Chapter 4- The 1860 election, secession and civil war

Question 1

When did the Civil war start?

Answer 1

April 1861

Question 2

How many states had seceded by February 1861?

Answer 2

7 southern states

Question 3

What was the issue southerners had with the idea of a Republican victory in 1860?

Answer 3

They felt it might threaten slavery

Felt northerners regarded the South as inferior

Question 4

Why was Douglas the rational choice for Democrat candidate in 1860? Why did many democrats oppose him

Answer 4

He was the only democrat likely to carry any free states, this would be essential for the democrats to win the election

Douglas tried to build some bridges with the South 1859-1860 but his stand against the Lecompton constitution alienated him from most southerners

Question 5

What happened at the Democrat convention in Charleston, South Carolina in April 1860?

Answer 5

South Carolina was one of the most ‘Fire-eating’ states ( meaning it wanted to leave the union)- many of the townspeople hugely opposed Douglas

Northern delegates blocked a proposal which would have pledged to protect the rights of slave holders in territories, this led to 50 Lower South Delegates walking out

They struggles to reach consensus on policy or a presidential candidate- Douglas had a majority but not the two thirds he needed. They agreed to reconvene in Baltimore in June

Question 6

What happened at the Baltimore Democrat conference? What did it lead to?

Answer 6

There was another mass walk out by southern delegates as the convention was dominated by Douglas supporters and they were seen as taking only pro Douglas southerners. With these people gone Douglas won the nomination.

The south set up their own convention and nominated the current Vice President John Breckinridge

Question 7

Did the Democrat split help the Republican Party?

Answer 7

This is often seen as ensuring success but in fact the Republican Party only had to carry the both to win so was already favourite.

Democrat splits may have weakened the Republicans as Douglas could now campaign successfully in the North as he didn’t need to maintain a united party.

Question 8

What factors made Lincoln a favourable candidate?

Answer 8

He came from Illinois (battleground state)- may swing this for Republicans

Debates with Douglas in 1858 had enhanced his reputation

1859-60 saw him make many debates- more known and popular

Didn’t have an ideological label

Lack of admin experience made him seem honest

The Republican convention was held in Chicago (Illinois) which meant it was filled with his supporters

Question 9

What platform did the Republican Party agree on in 1860?

Answer 9

Condemned John Brown’s raid

Called for higher protective tariffs

Free 160-acre homesteads for Western settlers

A northern transcontinental railway

Question 10

Who was the favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination? Why did he not manage to?

Answer 10

William Seward

He had been the Governor of New York for 4 years and a senator for 12- experienced. However his long career meant he had many enemies

He was a pragmatic politician and not extreme yet seen as having militant abolitionist views

He was also hostile to nativism- this may have put ex-know nothings off voting for him

Question 11

What happened with the three Ballots for the Republican nomination? Was there corruption?

Answer 11

Seward won first ballot but didn’t have a big enough majority to win, Lincoln was second. Became obvious that this was a two horse race.

The second ballot was very close with votes of other candidates drifting to Lincoln

The third ballot led to Lincoln’s win. Lincolns campaign managers almost certainly made deals with Pennsylvania and Indiana to get their delegates votes- probably in return for putting Simon Cameron and Caleb Smith leading politicians from this state on his ballot. These deals led to his win

Question 12

What new party emerged at the 1860 election, who was their presidential candidate?

Answer 12

The Constitutional Unionist Party ( mostly ex-whigs)

Candidate John Bell of Tennessee

The party wanted to remove the slavery question and ease sectional strife

Question 13

What was the 1860 campaign like?

Answer 13

In the North a fight between Lincoln and Douglas

In the South between Bell and Breckinridge

Douglas the only actively involved candidate, he warned Southerners against secession

Republican propaganda concentrated on the Slave Power Conspiracy, supporters of Lincoln carried wooden rails embodying the notion that Lincoln was a self made man

Southern Democrats stereotyped northerners as ‘black republicans’

In some northern states the three anti-Republican parties tried to unite however this was unsuccessful

Question 14

What were the election results?

Answer 14

Bell- 593,000 votes (39% of Southern vote)

Breckenridge- 843,000 votes (45% of the Southern votes)

Douglas- 1,383,000 votes - mainly North but only carried 2 states

Lincoln- 1,866,000 votes - 40% of the total. Won 54% of the free state vote ( got no votes at all in 10 slave states). Majority of 180 to 123 in the electoral college

Even if the opposition had combined against him in every free state he still would have won

If Douglas had won in Illinois, Indiana and California Lincoln would have lost

Question 15

Why did Northerners support Lincoln?

Answer 15

They felt he represented them

A vote for Lincoln= a vote against Slave Power

Nativists couldn’t vote democrat as it was a party that encompassed German and Irish Catholics

Many approved the Republican economic proposals

Lincoln seen as honest and having integrity. In June 1860 Buchanan’s government was found to have corruption at every level by a house investigative committee. Many very anti-corruption

Question 16

Why should Lincoln’s election not have sparked southern secession?

Answer 16

Lincoln promised not to stop existing slavery

Even if Lincoln did want to abolish slavery there was little he could do as he didn’t control Congress or the Supreme Court

Secession would mean an end to the fugitive slave act- meaning more black people would go north- he didn’t want that

Secession could lead to civil war which would threaten slavery more than the election

Question 17

How did Southerners see Lincoln, Republican and the North after the 1860 election?

Answer 17

Lincoln depicted as a rabid abolitionist

South felt they had been denied their fair share of western territories and had been unfairly taxed through high tariffs to subsidise northern industry.

Fire eaters capitalised on the mood and were now supported by mainstream politics

Question 18

What issues did secessionists face?

Answer 18

Still a lot of unionist sympathy in south

No big organisations to organise a secessionist movement

Southerners loyal to their state over the south in general

They were not united, no unity of political strategy

Some people thought it should be immediate others thought they should wait a secede when the time is right

If individual states acted alone they might receive no support ( like South Carolina in the 1832 nullification case)

Mass movement for secession may ensure nothing happened like in 1849-50

Question 19

Which state was the first to secede? Where was the meeting to create a new government?

Answer 19

South Carolina on the 20th of December 1860

It sent commissioners to other states to propose a meeting in Montgomery Alabama on Feb 4th 1861 to create a new government

In congress in early December 30 representatives from 9 southern states said they were pro secession

Question 20

What were the two different types of view of secession in the South?

Answer 20

‘Immediate secessionists’

‘Cooperationists’- some felt the time wasn’t right to secede others were unionists and opposed to secession

Independent politicians often took no position on it (In Mississippi there were 12,000 votes for candidates with unspecified positions)

Question 21

Which states immediately seceded? Which state had a referendum to ratify this decision?

Answer 21

Mississippi (85 votes to 15)- 9 Jan 1861

Florida (62 to 7)- 10 Jan 1861

Alabama (61 to 39)- 11 Jan 1861

Georgia (208 to 89)- 19 Jan 1861

Louisiana (113 to 17)-26 Jan 1861

Texas (166 to 8)- 1 Feb 1861
-they then had a referendum to ratify the conventions actions

Question 22

What did the Northerners think about the events in the South in regard to secession?

Answer 22

Continuation of the Slave Power Conspiracy

Thought elite planters had conned the electorate into voting for secession

Secession more popular where there were higher instances of slavery

Debate about whether the secessions led by aristocrats or genuinely democratic. Slave holders dominated southern politics and no state but Texas had a referendum. However, many non slave holders supported secession and no southerners saw it as a conspiracy to change the will of the people.

Question 23

Did Americans expect war in early 1861?

Answer 23

No very few did

Northerners thought the seceded South was bluffing and that an extreme minority had seized power against the will of the majority

Southerners thought that the North would not fight to save the union

People in the border states ( Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Delaware and Missouri) were confident that a compromise could be reached.

Question 24

When was the confederate government launched? What were the delegates like? What did they do?

Answer 24

4th February 1861

50 delegates of the seceded states met, most were lawyers or well off planters

49 were slave owners, 21 owned more than 20 slaves. They almost all had a lot of political experience

Almost half the delegates had been cooperationists

They were desperate to win the support of the upper south so tried to appear moderated and united

They created a provisional congress and a provisional constitution, this was like the US constitution but it protected slavery and guaranteed state rights

Question 25

Who was elected as provisional president by the confederacy?

Answer 25

Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.

He was a champion of southern rights but by no means a fire water.

Alexander Stephens became vice-president, a cooperationist

Question 26

What were Davis’s main concerns as he became provisional president?

Answer 26

He was confident that the Confederacy would survive but was concerned that no states from the upper south had yet joined the confederacy.

The 7 original confederate states only had 10% of the USA’s population and had only five percent of its industrial capability

Question 27

What were the first things the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy decided?

Answer 27

It passed major financial legislation

Adopted the Stars and Bars as the national flag

Set about raising an army

Question 28

When did the upper south (Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee and North Carolina) to call elections for conventions to decide on secession? Outcome?

Answer 28

January 1861

Showed they were less secessionist than the lower south

Question 29

Why did the upper south states not immediately vote for secession?

They voted for a convention but delegates rejected secession

Answer 29

• smaller stake in slavery ( less that 30% of population black, nearly half of Maryland’s black population were already free)
• non-slaveholders questioned if their interests would be served in a planter dominated Confederacy
• Upper south had close ties with the north, they feared the economic consequences of secession.

However upper South distrusted Lincoln

Tennessee and Virginia made it clear they would oppose any attempts to force the seceded states back into the Union

Question 30

When was Lincoln inaugurated? What did Buchanan do in this period between states seceding and Lincoln becoming president?

Answer 30

March 1861

Buchanan’s main concern was not to provoke war. He therefore took no action as federal institutions were taken over in the south by the Confederate states. He did not recall the federal garrisons at Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens.

There was little he could do as the South was set on leaving the Union and the republicans didn’t trust him

Question 31

What was the Crittenden Compromise? What was the Republican response

Answer 31

A senate committee of 13, led by unionist John Crittenden recommended a package of compromise proposals.

It suggested the Missouri compromise line should be extended to the Pacific.

A constitutional amendment to guarantee there would be no interference with slavery where it already existed

Congress would be forbidden to abolish slavery in Washington DC

Republicans whose numbers had grown in congress rejected the proposals- they saw it as a surrender not a compromise

There was also a house committee but this was less effective

Question 32

When was the Virginia peace conference? What happened at it?

Answer 32

February 1861

To see if it could bring the seceded states back into the Union

Attended by 130 delegates but no confederate delegates

After 3 weeks, it came up with proposals similar to the Crittenden Compromise- these were ignored by congress and the confederacy.

Question 33

What was northern opinion on the secession?

Answer 33

Some believed the South should be allowed to go in peace

Most Northerners were unable to accept this and thought that the doctrine of secession was anarchy.

However very few demanded military action to suppress the ‘rebellion’. There was an appreciation of how disastrous the impact of this would be on the upper south

Question 34

What was Lincoln’s position on the secessions?

Answer 34

Lincoln maintained a strict silence

In a letter to Seward (his future Secretary of State) he said he would compromise on a number of issues such as the fugitive slave act and Slavery in Washington DC, he would even make concessions on New Mexico.

He did not want any slavery expansion however

Lincoln felt he had fairly won the election, so he felt he shouldn’t have to concede too much to the South.

He mistakenly believed that the secession was a ploy by a small group of planters and that his inactivity would give unionists a chance to rally and overthrow the extremists in the South. This was Naieve

Question 35

Who made up Lincoln’s cabinet?

Answer 35

William Seward - Secretary of State

Salmon Chase- secretary of the treasury- main radical spokesperson in the cabinet

Gideon Wells- secretary of the navy

Caleb Smith (Indiana) and Simon Cameron (Pennsylvania) - debt appointments in return for Lincoln’s presidential nomination

Attorney General Edward Bates and Postmaster General Montgomery Blair

Considered an unlikely team, lincoln trusted his political skill to make it work

Question 36

What happened to Lincoln as he arrived in Washington DC?

Answer 36

Warned of an assassination plot

Slipped into DC anonymously- this casts doubt on his courage to face the task ahead

His social awkwardness and western accent did not inspire much confidence

Question 37

What did Lincoln say in his inaugural speech?

Answer 37

He would not interfere with slavery where it already existed

He would not take immediate action to reclaim federal property

In his view the Union was unbreakable and secession was illegal

Intended to ‘hold, occupy and possess’ federal property within the seceded states

• this had no effect on the confederacy, they had no wish to rejoin the Union

Question 38

What were the issues with Fort Sumter before Lincoln became president?

Answer 38

The confederacy had taken over most unmanned forts in the South, the exceptions being Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens, both on islands

Sumter in Charleston harbour had less than 100 men and was led by Major Robert Anderson

Jan 1861, Buchanan sent a supply ship to Sumter but the South Carolina batteries ( artillery) open fire on it and the boat turns around. Anderson does not fire and war is avoided. A truce was made, s carolina would not try to seize the Fort if Buchanan sent no further aid

Question 39

How did Fort Sumter become a symbol of national sovereignty for both sides?

Answer 39

If the confederacy wanted to be a sovereign nation it couldn’t allow a foreign Fort in the middle of one of its man harbours.

Lincoln had declared in his inaugural speech that he intended to hang on to what was left of federal property in the south, therefore Sumter was a test of his credibility

Question 40

What was Lincoln’s issue with his inaugural promise to hang on to federal southern property including Fort Sumter?

Answer 40

The Sumter garrison was due to run out of food in 6 weeks, this he only learned hours after his speech

Winfield Scott said that Sumter would be lost without a large fleet and an army of 25,000. USA had neither. Created a report saying that Sumter and Pickens should be abandoned. The fact finding mission to Charleston found no support for the Union there. Seward also wanted to evacuate

The cabinet in favour of withdrawal initially but soon northern newspapers were demanding that Sumter be held. Most the cabinet then favoured resupplying Sumter

Question 41

What did Seward think about Fort Sumter? What did Seward suggest when Lincoln decides to resupply Sumter?

Answer 41

He felt conflict may unite the entire south, upper an lower.

He urged Lincoln to appease the confederacy

Lincoln hesitated so Seward sent assurances on his own initiate to Confederate leaders saying that Sumter would be abandoned

Suggests he should delegate power, evacuation Sumter and provoke war with France or Spain to help reunite the nation. Lincoln says no

Question 42

What did Lincoln do regarding Sumter?

Answer 42

He determined to send supply’s but not to reinforce both forts.

A small naval expedition sent (3 ships, 500 men). South Carolina governor and Anderson informed

Lincoln hoped to preserve peace but was willing to risk and possibly expected war.

Question 43

What was the decision Jefferson Davis had to make regarding Sumter?

Answer 43

If he fired on unarmed boats carrying food for hungry men, it may unite northern opinion and keep the Upper South loyal.

Most Jeffersons cabinet wanted to take action- they felt a crisis may bring the upper south into the confederacy.

Davis ordered that Sumter must be retaken before it was resupplied

Question 44

What happened in Sumter?

Answer 44

April 11th 1861. General Beauregard ordered Sumter’s surrender. Anderson refused. Negotiations got nowhere

Confederate forces opened fire, after 33 hours and 5000 round of artillery fire. Anderson surrendered and troops evacuated (no deaths)

Question 45

What was the Northern response to what happened in Sumter? What was Lincoln’s response?

Answer 45

Electrified the North

NYC a prop southern city was outraged. 250,000 people turned up for a pro union rally.

Lincoln issued a call to arms on April 15th. Asks for 75,000 men for 90’days to put down the rebellion.

Lincoln orders a blockade of the Confederacy, preventing its trade with Britain and Europe

This blockade inferred it was actually a war and not a rebellion as a country rarely blockades itself.

Question 46

Which states joined the confederacy in the second wave of secession?

Answer 46

Virginia ( this state was crucial as its industrial capital was as great as the seven original confederate states combined) without Virginia the Confederacy would have been unlikely to last long. This was ratified with a referendum. Richmond, Virginia’s capital was now the confederate capital

Arkansas

North Carolina

Tennessee

Question 47

What support for the Union was there in the Upper South after the start of the Civil war?

Answer 47

West Virginia seceded from Virginia and remained in the union

East Tennessee was pro union

Four slave states remained in the union ( Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky)

Question 48

Many believe that slavery was the cause of the civil war ( including Lincoln) what was the importance of Slavery?

Interpretation!!! Look this over

Answer 48

The confederacy claimed its justification to be the protection of state rights but in reality it was one state right- to protect slavery.

Slavery a part of Southern life. He market value of the South’s 4 million slaves in 1860 was $3 billion- more than the value of land and cotton.

Slavery more than an economic system- it was a way to keep racial control and white supremacy. Only a quarter of southern whites owned slaves In 1860 yet the majority of non slave holders supported slavery.

Southerners were worried about militant abolitionism- the message of racial equality was not well received in the North but the concept that slavery was unjust and unnecessary was and this entered northern politics

The SPC allowed the Republican Party to flourish and they pledged to stop slavery expansion

Southerners saw the election of Lincoln as a last straw and felt it hurt their honour

Question 49

What is the progressive interpretation for the start of the civil war?

Answer 49

Saw the war as a contest between plantation agriculture and industrialising capitalism.

Economic issues such as the tariff were what really divided north and south- northern manufacturers and southern planters

Confederacy was fighting for the preservation of an agrarian civilisation

• this interpretation coincided with ‘Gone with the Wind’- suggesting that the pre-war South was a civilised society

Question 50

What is the revisionist interpretation?

Answer 50

Sectionist quarrels could and should have been accommodated peacefully

It was rabble rousers ( fire eaters and abolitionists) the extremes that bought the war on.

The politicians lacked the skill of previous generations and failed to find a compromise. The result being an unnecessary war due to incompetent politicians.

Question 51

The interpretation of the importance of nationalism, explain it

Answer 51

Most northerners fought to save the Union not to end slavery.

Confederate states created a new nation so nationalism was key

Pre 1860, fire eaters were a minority, most Southerners saw themselves as loyal Americans.

Southerners felt driven to the Confederacy not that it was their national destiny.

The civil war produced southern nationalism

The southerness arose because of slavery

Question 52

Who was to Blame for the civil war?

Answer 52

Lincoln could do little to threaten slavery in 1861, even if he had wanted to. In fact he would have made concessions to the south. November 1860 to April 1861 Lincoln acted rationally.

The South did not need to secede, to maintain slavery they did not need a new state.

Pre 1861, fire eaters were regarded as semi lunatics, in the hysteria after Lincoln’s election these lunatics ideas took over the south.

Some southerners realised that secession would lead to war and eventually the end of slavery

The North was stronger in terms of population and industry so we’re always likely to win.

The south seceding was reckless

Question 53

What was the value of the 4 million slaves in the USA in 1860?

Answer 53

3 billion dollars

More than the value of the land or cotton