This presentation covers the 1860 election, the secession winter, and the Firing on Fort Sumter to illuminate the history leading up to the beginning of the Civil War. It is the fifth in a series of textbook/lecture substitutes designed for students in a college seminar on the Civil War and Reconstruction.
3. With sectional strife over slavery’s expansion westward
at an all time high, Americans go into the 1860
electoral season divided.
By the end of the year, Lincoln will be elected and
South Carolina will secede from the Union, and the
U.S. will be on a path toward civil war.
Neither of these events was a foregone conclusion but
we can look to some major political issues concerning
Civil War era Americans and the actions of individuals
and groups to understand why the Civil War came
when and how it did.
4.
5.
6. The Democratic Party remains a national party, with
support in the North and in the South. Both sectional
factions are anxious about the rise of the Republican Party
and its strong opposition to slavery in the western
territories. However, they remain divided over how to
handle the opposition to slavery in the West.
Two platforms emerge at the convention
The federal government must protect slavery in the territories
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case would
stand
Tensions between the two result in a disrupted convention.
7. Southern Democrats agree to nominate John C.
Breckinridge
Northern Democrats agree to nominate Stephen A.
Douglas
8. Had absorbed the Know-Nothings and Free Soilers.
Political lions William Seward and Salmon Chase were
obvious candidates but their abolitionist sentiments would
make it more difficult for them to get the support of people
who were more opposed to slavery spreading west (they
feared they were more radical abolitionist, in the vein of
John Brown, than they were anti-slavery).
Abraham Lincoln, who had established himself as someone
who opposed slavery’s existence but accepted its
constitutional legality and opposed its extension
westward, was an unlikely contender.
Lincoln built his political reputation over several decades
of work, especially with his debates with Stephen A.
Douglas.
9. Lincoln-Douglas debates
occurred throughout 1858.
Lincoln won most of the
ideological points on the
problems of slavery generally
and in the western territories
particularly, but he lost the
Senate election to Douglas.
Lincoln went on to esthimself
as GOP contender by
sketching out his opposition
to slavery expanding
westward.
This started what became his
path to the White House.
10. In the Cooper Institute speech Lincoln laid out his agenda.
He opposed John Brown’s raid and made a point to distance
himself from abolitionists.
He declared his opposition to slavery in the western
territories but accepted its constitutional legality in
existing states.
He argued for conciliation between the sections.
At the Republican convention, Lincoln and others decided
to sketch out a platform that sidestepped hot and divisive
issues and focused on getting elected by campaigning on a
priority to stop slavery from spreading into the western
territories.
11. Constitutional Union
Party
Former members of the
American Party (aka the
Know Nothings) mobilized
to form a new fourth party.
This party avoided such
issues as slavery and
focused on adherence to
the Constitution, support
for the Union, and existing
laws.
They nominated John Bell.
12. On the Eve of the
Civil War
Political cartoons such
as this illuminate the
ways that ideas about
race and sex factored
into the 1860 election.
Dred Scott is depicted
in the
center, Breckinridge
with President
Buchanan, Lincoln is
dancing with a black
woman, John Bell with
a supposed Native
American, Douglas
with a “squatter.”
13.
14. Lincoln is elected president of the U.S. in 1860 with
little support from many of the slaveholding states in
the Lowcountry and deep South.
Angered over his election and concerned that he will
either end slavery or stop its expansion, slaveholders
begin to discuss secession from the Union. They argue
that if the U.S. government intervenes with slavery
that the government will violate the rights of the
individual states and the property rights of
slaveholders inherent to the Enlightenment, the
American Revolution, and the establishment of the
Constitution.
16. Lincoln tries to assure the slaveholding South that he has
no intentions of interfering with their right to own slaves in
the states where slavery already exists.
Many members of the slaveholding apparatus do not
believe him. They see his insistence on stopping slavery
from expanding westward and northerners’ mobilized
opposition to slavery as threats that jeopardizes their rights
and their livelihood.
They decide to secede from the Union before Lincoln
and/or northern elected officials can act.
See this timeline from the Library of Congress for detailed
information about secession and the course of the war.
17. Contrary to popular myth, with the exception of South
Carolina, the seceding states did not leave the Union
immediately or easily. This is because many citizens
opposed secession generally and without direct
provocation particularly.
What is more, white southerners were deeply divided:
Fire-breathers—advocated immediate secession.
Cooperationists—those who wanted to wait for
provocation.
Unionists—those who opposed secession.
Because of these divisions, secessionists had to
strategically maneuver their states out of the Union.
18. South Carolina declared that the Constitution that the
framers created was a compact (or an agreement or
contract) with the states and the national government
having separate powers.
They argued that northern states’ refusal to accept their
constitutionally protected right to own slaves (aiding
fugitive slaves, passing personal liberty laws, and electing a
president and members of Congress who were opposed to
slavery’s westward expansion) represented a violation of
the compact, justifying secession.
They often cloaked their movement in the rhetoric of the
American Revolution.
19.
20. Some states held conventions but as Stephanie McCurry
(see Confederate Reckoning) and others show, other states
used political machinations—playing on racial and gender
fears, limiting voting, limiting citizenship rights, vote
rigging, violence and intimidation—to maneuver their
states out of the Union.
Even within this climate, most electoral processes were
really close, illuminating the diversity of opinion.
Two key demographics—yeomen farmers and non-
slaveholding whites, many of whom did not necessarily have
as big of a stake in slavery’s existence and its extension
westward as did many of the fire-breathing planter class.
21.
22. Order of Secession
South Carolina December 20, 1860
Mississippi January 9, 1861
Florida January 10, 1861
Alabama January 11, 1861
Georgia January 19, 1861
Louisiana January 26, 1861
Texas February 1, 1861
Virginia April 17, 1861
Arkansas May 6, 1861
North Carolina May 20, 1861
Tennessee June 8, 1861
23. James Buchanan
As the outgoing president,
Buchanan tried to avoid war
without getting too involved.
He admonished abolitionists
for “causing” the crisis.
He denied the legitimacy of
secession because the federal
government had taken no
action.
He refused to hand over federal
properties as South Carolina
had demanded.
This gave Congress time to act.
24. Secession leaders argued that secession was a done deal but
not everyone felt that way.
Proposed Compromises:
Enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law;
Repeal of Personal Liberty (legislation passed by several
northern states that prohibited state officials from helping to
return runaway slaves to their masters);
Constitutional amendment to protect the South against any
further Congressional interference with slavery;
Allow territories-turned states to make decisions on slavery
for themselves
President-elect Lincoln was prepared to accept most of the
compromises but he held firm on slavery’s extension into
the western territories.
25. Crittenden’s Proposed Compromise
Slavery prohibited north of 36*30’ line
Congress forbidden to abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction under in
slave states
Congress could not abolish slavery in Washington, D.C.
Congress could not interfere with or prohibit interstate slave trade
Congress would provide full compensation to owners of fugitive slaves not
returned by northern states or municipalities
No further amendment of the Constitution could change these previous
agreements or allow Congress to interfere with or prohibit slavery
26.
27. As Eric Foner shows in The Fiery Trial, many northern members
of Congress worked for months to avoid full secession.
They offered a variety of resolutions included such concessions
as a constitutional amendment declaring that Congress could
not interfere with slavery.
Lincoln agreed to most concessions because he understood that
slavery was protected for the states by the Constitution.
However, the institution had no constitutional protection in the
western territories and Lincoln was firm in his opposition to
slavery extending there. What is more, he was equally firm in his
insistence that southerners respect the results of the 1860
election and that they did not have the right to secede.
Secessionists see Lincoln’s refusal to compromise on these
matters as further justifying their right to secede.
28. In February, political figures gathered to try to halt
secession and avert war. Several factors undermined their
effort:
Missing from this gathering were representatives from what
would be many of the seceding states (note that by this time
SC, MS, FL, AL, LA, GA, and TX had seceded);
The lateness of their mobilization;
Opposition from both southern secessionists and northerners
who argued “let them go!”
Republicans’ seeming inability to recognize the seriousness of
the threat of further secession and war
Despite their inability to avoid war, the conference revealed
the extent of support border states had for remaining in the
Union.
29. Meeting in Montgomery on February 4, 1861 to form a new
nation, create a constitution, and elect officials.
Analyzing the rhetoric of speeches and secession
documents, Stephanie McCurry summarizes their mission
as—creating a slaveholding republic that protected the
interests of white men to own human property.
She bases this argument on the very narrow idea of who
constituted “the people” of the Confederacy and the policies
and practices instituted to protect slavery. Indeed, most of the
arguments re: “states’ rights” were centered around protecting
slavery from interference.
The CSA Constitution resembled the U.S. Constitution
expect it had specific language supporting slavery.
30. Jefferson Davis
Long and distinguished military and
political career.
Advocate of states’ rights and
filibustering schemes in Cuba and
Nicaragua.
He opposed the secession movement
but when called to serve as president
of the CSA he did.
He was elected with great fanfare but
over the course of the war, his
support among his people declined.
After the war, he would be
tried, imprisoned, and released.
34. Davis, Stephens, and other firebreathers revert to the
constitutional principles of “states’ rights” to explain their
actions. Neo-Confederates use the postwar apologies and
explanations as the basis for their states’ rights arguments.
35. See Charles B. Dew’s Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession
Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War.
36. Abraham Lincoln
Opposed secession and
argued that as president he
had to maintain authority
against disunion.
He was opposed to slavery on
principle but accepted its
constitutional legality in the
U.S.
He was not an abolitionist.
Like many anti-slavery
men, Lincoln was opposed to
slavery spreading into the
western territories largely
because it undercut the
sociopolitical opportunities of
working class white men.
39. Abraham Lincoln
At his first inauguration Lincoln
declared that the “only substantial
difference” between Confederates
and Unionists was about slavery.
Secessionists did not believe that
Lincoln and his administration
would not interfere with slavery.
They painted him as an
abolitionist who supported racial
equality.
Secessionists believed that their
fate was tied to their ability to
move westward. So Linc0ln’s
opposition to slavery’s spread was
a deal breaker.
40. Lincoln, like Buchanan, refused to surrender to
Confederates the federal government’s forts (or the
post offices, hospitals, custom houses, and other
public buildings).
To avoid war, Lincoln did not repossess federal
property seized by Confederates.
This issue came to a head at Fort Sumter in South
Carolina.
Rather than abandon federal property during a
rebellion, Lincoln authorized the provisioning of the
fort. Confederates eventually fired on the fort, forcing
Anderson to surrender it, igniting the war.
41. Major Robert
Anderson
Fort Sumter, which
was still occupied by
Major Robert
Anderson but being
harassed by
Confederates,
became the test of
whether the USA
would defend its
property from the
CSA.
Men at the fort faced
dwindling supplies.
42. Fort Sumter
Before the firing.
Lincoln authorized
the re-supplying of
the fort.
Confederates fired
on the fort, forcing
Anderson to
abandon it.
44. Lincoln responds to the
firing on Fort Sumter by
calling for 75,000 men to
suppress the
insurrection, which was
virtually a declaration of
war.
Lincoln gets the volunteers
but when free African
Americans volunteer for
service, the president
declines.
This action becomes the
catalyst for
VA, AR, NC, and TN to
secede.
45.
46. War begins
This image depicts a
CSA mob’s attack on
Union soldiers in
Baltimore. In titling
the piece “The
Lexington of 1861,”
Currier and Ives are
reflecting
contemporary
rhetoric on both
sides that the war is
similar to the
American
Revolution.
47. Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware were the four
slaveholding states that did not secede. Their decisions
would be crucial to both sides.
They were generally opposed to secession and their
economies and populations leaned toward the Union
They had smaller populations of enslaved people;
Slavery was not as critical to their existence. Indeed, the
institution was declining;
They were more modern and urban than their more southern
counterparts;
Unionists (rather than secessionists) dominated the political
landscape and they steered their states away from the
secession movement.
Lincoln would do whatever was in his power to keep these
states from leaving the Union and joining the Confederacy.
48. Birthplaces of both Lincoln and Davis.
Slavery is very important to residents but slaveholders did
not dominate the political scene.
The state’s other social and political ties were stronger re:
the Union—many Kentuckians had relocated to other
northern states.
The state declares itself neutral in the secession movement
but this was hard to maintain in a state where people chose
sides and when both sides estd military camps within its
borders.
When Confederate forces seized Columbus, the state
requested federal protection and remained within the Union.
Confederate forces within the state tried to form a rump
government and tensions over slavery’s continued existence
would make Kentuckians waiver but ultimately, the state
remained a Union state.
49. Like Kentucky, Maryland’s location and its continued
support for slavery make it crucial to boththe CSA and
the USA.
The majority of the population opposed secession and
slaveholders in the state would balk at any wartime
measure of emancipation.
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus (against
illegal imprisonment) from DC to Philly, which
angered Marylanders.
Tensions between Maryland and the USAcame to a head
in ex parte Merryman.
Support for the Union was ultimately proven via the
election of candidates who supported the Union.
50. Surrounded by Union states and with a very small
population of enslaved people, Delaware constituted
less of a threat for leaving the Union than were the
other border states.
Very strong Union sentiment in the state results in it
remaining in the USA.
51. Unlike, Delaware, Missouri’s location and political
economy made it more susceptible to secession.
Tensions over slavery’s existence dated back not only to the
Missouri Compromise but more recently to the Kansas-
Nebraska battles.
The state’s population remained divided on secession.
Guerilla warfare broke out, leading Union officials to
intervene to maintain order.
A shadow Confederate government mobilized and the
struggle for control over the state continued.
The more than 100,000 Missouri men who enlisted in the
Union Army and the approximately 30,000 men who
enlisted for the Confederate Army illustrates the general
Union-leaning sentiment in the state.
52. Union supporters in the western part of Virginia
seceded and created West Virginia.
West Virginians had long opposed slaveholders’
domination over the states’ affairs and they were
opposed to Virginia’s secession.
In 1862, they maneuvered themselves out of Virginia
and the Confederacy.
Congress passed legislation admitting West Virginia to
the Union over the opposition of Unionists in the
Virginia.
53. The decision of these states to remain in the Union
granted more geographic space as well as manpower
and war matériel to the Union.
Lincoln would do whatever was in his power to keep
these states from leaving the Union and joining the
Confederacy.
54.
55. Looking at the rhetoric of secessionists in
newspapers, journals, diaries, letters, political
speeches, AND the ordinances of secession, we can see that
the mission of the Confederate States of America was to
preserve political economy rooted in slavery and extending
right of slaveholders to carry human property into the west.
They used language suggesting that they wanted to build
upon what the U.S. founders created by creating a republic
that protected slavery.
Although “states’ rights” did appear in the
rhetoric, hearkening back to John C. Calhoun, the primary
right about which they were concerned states being able to
protect was those governing slavery.
See for example Gary Gallagher’s The Confederate War &
Stephanie McCurry’s Confederate Reckoning.
56. Looking at the rhetoric of Unionists in
newspapers, journals, diaries, letters, political
speeches, we can see that the mission of the United
States of America was to preserve the Union by
suppressing the rebellion and returning the seceded
states to the Union.
The mission was not to end slavery.
When Civil War Americans used the phrase “Union,”
they meant a democratic republic built on the principles
of “free labor, economic opportunity, and a broad
political franchise they considered unique in the world.”
See Gary Gallagher’s The Union War, especially 6.
57. Though Civil War Americans from both sides
understood and said that secession was the reason for
the war, they all knew that slavery was at the heart of
secession (read the secession declarations if you have
any doubts).
Yet whites on both sides of the conflict argued that the
war had nothing to do with African Americans.
Indeed, when black men volunteer to serve in the
Union Army, Lincoln rejects them. When abolitionists
call on Lincoln to use the abolition of slavery as a tool
for quickly winning the war, he rejects them too. It will
take more than a year of fighting and with no end in
sight for Lincoln to change his mind.
58. David Tod
When black Ohioans
volunteer to serve,
they are rejected.
Ohio Governor Tod’s
response reflects
widespread beliefs.
Don’t you know…that
this is a white man’s
government; that
white men are able to
defend and protect it?
When we want you
colored men we will
notify you.
59. Frederick
Douglass
Douglass embodies
African Americans’
opposition to Lincoln’s
failure to strike against
slavery and to
authorize black
enlistment.
To fight against slaveholders
without fighting against
slavery, is but a half-hearted
business, and paralyzes the
hand engaged in it…Fire must
be met with water…War for the
destruction of liberty must be
met with war for the
destruction of slavery.
60. Both free and enslaved African Americans rejected the
rhetoric of white men such as David Tod and the idea
that the war was only about secession (stripped of
anything relating to slavery).
Free blacks mobilized drilling companies.
Enslaved people’s understanding of this reality guides
their mass exodus from plantations, farms, urban
factories, businesses, and homes.
Enslaved people will not only seek out Union
forces, they will provide service as
guides, spies, informants, and servants.
61. Was the war avoidable? Yes.
Americans on both sides could have continued to reach
compromises in the vein of the Northwest Ordinance, the
compromises of 1787, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromises
of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
South Carolina didn’t have to use Lincoln election to the presidency
as cause for secession, her state’s leaders could have waited for him
to act directly against slavery.
Lincoln could have taken more seriously the threat of secession and
authorized a constitutional amendment allowing slavery to extend
into the West.
Indeed, the actions proposed by Congress during the secession
winter could have averted war. Unfortunately, the political brokers
on both sides would not concede enough to their opponents.
None of these counterfactuals occurred. So, after several decades
of fighting over slavery’s expansion and a decade of intense
political fighting, the Civil War began.
62. David Herbert Donald, et al eds., The Civil War and
Reconstruction;
Jean Baker, The Politics of Continuity;
William Barney, The Road to Secession &The Secessionist
Impulse;
Gabor S. Boritt, ed., Why the Civil War Came;
Daniel Crofts, Reluctant Confederates;
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial and Free Soil, Free Land, and Free
Men;
Gary Gallagher, TheUnion War &The Confederate War;
Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning;
Mark Neely, The Last Best Hope of Earth;
Charles Dew, Apostles of Disunion;
Mark Summers, The Plundering Generation;
Ralph Wooster, The Secession Conventions of the South;
63. Slave Populations: http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_census_1860.htm
Census Image: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/12/11/map-of-the-last-u-s-slave-census-1860/
1860 Election Map: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-antebellum/5331.
Crittenden Compromise: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/how-lincoln-undid-the-union/
John Bell: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/JBell.jpg/245px-JBell.jpg
Abraham Lincoln: http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/linc-2.jpg
Stephen A. Douglas: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2009/06/stephenarnolddouglas.jpg
Political Quadrille: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661605/
James Buchanan: http://bradnehring.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/james-buchanan-0808-lg-17794534.jpg
Map of secession: http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/united_states_secession_1860.htm
Jefferson Davis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis
Lincoln:
Alexander Stephens: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Alexander_Stephens.jpg
Inauguration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln's_first_inaugural_address
Robert Anderson: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/12/hh12b.htm
Fort Sumter before firing: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/upon-the-points-of-our-swords/ and after:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at0042b.1s.jpg
South Carolina’s Ultimatum: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/war-in-the-cabinet/
David Tod: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=382
Frederick Douglass: http://maap.columbia.edu/place/38.html
Pro-Union rally in NYC: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/the-great-sumter-rally-in-union-square/.
Lexington of 1861: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/shots-heard-round-the-world/
