APUSH 05.09 Civil War Government Policies (PDF)

Period 5 | 1844-1877 Topic 5.9 | Government Policies During the Civil War AP Learning Objective J: Explain how Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War impacted American ideals over the course of the war. 1.​ Mobilization of the Blue (North)...

Period 5 | 1844-1877 Topic 5.9 | Government Policies During the Civil War AP Learning Objective J: Explain how Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War impacted American ideals over the course of the war. 1.​ Mobilization of the Blue (North) a.​ At the beginning of 1861, the regular army of the U.S. consisted of only 16,000 troops. Lincoln called for an increase of 23,000 in the regular army, but the bulk of the fighting would need to be done by volunteers in state militias. b.​ Voluntary recruits produced adequate forces for only a brief period of time, and by March 1863, Congress passed a national draft law. Virtually all young adult males were eligible to be drafted (though they could avoid the draft by paying Congress $300 or by hiring someone to fight in his place). c.​ Opposition to the draft—or conscription—was widespread, particularly among laborers, immigrants, and “Copperheads,” who were Democrats opposed to the war. d.​ Violence sometimes erupted, like in the July 1863 New York City Draft Riots, when the first drafted names were read out. e.​ In this riot, lasting several days, largely Irish Catholic rioters attacked Black Americans as well as middle-class Protestant whites, who to them seemed responsible for the war. Over 100 people (mostly rioters) had died—including several Black Americans who had been lynched—before the riots were put down. 2.​ Mobilization of the Grey (South) a.​ After seceding from the Union and setting up their own government under the new Confederate States of America, the South needed to finance their war effort. b.​ With a lack of success in raising funds, the Confederacy had to pay for the war through paper currency, which it began issuing in 1861. By 1865, the Confederacy had issued a total of $1.5 billion in paper money, resulting in disastrous inflation—a 9,000% increase in prices of goods, compared to 80% in the North. c.​ Like the North, the Confederacy first called for volunteers to fight. By the close of 1861, however, voluntary enlistments were on the decline. Thus, in 1862, the southern congress passed the Conscription Act, which subjected all white males between the age of 18 and 35 to military service for 3 years. Additionally, many enslaved Black men and women were made to perform such services as laundry, cooking, and manual labor. Small numbers of enslaved and free black men participated in combat. 3.​ War Aims a.​ Preservation of the Union: 1861-1862 i.​ At the start of the Civil War, Lincoln’s primary goal was to preserve the Union. The war, as it began, was fought for nationalistic reasons, not to bring an end to slavery. ii.​ Lincoln made this plain when he wrote to Horace Greeley in August 1862, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it.” iii.​ While Lincoln personally did not disapprove of emancipation at this point, he understood that this was not supported by the majority of Americans. b.​ Emancipation: 1862-1865 i.​ In April 1862, Radical Republicans passed a bill abolishing slavery in Washington, DC ii.​ In June, a law was passed outlawing slavery in the territories. iii.​ In July, Congress passed the Confiscation Act, which freed all slaves owned by those supporting the insurrection and authorized the president to employ Black Americans as soldiers. iv.​ However, it wasn’t until after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 that President Lincoln calculated that the nation was ready for a shift in war aims. v.​ With morale slipping, Lincoln made the shift from an “offensive war” to save the Union to a “total war” to rectify a moral wrong: slavery. vi.​ On September 22nd, 1862, he made his Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order, public. vii.​ After January 1st, 1863, it said, all slaves in areas in rebellion against the United States, “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” viii.​ Notably, no single slave was freed directly by Lincoln’s announcement, which did not apply to the border states. It differed, however, from the Confiscation Act by striking at the institution of slavery and not just at the “property” of rebels. ix.​ It did, however, have the effect of reframing and reinvigorating the war aim in the North while preventing the Confederacy from gaining support from European powers. 4.​ Lincoln as a Wartime President a.​ Presidential War Powers i.​ Lincoln moved boldly to use the war powers of the presidency, sending troops into battle without asking Congress for a declaration of war, since, he argued, the conflict was a domestic insurrection. ii.​ His greatest political problem was the widespread popular opposition to the war in the North. He ordered military arrests of civilian dissenters and suspended the right of habeas corpus, the right of an arrested person to receive a speedy trial. iii.​ Over 13,000 people were arrested and held without trial, many, as it turned out later, unjustly. b.​ Building Popular Opinion i.​ Lincoln’s administration used new tools of persuasion to build popular opinion in favor of the war. ii.​ To do this, his administration used pro-war pamphlets, posters, and songs as propaganda. iii.​ Moreover, a corps of photographers, organized by Mathew Brady, took photographs of the war, publishing images of vast numbers of dead on the Civil War battlefields. These were meant to demonstrate the level of sacrifice given to preserve the Union.  c.​ Gettysburg Address i.​ Speeches were an important part of Lincoln’s persuasion campaign. ii.​ The most significant of these speeches—and one of the most significant presidential speeches in American History—was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. iii.​ He delivered the speech on November 19th, 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, four months after the deadly battle of Gettysburg. iv.​ In the speech, he solidified the revised cause of the Civil War: “a new birth of freedom” 5.​ Key Takeaways a.​ Lincoln and most Union supporters began the Civil War to preserve the Union, but Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed the purpose of the war and helped prevent the Confederacy from gaining full diplomatic support from European powers. b.​ Many African Americans fled southern plantations and enlisted in the Union Army, helping to undermine the Confederacy. c.​ Lincoln sought to reunify the country and used speeches such as the Gettysburg Address to portray the struggle against slavery as the fulfillment of America’s founding democratic ideals. Key Vocabulary [highlighted throughout PowerPoint and Lecture] Pink: fundamentally important Green: Very important Yellow: Somewhat important (“nice to know”) Mobilization of the Blue Mobilization of the Grey War Aims Lincoln as Wartime President national draft law Conscription Act Emancipation Proclamation Gettysburg Address conscription initial goal: preserve the Union habeas corpus suspension July 1863 New York City Draft Confiscation Act Riots