CHAPTER XIII THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 Books for Consultation General Readings. - Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of our Civil War (should be read by all students); Wilson's Division and Reunion, 216-252; Johnston's American Politics, 197–206. Special Accounts. Ropes's Story of the Civil War; Rhodes's United States; Morse's Lincoln (S. S.); *Stephens's War between the States; *Davis's Confederate States; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War; Swinton's Twelve Decisive Battles; Boynton's The Navy during the Rebellion; *Greeley's American Conflict; Mahan's Farragut. Biographies of the leading statesmen and generals, Guide, § 25. Sources.-American History Leaflets; Old South Leaflets; Johnston's American Orations; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln; McPherson's History of the Rebellion; Grant's Memoirs; Sherman's Memoirs; Moore's Rebellion Record. Writings of the leading statesmen and generals, Guide, §§ 32, 33. Maps. Dodge's Bird's-Eye View. Bibliography. Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, §§ 56a, 56b (General Readings), §§ 208-214 (Topics and References). Illustrative Material. - Scribner's Campaigns of the Civil War; Herndon's Lincoln; Thurlow Weed's Autobiography; McCulloch's Men and Measures; Greeley's Recollections; The Sherman Letters; Eggleston's A Rebel's Recollections; Jones's A Rebel War Clerk's Diary; Harper's Pictorial History; Garrisons' Garrison, Lowell's Commemoration Ode, Biglow Papers, Second Series, and Political Essays; Whittier's Anti-slavery Poems, Barbara Frietchie, etc.; Moore's Songs and Ballads of the Southern People; Roe's An Original Belle and other stories; Coffin's Winning his Way; Harris's On the Plantation; Page's Among the Camps; Mitchell's In War Time and Roland Blake; Soley's Sailor Boys of 'b1; Stedman's Occasional Poems; Cable's Strange True Stories of Louisiana; Cooke's Hilt to Hilt and other stories; Trowbridge's Drummer Boy and other stories; Hapgood's Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural, 1861. American History Leaflets, No. 18; Johnston's Orations, IV, 16-31. THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 334. Lincoln's Policy, 1861. Abraham Lincoln admirably represented that which was best in American life. Under every disadvantage of birth and breeding, he raised himself by his own exertions to the level of the best statesmen of the day. His sincerity, his straightforwardness, his keen perception of right and wrong, were all enforced by a sense of humor and a kindliness of bearing that endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. On the fourth day of March, 1861, Lincoln entered upon. the discharge of his duties as chief magistrate of the United States. In his inaugural address he stated the broad lines of the policy he intended to pursue. He began by declaring that he had "no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. . . . I have no inclination to do so." He held that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these states is perpetual, and he maintained that "the Union is much older than the Constitution." It followed from these premises, only partly set forth above, "that no state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void. "I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. . . . In doing this there needs be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be enforced upon the national authority." Lincoln believed that if the laws were enforced in the South wherever they could be executed without resort to arms, and if the mail service were regularly carried on, the Southern people would gradually come to their senses and repeal the ordinances of secession. At all events, he was determined that, while there should be no more trifling with the idea of 1861] Lincoln's Policy 483 state sovereignty, the Southerners should be the aggressors if there must be aggression. He stated further, after a consideration of secession from the constitutional standpoint, that he understood a proposed amendment to the Constitution had passed Congress "to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the states, including that of persons held to service." As to such an amendment he declared that he had "no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. . . . In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it." 335. Lincoln's Advisers. The new President gathered Lincoln's about him an able set of advisers. His three rivals for the cabinet. Republican nomination, Seward, Chase, and Cameron, became the heads of the State Department, the Treasury, and the War Department respectively. Seward maintained his place during the war; but Chase was later appointed Chief Justice, and Cameron was displaced at the War Department in 1862 by Edwin M. Stanton, who continued to exercise the office of Secretary of War until after the close of the conflict. Gideon Welles of Connecticut was made Secretary of the Navy, and was ably seconded by Gustavus Vasa Fox, the Assistant Secretary. At the beginning of his administration, Lincoln was still Lincoln and unfamiliar to those about him. Seward, Chase, and Cam- Seward. eron had long occupied leading positions at Washington, and no doubt felt somewhat uneasy in the position of advisers to their successful rival. Seward, at all events, regarded himself as the real head of the government, and proceeded to instruct Lincoln as to the policy to be pursued by the administration. The Secretary of State sketched out a bold plan of foreign aggression, quite unmindful of the moral obligations of the nation. In this way he hoped to reunite the Fall of Fort Lincoln's Proclamation. two sections of the Union by thrusting the slavery dispute to one side. He also conferred with several Southerners who styled themselves "Commissioners from the Government of the Confederate States." Lincoln quietly set Seward in his proper place, and did it in a manner that showed his own capacity to manage affairs and his ability to handle men. During the whole course of the conflict, Lincoln exercised personally the great powers conferred on him- although he always asked the advice of the cabinet on important matters. 336. Uprising of the People, April, 1861. When Lincoln assumed charge of the government, only three or four military posts in the seceded states remained in federal hands. The most important were Fort Pickens, on the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. An attempt was made to reinforce the garrison of the former, but the officer in command of the vessel containing the soldiers refused to land them. To hold Fort Sumter in the face of the gathering opposition to the federal government was plainly impossible. The administration, however, determined to supply the garrison with provisions, and notified the governor of South Carolina of its intention. On April 12 the Southern guns opened on the fort, which surrendered April 14. Not a man had been injured, but the little garrison had been overcome by hunger and hardships. Great was the rejoicing at Charleston; at last the flag of the United States had been "humbled before the glorious little state of South Carolina," said the governor of that state. The next day, April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers. The document was most admirably written, as were all of Lincoln's state papers, and contains the best statement of the points in dispute from a Northern standpoint. "The laws of the United States," said the President, "have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the states of South 1861] Uprising of the People 485 Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. "Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several states of the Union to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. * "And I hereby command the persons composing the said. combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within twenty days from this date." Now at once appeared the results of Southern blunders. Rising of the By their own acts, they had transferred the contest from TO ARMS! the slavery question, upon which the Northerners were not agreed, to the ground of the preservation of the Union, upon which the Northern people were of one mind. Hundreds of thousands of men in the North and in the "border states" cared nothing for To North. TO ARMS! Leaders, VOLUNTEERS! the Citizens of McLean County: By virtue of the Proclamation of his Excellency, the Gover Therefore, all persons that will volunteer, are requested to come to my olles One Captain. Each Company to consist of Lestresats, Ove Company has already been raised in Bloomington, and I hope to be able to raise one or two companies more in McLean County, the struggle over slavery. OUR COUNTRY CALLS! They saw no reason why a Southerner should not carry his slaves where he wished without danger of Let every Pairist that can leave his horor and business for a time, promptly obey that call 1 further propose that everybody meet in Bloomington, an MONDAY, 224 Iset, os 13 o'clock, to aid and counsel in the aforesaid object. JOHN L. ROUTT, Apr 190 losing them. The instant that the SHERIFF OF MCLEAN COUNTI Southerners under another flag attacked the United States, their sympathies I, 84. |