
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION

Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

1. “Alone among the societies that abolished slavery in the nincteenth
century, the United States, for a moment, offered the freedmen a measure
of political control over their own destinics. However brief its sway,
Reconstruction allowed scope for a remarkable political and social
‘mobilization of the black community. It opened doors of opportunity that
could never be completely closed. Reconstruction transformed the lives
of Southern blacks in ways unmeasurable by statistics and unreachable
by law. It raised their expectations and aspirations, redefined their status
in relation to the larger society, and allowed space for the creation of
institutions that enabled them to survive the repression that followed.
And it established constitutional principles of civil and political equality
that, while flagrantly violated after Redemption, planted the seeds of
future struggle”

Eric Foner, “The New View of Reconstruction;
American Heritage, 1953

“Reconstruction, which was far from radical, constituted the most
democratic decades of the nineteenth century, South or North, so much
so that it amounted to the first progressive era in the nations history. Just
ten years after Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney endorsed the
expansion of slavery into the western territories and announced that black
Americans,evenifiree born, could ot becitizens ofthe republic,blacks were
fighting for the franchise in northen states; battling to integrate streetcars
in Charleston, New Orleans, and San Francisco; funding integrated public
schools;and voting and standing for office in the erstwhile Confederacy.
Black veterans, activists, ministers, assemblymen, registrars, poll workers,
editors, and a handful of dedicated white allies risked their lives in this
cause, nearly brought down a racist president, but ultimately lost their fight
because of white violence””

Douglas R. Egerton, The Wars of Reconstruction, 2014

Using the excerpts, answer (a), (b), and (c).

(@) Briefly explain ONE major difference between Foner's and Egerton’s
historical interpretations of the success or failure of Reconstruction.

(b) Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1863 t0 1877 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Foner’s interpretation.

() Briefly explain how ONE historical event or development in the
period 1863 10 1877 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts
could be used to support Egerton’s interpretation.

338 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Topic 512

Comparison in Period 5

Learning Objective: Compare the relative significance of the effects of
the Civil War on American values.

The reasoning process of comparison s based on describing similaites and
differences between specific historical developments. It helps highlight the
many factors that show the effects of the Civil War on American values.

Forexample, consider the role of Manifest Destiny ininfluencing Americans
and how they viewed slavery. Use historical reasoning to understand how
expansion affected those who wanted new land and the expansion of slavery
as opposed to those who wanted to abolish slavery or to reserve western lands
for White settlers as the nation extended its borders. For some on each side,
this was a question supported by historical evidence from many areas including
economic, cultural (religious), and regional interests.

‘The development of distinct views on slavery and the Civil War continued
through Reconstruction. Presidents Lincoln and Johnson proposed quick
reunification and forgiveness of the former Confederates. In contrast, Radical
Republicans wanted to control the rebels and protect the rights of those formerly
enslaved. What was the general reaction of the majority of Americans? Overall,
the country supported equal rights as reflected in the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments, yet many people supported or at least accepted Black Codes and
the idea of White supremacy. Reasoned comparison of the evidence is needed
to understand American values during this period.

QUESTIONS ABOUT COMPARISON

Use the questions below to make a historically defensible claim.

1. Explain the extent to which people in the North and South held
different views on Manifest Destiny. For example, compare how
Northerners viewed expansion as new lands for immigrants and the
‘market revolution while Southerners saw it as a way to spread slavery.

2. Explain the extent of the impact on the country of paralle efforts by
Northerners and Southerners to compromise over the issue of slavery
in the 1840s and 1850s. For example, compare the acceptance by
Northerners and Southerners of banning slave trading in Washington,
D.C, but allowing ownership of enslaved people to continue.

TOPIC 512 COMPARISON IN PERIOD5 339
THINK AS A HISTORIAN: SUPPORT, MODIFY, AND REFUTE CLAIMS

An important part of the skill of argumentation s being able to respond to a
claim or argument that a source makes. You can usually respond in three ways:
« Support a claim: This means you provide reasons, quotations, facts,
statistics, visuals, or other evidence to back up the claim. This evidence
should be logical, relevant, and from a reliable source.

+ Modify a claim: When you modify a claim, you provide evidence that
part of it is true and part of it i false. Or perhaps part is relevant and part
s not relevant, or part is accurate and part is exaggerated.

+ Refute a claim: This means you provide evidence that the claim is not
true. For instance, you might provide different statistics from a more
reliable source, or an eyewitness account that contradicts the claim.

Consider how one argument might be supported, modified, or refuted.

Argument: Abraham Lincoln's performance in the Lincoln-Douglas debates
made it a certainty that he would become president
+ Statement 1: After the debates, Lincoln lost the election to Douglas.

+ Statement 2: Lincoln’ ideas and performance made him well-known.

+ Statement 3: Although Lincoln won the Republican nomination in 1860,
he had to run against candidates from three other parties.

Which statement supports the argument, which modifies it, and which
refutes it? Take a few moments to decide before reading further.

Statement 1 refutes the argument by pointing out that Lincoln lost the
election. Statement 2 supports the argument. If the debates had interested
local voters only, then Lincoln would not have become well known nationally.
Statement 3 qualifies the argument. People often assume that there have always
been two parties in UsS. politics, but there have at times been more than that.

Read the argument and statements. Then answer the questions.
Argument: Lincoln's handling of the crisis at Fort Sumter showed his
willingness to plunge the country into civil war.

+ Statement 1: Lincoln said, “The government will not assail you. You can
have no conflct without being yourselves the aggressors.”

+ Statement 2: Lincoln chose to resupply the fort even though it was
unfinished and already obsolete.

+ Statement 3: Lincoln did not abandon the fort, but he did not send troops
toit either. He merely sent supplies to the soldiers already there.

1. Which statement supports the claim? Explain your answer.
2. Which statement modifies the claim? Explain your answer.
3. Which statement refutes the claim? Explain your answer.

340 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
>

UNIT 5 — Period 5 Review:
1844-1877

"@ WRITE AS A HISTORIAN: DEVELOP A THESIS

“The thesis statement must 1) assert a historically defensible claim, 2) lay out
aline of reasoning, and 3) directly address the topic and focus of the task.

Historically Defensible Claim A thesis, or claim, is a nonfactual
statement asserted to be true. It is a statement about which people can
disagree because it requires an explanation or evaluation. A historically
defensible claim is one that can be supported with sound historical evidence.
For example, a writer could claim that building railroads contributed to the
Civil War. This is a defensible claim because it could point to how railroads
connected the Northeast and Midwest more than they did the South. Others
could disagree, noting that the South needed fewer railroads because it
was linked to the Northeast through the cotton industry and the Midwest
through trade on the Mississippi River.

Line of Reasoning A thesis or claim also conveysa line of reasoning for the
argument that will be used o explain the relationships among pieces ofevidence.
In the thesis on railroads, for example, the line of reasoning uses comparisor:
the similarities and differences in regional ties. Other lines of reasoning include
causation and continuity/change. Each line of reasoning needs to be embedded
in  strong thesis statement.

Topic and Focus of Task A strong thesis or claim directly addresses
the topic and focus of the fask. It must be limited to the time and geography
stated in the long essay question. Questions often ask the writer to “evaluate
the extent” to which something happened. Which historical events or trends
were the most important,significant, influential, long-lasting, or in other ways
largest in scope? What evidence supports your evaluation?

Appli Read the following long essay question and a thesis statement
developed to address it. Evaluate the thesis statement on how wellt 1) expresses
a historically defensible claim, 2) embeds a line of reasoning, and 3) addresses
the topic and task, including evaluating extent, and stays within the limitations of
the question. Revise the thesis statement as appropriate so that it meets all three
standards.

Long Essay Question: Evaluate the extent of the importance of the efforts of the.
Confederate states in gaining international support during the Civil War.

Thesis Statement: Between 1861 and 1865, Confederate failure to gain international
support was a primary reason the Union won the Civil Wr.

For current free-response question samples, visit: https://apcentral.collegeboard org/
courses/ap-united-states- istory/exam

UNIT 5 — PERIOD 5 REVIEW: 18441677 341
LONG ESSAY QUESTIONS

Directions: The suggested writing time for each question s 40 minutes. In your
response you should do the following:

+ Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.
+ Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt

+ Support an argument in response to the prompt using specific and
relevant examples of evidence.

« Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation, continuity or
change) to frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt.

+ Use evidence to corroborate, qualify; or modify an argument that
addresses the prompt

Evaluate the extent to which the idea of Manifest Destiny fostered the
territorial expansion in the period from 1844 to 1877.

Evaluate the extent to which the United States changed how it handled its
border disputes in the period from 1844 to 1877.

Evaluate the extent to which the reaction to immigration changed in the
period from 1844 to 1877.

4. Evaluate the extent to which the arguments about slavery presented by
Abraham Lincoln in his debates with Stephen A. Douglas had an effect

on national politics in the period from 1858 to 1861.

5. Evaluate the extent to which the actions of Abraham Lincoln had an
effect on the decision of states to secede in the period 1860 to 1865.

6. Evaluate the extent to which the efforts of the Confederate states to gain
international support during the Civil War had an effect on the conduct
of the war.

7. Evaluate the extent to which the Reconstruction plans of President

Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans differed.

8. Evaluate the extent to which efforts to protect equal rights for all citizens
had an effect during the period of Reconstruction.

342 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP EDITION
DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION

Directions: Question 11is based on the accompanying documents. The documents.
have been edited for the purpose of this exercise. You are advised to spend 15 minutes
planning and 45 minutes writing your answer. In your response you should do the
following:

« Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.

« Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.

« Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least six
documents.

« Use at least one additional piece of specific historical evidence (beyond
that found in the documents) relevant to an argument about the
prompt.

« For at least three documents, explain how or why the documents p
of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an
argument.

+ Use evidence to corroborate, qualify; or modify an argument that
addresses the prompt.

1. Evaluate the extent to which the territorial expansion of Manifest Destiny
caused the United States to become more unified in the period of the 18305
and 18405,

Document 1

Source: William Ellery Channing, abolitionist and pacifist, statement opposing
the annexation of Texas, 1837

“Texas is the first step to Mexico. The moment we plant authority on Texas, the
boundaries of these two countries will become nominal, will be litle more than
lines on the sand.

A country has no right to adopt a policy, however gainful, which, as it may
foresee, will determine it to a career of war. A nation, like an individual, is bound
to seck, even by sacrifices, a position which will fvor peace, justice, and the exer-
cise of beneficent influence on the world. A nation provoking war by cupidity; by
encroachment, and above all, by efforts to propagate the curse of slavery, i alike
false to tself, to God, and to the human race.

UNIT 5 — PERIOD 5 REVIEW: 18441677 343
Document 2

Source: President James Polk, Inaugural Address, 1845

None can fail o see the danger to our safety and future peace if Texas remains an
independent state, or becomes an ally or dependency of some foreign nation more
‘powerful than herself. s there one among our citizens who would not prefer per-
petual peace with Texas to occasional wars, which often occur betsveen bordering
independent nations? Is there one who would not prefer free intercourse with her,
1o high duties on all our products and manufactures which enter her ports or cross
her frontiers? I there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communication
with her citizens, o the frontier obstructions which must occur if she remains out
of the Union?

Document 3

Source: Anonymous, “California and the National Interest” American Review (a
Whig journal), 1846

“The natural progress of events will undoubtedly give us that province [Californial
just as it gave us Texas. Already American emigrants thither are to be numbered
by thousands, and we may, at almost any moment, look for a declaration, which
shall dissolve the slight bonds that now link the province to Mexico, and prepare
the way for its ultimate annexation to the United States. .

Here, then, lies the Pacific coast, adjoining our western border . . . which
embrace the southern sections of the United States and stretching northward to
the southern boundary of Oregon.

California, to become the seat of wealth and power for which nature has
‘marked it, must pass into the hands of another race. And who can conjecture what
would now have been its condition, had its first colonists been of the stock which
peopled the Atlantic coast?

Document 4

Source: John L. O'Sullivan, editor, Democratic Review, 1846

California will probably, next fall away from [Mexico). ... The Anglo-Saxon foot
is already on its borders. Already the advance guard of the irresistible army of
Anglo-Saxon emigration has begun to pour down upon it, armed with the plough
and the rifle, and marking its trail with schools and colleges, courts and repre-
sentative halls, mills and meeting-houses. A population will soon be in actual
occupation of California, over which it be idle for Mexico to dream of dominion.
‘They will necessarily become independent. All this without ... responsibilty of
our people—in the natural flow of events

344 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP’ EDITION
Document 5

Source: Editorial, “New Territory versus No Territory” United States Magazine
‘and Democratic Review, October 1847

“This occupation of territory by the people is the great movement of the age, and
until every acre of the North American continent is occupied by citizens of the
United States, the foundation of the future empire will not have been laid

When these new states come into the Union, they are controlled by the Con-
stitution only; and as that instrument permits slavery in all the states that are
parties o it, how can Congress prevent it?

When through the results of war, territory comes into the possession of the
Union, it s equally a violation of the Constitution for Congress to undertake to
say that there shall be no slavery then. The people of the United States were nearly
unanimous for the admission of Texas into the Union; but probably not an insig;
nificant fraction require its annexation “for the purpose” of extending slavery.

Document 6

Source: Senator Thomas Corwin, Speech, 1847

‘What s the terrtory, Mr. President, which you propose to wrest from Mexico?
ir, look at this pretense of want of room.

“There is one topic connected with this subject which I remble when I approach,
and yet | cannot forbear to notice . It meets you in every step you take; it threatens
You which way soever you go in prosecution of this war. I allude to the question of
Slavery ... the North and the South are brought together into a collsion on a point
where neither will yield. Who can foresce or foretell the result ... why should we
participate this fearful struggle, by continuing a war the result of which must be
to force us at once upon a civil conflct? ... Let us wash Mexican blood from our
hands, and.....swear to preserve honorable peace with all the world.

Document 7

Source: Senator Charles Sumner, Massachusetts Legislature, 1847

Resolved, That the present war with Mexico hasits primary origin in the uncon-
sttutional annexation to the United States of the foreign state of Texas while the
same was stil at war with Mexicos that it was unconstitutionally commenced by
the order of the President . .. —by a powerful nation against a weak neighbor—
unnecessarily and without just cause, at immense cost of a portion of her territory,
from which slavery has already been excluded, with the triple object of extending
slavery, of strengthening “Slave Power” and of obtaining the control of the Free
States, under the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That our attention is directed anew to the wrong and “enormity”
of slavery, and to the tyranny and usurpation of the *Slave Power, as displayed in
the history of our country, particularly in the annexation of Texas and the present
war with Mexico.

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