Lincoln Assassinated

With the Civil War quickly winding down to a close in April, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln began to look ahead towards reconstructing the south and bringing the country back together. On April 11, he gave a speech from the balcony of the White House in celebration of the recent victories by the Union armies. He spoke in support of voting rights for the former slaves, and in supporting the loyal government that had been from in Louisiana. It would be the last public speech he would ever give, and there was a man in the crowd who would make it so – John Wilkes Booth.

Read the rest of this post on Discerning History. 

13th Amendment Passed

When Abraham Lincoln declared the southern slaves free with his Emancipation Proclamation, he did it as a war measure. The Constitution does not give the Federal government the authority to regulate or prohibit slavery, but Lincoln's argument was that he could do it, because it had to be done to win the war. This was shaky legal ground, and it was also unclear what would happen when the war ended. Since emancipation was done as a war measure, if there was no war, would they go back to being slaves?

The United States Congress determined to address this issue, and various bills were debated to determine what should be done. Several different Constitution Amendments were suggested to prohibit slavery. Eventually in early 1864 the Senate Judiciary Committee worked to merge multiple versions into one amendment. The committee introduced it to the Senate on February 10th, and it was passed with a vote of 38 to 6 on April 8, 1864. Next the amendment would have to pass the House, and there it encountered some trouble. In June the amendment failed to pass, with not enough Democrats supporting the measure to reach the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution.

Garrett Davis

Since the southern states were not participating, no one was really arguing in favor of slavery. The Democrats were simply arguing that it would violate the principles of state's rights to give the Federal government control over slavery, which was part of the internal government of the states. Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky argued that the proposed amendment:

strikes at one of the most essential principles of our commingled system of national and of State governments. ... The absorption of the sovereignty ... to the general Government ... would be revolutionary and destructive of our system....¹

John Hale

The Republicans argued that slavery was evil, and that it stood against the principles under which the United States had been founded. They believed that the time had come to rid the nation of an evil and unchristian blot on its record. John Hale of New Hampshire said,

We have had upon the pages of our public history, our public documents, and our public records some of the sublimest truths that every fell from human lips; and there never has been in the history of the world a more striking contrast than we have presented to heaven and earth between the grandeur and sublimity of our professions and the degradation and infamy of our practice.²

After many debates, the House did not have the votes to pass the amendment. Abraham Lincoln supported it, but not publicly, as he did not want to hurt his chances in the November 1864 election. After he was safely reelected, he turned his attention to getting the amendment passed as quickly as possible. Republican politicians like Secretary of State William Seward were willing to use any means necessary to win over votes. Government jobs or even direct bribes were offered to Democrats to try to convince them to change their position. Lincoln himself worked to convince representatives to support the amendment.

The 13th Amendment, with Lincoln's signature

The final vote was held on January 31st, 150 years ago today. Neither side was sure how the vote would go. When the tally was made, the amendment passed 119-56, just over the two-thirds requirement. Sixteen Democrats joined all of the Republicans to pass it. The House and galleries broke out into celebrations when the amendment was passed. Although he had no formal role in the process, Abraham Lincoln added his signature to the joint resolution of Congress.

Congress passes the amendment

This was only the first step of the amendment process. The 13th Amendment still had to be ratified by three quarters of the states. Back in 1861 Congress had passed the Corwin Amendment, which would have guaranteed the protection of slavery to try to prevent the southern states from leaving the Union, but it was not ratified by enough states. The 13th Amendment was quickly ratified by every state remaining in the Union except for Delaware and Kentucky. Under the northern view the southern states were still in the Union, just in a state of rebellion, so they were necessary to reach the three quarters required. Reconstruction governments in Virginia and Louisiana ratified it. In the process of reconstruction the other southern states were told that to be readmitted to the Union they had to pass the amendment. Enough did so by the end of 1865 that Seward certified the amendment on December 18.

Blue: Ratified amendment
Green: Ratified amendment after it was enacted
Pink: Rejected amendment, later ratified after enactment

The 13th Amendment was a major step in the process of Reconstruction. By it the Federal government legitimized and permanently established the Emancipation Proclamation, ensuring that slavery would be outlawed in the southern states. By the way it was ratified, a precedent was set. The rebellious states would not be immediately readmitted to the Union. Conditions would be put upon the reconciliation, to ensure that the reestablished Union was upon those terms which the North believed necessary.

1. Great Debates in American History, (New York: Current Literature Publishing Company, 1915) vol. 6, p.
2. Ibid, p. 400.

Early's Raid and the Battle of Monocacy

In the summer of 1864, with Lee and Grant stalled in siege-like conditions around Petersburg and Richmond, both sides turned some of their focus to nearby areas. A Union army under David Hunter advanced up the Shenandoah Valley, and Robert E. Lee responded by sending Jubal Early to face him with the army's Second Corps. He disposed of Hunter at the Battle of Lynchburg, and then turned his attention to an invasion of the north. Although his small force could not be reasonably expected to make serious progress north, it was hoped that pressure on the northern home front would at least ease the pressure on Lee at Petersburg.

Early

Thus Early turned his men north. Bypassing Harper's Ferry, they crossed the Potomac River into Maryland on July 5th. When Hunter had moved through the Shenandoah Valley, his men had destroyed much property owned by Confederate civilians. Now the Confederates would deliver some payback, though in a more upstanding fashion. Instead of burning Union homes, Early sent demands for money and supplies to the town magistrates. Collecting from them what he could, the Confederates moved east toward Washington.

The Federals were racing to gather what forces they could to throw in front of the advancing Confederate raiders. A corps was detached from Grant and sent hurriedly north to defend the capital. The commander of the Union's Middle Atlantic Department was Major General Lew Wallace, who later wrote Ben Hur. He rounded up all the men he could to Monocacy, where he could block Early from moving on Baltimore or Washington.

Monocacy

When Early approached Monocacy on July 9th, 150 years ago today, he had 10,000 veterans to Wallace's 6,000 green troops. While Rodes division skirmished with the Federal force, Early sent cavalry later followed by Gordon's division, to cross the river to the north and strike the Union left. The plan eventually worked, and under heavy pressure from the Confederates and with his retreat threatened, Wallace ordered his men to fall back. He had lost just under 1,300 men. Less than 1000 Confederates were killed and wounded.

Although the Yankees lost the battlefield, the time Wallace and his men won was very valuable. As Grant later wrote:

If Early had been but one day earlier, he might have entered the capital before the arrival of the reinforcements I had sent .... General Wallace contributed on this occasion by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory.

If Early had been at the gates of Washington on that day, he may have been able to walk right in. As it was, he did not arrive before the city for two more days. After letting his men rest for the night, he determined not to attack the capital's formidable defenses, which by now were occupied by substantial numbers of northern troops. The Confederates probed the Union fortifications, which were for a short while held under the eye of Abraham Lincoln himself. Finding no opportunity to attack, Jubal Early set his men marching back to Virginia on July 13th. This was the last Confederate invasion of the north, and probably their best opportunity to capture Washington. Even if they had captured the northern capital, they probably could not have held it for long, and it is unlikely that it may not have had the same political consequences as earlier in the war. Nonetheless, as Early told a staff officer as they rode south, “Major, we haven't taken Washington, but we've scared Abe Lincoln like hell!”

Fort Stevens today

Lincoln's 10% Plan

In December of 1863, the Civil War was still far from over. Major Confederate armies still remained under Bragg and Lee, but overall it had been a good year for the Federals. Lee's second invasion of the north had been defeated by Meade at Gettysburg in July, and just the next day Vicksburg fell to Grant, and the Mississippi River was captured, dividing the Confederacy in half. The Union suffered their greatest defeat in the west at Chickamauga, but when Grant arrived he turned the campaign around and broke the siege of Chattanooga.

Lincoln, 1863

With these new victories to his credit, Lincoln turned his mind to how to reintegrate the southern states back into the nation. This task was not without its problems. Except for a few areas like East Tennessee, the vast majority of the voters in the southern states supported the Confederate war effort, and they would not go back kindly into the country they were fighting to leave. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect January 1^st 1863, declared the slaves in the Confederacy free, which created social problems for the United States. Nearly 40% of people in the south would be freed from their slavery, overthrowing the entire culture of the south.

To address the question of how states would rejoin the USA, Lincoln released The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, explaining what would come to be called the 10% Plan. He would fully pardon anyone who participated in the rebellion who was not a member of the government, or fell into a few other cases, if they swore to support the U.S. Constitution, the Union and the United State's new policy on slavery. He also said that a loyal southern state government would be recognized if it was formed by a group who swore the loyalty oath which numbered 10% of those who voted in 1860.

Lincoln

The terms Lincoln offered were lenient. In exchange for giving up slavery, most of those who participated in the war would be pardoned, and they could quickly rejoin the nation as a full state. But Lincoln could not unilaterally offer these terms. In his proclamation he recognized that the Constitution gives Congress the right to control their own membership. If they disagreed with Lincoln they could refuse to seat elected Congressmen from the southern states, denying recognition of those governments.

Cartoon of Lincoln rebuilding the Union

Lincoln would meet opposition in his plan for reconstruction from the radical Republicans. They believed that the southerners needed to be punished for their rebellion, and they wanted a much longer reconstruction process which would involve a reconstruction of the entire southern society and economy. This question would not be resolved before Lincoln's death, and it would continue to be debated for many years.  

Halleck Appointed General in Chief

Henry Halleck

150 years ago today Henry Halleck was appointed General in Chief of the Union armies. Halleck had just captured Corinth, Mississippi after an excruciatingly slow campaign, or rather siege as it almost seemed to be. He lacked the dash of Ulysses S. Grant, who had won the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, but who was now simply Halleck's lieutenant and had little to do, and was even considering resigning from the army. Halleck would not meet Lincoln's expectations. Halleck, known as 'Old Brains,' had been an expert in military tactics before the war. Lincoln had hoped he would be able to prod Union generals into action, but Halleck was unable to do so, the generals at times simply ignoring his messages. Instead of a General in Chief, Halleck became "little more than a first rate clerk." However, Halleck's promotion opened the way for Grant, who was given back command of an army which would allow him to do great things in time to come.