HIST 393 Lecture 14: Lecture 14 - End of the War
24 Oct 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
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The war has been brutal and vicious in lots of ways
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Because of the issues the war has come to represent in American
life, the Union side is convinced the only way to end the war, is to
make it not possible for the Confederates to wage war anymore
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They do it when Lee's army is stuck in a siege in Richmond
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The siege will go on but they are trapped
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Lee's army will be weakened by lack of supplies and desertion
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There are efforts made to try and make sure Lincoln loses the election
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Increase the possibility of a negotiated settlement with the
Confederacy
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In December 1863, Lincoln announced his first plans/ideas about
reconstructing the nation after the war
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How to let former Confederate states back into the Union
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Constitution did not say there could not be secession and
also said nothing about how states should be treated if they
rebelled against the government
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Wants to bring Confederate states back in where he can
and when he can to shrink the Confederacy
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In 1863, he appoints a military governor and establishes a
provisional military government in Tennessee
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Appoints the only Southern senator who did not walk out of
the senate with all of the senators when they seceded
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Andrew Johnson was a Democrat and opposed the
Confederacy and represented Tennessee and therefore he
was appointed government
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Government was trying to start the process of bringing
Tennessee back into the Union
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There are still battles going on in Tennessee in 1863
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Part of Lincoln's vision to bring Southern states back
into the Union with relative speed and lack of
punishment
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Wants it to be an easy process because he wants the
Lecture 14 -End of the War
Thursday, October 24, 2019
2:39 PM
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Wants it to be an easy process because he wants the
Union to be restored
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He wants Confederate states to be able to rejoin the Union, once
there are 10% of white male voters in the state who will swear
allegiance to the US government
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A new government can be formed once the 10% is reached,
they can have those people who vote to have their property
returned (minus slaves)
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Lincoln's plan in 1863 takes place in a climate of wide diversity of
opinions about slavery, emancipation, the place of African Americans in
society after the war (whether they should have the right to vote,
whether states or the federal government should act in their state
constitutions to end slavery)
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One of the most important aspirations was his treasury secretary
who wanted to beat Lincoln and win the Republican nomination
himself because he didn't think that Lincoln was aggressive
enough
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In 1864, one of the earliest political things that happens is the house of
representatives introduces a proposed new constitutional amendment
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13th amendment that will forever outlaw slavery in the US
constitution, and therefore in the US going forward
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It is an outright statement by those who are more
abolitionist/radical oriented in the Republican party that this was
something that needed to take place
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Emancipation proclamation was just a wartime measure by the
president that could be overturned at any point and did not
secure an end to slavery
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Lincoln shared the belief there needed to be a
constitutional amendment to forever banish slavery
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There were not enough votes in congress to get this
proposed constitutional amendment through congress to
put out to the states for ratification
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Something Lincoln will return to but only after he is
re-elected
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Lincoln is facing strong opposition to his preliminary reconstruction
plan, especially in his own party
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Furious they let the South back into the Union with such easy
terms without the guarantee of the future of African Americans
and without the guarantee to the end of slavery or the right of
black people to vote in new society
black people to vote in new society
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No penalty being paid by the confederates, all they have to
do is swear an oath
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Republicans put forward another bill in contrast to Lincoln's
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It would have required 50% of all white males in a
Confederate state to swear an oath of allegiance to the US
and would have required the right to vote for freed slaves,
an end to slavery, and they would have had to pay a higher
price for admission to the Union
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Lincoln is still dealing with the abolitionist wing in his own party, the
fact the war isn't over, there is an election coming up and people may
vote him out of office and the efforts of the Union to prevail in the war
in a sense could have been for nothing
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There are democrats in the North want an end to the war, call
themselves peace democrats and take steps to come up with
their own terms to bring an end to the war
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Still believes the most important thing is to destroy the
Confederacy and win the war in the field
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This would allow them to build a better society
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Kentucky and Missouri agreed to end slavery in their laws and
constitution
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Maryland and Delaware turned down efforts to do this
because they are afraid of a flood of African Americans
coming from Virginia and causing all kinds of
problems/changes
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Widespread opposition to the war on the basis of emancipation is still
present
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Missionaries went to the refugee camps and tried to do the same things
as in military camps
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Promoted sanitation, helped with food and supplies
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There are also schools who are started for children, as well as
adults
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They are an important symbol of an emancipationist vision
of the war (even before it ends)
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Abolitionists had always envisioned this
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There was also the issue of land distribution
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Abolitionists want their own bill with the 50% of people needing
to take oaths, and they want a plan to redistribute land from
Confederate and slave plantations to plots of land to the freed
