%426. The Life of the Republic at Stake%.–Thus was begun the greatest war in modern history. It was no vulgar struggle for territory, or for maritime or military supremacy. The life of the Union was at stake. The questions to be decided were: Shall there be one or two republics on the soil of the United States? Shall the great principle of all democratic-republican government, the principle that the will of the majority shall rule, be maintained or abandoned? Shall state sovereignty be recognized? Shall states be suffered to leave the Union at will, or shall the United States continue to exist as “an indestructible Union of indestructible States”? As Mr. Lincoln said, “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.”
%427. The South better prepared%.–For the struggle which was to decide these questions neither side was ready, but the South was better prepared than the North. The South was united as one man. The North was divided and full of Southern sympathizers. She knew not whom to trust. Officers of the army, officers of the navy, were resigning every day. The great departments of government at Washington contained many men who furnished information to Southern officials. Seventeen steam war vessels (two thirds of all that were not laid up or unfit for service) were in foreign parts. Large quantities of military supplies had been stored in Southern forts. All the great powers of Europe save Russia were hostile to our republic, and would gladly have seen it rent in twain. The South, again, had the advantage in that she was to act on the defensive.
[Illustration: The United States July 1861 Showing the greatest extension of the Southern Confederacy]
%428. Results of firing on the Flag.%–Not a man was killed on either side during the bombardment of Sumter. Yet the battle was a famous one, and led to greater consequences:
1. Lincoln at once called for 75,000 militia to serve for three months.
2. Four “border states,” as they were called, thus forced to choose their side, seceded. They were Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.
3. The Congress of the United States was called to meet at Washington, July 4, 1861.
4. After Virginia seceded, the capital of the Confederacy, at the invitation of the Virginia secession convention, was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, and the Confederate Congress adjourned to meet there July 20, 1861.
%429. West Virginia.%–The act of secession by Virginia was promptly repudiated by the people of the counties west of the mountains, who refused to secede, and voted to form a new state under the name of Kanawha. They adopted a constitution and were finally admitted in 1863 as the state of West Virginia[1].
[Footnote 1: A state made out of part of another state cannot be admitted into the Union without the consent of that state first obtained. But as Congress and the people of West Virginia considered that Virginia consisted of that part of the Old Dominion which remained loyal to the Union, the people practically asked their own consent.]
%430. The Call to Arms.%–Lincoln held that no state could ever leave the Union, and that therefore no state had left the Union. Those which had passed ordinances of secession were to his mind states whose machinery of government had been seized on by persons in insurrection against the government of the United States. When, therefore, he made his call for 75,000 militia to defend the Union, he apportioned the number among all the states, slave and free, north and south, east and west, according to their population. Those forming the Confederacy paid no attention to the call. The governors of the border slave states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri) returned evasive or insulting answers.
But the people of the loyal states responded instantly, and tens of thousands of troops were soon on their way to Washington. To get there was a hard matter. Baltimore lay on the most direct railroad route between the Eastern and Middle States and Washington. But Baltimore was full of disloyal men, who tore up the railroads, burned bridges, cut the telegraph wires, and as the Massachusetts 6th regiment was passing through the city from one railroad station to another, attacked it, killing some and wounding others of its soldiers. This forced the troops from the other states to go by various routes to Annapolis and then to Washington, so that it was late in April before enough arrived to insure the safety of the city.
Though none of the border and seceded states sent troops, the response of the loyal states to Lincoln’s call was so hearty that more than 75,000 men were furnished. The President decided to turn this outburst of patriotism to good purpose, and May 3, 1861, asked for 42,034 volunteers for three years unless sooner discharged, and ordered 18,000 seamen to be enlisted, and 22,714 men added to the regular army. Baltimore was now occupied by Union troops, and communication with Washington through that city was restored and protected.
On July 1, 1861, there were 183,588 “boys in blue” under arms and present for duty. These were distributed at various places north of the line, 2000 miles long, which divided the North and South. This line began near Fort Monroe, in Virginia, ran up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac to the mountains, then across Western Virginia and through Kentucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory to New Mexico.
This line was naturally divided into three parts:
1. That in Virginia and along the Potomac.
2. That occupied by Kentucky, a state which had declared itself neutral.
3. That west of the Mississippi.
%431. The Battle of “Bull Run” or Manassas%.–General Winfield Scott was in command of the Union army. Under him, in command of the troops about Washington, was General Irwin McDowell. Further to the west, near Harpers Ferry, was a Union force under General Patterson. In western Virginia, with an army raised largely in Ohio, was General George B. McClellan. In Missouri was General Lyon, aided by all the Union people in the state, who were engaged in a desperate struggle to keep her in the Union.
In northern Virginia and opposed to the Union forces under General McDowell, was a Confederate army under General Beauregard, and these troops the people of the North demanded should be attacked. “The Confederate Congress must not meet at Richmond!” “On to Richmond! On to Richmond!” became the cries of the hour. General McDowell, with 30,000 men, was therefore ordered to attack Beauregard. McDowell found him near Manassas, some thirty miles southwest of Washington, and there, on the field of “Bull Run,” on Sunday, July 21, 1861, was fought a famous battle which ended with the defeat and flight of the Union army[1].
[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. 229-239.]
General George B. McClellan, who had defeated the Confederate forces in western Virginia in several battles, was now placed in command of the troops near Washington, and spent the rest of 1861 and part of 1862 in drilling and organizing his army. Bull Run had taught the people two things: 1. That the war was not to end in three months; 2. That an army without discipline is not much better than a mob.
%432. Fort Donelson and Fort Henry%.–While McClellan was drilling his men along the Potomac, the Union forces drove back the Confederates in the West. The Confederate line at first extended as shown by the heavy line on the map on p. 390. In order to break it, General Buell sent a small force under General Thomas, in January, 1862, to drive back the Confederates near Mill Springs. Next, in February, General Halleck authorized General U. S. Grant and Flag Officer Foote to make a joint expedition against Fort Henry on the Tennessee. But Foote arrived first and captured the fort, whereupon Grant marched to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, eleven miles away, and after three days of sharp fighting was asked by General Buckner what terms he would offer. Grant promptly answered,
[Illustration: Handwritten note of Grant]
No terms excepting unconditional and
immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to receive immediately upon
your word.
I am Sir: very respectfully
your ** **
U. S. Grant
Brig. Gen.
Buckner at once surrendered (February 16, 1862), and Grant won the first great Union victory of the war.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. I., pp. 398-429; Grant’s _Memoirs_, Vol. I., pp. 285-315.]
%433. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing.%–After the fall of Fort Donelson, the Confederates, abandoning Columbus and Nashville, hurried south toward Corinth in Mississippi, whither Halleck’s army followed in three parts. One under General S. E. Curtis moved to southwestern Missouri, and beat the Confederates at Pea Ridge, Ark. (March 6-8). The second, under General John Pope, cooeperated with Flag Officer Foote, from the west bank of the Mississippi, in the capture of Island No. 10 (April 7). Pope then joined Halleck in the movement against Corinth, while the fleet went on down the river, attacked Fort Pillow three times, captured it (June 4), and two days later took Memphis.
Meanwhile the third part of Halleck’s army, under Grant, following the Confederates, had reached Pittsburg Landing, where (April 6) he was suddenly attacked by General A. S. Johnston and driven back. But General Buell coming up with fresh troops, the battle was resumed the next day (April 7), when Grant regained his lost ground, and the Confederates fell back to Corinth.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol., pp. 465-486.]
[Illustration: Driving back the Confederate line in the West]
At this point General Henry Halleck arrived and took command, and at the end of May occupied Corinth. Memphis then fell, and the Mississippi River was opened as far south as Vicksburg. After the capture of Memphis, Halleck went to Washington to take command of the armies of the United States.
%434. Bragg’s Raid into Kentucky.%–The Confederate line which in January, 1862, had passed across Kentucky had thus by June been driven southward to Chattanooga, Iuka, and Holly Springs. The Union line ran from near Chattanooga to Corinth and Memphis. Against this the Confederates now moved, with the hope of breaking through and driving it back. Gathering his forces at Chattanooga, General Bragg rushed across Tennessee and Kentucky toward Louisville. But General Buell, perceiving his purpose, outmarched him, reached the Ohio, and forced Bragg to fall back. At Perryville (October 8, 1862), Bragg turned furiously on Buell and was beaten.
%435. Iuka and Corinth.%–While Bragg was raiding Kentucky, Generals Price at Iuka and Van Dorn at Holly Springs, knowing that Grant’s army had been greatly weakened by sending troops to Buell, prepared to attack Corinth. But Grant, thinking he could fight them separately, sent Rosecrans to Iuka (September 19). Price was not captured, but retreated to Van Dorn, and the two then fell upon Rosecrans at Corinth (October 4), only to be beaten and chased forty miles.
%436. Murfreesboro.%–For these successes Rosecrans (October 30) was given command of Buell’s army, then centering at Nashville. Bragg went into winter quarters at Murfreesboro, and thither Rosecrans advanced to attack him. The contest at Murfreesboro (December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863) was one of the most bloody battles of the whole war. Bragg was again defeated, and retreated to a position farther south.
%437. Arkansas%.–In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the Mississippi extended from Belmont across southern Missouri to the Indian Territory. Against the west end of this line General Curtis moved in February, 1862, and after driving the Confederates under Van Dorn and Price out of Missouri, beat them in the desperate battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas (March 6-8, 1862), and moved to the interior of the state. Price and Van Dorn went east into Mississippi (see Sec. 435), and when the year closed the Union forces were in control north of the Arkansas River, and along the west bank of the Mississippi. On the east bank the only fortified positions in Confederate hands were Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, and Port Hudson.
%438. Farragut captures New Orleans.%–While Foote was opening the upper part of the Mississippi, a naval expedition under Farragut, supported by an army under Butler, had cleared the lower part of the river. These forces had been sent by sea to capture New Orleans. The defenses of the city consisted of two strong forts almost directly opposite each other on the banks of the river, about seventy-five miles south of the city; of two great chain cables stretched across the river below the forts to prevent ships coming up; and of fifteen armed vessels above the forts. New Orleans was thought to be safe. But Farragut was not dismayed. Sailing up the river till he came to the chains, he bombarded the forts for six days and nights, while the forts did their best to destroy him. Then, finding he could do nothing in this way, he cut the chains, ran his ships past the forts in spite of a dreadful fire (April 24, 1862), destroyed the Confederate fleet (April 25), and took the city. General Butler, who had been waiting at Ship Island with 15,000 men, then entered and held New Orleans.[1]
[Footnote 1: Farragut, after taking New Orleans, went up the river and captured Baton Rouge and Natchez.]
%439. The Peninsular Campaign against Richmond.%–The signal success of Grant and Farragut in the West was more than offset by the signal failure of McClellan in the East. The wish of the administration, and indeed of the whole North, was that Richmond should be captured. Against it, therefore, the Army of the Potomac was to move. But by what route? The government wanted McClellan to march south across Virginia, so that his army should always be between the Confederate forces and Washington. McClellan insisted on moving west from Chesapeake Bay. The result was a compromise:
1. Forces under Fremont and Banks were to operate in the Shenandoah valley and prevent a Confederate force attacking Washington from the west.
2. An army under McDowell was to march from Fredericksburg to Richmond.
3. McClellan was to take the main army from Washington by water to Fort Monroe, and then march up the peninsula to Richmond, where McDowell was to join him.
[Illustration: The Peninsula Campaign]
This peninsula, from which the campaign gets its name, lies between the York and James rivers. Landing at the lower end of it, McClellan was met by General Joseph E. Johnston, who caused a long delay by forcing him to besiege Yorktown. McClellan then advanced up the peninsula, fighting the battle of Williamsburg on the way. At White House Landing he turned toward Richmond, extending his right flank to Hanover Courthouse, where McDowell was expected to join him. But this was not to be, for General T. J. Jackson (“Stonewall” Jackson) rushed down the Shenandoah valley, driving Banks over the Potomac into Maryland, and retreated south before Fremont or McDowell could cut him off; during this campaign he won four desperate battles in thirty-five days. Jackson’s success alarmed Washington, and McDowell was held in northern Virginia. McClellan’s army, meanwhile, advanced on both sides of the Chickahominy River to within eight miles of Richmond. At Fair Oaks and Seven Pines (May 31) his left flank was almost overwhelmed by Johnston; but the latter was wounded and his troops defeated. Johnston was then succeeded by R. E. Lee, who, joined by Jackson, attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville and Games Mill, and forced him to fall back, fighting for six days (June 26 to July 1, 1862)[1] as he retreated to Harrisons Landing, on the James River. There the army remained till August, when it was recalled to the Potomac.
[Footnote 1: The “Seven Days’ Battles” are these and one fought June 25.]
%440. Lee’s Raid into Maryland; Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg.%–While the Army of the Potomac was at Harrisons Landing, a new force called the Army of Virginia was organized, and General John Pope placed in command. At the same time General Halleck was recalled from the West and made general in chief of the Union armies. Pope intended to move straight against Richmond. But when McClellan in obedience to orders left Harrisons Landing and took his army by water to the Potomac, near Washington, the Confederate army was left free to act as it pleased. Seeing his opportunity, Lee moved at once against Pope’s army, whose line stretched along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to the Shenandoah valley in western Virginia. Near the Rapidan at Cedar Mountain was General Banks. He was first attacked and beaten; after which Lee fell upon Pope on the old field of Bull Run, and put the army to flight. Pope fell back to Washington, where his forces were united with those of McClellan. Pushing northward, Lee next crossed the Potomac and entered Maryland. But he was overtaken by McClellan at Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, where, September 17, 1862, a great battle was fought, after which Lee went back to Virginia.
McClellan was now removed and the command of the army given to General Burnside. He was as reckless as McClellan was cautious, and on December 13 threw his army against the Confederates posted at Fredericksburg Heights and was beaten with dreadful slaughter. Thus at the end of 1862 Richmond was not captured, and the two armies went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock River between them.
%441. Emancipation of the Slaves%.–More than two years had now passed since South Carolina had seceded, and during this time a great change had taken place in the feeling of the North towards slavery. When Lincoln was inaugurated, very few people wanted the slaves emancipated. But two years of bloody fighting had convinced the North that the Union could not exist part slave, part free. As Lincoln said in his speech at Springfield in 1858, “It must be all one thing, or all the other.” Seeing that the people now felt as he did, Lincoln, in 1862 (March 6), asked Congress to agree to buy the slaves of the loyal slave states, and urged the members of Congress from those states to advise their constituents to set free their slaves and receive $300 apiece for them. This they would not do; whereupon he decided to act upon his own authority, and declared all slaves within the lines of the Confederacy to be freemen.
For this he had two good reasons: 1. So far the war had been one for the preservation of the Union. By making it a war for union and freedom the North would become more earnest than ever. 2. The rulers of England, who wanted Southern cotton, were only waiting for a pretext to acknowledge the independence of the South. If, however, the North engaged in a war for the abolition of slavery, the people of England would not allow the independence of the Confederacy to be acknowledged by their rulers.
The time to make such a declaration was after some victory gained by the Union army. When McClellan and Lee stood face to face at Antietam, Lincoln therefore “vowed to God” that if Lee were defeated he would issue the proclamation. Lee was defeated, and, on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring that if the Confederate States did not return to their allegiance before January 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves” within the Confederate lines “shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free.” The states of course did not return to their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was issued setting the slaves free.[1]
[Footnote 1: Nicolay and Hay’s _Life of Lincoln, _Vol. VI., Chaps. 6, 8.]
Now, there are three things in connection with the Emancipation Proclamation which must be understood and remembered:
1. Lincoln did not _abolish slavery_ anywhere. He _emancipated_ or _set free the slaves_ of certain persons engaged in waging war against the United States government.
2. The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to any of the loyal slave states,[1] nor to such territory as the Union army had reconquered.[2] In none of these places did it free slaves.
[Footnote 1: Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.]
[Footnote 2: Tennessee, thirteen parishes in Louisiana, and seven counties in Virginia.]
3. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his power as commander in chief of the army of the United States, “and as a fit and necessary war measure.”
%442. The Battle of Gettysburg.%–After Burnside was defeated at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he was removed, and General Hooker put in command of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker–“Fighting Joe,” as he was called–led it against Lee, and (May 1-4, 1863) was beaten at Chancellorsville and fell back. In June Lee again took the offensive, rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac, crossed Maryland, and entered Pennsylvania, with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit. On reaching Maryland, Hooker was removed and General Meade put in command. The opposing forces met on the hills at Gettysburg, Penn., and there, July 1-3, Lee attacked Meade. The contest was a dreadful one; no field was ever more stubbornly fought over. About one fourth of the men engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid courage of the Union army prevailed: Lee was beaten and retired to Virginia, where he remained unmolested till the spring of 1864. Gettysburg is regarded as the greatest battle of the war, and the Union regiments engaged have taken a just pride in marking the positions they held during the three awful days of slaughter, till the field is dotted all over with beautiful monuments. On the hill back of the village is a great national cemetery, at the dedication of which Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address.
[Illustration: Part of the battlefield of Gettysburg]
%443. Vicksburg%.–The day after the victory at Gettysburg, the joy of the North was yet more increased by the news that Vicksburg had surrendered (July 4) to Grant. After the defeat, of the Confederate forces at Iuka and Corinth in 1862, the Confederate line passed across northern Mississippi, touched the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, and then swept off to the Gulf. As the capture of these river towns would complete the opening of the Mississippi, Grant set out to take Vicksburg. Failing in a direct advance through Mississippi, Grant sent a strong force down the river from Memphis, and later took command in person. Vicksburg stands on the top of a bluff which rises steep and straight 200 feet above the river, and had been so fortified that to capture it seemed impossible. But Grant was determined to open the river. On the west bank, he cut a canal through a bend, hoping to divert the river and get water passage by the town. This failed, and he decided to cross below the town and attack from the land. To aid him in this attempt, Porter ran his gunboats past the town one night in April and carried the army over the river. Landing on the east bank, Grant won a victory at Port Gibson, and occupied Grand Gulf. Hearing that Johnston was coming to help Pemberton, Grant pushed in between them, beat Johnston at Jackson, and turning westward, drove Pemberton into Vicksburg, and began a regular siege. For seven weeks he poured in shot and shell day and night. To live in houses became impossible, and the women and children took refuge in caves. Food gave out, and after every kind of misery had been endured till it could be borne no longer, Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4.
[Illustration: The Vicksburg Campaign]
Five days later (July 9, 1863), Port Hudson surrendered, and the Mississippi, as Lincoln said, “flowed unvexed to the sea.” It was open from its source to its mouth, and the Confederacy was cut in two.
%444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and Chattanooga%.–While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans by skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position south of Murfreesboro; then in a second campaign he forced Bragg to leave Chattanooga and retire into northwestern Georgia. Bragg here received more troops, and attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most desperate battles of the war. So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, under General George H. Thomas, a grand character and a splendid officer, by some of the best fighting ever seen held the enemy in check and saved the army from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of “the Rock of Chickamauga.”
Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and taking position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the east and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. For a time it seemed in danger of starvation. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more troops; the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned from Vicksburg; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and Grant was put in command of all. Then matters changed. The forces under Thomas, moving from their lines, seized some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, east of Chattanooga (November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the Confederate works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a conflict often called the “Battle above the Clouds”; and Sherman was sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but succeeded only in taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sherman renewed his attack, but failed to gain the main crest, whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in front of Chattanooga, carried the heights, and drove off the enemy. Bragg retreated to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of his army was given to Joseph E. Johnston.
%445. “Marching through Georgia”; “From Atlanta to the Sea.”%–As the Confederates had thus been driven from the Mississippi River, and forced back to the mountains, they had but two centers of power left. The one was the army under Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been lying quietly behind the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, protecting Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., now under J. E. Johnston.
[Illustration: WAR FOR THE UNION Breaking the Confederate Line]
Early in the spring of 1864 General U.S. Grant–“Unconditional Surrender Grant,” as the people called him–was made lieutenant general (a rank never before given to any United States soldier except Washington and Scott), and put in command of all the Federal armies. General Sherman was left in command of the military division of the Mississippi.
Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed on a plan. Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive back Lee and take Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, was to attack Johnston and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin his movement on the same day (May 4, 1864).
On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by step through the mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. Johnston’s retreat was masterly. He intended to retreat until Sherman’s army was so weakened by leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads, over which food and supplies must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in command.
Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each time; abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started northwestward, in hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. But Sherman sent Thomas and a part of the army to Tennessee, and after following Hood for a time, he returned to Atlanta, tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having partly burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 60,000 of his best veterans.
[Illustration: SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA]
The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles wide, burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the country as they marched. Early in December the army drew near to Savannah; about the middle of the month (December 13) Fort McAllister was taken; and a few days later the city of Savannah was occupied. During all this long march to the sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was or what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, when on the Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram:
SAVANNAH, Georgia, December 22, 1864.
To His EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D.C.
I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.
W. T. SHERMAN, MAJOR GENERAL.
Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, whence it was telegraphed to Lincoln.
%446. Sherman marches northward.%–At Savannah the army rested for a month. Sherman tells us in his _Memoirs_ that the troops grew impatient at this delay, and used to call out to him as he rode by: “Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond.” So he was; but he did not wait very long, for on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way was across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Carolina, with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. Hood, in a rash moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville; but Thomas, coming out from behind his intrenchments, utterly destroyed Hood’s army. This forced Davis to put Johnston in command of a new army made up of troops taken from the seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood’s army. In March, Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina.
%447. Grant in Virginia.%–Meantime Grant had set out from Culpeper Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, and entered the “Wilderness,” a name given to a tract of country covered with dense woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth. The fighting was almost incessant. The loss of life was frightful; but he pushed on to Spottsylvania Courthouse, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of fortifications before Richmond. He would, as he said, “fight it out on this line if it takes all summer,” and went south of Richmond and besieged Petersburg.
%448. Early’s Raid, 1864.%–Lee now sent Jubal Early with 20,000 soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter Maryland, and threaten Washington. This he did, and after coming up to the fortifications of the city, he retreated to Virginia. A little later, Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg.
Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan with an army to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. “It is desirable,” said Grant, “that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return.”
Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met Early in battle at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers Hill, beat him at both places, and sent him whirling up the valley. Sheridan followed for a time, and then brought his army back to Cedar Creek, after burning barns, destroying crops, and devastating the entire upper valley.
%449. Sheridan’s Ride.%–And now occurred a famous incident. About the middle of October Sheridan went to Washington, and while on his way back slept on the night of October 18 at Winchester. At 7 A.M. on the 19th he heard guns, but paid no attention to the sounds till 9 o’clock, when, as he rode quietly out of Winchester, he met a mile from town wagon trains and fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp at daylight. Dashing up the pike with an escort of twenty men, calling to the fugitives as he passed them to turn and face the enemy, he met the army drawn up in line eleven miles from Winchester. “Far away in the rear,” says an old soldier, “we heard cheer after cheer. Were reinforcements coming? Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a host.” Dashing down the line, Sheridan shouted, “What troops are these?” “The Sixth Corps,” came back the response from a hundred voices. “We are all right,” said Sheridan, as he swung his old hat and dashed along the line to the right. “Never mind, boys, we’ll whip them yet. We shall sleep in our old quarters to-night.” And they did.[1] Early was defeated.
[Footnote:1] Read Sheridan’s account in his _Personal Memoirs, _Vol. II., pp. 66-92.
%450. Surrender of Lee.%–At the beginning of 1865 the situation of Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a war vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded three things: 1. That the Confederate armies be disbanded and the men sent home. 2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of Congress. 3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through the Carolinas and was reenforced from the coast; every seaport in the Confederacy was soon in Union hands; Sheridan finally dispersed Early’s troops, and joined Grant before Petersburg; and the lines of Grant’s army were drawn closer and closer around Petersburg and Richmond.
Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to Davis that both Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned at once. The rams in the James River were immediately blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General Weitzel, hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond and found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and on April 9 forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, seventy-five miles west of Richmond. Grant’s treatment of Lee was most generous. He was not required to give up his sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his men their horses, which they would need, Grant said, “to work their little farms.” Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms against the United States “until properly exchanged”; each regimental commander was to do the same for his men; and, “this done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home.” Immediately after this surrender 25,000 rations were issued to Lee’s men.
[Illustration: The house in which Lee and Grant arranged the surrender]
%451. End of the Confederacy.%–What little was left of the Confederacy now went rapidly to pieces. On April 26 Johnston surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina. A few days later the victorious army started for Richmond, and then went on over battle-scarred Virginia to Washington. May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured. When Lee fled from Richmond, Davis hurried to Charlotte, N.C., with his cabinet, his clerks, and such gold and silver coin as was in the Confederate Treasury. But the surrender of Johnston forced Davis to retreat still farther south, till he reached Irwinsville, Ga., where the Union cavalry overtook him.
%452. The Grand Army disbands.%–As this was practically the end of the Confederacy, the great Union army of citizen soldiers, numbering more than 1,000,000 men, was called home from the field and disbanded. Before these veterans separated, never to meet again with arms in their hands, they were reviewed by the President, Congress, and an immense throng of people who came to Washington from every part of the loyal states to welcome them. During two days (May 23 and 24, 1865) the soldiers of Grant and Sherman, forming a column thirty miles long, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then, with a rapidity and quietness that seems almost incredible, scattered and went back to their farms, to their shops, to the practice of their professions, and to the innumerable occupations of civil life.
Of the Confederates not one was molested, not a soldier was imprisoned, not a political leader suffered death. Davis was ordered to be imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years, but he was soon released on bail, was never brought to trial, and died at New Orleans in 1889.
SUMMARY
1. After the election of Lincoln seven states seceded from the Union, and formed the “Confederate States of America.”
2. Four other states joined the Confederacy later.
3. The refusal of the United States to recognize the right to secede led to the refusal to give up Federal forts in Charleston harbor. The attempt to take Sumter by force led to the appeal to arms.
4. The line which separated the troops of the two governments ran from Chesapeake Bay, across Virginia, and through Kentucky and Missouri, to New Mexico.
5. While the Union troops held the Confederates in check on the eastern end of the line, they broke through the line in the West, and, aided by the Union fleet, opened the Mississippi River.
6. The Confederates were thus driven from the Mississippi and forced back to the mountains of Georgia. Sherman was sent against them, and in 1864 marched eastward through the heart of the Confederacy to the Atlantic.
7. Marching north from Savannah, across Georgia and South Carolina, to Goldsboro in North Carolina, he was now in the rear of the Confederate army in Virginia.
8. Grant, meantime, with the Army of the Potomac, had fought a series of battles with Lee, and had besieged Richmond and Petersburg; and Sheridan had cleared out the Shenandoah valley.
9. Lee was thus forced, early in 1865, to leave Richmond, and while retreating westward he was forced to surrender.
SECESSION AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION |
——————————————————————— _The South_ _The North_
The cotton states secede. Attempts to compromise. The Confederacy formed. Buchanan’s attitude. A constitution adopted. The Crittenden Compromise. Unites States property seized. A Thirteenth Amendment proposed. —————————————————————– | |
—————————————— |
—————————————— Buchanan attempts to provision Fort Sumter _Star of the West_ fired on.
—————————————— |
——————-
Lincoln inaugurated.
——————-
|
—————————————— Lincoln attempts to provision Fort Sumter The fort bombarded. The surrender. —————————————— |
———————————————————————- Arkansas, North Carolina, The call to arms. Virginia, and Tennessee secede. The march to Washington Richmond made the capital Fight in the streets of of the Confederacy. Baltimore. —————————————————————— | |
—————————————– |
——————
_The war opens_
——————-
|
—————————————————————– _Fighting in the West._ _Fighting along the Potomac and in Virginia_
_1861-1862._ Breaking the _1861._ The attempt to take Richmond. Confederate line. Battle of Bull Run. —————————————————————–
1. Line broken at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and driven out of Kentucky and West Tennessee.
2. Driven out of Missouri and North Arkansas.
3. New Orleans taken.
4. Mississippi River nearly open.
_1863_. 1. Vicksburg and Port Hudson taken, and Mississippi River open to the Gulf.
2. The Confederacy cut in two.
3. Arkansas and East Tennessee recovered.
_1864_. Driving the Confederate line eastward.
1. Sherman’s march to Atlanta; to the sea.
2. The Confederacy again cut in two.
_1865_. Driving the Confederate line northward.
1. Sherman marches northward from Savannah to Goldsboro.
2. Surrender of Johnston to Sherman.
_1862_ The attempt on Richmond renewed. ———————— ———————— ————————– 1. Fremont and Banks to 2. McDowell to move from 3. McClellan to move up hold the Shenandoah Fredericksburg. Peninsula from Fort valley. ————+———– Monroe. ————+———– | ————-+———— | ————+———– | ————+———– Jackson’s success in the ————-+———— Defeated by Jackson. Shenandoah valley leads McClellan, left without ———————— to recall of McDowell. support of McDowell, ————————– is defeated, changes base to James River, and in August is recalled north. ————-+———— |
—————————————————————————— Removal of McClellan’s army leaves Lee free to act. He attacks Pope and defeats him on old field of Bull Run. After defeat of Pope, he rushes into Maryland, where, at Antietam, he is defeated, and goes back to Virginia.
————————————–+————————————– |
————————————–+————————————– 1. Union victory at Antietam leads Lincoln to issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
2. McClellan relieved of command and Burnside put in his place. 3. Burnside attacks Lee’s army and is beaten at Fredericksburg. —————————————————————————– _1863_. 1. Burnside removed and _1864_. Grant in command. Hooker in command. 1. The Wilderness and other battles. 2. Hooker defeated at Chancellorsville. 2. Early sent into the Shenandoah 3. Lee runs past and enters Pennsylvania. valley, where Sheridan defeats him. 4. Meade put in command. Battle of _1865_. Richmond taken. Gettysburg. 1. Lee evacuates the city. 5. Lee beaten and goes back to Virginia. 2. Surrenders to Grant. 6. The turning-point of the war. ——————+—————– |
———————————————————————- %END OF THE WAR.%
CHAPTER XXVIII
WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA
%453. State of our Navy in 1861.%–On the day our flag went down at Sumter, the navy of the United States consisted of ninety vessels of every sort. Fifty of these were sailing ships. Forty were propelled by steam. Of the steam fleet one was on the Lakes, five were unserviceable, seventeen were in foreign parts, and nine laid up in navy yards and out of service. Eight steam vessels (one a mere tender) and five sailing vessels (a fleet of thirteen) made up the naval force of the United States that was available for actual service on April 15, 1861.
%454. The Work before the Navy.%–The duty of the navy was to
1. Blockade the coast from Norfolk in Virginia to the Bio Grande in Texas.
2. Capture the seaports and forts scattered along this coast.
3. Acquire control of the sounds and bays, as Chesapeake, Albemarle, Pamlico, Mobile, and Galveston.
4. Assist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and other rivers.
5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce of the United States.
To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad were recalled (a slow process in days when no ocean cable existed), more were hastily built, and in time 400 merchantmen and river steamboats were bought and roughly adapted at the navy yards for war service.
%455. %The Blockade of the Southern Coast.%–The war on sea was opened (April 19-27,1861) by two proclamations of Lincoln declaring the coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This meant that armed vessels were to be stationed off the seaports of the South, and that no ships from any country were to be allowed to go into or out of them. To stop trade with the South was important for three reasons:
1. The South had no ships, no great gun factories, machine shops, or rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries for military supplies.
2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, ships, and goods she needed.
3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for it everything the South wanted in exchange.
The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation, wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in.
%456. Blockade Runners%.–This is just what did happen. The blockade in the course of a year was made close, by ships stationed off the ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a pound in the South (because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then “running the blockade” became a regular business. Goods of all sorts were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, where they would be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington, N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide, and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were captured or destroyed.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor’s _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32, 44-54.]
%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%–While the North was thus busy destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent a class of armed vessels known as “commerce destroyers,” whose business it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.
%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%–One of the vessels sent in pursuit of the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in 1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice of her demand prevented war.[1]
[Footnote 1: Harris’s _The Trent Affair._]
%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%–The loss of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the _Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by “an unforeseen accident” in Hampton Roads.[1]
[Footnote 1: Bullock’s _Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]
The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the English Channel.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]
The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]
[Footnote 1: Bullock’s _Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]
%460. The Ironclads.%–To blockade the coast and cut off trade was most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of them was the _Merrimac_.
[Illustration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%]
[Illustration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%]
%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%–When Sumter was fired on and the war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer called the _Merrimac_. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the _Virginia_ and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United States then assembled in Chesapeake Bay.
Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war ships, the commander of the _Merrimac_ went leisurely to work and began (March 8, 1862) by attacking the _Cumberland_. In her day the _Cumberland_ had been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden ships were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the _Merrimac _like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the water poured. Even then the commander of the _Cumberland_ would not surrender, but fought his ship till she filled and sank with her guns booming and her flag flying. After sinking the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ attacked the _Congress_, forced her to surrender, set her on fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of the Confederate batteries.
[Illustration: Monitor, side and deck plan]
%462. The Monitor.%–Early the next day the _Merrimac_ sailed forth to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the _Minnesota_, which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo! from beside the _Minnesota_ started forth the most curious-looking craft ever seen on water. It was the famous _Monitor_, designed by Captain John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water, was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried two guns. She looked, it was said, like “a cheesebox mounted on a raft.”
[Illustration: HAMPTON ROADS]
The _Monitor_ was built at New York, and was intended for harbor defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked, but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862, entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning _Congress_ and to hear of the sinking of the _Cumberland_. Taking her place beside the _Minnesota_, she waited for the dawn, and about eight o’clock saw the _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May, 1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort, N.C. (January, 1863).[1]
[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. 719-750.]
[Illustration: %An encounter at close range%]
%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%–Operations along the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862) control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor. McClellan’s capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to the Gulf was in Union hands.
Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in May, 1862.
In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August, 1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land and naval force in January, 1865.
SUMMARY
1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast of the Confederate States.
2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco being sent abroad in return for materials of war.
3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent.
4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They inflicted very serious damage.
5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, which marked the advent of the iron-armored war ship.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE COST OF THE WAR
%464. The Cost in Money.%–When Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861 and Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national debt was $90,000,000, the annual revenue was $41,000,000, and the annual expenses of the government $68,000,000. As the expenses were vastly increased by the outbreak of war, it became necessary to get more money. To do this, Congress, when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must be described if we are to understand the later history of our country.
%465. Power to raise Money.%–The Constitution gives Congress power
1. “To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.”
2. “To borrow money on the credit of the United States.”
3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according to their population.
%466. Raising Money by Taxation; Internal Revenue.%–Exercising these powers, Congress in 1861 increased the duties on articles imported, laid a direct tax of $20,000,000. and imposed a tax of three per cent on all incomes over $800. The returns were large, but they fell far short of the needs of the government, and in 1862 an internal revenue system was created. Taxes were now imposed on spirits and malt liquors; on manufactured tobacco; on trades, professions, and occupations; till almost everything a man ate, drank, wore, bought, sold, or owned was taxed. The revenue collected from such sources between 1862 and 1865 was $780,000,000.
%467. Raising Money “on the Credit of the United States.”%–Money raised by internal revenue and the tariff was largely used to pay current expenses and the interest on the national debt. The great war expenses were met by borrowing money in two ways:
1. By selling bonds.
2. By issuing “United States notes.”
%468. The Bonded and Interest-paying Debt.%–The bonds were obligations by which the government bound itself to pay the holder the sum of money specified in the bond at the end of a certain period of years, as twenty or thirty or forty. Meantime the holder was to be paid interest at the rate of five, six, or seven per cent a year. Between July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, when our national debt was greatest, $1,109,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold to the people and the money used for war purposes.
%469. United States Notes.%–The United States notes were of two kinds: those which bore interest, and those which did not. Those bearing interest passed under various names, and by 1866 amounted to $577,000,000.
United States notes bearing no interest were the “old demand notes,” the “greenbacks,” the “fractional currency,” and the “national bank notes.”
The greenbacks (a name given them from the green color of their backs) were authorized early in 1862, were in denominations from $1 up, bore no interest, were legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. In time $450,000,000 were authorized to be issued, and in 1864, $449,000,000 were in circulation.
%470. Fractional Currency.%–The issue of the demand notes in 1861, and the fact, apparent to every one, that Congress must keep on issuing paper money, led the state banks to suspend specie payment in December, 1861. As a consequence, the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces (and of course all the gold) disappeared from circulation. This left the people without small change, and for a time they were forced to pay their car fare and buy their newspapers and make change with postage stamps and “token” pieces of brass and copper, which passed from hand to hand as cents. Indeed, one act of Congress, in July, 1862, made it lawful to receive postage stamps (in sums under $5) in payment of government dues. But in March, 1863, another step was taken, and an issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional currency was authorized.
%471. The National Banking System.%–Yet another financial measure to aid the government was the creation of national banks. In 1863 Congress established the office of “Comptroller of the Currency,” and authorized him to permit the establishment of banking associations. Each must consist of not less than five persons, must have a certain capital, and must deposit with the Treasury Department at Washington government bonds equal to at least one third of its capital. The Comptroller was then to issue to each association bank notes not exceeding in value ninety per cent of the face value of the bonds. It was supposed that the state banks, which then issued $150,000,000 in 7000 kinds of bank notes, would take advantage of the law, become national banks, and use this national money, which would pass all over the country. This would enable the government to sell the banks $150,000,000 and more of bonds. But the state banks did not do so till 1865, when a tax of ten per cent was laid on the amount of paper money each state bank issued. Then, to get rid of the tax, hundreds of them bought bonds and became national banks.
%472. The National Debt and State Expenditures.%–On the 31st of August, 1865, the national debt thus created reached its highest figure, and was in round numbers $2,845,000,000.
Besides the debt incurred by the national government, there were heavy expenditures by the states, and we might say by almost every city and town, amounting to $468,000,000. But even when the war ended, the outlay on account of the war did not cease. Each year there was interest to pay on the bonded debt, and pensions to be given to disabled soldiers and sailors, and to the widows and orphans of men killed, and claims for damages of all sorts to be allowed. Between July 1, 1861, and June 30, 1879, the expenditure of the government growing out of the war amounted to $6,190,000,000.
Many men who served in the army made great personal sacrifices. They were taken away from some useful employment, from their farms, their trades, their business, or their professions. What they might have earned or accomplished during the time of service was so much loss.
%473. The Cost in Human Life.%–While the war was raging, Lincoln made twelve calls for volunteers, to serve for periods varying from 100 days to three years. The first was the famous call of April 15, 1861, for 75,000 three-months men; the last was in December, 1864. When the numbers of soldiers thus summoned from their homes are added, we find that 2,763,670 were wanted and 2,772,408 responded. This does not mean that 2,770,000 different men were called into service or were ever at any one time under arms. Some served for three months, others for six months, a year, or three years. Very often a man would enlist and when his term was out would reenlist. The largest number in service at any time was in April, 1865. It was 1,000,516, of whom 650,000 were fit for service. In 1865, 800,000 were mustered out between April and October.
Of those who gave their lives to preserve the Union, 67,000 were killed in battle, 43,000 died of wounds, and 230,000 of disease and other causes. In round numbers, 360,000 men gave up their lives in defense of the Union. How many perished in the Confederate army cannot be stated, but the loss was quite as large as on the Union side; so that it is safe to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.[1]
[Footnote 1: A table giving the size of the armies and the loss of life will be found in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV., pp. 767-768.]
%474. Suffering in the South.%–The South raised all the cotton, nearly all the rice and tobacco, and one third of the Indian corn grown in our country, and depended on Europe and the North for manufactured goods. But when the North, in 1861 and 1862, blockaded her ports and cut off these supplies, her distress began. Brass bells and brass kettles were called for to be melted and cast into cannon, and every sort of fowling piece and old musket was pressed into service and sent to the troops in the field. As money could not be had, treasury notes were issued by the million, to be redeemed “six months after the close of the war.” Planters were next pledged to loan the government a share of the proceeds of their cotton, receiving bonds in return. But the blockade was so rigorous that very little cotton could get to Europe. When this failed, provisions for the army were bought with bonds and with paper money issued by the states.
This steady issue of paper money, with nothing to redeem it, led to its rapid decrease in value. In 1864 it took $40 in Confederate paper money to buy a yard of calico. A spool of thread cost $20; a ham, $150; a pound of sugar, $75; and a barrel of flour, $1200.
%475. Makeshifts.%–Thrown on their own resources, the Southern people became home manufacturers. The inner shuck of Indian corn was made into hats. Knitting became fashionable. Homespun clothing, dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark or wild indigo or swamp maple or elderberries, was worn by everybody. Barrels and boxes which had been used for packing salt fish and pork were soaked in water, which was evaporated for the sake of the salt thus extracted. Rye or wheat roasted and ground became a substitute for coffee, and dried raspberry leaves for tea.
Quite as desperate were the shifts to which the South was put for soldiers. At first every young man was eager to rush to the front. But as time passed, and the great armies of the North were formed, it became necessary to force men into the ranks, to “conscript” them; and in 1862 an act of the Confederate Congress made all males from eighteen to thirty-five subject to military duty. In September, 1862, all men from eighteen to forty-five, and later from sixteen to sixty, were subject to conscription. The slaves, of course, worked on the fortifications, drove teams, and cooked for the troops.
%476. Cost to the South%.–Thus drained of her able-bodied population, the South went rapidly to rack and ruin. Crops fell off, property fell into decay, business stopped, railroads were ruined because men could not be had to keep them in repair, and because no rails could be obtained. The loss inflicted by this general and widespread ruin can never be even estimated. Cotton, houses, property of every sort, was destroyed to prevent capture by the Union forces. On every battlefield incalculable damage was done to woods, villages, farmhouses, and crops. Bridges were burned; cities, such as Richmond, Atlanta, Columbia, Charleston, were well-nigh destroyed by fire; thousands of miles of railroad were torn up and ruined. The loss entailed by the emancipation of the slaves, supposing each negro worth $500, amounts to $2,000,000,000.
SUMMARY
1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods: A. Increasing taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money.
2. Taxation was in three forms: A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. Internal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes.
3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes (greenbacks), fractional currency.
4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, counties, cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in general; and the cost to individuals.
6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the public debt.
6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South; there was also a destruction of property and business, the money value of which cannot be estimated.
“_THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES._”
CHAPTER XXX
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH
%477. The Reelection of Lincoln%.–While the war was still raging, the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation was serious. On the one hand was the Democratic party, denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting that the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a convention, and dropping the name “Republicans” for the time being, took that of “National Union party,” and renominated Lincoln. For Vice President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat from Tennessee.
The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated John C. Fremont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war measures; and the destruction of slavery forever.
The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton. The platform demanded “a cessation of hostilities with a view to a convention of the states,” and described the sacrifice of lives and treasure in behalf of Union as “four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war.” McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then peace. “No peace can be permanent without union.” The platform said the war was a failure. McClellan said, “I could not look in the faces of my gallant comrades of the army and navy … and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain.”
The result was never in doubt. By September Fremont and Cochrane both withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March 4, 1865, were sworn into office.
%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.–By that time the Confederacy was doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the fort which he had so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army and navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861.
That night Lincoln went to Ford’s Theater in Washington, and while he was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named John Wilkes Booth came in and shot him through the head, causing a wound from which the President died early next morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box to the stage, and shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis” (So be it always to tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in the confusion of the moment, and mounting a horse, rode away.
The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details of which were soon discovered and the criminals punished. Booth was hunted by soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. His accomplices were either hanged or imprisoned for life.[1]
[Footnote 1: The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in “Four Lincoln Conspiracies” in the _Century Magazine_ for April, 1896.]
%479. Andrew Johnson, President.%–Lincoln had not been many hours dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution provides, took the oath of office and became President of the United States. Before him lay the most gigantic task ever given to any President.
%480. Reconstruction.%–To dispose of the Confederate soldiers and politicians was an easy matter; but to decide what to do with the Confederate states proved most difficult. Lincoln had always held that they could not secede. If they could not secede, they had never been out of the Union, and if they had never been out of the Union, they were entitled, as of old, to send senators and representatives to Congress.
[Illustration: Andrew Johnson]
But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state governments of 1861, and the relations these governments once held with the Union, were destroyed by the so-called secession, and it was necessary to define some way by which they might be reestablished, or, as it was called, “reconstructed.”
Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army had acquired possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Lincoln issued his “Amnesty Proclamation” and began the work of reconstruction. He promised, in the first place, that, with certain exceptions, which he mentioned, he would pardon[1] every man who should lay down his arms and swear to support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in any state that had attempted secession, voters equal in number to one tenth of those who in 1860 voted for presidential electors, should take this oath and organize a state government, he would recognize it; that is, he would consider the state “reconstructed,” loyal, and entitled to representation in Congress.
[Footnote 1: The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.]
Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which Lincoln recognized. But here Congress stepped in, refused to seat the senators from these states, and made a plan of its own, which Lincoln vetoed.
%481. Johnson’s “My Policy” Plan of Reconstruction.%–So the matter stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis was captured, and the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws enacted by the Confederate Congress at once became null and void. Taxes were no longer collected; letters were no longer delivered; Confederate money had no longer any value. Even the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands of Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such governors, political leaders, and prominent men as could be found, and striking terror into others who fled to places of safety. In the midst of this confusion all civil government ended. To reestablish it under the Constitution and laws of the United States was, therefore, the first duty of the President, and he began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, and opened the ports of the South to trade; then he ordered the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes were collected, that letters were delivered, that the courts of the United States were opened, and the laws enforced in all the Southern States; finally, he placed over each of the unreconstructed states a temporary or provisional governor. These governors called conventions of delegates elected by such white men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions did four things: 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting the Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 3. They abolished slavery within their own bounds. 4. They ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery forever in the United States.
%482. The Thirteenth Amendment%.–This amendment was sent out to the states by Congress in February, 1865, and was necessary to complete the work begun by the Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation merely set free the slaves in certain parts of the country, and left the right to buy more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, and in them slavery still existed. In order, therefore, to abolish the institution of slavery in every state in the Union, an amendment to the Constitution was necessary, as many of the states could not be relied on to abolish it within their bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally proclaimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.[1]
[Footnote 1: Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the Constitution. When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.]
%483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.–Had the Southern legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But they went on, and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if not in actual slavery.
To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary. But by the men of the North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such severe laws against the negroes.
%484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.–As soon as the two houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to protect the freedmen.
One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the “Civil Rights” Bill, which gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts. This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a condition of readmittance to Congress.
Finally, a Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their rights, was passed over the President’s veto, just before Congress adjourned.
%485. The President abuses Congress%.–During the summer, Johnson made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; “a factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress,” “a Congress violent in breaking up the Union.” These attacks, coupled with the fact that some of the Southern States, encouraged by the President’s conduct, rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the “Tenure of Office Act” and “Reconstruction Act” (March 2, 1867).
%486. The Reconstruction Act%.–The Reconstruction Act marked out the ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress. If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and representatives to Congress, and not before.
To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 1868, it was declared in force.
%487. “Tenure of Office Act”; Johnson impeached%–By this time the quarrel between the President and Congress had reached such a crisis that the Republican, leaders feared he would obstruct the execution of the reconstruction law by removing important officials chiefly responsible for its administration, and putting in their places men who would not enforce it. To prevent this, Congress, in 1867, passed the “Tenure of Office Act.” Hitherto a President could remove almost any Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only suspend while the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the man was removed; if it disapproved, the man was reinstated. Johnson denied the right of Congress to make such a law, and very soon disobeyed it.
In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to resign, and when the Secretary refused, suspended him and made General Grant temporary Secretary. All this was legal, but when Congress met, and the Senate disapproved of the suspension, General Grant gave the office back again to Stanton. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War, and ordered him to seize the office. For this, and for his abusive speeches about Congress, the House of Representatives impeached him, and the Senate tried him “for high crimes and misdemeanors,” but failed by one vote to find him guilty. Stanton then resigned his office.
SUMMARY
1. In 1864 the Republican party was split, and one part, taking the name of National Union party, renominated Lincoln. The other or radical wing, which wanted a more vigorous war policy, nominated Fremont and Cochrane. The Democrats declared the war a failure, demanded peace, and nominated McClellan and Pendleton.
2. The gradual conquest of the South brought up the question of the relation to the Federal government of a state which had seceded.
3. Lincoln marked out his own plan of reconstruction in an amnesty proclamation. Congress thought he had no right to do this, and adopted a plan which Lincoln vetoed. His death left the question for Johnson to settle.
4. Johnson adopted a plan of his own and soon came into conflict with Congress.
5. Congress began by refusing seats to congressmen from states reconstructed on Johnson’s plan. It then passed, over Johnson’s veto, a series of bills to protect the freedmen and give them civil rights.
6. Six states accepted the terms of reconstruction offered, and their senators and representatives were admitted to Congress (1868).
7. Johnson, in 1866, traveled about the West abusing Congress. For this, and chiefly for his disregard of the Tenure of Office Act, he was impeached by the House and tried and acquitted by the Senate.
* * * * *
RECONSTRUCTON.
Lincoln’s plan …
States cannot secede; only some of their people were in insurrection. Amnesty proclamation.
Recognizes Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Thirteenth Amendment.
Johnson’s plan …
Provisional governors.
Ratify Thirteenth Amendment.
New state constitutions made.
Congressmen chosen.
Congressional plan …
Congress refuses them seats.
Civil Rights Bill.
Freedmen’s Bureau Bill.
Tenure of Office Act.
Reconstruction Act.
Fourteenth Amendment.
Johnson _vs._ Congress …
Vetoes Civil Rights Bill.
Freedmen’s Bureau Bill.
Denounces Congress.
Violates Tenure of Office Act.
Impeached.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)
%488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak.%–In the summer of 1858 news reached the Missouri that gold had been found on the eastern slope of the Rockies, and at once a wild rush set in for the foot of Pikes Peak, in what was then Kansas.
[Illustration: Crossing the plains]
During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched a camp on Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, in the winter, they were joined by General Larimer with a party from Leavenworth, Kan., and by them the rude camp at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the governor of Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in from every point along the frontier. Some, providing themselves with great white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, joined forces for better protection against the Indians, and set out together, making long wagon trains or caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed. Such as could not afford a “prairie schooner,” as the canvas-covered wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts.
By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They needed supplies, and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell put a daily line of coaches on the road from Leavenworth to Denver. This means of communication brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city of frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, and a mint for coining gold.
%489. The Pony Express; the Overland Stage.%–By that time, too, the first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. But between the Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap of 2000 miles which the settlers demanded should be spanned at once, and it was. In 1860 the same firm that sent the first stagecoach over the prairie from Leavenworth to Denver, ran a pony express from the Missouri to the Pacific. Their plan was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail on horseback across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed must be rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were therefore established every twenty-five miles, and at them fresh horses and riders were kept. Mounted on a spirited Indian pony, the mail carrier would set out from St. Joseph and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay station, swing himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in sunshine and storm, over prairie and mountain, the mail carrier pursued his journey alone. The cost in human life was immense. The first riders made the journey of 1996 miles in ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then the Butterfield Overland Stage Company.
%490. The Union Pacific Railroad; the Land Grant Roads.%–Meantime the war opened, and an idea often talked of took definite shape. California had scarcely been admitted, in 1850, when the plan to bind her firmly to the Union by a great railroad, built at national cost, was urged vigorously. By 1856 the people began to demand it, and in that year the Republican party, and in 1860 both the Republican and Democratic parties, pledged themselves to build one. The secession of the South, and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made the need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work.
Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, was to begin at Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to begin at Sacramento and build eastward till the two met. The Union Pacific was to receive from the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each mile built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across the Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of the way. It received all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. The Central Pacific, under like conditions, received for its 883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden $27,850,000. But the liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road was also given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land twenty miles wide along its entire length.
%491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals.%–Grants of land in aid of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 and 1860 Congress gave away to canals, roads, and railroads 215,000,000 acres. This magnificent expanse would make seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a half as large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries.
Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of construction was slow at first, and the last rail was not laid till May 10, 1869.
%492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories.%–What the discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and the railroad did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 some gold seekers in what was then Utah discovered the rich silver mines on Mt. Davidson. Population rushed in, Virginia City sprang into existence, the territory of Nevada was formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state. In 1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North and South Dakota and the land west of them to the Rocky Mountain divide became the territory of Dakota. Hardly was this done when gold was found in a gulch on the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Bannock City, Virginia City, and Helena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana was made a territory. In 1860 and 1862 precious metals were found in what was then eastern Washington; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old Hudson Bay Company’s post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in 1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including what is now Montana and part of Wyoming. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory.
%493. Population in 1870.%–Thus in the decade from 1860 to 1870 gold, silver, and the Pacific Railroad gave value to the American Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) into the Union, and caused the organization of six new territories. More than 1,000,000 people then lived along the line of the Union Pacific. Our total population in 1870 was 38,000,000.
SUMMARY
1. What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the “Great American Desert” in 1858.
2. The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of a stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to the Pacific; the overland coach; and the Pacific Railroad.
3. Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission of Nebraska and Nevada into the Union.
4. Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota.
New States (1860-1870).
Kansas, 1861.
West Virginia, 1863.
Nevada, 1864.
Nebraska, 1867.
Total number of states in 1870, 37.
New Territories (1860-1870).
Colorado, 1861.
Dakota, 1861.
Idaho, 1863.
Arizona, 1863.
Montana, 1864.
Wyoming, 1868.
_THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE_
CHAPTER XXXII
POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880
%494. New Issues before the People.%–Five years had now passed since the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these years the North, aroused and united by the efforts put forth to crush the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of the development of the country.
%495. Amnesty.%–In the first place, now that the war was over, the people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this, certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a “general amnesty” [1] or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of reconstructive measures by Congress.
[Footnote 1: In 1863, Lincoln offered “full pardon” to “all persons” except the leaders of the “existing rebellion.” Johnson, in 1865, again offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and, though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left a great many men unpardoned.]
%496. The National Finances.%–A second issue resulting from the war was the management of the national finances. January 1, 1866, the national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of $1,620,000,000, that part made up of “greenbacks,” fractional currency, treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before the people:
1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt?
2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and “specie payment” resumed?
As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000.
As to the second question, it was decided to “contract the currency” by gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the “greenbacks.” This was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to $356,000,000 in 1868.
By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault with “contraction.” Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks.
%497. “The Ohio Idea”; the Greenback Party.%–But there was still another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered. 1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is, bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable “in coin.” 3. But nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law said they should be “lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid.” 5. This made it possible to pay the principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for borrowing money, provided that _both_ principal and interest should be paid in coin.
At that time and long after the war “coin” commanded a premium; that is, it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold. Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or municipality.
Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two things–taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20’s in greenbacks. This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the “Ohio idea,” and its supporters were called “Greenbackers.”
%498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads.%–Much fault was now found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public domain. In 1862 a law known as the Homestead Act was passed. By it a farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any person twenty-one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen, provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years. Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations.
%499. The Election of 1868.%–The questions discussed above (pp. 437-439) became the political issues of 1868.
The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration.
The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; “one currency for the government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder”; the taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public improvements.
The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214 votes, and Seymour 80.
%500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan.%–Grant and Colfax began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of 1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said, “ran things.” They began by persuading the negroes that their old masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where, seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as ordered, these “carpetbaggers,” [1] as they were called, ruled the states in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people.
[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called “carpetbaggers,” or men who owned nothing save what they brought in their carpetbags.]
Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed secret societies, called “The Invisible Empire” and “The Ku Klux Klan.” Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders, or carpetbaggers, or “scalawags,” as the Southern whites who supported the negro cause were called.
%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%–To secure the negro the right to vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the “Ku Klux” or “Force” Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or the votes, when cast, from being counted.
[Illustration: U. S. Grant]
%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%–This legislation and the conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise of a new party, which received the name of “Liberal Republicans,” because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May, 1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles O’Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field.
%503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%–From about 1829, when the establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In 1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded
1. Lower interest on government bonds.
2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks.
3. Withdrawal of national bank notes.
4. Issue of paper money “based on the faith and resources of the nation,” to be legal tender for all debts.
5. An eight-hour law.
6. Exclusion of the Chinese.
7. No land grants to corporations.
8. Formation of a “National Labor-Reform Party.”
The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved, that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated David Davis and Joel Parker. When they declined, O’Conor was nominated.
%504. Anti-Chinese Movement.%–The demand in the Labor platform for the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning “Mongolian labor.”
Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete with them.
The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme Court declared such taxation illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal was made to Congress. That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to