due today at 11-59Pm

252 CHAPTER I5 THE CIVIL WAR

with tea in my room. These women have all a satisfying faith. "God is on our side," they say. When we are shut in Mrs. Wigfall and I ask "Why?" "Of course, He hates theYankees, we are told.You'll think that well of Him."

Not by one word or look can we detect any change in the demeanor of these negro servants. Lawrence sits at our door, sleepy and respectful, and profoundly indifferent. So are they all, but they carry it too far.You could not tell that they even heard the awful roar going on in the bay, though it has been dinning in their ears night and day. People talk before them as if they were chairs and tables. They make no sign. Are they stolidly stupid? or wiser than we are; silent and strong, biding their time?

. . . [April 15th-] Mrs. Frank Hampton knows already what civil war means. Her brother was in the New York Seventh Regiment, so roughly received in Baltimore. Frank will be in the opposite camp. . . .

1 1 3

"A War to Preserve the Union" (1861)

A child oJ the frontier, Abnham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and liued in Indiana before fnally settling in lllinois. Primarily selJ-taught, he began a legal career in Springlield in the mid-1830s and quickly gained notoriety as a trial lawyer.AWhig, he serued in the lllinois legislature from 1834 until 1842, and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1846. He joined the new Republican party in 1856 and,two yeats later,ran against StephenA. Douglasfor the U.S. Senate.Although he lost this nce, it propelled him to national prominence. When Abraham Lincoln became president in March 1867,seuen states oJthe Deep Southhad already left the Union.With Con- gress in reeess, Lincoln had to act unilaterally to meet the secession crisis. His decisions to supply Fort Sumter and his later call for troops led to the secession of four more southern stata. In thefollowing excerpteil selection, the president informs a special session of Congress of his tnotiues and war aims.

Q u e s t i o n s t o C o n s i d e r

1. Ifi/hat was Lincole's initid response to the seizure of federd property throughout the South?

2. What is Lincoln's purpose in fghting the war?

3. Is Lincoln convinced that most southerners support secession and the attack on federal property?

4. To what extent do Lincolnt views reflect those e4pressed by Daniel Webster in his "second Reply to RobertY. Flayne" (Document 63)?

"Messagc to Congm in Spcci:l Sxion,July 4,18611' ComplevWorEt of Abraham !ruoh, cds.John G. Nicolay and

John Hry pincoln, PA, 18941,6:297-325.

1 1 3 " A W A R T O P R E S E R V E T H E U N T O N " ( 1 8 5 1 )

M E S S A G E T O C O N G R E S S I N S P E C I A L S E S S t O N ,

J U L Y 4 , 1 8 6 1

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: Having been con- vened on an extraordinary occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not cdled to any ordinary subject of legislation.

At the beginning of the present presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the Federal Government were found to be generally suspended within the several States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only those of the Post-ofice Department.

Within these States all the forts, arsenals, dockyards, custom-houses, and the like, including the movable and stationary properry in and about them, had been seized, and were held in open hostfity to this goverrunent, except- ing only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jeferson, on and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.The forts thus seized had been put in improved condition, new ones had been built, and armed forces had been organized and were organizing all avowedly with the same hostile purpose.

The forts remaining in the possession of the Federal Government in and near these States were either besieged or menaced by warlike prepararions, and especially Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the best of its own, and outnumber- ing the latter as perhaps ten to one. . . .

Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an imperative dury upon the incoming executive to prevent, if possible, the consummation of such attempt to destroy the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became indispensable. This choice was made and was declared in the inaugu- ral address. The poliry chosen looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful mea- sures before a resort to any stronger ones. It sought only to hold the public places and propercy not already wrested from the government, and to collect the revenue, relying for the rest on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. . . .

[T]he assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter was in no sense a mat- ter of self-defense on the part of the assailants....They knew that this gov- ernment desired to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain visible possession, and thus to preserve the Union from acrual and immediate dissolurion. . . . By the afair at Fort Sumter, with its sur- rounding circumstances, that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the government began the conllict of arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that har- bor years before for their own protection, and still ready to give that protec- tion in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country the distinct issue, "immediate dissolution or blood."

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy-a goverrunent of the people by the same people- can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.

254 CHAPTER 15 THE CIVIL WAR

It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in num- bers to control administration according to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?""Must a government, of necessiry be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?". . .

1 1 4

Jefferson Davis Responds to the Emancipation Proclamation (1 862)

Many southerners insisted that the election of a Republican president would lead to the emancipation of slaues. During the frst phase of the Ciuil War, howeuer, the North

fought only to preserue the Union. By late 1862, the needfot additional nanpower, the determination to undermine the South economically, and the desire to make the war a moral uusade led northern leaders to aflnounce their planfor emancipation. OnJan- uary 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves behind Confederute lines, in efect making the war a crusade against slavery, In the Jollowing seleetion, Confeder- ate President Jeferson Dauis responds to the proclamation in his annual message to the Confederate Congress. Jeferson Dauis had enjoyed an impressiue career before becoming the Confederacy's only president. A West Point gtailuate, the Kentucley native briejy serued in the military beJore becoming a Missksippi planter. He serued hk adopted state in the Congress and the Senate, and was secretary of war in the Franklin Herce administration.

Q u e s t i o n s t o C o n s i d e r

1. In what ways doesJefferson Davis react to the Emancipation Proclamation?

2. How does he use the occasion to justify secession and re-establish the fear of the Republican party?

3. What can you deduce about southern attitudes toward slavery?

The public journals of the North have been received, containing a proclama- tion, dated on the 1st day of the present month, signed by the President of the United States, in which he orders and declares dl slaves within ten of the States of the Confederacy to be free, except such as are found withirrcertain

"Thc Prcsidcnt's Mcsgc," Ricfrnord Daily Dkpatch,Jnuzry 15,7863,p.2.

CHAPTER 9 THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

claimed the noble title. I would see the righteous declaration here penned by

Jefferson, signed by sages, sealed with the blood of the fathers of this nation, and solemdy sworn to by their sons on each anniversary of its birth.-I would-what shall I say? See its realization? That cannot be. But see such measures adopted as shall secure its realization for posteriry to the firllest extent ever conceived or conceivable by the human rnind.Yes! My democrary has no reservations; my yearnings for the liberty of man acknowledge no excep- tions, no prejudices, no predilections. Equal rights, equal privileges, equal enjoyments-l would see them shared by every man, by every woman, by every nation, by every race on the face of the globe. But, as I distinguish that equal condition must originate in equal knowledge, and that sound knowl- edge; in similar habits, and those good habis; in brotherly sympathies, and those fostered from youth up under a system of RATIONAL AND NATIONAI REPTIBLICAN EDUCATION.

63

Daniel Webster's Second Reply to Robert Y. Hayne (1830)

The publication of John C. Calhoun's "Exposition and Prctest" advancing the doe- trine of nullifcation highlighted diferent views ouer the diuision of powers between the state and federal gouernments.The issue emergeil in the halk of Congress late in 1829 when Senator Samuel A. Foot of Connecticut pressed for the temporary restriction of western land sales. The debate soon became an algurnent ouer national anil states' rights when South Carolina Senator RobertY. Hayne linked the issues the following January. Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster responded with a blistering attack on the "Expoflion anil Protest." Perhaps the nation's best tial lauryer, having won seuual cases befoie;the Supreme Court (irrcIuding McCulloch z. Maryland, f&e Dartrnouth College use, and Gibbons u. Ogden),Webster conteniled that South Carolina\ prob- Iems resulted from its slaue economy, not the tartf of 1828. Following Hayne\ response came Webster's fnal oration, excerpteil as follows, which containeil the essence of nationalism as it had begun to develop in the antebellum North.

Q u e s t i o n s t o C o h s i d e r

1. How does DanielWebster attack states'rights?

2. Why is the federal union "most dear" to'Webster?

3. According to Webster, what is the basis of the federai union?

142

i'-

63 DANIEL WEBSTER'S sECOND REPLY TO ROEERT Y. HAYNE (1830)

4. Compare the views contained in this document with those found in "South Carolina Nullifies theTariff" (Document 64).In what ways do they differ?

. . . I profess, Sir, in my caree-r hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the pros- perity and honor of the whole countqr, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for what- ever makes us most proud of our counrry. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate cofirmerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign inlluences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofi of its utiJity and its blessinp; and although our ter- ritory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

I have not allowed mysel{, Sir, to look beyond the (Jnion, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and destroyed.While the Union lasts we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those words of delusion and folly, "Liberry first and Union afterwards"; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample fol&, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,-Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!

"Sccond Spcech on Foot's Raolutionl' The Witings atd Speuhes oJ Daniel Webstcr @oston, 1903), 6: 3-75.