The Civil War

1
The Civil War

• Advantages,Foreign Affairs Civilian Life

2
The War Begins
In your hands, my fellow dissatisfied 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.
3
Wartime AdvantagesMILITARY

• NORTH
• Free male Population of 22 million to 5.5 million
• 800,000 immigrants during war years
• 180,000 African-Americans join after Emancipation
• Loyal Large Navy contolled rivers

• SOUTH
• Only had to win a defensive war
• Had to move troops over shorter distances
• Long, indented coastlinehard to blockade

4
Wartime AdvantagesECONOMY

• NORTH
• Controlled most banking and capital
• 85 of factories
• 70 of railroads
• 65 of farmland
• Skilled clerks and bookkeepers for logistical
  support

• SOUTH
• Large overseas demand for cotton
• Thought this would get them outside help and
  recognition

5
Wartime AdvantagesPOLITICAL

• NORTH
• Had well-established central government
• Politicians had strong popular base
• BUT
• Some fears that the war would be too costly
• Hard to motivate some people

• SOUTH
• Motivation for a fight for independence
• BUT
• Ideology of states rights made fighting a war
  difficult
• Ironically, they needed a strong central
  government

6
Foreign Affairs

• The Trent Affair
• 1861James Mason John Slidell, confederate
  diplomats travel to England on the Trent, looking
  for recognition
• Union warship stops them, takes the men prisoner.
• Britain threatens war if theyre not released
• Lincoln gives in to British demands

7
Foreign Affairs

• Confederate Raiders
• Were able to purchase warships from British
  shipyards, use to damage merchant ships from the
  U.S.
• One of them, the Alabama, captured over 60 ships,
  before being sunk near France by the U.S. Navy
• After the war, Britain pays the U.S. 15.5
  million for damages caused by the South

8
Foreign Affairs

• Failure of Cotton Diplomacy
• King Cotton didnt have the international pull
  that the South had hoped for
• New sources from Egypt and India new materials
  such as wool linen used
• Without decisive Southern victory at Antietam,
  British wouldnt risk recognition
• Emancipation Proclamation appealed to British
  working class, even though conservative leaders
  supported South

9
The End of Slavery

• Confiscation Acts (1861)
• Legal to claim enemy property at times of war
• Contraband former slaves escaped to Union camps
• Second Confiscation Act (July 1862) frees these
  slaves
• Allows Union to use these former slaves in any
  capacity in the army

10
The End of Slavery

• Emancipation Proclamation (1/1/1863)
• Lincoln had said that if states were still
  rebelling by new years 1863, hed free the
  slaves in Southern States

• U.S. govt recognizes those slaves as free
• Still slavery in the border states, only in areas
  outside of Lincolns control
• Commits U.S. to a policy of abolition in the
  South
• As Union army progresses, more slaves freed

11
The End of Slavery

• Freedmen in the War
• Almost 200,000 African Americans serve in the
  Union Army and Navy
• Segregated into all-black units, such as the
  Massachusetts 54th Regiment (remember Glory?)
• Over 37,000 die in what becomes known as the
  Army of Freedom

12
Effects of the War on CiviliansPOLITICAL CHANGE

• Republicans
• Republican majorities in both houses, but begin
  to exhibit sharp differences
• Radical Republicans
• Immediate abolition
• Moderate Republicans
• Free Soilers, wanted economic opportunities for
  whites

13
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Democrats
• Most supported the war, but criticized how
  Lincoln handled it
• Peace Democrats (Copperheads)
• Wanted a negotiated peace
• Southern sympathizers, outspoken critics of
  Lincoln
• Rep. Clement Vallandingham of Ohio briefly
  banished from the U.S. for pro-Confederacy
  speeches

14
Effects of the War on Civilians

• The Draft
• At first, most on both sides were volunteers
• North and South conscript, or draft men into
  service as the need for replacements rose
• First Conscription Act (March 1863)
• All men between 20 45 eligible
• Could find a substitute or pay 300 to get out of
  service

15
Effects of the War on Civilians

• The Draft
• Fierce opposition to these draft laws by poor
  laborers
• Thought freed African-Americans would take jobs
  while they went to fight
• New York City Draft Riot (July 1863)
• Mostly Irish American mob attacks blacks and
  wealthy whites
• 117 people killed
• Ended with Federal troops temporary suspension
  of the draft

16
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Political Dominance of the North
• Short-Term
• Suspension of Habeas Corpus
• Draft
• Long Term
• Power of the federal government no longer in
  questiontreated as fact
• Abolition of slavery gave new meaning to the
  concept of American democracy
• Inspires champions of democracy around the world

17
Effects of the War on CiviliansECONOMIC CHANGE

• Financing the War
• North borrowed 2.6 billion from government bonds
• Congress still needs to raise more money
• Added new tariffs and excise taxes
• Institute the first income tax
• Issue over 430 million in paper currency
• Greenbacks
• Couldnt be redeemed in gold
• Inflation
• Prices in the North rise by 80 during the war

18
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Financing the War
• Congress needs to manage all of the new money
  coming in and out of the Treasury.
• Creates a new National Banking System in 1863
• First unified banking network since Andrew
  Jackson vetoed the charter of the Bank of the
  U.S. in the 1830s
• Government needs taken advantage of, new class of
  millionaires make fortunes
• Hmmmm, maybe TJ and AJ had a point

19
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Modernization of northern society
• Speeds up consolidation of manufacturing
  businesses
• Mass production, complex organization needed to
  mount a war effort
• Workers wages dont keep pace with inflation
• Can you imagine a 20 per year raise?
• War profiteers sold shoddy goods at high prices
  because of urgent need for military supplies

20
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Republican Economic Program
• Morrill Tariff Act (1861)
• Protect manufacturing, helps industrialists
• Homestead Act (1862)
• Gave families 160 acres to settle Great Plains,
  with promise to stay for 5 years
• Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)
• States use sale of Federal land grants to
  maintain agricultural and technical colleges.
• Pacific Railway Act (1862)
• Transcontinental railroad through north

21
Effects of the War on CiviliansSOCIAL CHANGE

• Women
• Northern and Southern womens roles change
• Operated farms and plantations
• Took factory jobs normally held by men
• Most gave up their jobs after the war when the
  men came back
• Many women struggled after the war because their
  men didnt come back

22
Effects of the War on Civilians

• Women
• The war had two permanent effects on women
• 1The field of nursing was open to women for the
  first time
• 2The responsibilities taken on by women during
  the war inspired a new movement to obtain equal
  voting rights for women

23
Effects of the War on Civilians

• The Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
• 4 million people freed from slavery
• 500,000 in the border states
• 4 million in the South
• Became full citizens with the protection of the
  Constitution
• African-Americans suffered economic hardship and
  political oppression for generations

24
Costs of the War

• 15 billion in war costs and property loss
• Destroyed slavery and the southern economy
• Transforms America into a complex modern
  industrial society
• Capital
• Technology
• National organization
• Large coroprations
• Republicans enacted the pro-business Whig agenda
  to stimulate industrial/commercial growth