The Northern Homefront, 1861-1865

1
The Northern Homefront, 1861-1865

• Questions
• Did northerners experience hardship and pain the
  homefront ? How would their experience compare
  with the south ?
• How did the Union pay for the Civil War ?
• How did the male population in the Union react to
  the draft laws ?
• Did the North experience civil unrest during the
  war ?
• What progress did women and blacks make during
  the Civil War ?

2
Executive Power

• The Civil War justified greatly expanded
  executive power and Lincoln was quite willing to
  exercise his prerogatives
• Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus
• (you have the body) law officers have to file
  charges a detainee - this was suspended during
  the Civil War
• The Union denied habeas corpus to over 14,000
  people during the war
• Ex Parte Merryman 1861 and Ex Parte Mulligan
  1866 - both cases judged government actions as
  illegal.
• Extensive use of executive orders
• binding proclamations that bypass Congressional
  debate and allow for speedy action.
• Wartime presidents often employ executive orders

3

• Draft laws/Conscription
• Conscription Act (March 3, 1863) 1 made all
  men 20-45 years liable for military duty 2
  inductees could furnish a substitute or pay 300
• This caused the New York City draft riots - July
  13-16, 1865--What caused this riot ? Were the
  rioter somewhat justified ?
• The draft raised 46,347 conscripts and 200,921
  substitutes
• National Days of fasting
• Lincoln proclaimed three fast days for prayer in
  the Union
• The Civil War was also a moral crusade in the
  eyes of many northerners.

4
The Economics of War

• Federal Budgets
• The 1860 federal budget was 63 million
• The 1865 federal budget was 1.89 billion
• Gold was discovered in the West during the war
  which supplemented the treasury
• National Banking Act
• Banks were invited to deposit their gold and
  silver in a federal depository. In exchange for
  this deposit the banks were given government
  bonds and chartered as national banks

5

• Taxation and Currency
• Income Tax
• 3 on incomes over 800 and went up on a sliding
  scale to 10
• Direct Tax
• tariffs and excise taxes
• greenbacks
• one-eighth of Union money circulating during the
  war were greenbacks that was not any different
  than Confederate paper currency.
• The value of the greenback was relatively
  stable - at the end of the war the greenback
  could be redeemed for .66 cents gold/ silver
• Inflation
• 1859 1.00 - base year
• 1861 1.14
• 1864 1.78

6

• The War on Balance
• The following represents Union spending during
  the war
• 867 million -- taxes
• 2 billion -- loans
• six-sevenths of the cost of the war was paid with
  real money