Non-Military key moments

Question 1

Antebellum: Missouri Compromise, 1820

Answer 1

2 Million square miles West of Mississippi River is split at latitude of 36/30

Slavery is not permitted North of that line

Missouri is an exception to that rule

Question 2

Antebellum: Opposition to Congressional interference in slavery

Answer 2

Senator John C. Calhoun, Feb 1847, introduces resolutions saying congress doesn’t have the right to exclude slavery from any territory

Question 3

Antebellum: Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Answer 3

August 22, 1831

Slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia

Indiscriminate killing of White people, slaves freed

Approx. 65 killed

Approx. 200 Whites killed in retaliations

Sparks fears of slave dissent across whole South

Question 4

Antebellum: The Liberty Party

Answer 4

• Founded 1839, abolitionist
• 1844 election, had only secured 3% of the vote

Anti-Slavery views:
radicals: legal grounds for complete abolition of slavery in the states

moderates: coalition with Whigs/Democrats. Aim first to keep slavery out of the territories, then think about the whole.

John P. Hale is nominated

Anti-Slave democrats and Whigs align with disillusioned members of Liberty Party –> Free Soil Party.

–> Free Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren, Hale backs Van Buren

“Free Soilers made slavery the campaign’s central issue”

Question 5

Antebellum: Slave states admitted to Republic by 1846

Answer 5

Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Texas

Only Iowa, admitted 1646, was not a slave state

Question 6

Antebellum: The Annexation of Texas

Answer 6

1845

Added major slave state to the Republic

Question 7

Antebellum: The Wilmot Proviso, 1850

Answer 7

• Resolution by Northern Congressmen to prohibit slavery in territories acquired in the Mexican-American War of 1846-8
• Believed by Polk and supporters that slavery was not an issue of the Mexican conflict as the land wasn’t fertile enough to plant
• David Wilmot proposes that acquisition of territory is conditional upon there never being slavery in those territories
• Also political tensions being settled. Old grievance of Van Buren being denied the nomination for refusing to endorse annexation of Texas.

Question 8

Antebellum: America - Mexico Conflict

Answer 8

Began May 1846

Different notions of progress: Democrats wanted extended space, Whigs wanted improvement with time

Main aim (of Polk, Democrat) was to acquire more territory for the republic (49)

New Mexico, California, Mexico City

Some desire to conquer the whole of mexico! –> Triumph of ‘manifest destiny’ doctrine

Ended Feb 1848

Question 9

Antebellum: Why did Ralph Waldo Emerson comment that ‘Mexico will poison us’

Answer 9

Large acquisition of territories caused polarization of opinion, as Northerners feared that this would become a slave empire

Question 10

Antebellum: Compromise of 1850

Answer 10

Background:

• John C. Calhourn writes ‘Address’ on instances of Northern aggression, opposing the admission of California as a free state
• onlt 2/48 whigs signed, as didn’t want to undermine Z. Taylor (new President, Whig)
• Taylor wanted to Admit new states and started proceedings to see them become fully fledged states
• Taylor also openly anti-slavery and saw no need for its “extension” (1849)

Tensions:

• South threatens secession if its rights are not protected
• A. Stevens: “necessary preparations of men and money, arms and munition, ect., to meet the emergency” are required
• Southerners and Northerners have fights in the House, fail to elect speaker
• Plans for convention of Southern slave states to discuss the Northern question

Compromise:

• Jan 1850, eight resolutions:
• Admit california, organise Mexican cession with no discussion of slavery
• Confirms boundary of Texas in favour of New Mexico. Prevents further extension of slavery into New Mexico but compensates Texas with finances
• Abolish slave trade in Columbia but guarantee slaving itself
• Last two resolutions: prevent congressional interference over inter-state slave trade, and provide strong Fugitive Slave Law

Question 11

Antebellum: which three factors helped to increase anti-slavery sentiment in the North

Answer 11

• Second Great Awakening
• Fugitive slave law
• -> Incompatible visions of Christian love and re-capturing and punishing someone running for their freedom

-Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ published as one volume (originally publishes serially in an anti-slavery newspaper) in 1852. Sold out 300 000 copies in one year

‘it is not possible to measure precisely the political influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin…Yet few contemporaries doubted its power’

Question 12

Antebellum: How did the South react to Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Answer 12

‘uncle Tom’s Cabin struck a raw nerve in the South’

New Orleans Crescent: ‘there never before was anything so detestable’

Counter-texts published such as Uncle Ronin in His Cabin in Virginia and Tom Without One in Boston

Question 13

Antebellum: Kansas Nebraska Act

Answer 13

Background:

• Settlers and land developers eyeing upe Kansas
• Wanted a railroad to California, but that would require cessions from Indians and for land to be made territory
• Southerners not in a hurry to make it a territory, it lay North of the 36 30 line
• Stephen A. Douglas wanted to reorganise Nebraska territory to include that North of the line included in the Louisiana Purchase
• Bill of 1853 shut down by Southern senators, who feared the slaveholding rights of Missouri (which would be surrounded by free territory would be encroached on)
• If Douglas wanted Nebraska, would have to repeal ban on slavery there

Nebraska Bill, early 1854

• Explicit repeal of Missouri compromise
• Settlers entitled to decide whether or not territories will have slavery
• F. Street mess (Southern opposition), Douglas, go to President with ultimatum in Jan: repeal or lose South
• -> Bill passed

Question 14

Charles Sumner’s ‘Crime Against Kansas’ speech, May 19-20 1856

Answer 14

• laments that Kansas has been ‘compell[ed] to the hateful embrace of slavery’
• Later, Preston brooks beats him with a tipped cane
• Causes accusations of the collapse of Free speech in the South in the New York Evening Post

Question 15

Antebellum: Dred Scott

Answer 15

Background

• Dred Scott, slave, marries in a free territory
• Sues widow of owner for his freedom on the grounds that he’s long been a resident in a free territory
• Loses suit, re-trial agreed in 1850, loses appeal in 1852
• Suggests Missouri courts under pressure from pro-slave forces
• 1856, case is heard at the supreme court; Southern majority, seen by pro-slavers as a way to end constitutional dispute in their favour

Supreme Court case:
Questions,
1) does he have the right to sue, as a citizen?
2) Has living in a free territory made him free?
3) Was the territory free (did Congress have the right to ban slavery in Louisiana Purchase North of line?

Ruling, March 6th 1657

• Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States and did not have a right to sue in the federal courts
• NOT an ‘orbiter dictum’ (not before the courts, no legal force)
• Living in ‘free’ territory did not make him free when he returned to Missouri
• Ban on slavery in Missouri deemed unconstitutional as it was a ban on property (contradicts clause five)

Consequence
- By federal authority, it is deemed unconstitutional to ban slavery in any state

Question 16

Antebellum: John Brown

Answer 16

Plans for a raid:

• Wanted to rent farm across Potomac River from Harper’s Ferry
• Would seize U.S. Armoury, arm slaves, take territory
• Several, including Frederick Douglas, refuse to show
• Resolves to proceed in mid-october

Raid

• 16th Oct, 16 men raid Harpers Ferry after dark
• Capture armoury, send men out to arm slaves
• Mid morning, Oct 17th, armoury under Sniper attack
• 11 killed that afternoon
• Marines enter fire-engine building where Brown makes last stand, hostages rescued and raid ends.

Impact

• 11 raiders, inc. Brown, Hung.
• Illustrates that Southerners simultaneously feared slave insurrection and insisted they were treated well
• Fears of South-wide uprisings

Question 17

Antebellum: Election of Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Answer 17

Why was he a good candidate?

• Abolitionist ex-Whig
• Honest Abe’
• Embodied American Dream
• Won support ‘partly on the basis of his speeches’

Nominated at Chicago convention

United as didn’t want to identify with principles that may lead to disunion. Therefore will only identify with the constitution

General Interest

Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.

inauguration on March 4, 1861

Question 18

Antebellum: Founding of the Confederate States of America, Feb- March 1861

Answer 18

Feb 14th 1861, Montgomery

• Seven slave states represented
• Upper Southern states such as Missouri did not initially join the CSA, why? Slave pop.
  (i) 47% of population was slaves, but only 20% of upper South
• Temporary constitution drafted in six days along with provisional P and VP
• Permanent constitution 1 month later
• Moderate in nature, ‘fire-eaters’ took the ‘back seat’
• Verbatim of original document, to give legitimacy ?
• Limited executive, Presidents get one 6 year term
• Possible to impeach state senators

Question 19

Antebellum: The Crittenden Compromise. Dec 18th 1860

Answer 19

• Named after John J. Crittenden
• Drafted by the senate’s ‘Committee of Thirteen’
• Would prevent the abolition of slavery by any further amendment to the constitution, and would allow for extension of slavery

lincoln: “The tug has to come, and better now, than any time hereafter”

Question 20

Antebellum: Lincoln’s first inaugural address, March 4th 1861

Answer 20

‘a sign of future policy’

• Address was crucial and could affect secession
• Multiple drafts, 2 months of preparation
• Theme was the preservation of the Union
• Aggressive line of attack was to pledge to use all resources at his disposal to save the union. Moderated in initial drafts
• More moderate line was to pledge not to interfere with the already existing institution of slavery
• Wanted to appeal to Southern patriotism
• Ambiguous language is intentional, doesn’t speak about ‘reclaiming’ federal property, but collecting ‘duties and imports’ – How could that be done if it was under Confed control? War?
• Stresses that North and South are not enemies, but friends, and must be united “by the better angels of our nature”

Question 21

War: Why was the fate of the Upper South so important?

Answer 21

• States of the Upper South contained valuable resources and much of the population
• 3/4 of industrial capacity
• 1/2 of horses
• 3/5ths of livestock/crops
• Key commanders such as Lee/Jackson

Question 22

War: Secession after Sumter

Answer 22

• April 13th, celebration in Richmond on the fall of Sumter
• Confed flag replaces US national flag
• -> SECESSION: VIRGINIA, ARKANSAS, N. CAROLINA, TENNESSEE
• April 15th, Lincoln issues military requisition
• Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee all reject, citing loyalty to Southern brothers and unconstitutional/illegal nature of Lincoln’s summons
• Seen as ‘unconstitutional coercion of sovreign states’

VIRGINIA

• April 17th, Virginia seceedes by convention vote of 88:55
• ‘Virginia brought crucial resources to the Confederacy’
• Population, industrial capacity equal to all previous Confederate States combined, and R. E. Lee.

ARKANSAS

• May 6th, 65:5

NORTH CAROLINA
- May 20th, unanimous vote for secession

TENNESSEE

• June 8th, 104,913: 47, 238
• Mountainous east- Tennessee cast 70% agains - pro localism

NOTE: After Virginia, ‘snowball effect’ saw conventions reflect increasing enthusiasm for secession

Question 23

War: Sixth Massachutes Infantry attacked by mob in Baltimore, April 19th 1861

Answer 23

-Maryland crucial as surrounds Washington on 3 sides (Virginia on 4th)

• First unit to respond to Lincolns call for volunteers, passes through Baltimore to get to Washington
• Mob assembles, confrontation ensues, some soldiers fire on Mob
• Four soldiers and twelve Baltimoreans died, several more indued
• -> Maryland isolates itself, cites Northern coercion
• -> Washington assumes that it will be attacked

Question 24

War: Anaconda Plan

Answer 24

Background:

• Belief that war would be brief
• Though strategists were more cautious, they did not assume there would be a ‘total war’
• “A war for limited goals required a strategy of limited means”

Anaconda Plan

• First Union ‘strategy’ of the War
• Devised by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott
• Didn’t want to invade south, but blockade it on the sea and mississippi river
• Would cripple the South and make them more prone to reason without bloodshed
• Less costly than long-term garrisoning

Would it work?

• Recognised the impatience of some devout Unionists to get going
• Would take time to acquire necessary resources
• Northern public opinion wanted to strike at the South

Impact
“But events ultimately demonstrated that the North could win the war only by destroying the South’s armies in the field.”

Question 25

War:Benjamin F. Butler’s ‘contraband’ ruling on slaves

Answer 25

• May 1861, Three slaves escape to Fortress Monroe, Virginia
• Confederate owner arrives under truce to retrieve them under the power of the fugitive slave law
• Butler reasoned that the law only applied inside the Union
• -> Set precedent for runaway slaves to be received as contraband
• -> July 1861, 1000 ‘contrabands’ runaway to Fortress Monroe

Question 26

War:Confiscation Act, August 6th 1861

Answer 26

• Property used to aid and abet the Confederate war effort

- Included slaves

Question 27

War:John C. Fremont and Lincoln clash on the Confiscation Act, August 1861

Answer 27

• 30th August, takes over control of Missouri, declares martial law, declares death penalty for Confederate guerrillas caught behind Union lines
• Declares that the slaves of Confederate sympathisers in Missouri are free
• -> Lincoln writes telling him to moderate his ideas:
• If he executes guerillas, South will do the same in retaliation and the North may lose the support of Southerners in the Union/with Union sympathies
• Any action on slaves must conform to first confiscation Act of August 4th
• Key in the fall of Fremont

Question 28

War:The Trent Affair, November 1861

Answer 28

• Confederates send correspondents James Mason and John Slidell to London and Paris respectively
• U.S. Navy do not intercept
• men transfer to British ship ‘Trent’

Cpn Charles Wilkes decides to seize the men as contraband of war. Arrests the men, Trent continues

Initially popular reception from the North, followed by fear of offence caused to the British

• Ultimatum: Apology and release, or war.
• Substantiated by positioning of English troops in Canada and strengthening of W. Atlantic fleet
• Dangerous:
• Lincoln: ‘one war at a time’
• Gunpowder for Union sourced from British occupied India. Embargo meant without British demands being met, the Union would receive no more gunpowder

Outcome:

• Settled by argument that Wilkes had acted without orders, so when Mason and Slidell were released it didn’t look like weakness
• Strengthened Anglo-American relations.

Question 29

War:Legal Tender Act Feb 25th 1862 and Internal Revenue Act July 1st 1862

Answer 29

• National currency of ‘greenbacks’ created
• “asserted national sovriegnty”
• Union saw only 80% inflation, Confederacy saw 9000%

Why did it work?

1) Superior Northern economy
2) Timing - period of Northern victories, secure currency
3) Tax law in July 1862 ‘soaked up inflationary pressure’

Internal Revenue Act

• taxes on many commodities such as alcohol and tobacco
• Licenses on professions

Question 30

War:Abolition of slavery in Columbia (DC), April 16th 1862

Answer 30

• District of Columbia Compensatory Emancipation Act
• Slaveowners who could prove a) allegiance to Union b) ownership given $300 per slave
• 5 months before Emancipation Proclamation

Question 31

War:Confederate Subscription Act, July 16th 1862

Answer 31

First ever American Conscription Act:

• All healthy white man 18-35 to be conscripted for a 3 year term
• Men who had already served one year voluntarily must now serve an additiona two years
• Increased ‘internal disaffection’

Loopholes:

• men could hire a substitute from those not eligible to be conscripted
• Fraud: to exempt themselves, people took up professions exempt from enlisting eg increase in teaching

Question 32

War:Gen. David Hunter’s abolition in S. Carolina, Georgia and Florida, May 9th 1862

Answer 32

• Union commander ‘Department of the South’ (S. Carolina, Georgia, Florida’ issues abolition order without consulting Lincoln (c.f. Fremont)
• Lincoln, who first hears in papers, revokes order 10 days later.
• Not antislavery as such, but rather an exercise of authority. Lincoln preferred a ‘gradual emancipation’

Question 33

War:Homestead Bill, May 15th 1862

Answer 33

“Although the Homestead Act never measured up to the starry-eyed vision of some enthusiasts…it did become an important part of the explosive expansion after the war.

• Pre - Appomattox, 25000 settlers staked claims in 3Million acres
• Homestead bill, which had been shot down by southern senators before the war, encouraged western settlement by freemen with land grants on public land. ‘ally in abolition’

Question 34

War: Lincoln appeals to the border states on the issue of emancipation, July 17th

Answer 34

• Lincoln was a ‘gradualist’: wanted peaceful end to slavery with minimum losses, not total victory
• Thought that he could appeal to border states through compensation for voluntary release of slaves (near quote)
• If border states agreed, Confederacy would be weakened by the knowledge they had failed to win their allegiance
• Expensive, but far less expensive than three months of war

Outcome:
- Voted against by 85% of border state unionists and democrats

Question 35

War: Second Confiscation Act, July 17th 1862

Answer 35

• Slaves captured in the war would be a) contraband but also forever free
• significant as it signalled that the war was becoming ‘a war to overturn the southern social order as a means of reconstructing the union’

Question 36

War: Lincoln tells cabinet he is to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

Answer 36

• Blair Montgomery disapproves for fear it will damage the chances of the republican party in the fall elections
• Seward advises Lincoln waits until the Union has military victories to back the proclamation

Question 37

War: Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22nd 1862

Answer 37

• Following Antietam, Lincoln feels that on the back of this victory is the right time
• Ultimatum: If seceded states do not return by January 1st, all slaves will be freed
• Released slaves in the rebel states, but not the Union-controlled ones. - contradiction?
• -> No. Lincoln acting within the constraints of the Constitutional framework:
• By the Confiscation Acts and Butler’s ruling on ‘contraband’ slaves, Lincoln had the authority to confiscate slaves as enemy property
• In those states which were not at war with the Union, Lincoln had no power to amend the constitution unless by the proper channels (2/3rds vote)

Question 38

War: ‘20 Negro exemption’ 11th October

Answer 38

• Law meant that one man for every 20 slaves was exempted from military service
• Only 5% of the population
• -> Disillusionment , exacerbated class conflict
• Mississippi farmer ‘did not propose to fight for the rich white men whilst they were at home having a good time’

Question 39

War: Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, Jan 1st 1863

Answer 39

• Additional edict encouraging slaves to ‘abstain from all violence’ was a response to the criticism that the Proclamation encouraged slaves to rebel
• Sanctioned the enlistment of black people for the Union

Reaction to the proclamation:

• Armed blacks panicked southerners
• Did not decrease Northern racial tensions, some Democratic backlash

Question 40

War: National Banking Act, Feb 25th 1863

Answer 40

• Created national bank, federal currency and floated (created a variable interest rate on) federal loans
• Should be considered in tandem with Legal Tender Act and Internal Revenue Act(s) of February/ July 1862

Question 41

War: Enrolment Act, March 3rd 1863

Answer 41

• At first hoped that threat of being drafted would prompt volunteering
• evidence of ‘nationalising tendencies’
• Marshals appointed to different districts to enrol everyone 20-45

FOUR DRAFTS:

• July 1863: 20% of enrolees
• Further four drafts, could: a) run away b) no longer be required c) prove disability d) pay a commutation fee or hire a substitute
• 46 000/207 000 actually went into the army

Question 42

War: Richmond Bread Riot, April 2nd 1863

Answer 42

• “the largest and most momentous riot”
• Several hundred women went to the Governor of Richmond’s house and demanded food
• Crowd was sent on, became mob numbering 1000+
• Warehouses and shops looted for bread and other foods
• Militia dispatched, governor orders mob to disperse
• Jefferson Davis personally addresses the mob, giving them five minutes to disperse. They disperse at one minute to.
• -> Expansion of food aid and distribution of rice reserves

Question 43

War: Confederate ‘Tax-in-Kind’ law, April 24th 1863

Answer 43

• Government demanded 10% of all agricultural produce be surrendered to the central authority of the CSA to feed armies and then for the surplus to be sold back to the citizenry
• Very unpopular and poor organisation meant much of the food spoiled
• By Nov 1864, $150 m in assets and cash had been seized

Question 44

War: New York Draft Riots, July 3rd 1863

Answer 44

‘the worse riot in American history’
New York
- Lots of Democrats, lots of Irish immigrants
- Draft officers begin selection on July 1st, men in bars vow to attack them
- troops were occupied chasing Lee’s army

Riots

• Looting
• Wealthy and black targeted
• Federal property and draft offices were attacked
• Lychings
• Indiscriminate violence - Colored Orphan Asylum subjected to an arson attack

Suppression

• Troops rushed in from Pennsylvania
• Peace restored on July 17th

Aftermath
- 105 dead

Question 45

War: Confederate failure to procure ‘Laird Rams’, Sep 5th 1863

Answer 45

• James Bulloch, Confederate Navy, commissions two special ‘Laird Ram’ vessels:
• 9 inch guns
• capable of disabling wooden boats with a sub-spike
• Intended for use against the blockade fleet
• Charles Francis Adams, Lincoln’s foreign ambassador in London, protested

–> Evidence of Britain playing key role in two ways: a) as mediator between Union and Confederacy b) as affecting outcome in conflicts

Question 46

War: Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Dec 8th 1863

Answer 46

• Offers pardon to those who show loyalty to the U.S. and adhere to anti-slavery laws
• If 10% in a state’s electorate did this, they would form, in the eyes of the President/Union, a legitimate government
• Illustrates Lincoln’s lasting conviction that secession was illegal and that ‘the task of reconstruction was to return “loyal” officials to power.’

Question 47

War: General Patrick Cleburne proposes arming slaves, Jan 2nd 1864

Answer 47

Cleburne’s view:

• Southern losses due to insufficient manpower
• “Slavery, from being one of our chief sources at strength at the commencement of the war, has now become, in a military point of view, one of our chief sources of weakness”

Proposal:

• Army slaves in exchange for a promise of freedom after service
• “Cleburne’s argument cut to the heart of a fundamental ambiguity in the Confederacy’s ‘raison d’etre’:
• Slavery the thing being defended or a means of defending the CSA?

Support:
- 12 commanders in his division supported him

Criticism
- Seen as radical, and ‘revolting’ to Southern patriotism (General)

Outcome

• Davis shuts off this line of enquiry
• Cleburne is denied promotions from then until his death 10 months later at Battle of Franklin

Question 48

War: Wade-Davis Bill, July 2nd 1864

Answer 48

• Proposed by senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland.
• Proposed that rather than adopting Lincoln’s plan for a 10% minimum profession of loyalty to the Confederacy, better to ensure majority loyalty
• Bill passes both houses but is pocket-vetoed by Lincoln (not actively vetoed, but no action taken to sign it)

Impact:

• Anger from inside the party
• Wade-Davis publish joint statement on the issue

Question 49

War: New proposals to army black people/slaves September-November 1864

Answer 49

• First proposed by the governor of Louisiana in Sep
• Nov 7th, Davis proposes purchase of 40 000 slaves and a promise of freedom
• Does not wish to arm black people at this stage

Reception

• Davis’ proposal seen as too radical for most
• Would suggest that freedom is a better condition than servitude for the black man

Debate continues…

• Continued challenges to southern war effort - >
• Feb 1865, Davis: “We are reduced to choosing whether the negroes shall fight for or against us”

Question 50

War: Lincoln’s Blind Memorandum, August 23rd 1864

Answer 50

Initially, did not anticipate win in election of 1864:
- “blind memorandum”:
‘…it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards’

Question 51

War: Lincoln’s re-election, November 8th 1864

And the lead-up

Answer 51

After initial pessimism, Lincoln’s chances of re-election seemed higher:

• Fall of Atlanta 30th August
• Gets 70% of vote in Missouri

–> Won by 55% of the vote

Question 52

War: Thirteenth Amendment passed 31st Jan 1865

Answer 52

• Lincoln interprets reelection as sign that he should attempt to achieve complete abolition
• Democrats remain officially opposed to abolition
• House votes Jan 31st 1865
• Amendment passes 119:56
• Cheering and 100 gun salute in Washington

Question 53

War: Congress issues General Orders #14, permitting slaves to serve in the Confederate Army, 13th March 1865

Answer 53

• President may order slaves to serve ‘in whatever capacity he may direct’
• Will receive the same ‘compensation’ as any other troop
• Will not receive freedom for their service:
  That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their owners

[http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/csenlist.htm]

Question 54

Suspension of the Writ of Habeus Corpus in the Union, 27th April 1861 (and ensuing controversy)

Answer 54

• Writ suspended in Maryland on April 27th
• -> Sets precedent for further suspensions
• Officer at Fort McHenry refuses to bring a suspect before a judge citing the suspension of the writ by Lincoln in Maryland

Controversy:

• Contradicts Article I of the Constitution
• Judge Roger B. Taney tries to Nullify Lincoln’s suspension of the writ as unconstitutional and illegal, but Lincoln ignores him and several legal experts denounce him
• Purpose was to detain suspected traitors when courts may be sympathetic to them
• Lincoln: “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself to go to pieces, lest that one be violated?”

Question 55

Suspension of the Writ of Habeus Corpus in the Confederate States of America, On February 27, 1862 (and ensuing controversy)

Answer 55

• Congress grants Davis this right and the right to impose martial law in areas in ‘danger of attack by the enemy’ (congress)

Support:
- The Dispatch: “our streets are quiet”

Controversy:

• Generals themselves declared marshal law eg General Van Dorn in Louisiana/Mississippi in July 1862 (near quote)
• Davis asserted that no one could suspend the writ or impose Martial law without his authority.

Impact
- Effective for enforcing conscription