The Rise and Fall of the American Nation – Week 2 Flashcards
The American Civil War:
Armageddon – Sherman: “We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war”
America’s bloodiest war
America: The New Nation
Founded in optimism: The preamble to the Constitution
A model republic
A new example for mankind
Casus Belli: What Kind of Labour
The Confederacy: - A justification for slavery - Vice President of the Confederacy – Alexander Stephens: “It’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the black man is not equal to the white man” The North: - Lincoln not an abolitionist - The Cult of Free Labour
The Confederacy:
The Confederacy:
- A justification for slavery
- Vice President of the Confederacy – Alexander Stephens: “It’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the black man is not equal to the white man”
The North:
- Lincoln not an abolitionist
- The Cult of Free Labour
Lincoln & Cult of Free Labour
The Cult of Free Labour
– ideas of American Dream
– self-sufficiency and reliance through ideas of liberty
The South I
The Planters: A Powerful Elite Destroyed 4 million African Americans emancipated At the barrel of a gun No compensation Overall = complete defeat
The South II
Powerful ideas defeated The Union as a compact of states States rights Not slavery per se? Anti-Modernity
The North
Gettysburg Address
His armies delivered = the North won
1/5 of Northern Army = African Americans
A Clash of Civilisations?
Modernising North versus Backward South
Inevitable?
Resolved?
How could it come to a Civil War?
Three Reasons:
- The Federal Government versus the States
- Democratisation
- Expansion
The Constitution:
Three branches of government
Powers not delegated reserved to the states
Necessary and Proper Cause – Congress can make and unmake any necessary laws
Strict Interpretation: (South)
Tries to limit power of government
If it isn’t written, its not allowed
Broad Interpretation: (North)
Tries to expand power of government
If implied by principle stated in Constitution – allowed
Slavery: The Politics
3/5 Clause = African Americans defined as 3/5 human beings
Added to political weight of the South
4 of 5 Presidents were from Virginia – all slaveholders
1808 – end of the international slave trade
Slavery protected under States rights
The First Party System:
Federalists – Alexander Hamilton
Republicans – Jefferson
The Second Party System:
Democrats
Whigs
The Rise of the Republican Party:
Lincoln only second candidate which ran for party
Interposition:
Gov. George Wallace (Alabama) = “Segregation Forever”
Competing Legacies:
Republicans
Broad Interpretation
Strong State
Channelled through the idea of the Union
Prevent expansion
Competing Legacies:
Confederates
Strict Interpretation
States could nullify federal law
Right to leave Union
Regionalisation
The two traditions became regional:
North
State/Individual partnership
Building a new world
Regionalisation
The two traditions became regional:
South:
State a threat to its institutions
Democratisation:
1830s
All white men enfranchised
Women, Native Americans and African Americans excluded
South
Slaveholding politicised
Representatives sent to Washington to defend it
North
Was an affirmation of superiority?
The American Dream
