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HISTORY 1861-r86s1 denounced as the See also:tool of the See also:Southern slave-holders, was spending the closing days of See also:life in expressing the determination of the See also:North-See also:West that it would never submit to have " a See also:line of See also:custom-houses " between it and the ocean . The batteries which Confederate authority was erecting on the See also:banks of the See also:Mississippi were See also:fuel to the See also:flame . Far-off See also:California, which had been considered neutral by all parties, pronounced as unequivocally for the See also:national authority . 232 . The See also:shock of arms put an end to opposition in the See also:South as well . The See also:peculiar See also:isolation of life in the South "Following precluded the more ignorant voter from any See also:corn-the See also:State." parisons of the See also:power of his state with any other; to him it was almost inconceivable that his state should own or have a See also:superior . The better educated men, of wider experience, had been trained to think state See also:sovereignty the See also:foundation of See also:civil See also:liberty, and, when their state spoke, they See also:felt See also:bound to " follow their state." The See also:president of the Confederate States issued his See also:call for men, and it also was more than met . 233 . See also:Lincoln's call for troops met with an angry reception wherever the See also:doctrine of state sovereignty had a foothold . The Border The See also:governors of the Border states generally States, returned it with a refusal to furnish any troops . Two states, North Carolina and See also:Arkansas, seceded and joined the Confederate States . In two others, See also:Virginia and See also:Tennessee, the state politicians formed " military leagues " with the Confederacy, allowing Confederate troops to take See also:possession of the states, and then submitted the question of See also:secession to " popular See also:vote." The secession of these states was thus accomplished, and See also:Richmond became the Confederate See also:capital .
The same See also:process was attempted in See also:Missouri, but failed, and the state remained loyal
.
The politician class in See also:Maryland and See also:Kentucky took the extraordinary course of attempting to maintain See also:neutrality; but the growing power of the Federal See also:government soon enabled the See also:people of the two states to resume See also:control of their governments and give consistent support to the See also:Union
.
Kentucky, however, had troops in the Confederate armies; and one of her citizens, the See also:late See also:vice-president, See also: The territory within it comprised about 800,000 sq. m., with a See also:population of over g,000,000 and See also:great natural resources . Its See also:cotton was almost essential to the manufactories of the See also:world; in See also:exchange for it every munition of war could be "procured; and it was hardly possible to See also:blockade a See also:coast over 3000 M. in length, on which the blockading force had but one See also:port of See also:refuge, and that about the See also:middle of the line . Nevertheless President Lincoln issued his first call for troops on the 15th of April, President See also:Davis then issued a See also:proclamation (on the 17th) offering letters of marque and reprisal against the com- merce of the See also:United States to private vessels, and on the 19th 707 Lincoln answered with a proclamation announcing the blockade of the Southern coast . The See also:news brought out proclamations of neutrality from Great See also:Britain and See also:France, and, according to subsequent decisions of the Supreme See also:Court; made the struggle a civil war, though the minority held that this did not occur legally until the See also:act of Congress of the 13th of July 1861; authorizing the president, in See also:case of insurrection, to shut up ports and suspend commercial intercourse with the revolted See also:district . 235 . The president found himself compelled to assume See also:powers never granted to the executive authority, trusting to the subsequent See also:action of Congress to validate his suspension action . He had to raise and support armies and of "Habeas navies; he even had to authorize seizures of neces- corpus.' sary See also:property, of railroad and See also:telegraph lines, arrests of suspected persons, and the suspension of the See also:writ of habeas corpus in certain districts . Congress supported him, and proceeded in 1863 to give the president power to suspend the writ anywhere in the United States; this power he promptly exercised . The Supreme Court, after the war, in the See also:Milligan case (4 See also:Wallace, 133) decided that no See also:branch of the government had power to suspend the writ in districts where the courts were open—that the See also:privilege of the writ might be suspended as to persons properly involved in the war, but that the writ was still to issue, the court deciding whether the See also:person came within the classes to whom the suspension applied . This decision, however, did not come until " arbitrary arrests," as they were called, had been a feature of the entire war . A similar suspension took place in the Confederate States . 236 .
When Congress met (July 4, 1861) the" See also:absence of Southern members had made it heavily Republican
.
It decided to consider no business but that connected with the war, authorized a See also:loan and the raising Congress. of 500,000 See also:volunteers, and made See also:confiscation of property a See also:penalty of See also:rebellion
.
While it was in session the first serious See also:battle of the war—See also:Bull Run, or Manassas-took place (July 21), and resulted in the defeat of the Federal See also:army
.
(For this and the other battles BnuRun. of the war see See also:AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, and the supplementary articles dealing with particular battles and See also:campaigns.) The over-zealous action of a See also:naval officer in taking the Confederate envoys See also: Another important act (1862) granted public lands for the See also:establishment of agricultural and See also:mechanical colleges (see See also:MoRRILL, J . S.) . 238 . The railway system of the United States was but twenty years old in 1850, but it had begun to assume some consistency . The See also:day of See also:short and disconnected lines had passed, and the connexions which were Inhallways f850 . to develop into railway systems had appeared . Consolidation of smaller companies had begun; the all-See also:rail route across the state of New See also:York was made up of more than a dozen See also:original companies at its consolidation in 1853 . The See also:Erie railway, chartered in 1832, was completed from The Blockade . 708 Piermont to See also:Dunkirk, New York, in 1851; and another line—the See also:Pennsylvania—was completed from See also:Harrisburg to See also:Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1854 . These were at least the germs of great See also:trunk lines . The cost of American railways has been only from one-See also:half to one-See also:fourth of the cost of See also:European railways; but an investment in a Far Western railway in 1850-186o was an extra-hazardous See also:risk . Not only did social conditions make any See also:form of business hazardous; the new railway often had to enter a territory See also:bare of population, and there create its own towns, farms and See also:traffic .
Whether it could do so was so doubtful as to make additional inducements to capital neces-
Land sary
.
The means attempted by Congress in 1850,
[rants. in the case of the See also:Illinois Central railroad, was to
See also: Mr D . A . See also:Wells, in 1866, estimated that prices and rents had risen go % since 1861, while See also:wages had not risen more than 6o% . 241 . The duties on imports were driven higher than the original Morrill See also:tariff had ever contemplated . The See also:average rates, which had been 18% on dutiable articles and 12% TariNand on the aggregate in 186o-1861, See also:rose, before the See also:Internal end of the war, to nearly 5o % on dutiable Reve See also:Taxation, articles and 35 % on the aggregate . Domestic manufactures sprang into new life under such hot-See also:house encouragement; every one who had spare See also:wealth converted it into manufacturing capital . The See also:probability of such a result had' been the means of getting votes for an increased tariff; See also:free traders had voted for it as well as protectionists . For the tariff was only a means of getting capital into positions in which taxation could be applied to it, and the " internal See also:revenue " taxation was merciless beyond precedent . The See also:annual increase of wealth from capital was then about $55o,0o0,000; the internal revenue taxation on it rose in 1866 to $310,000,000, or nearly 6o% . 242 . The stress of all this upon the poor must have been great, but it was relieved in part by the See also:bond system on which Bonds. the war was conducted .
While the armies and
navies were See also:shooting off large blocks of the crops of 1880 or 1890, See also:work and wages were abundant for all who were competent for them
.
It is true, then, that the poor paid most of the cost of the war; it is also true that the poor had shared in that anticipation of the future which had been forced on the See also:country, and that, when the drafts on the future came to be redeemed, it was done mainly by taxation on luxuries
.
The destruction of a Northern railway meant more work for Northern See also:iron See also:mills and their workmen
.
The destruction of a Southern road was an unmitigated injury; it had to be made See also:good at once, by paper issues; the South could make no drafts on the future, by bond issues, for the[HISTORY 1861-1865
blockade had put cotton out of the See also:game, and Southern bonds were hardly saleable
.
Every expense had to be met by paper issues; each issue forced prices higher; every rise in paper prices called for an increased issue of paper, with issues in increased effects for evil
.
A See also:Rebel War-Clerk's the South
.
See also:Diary gives the following as the prices in the Richmond See also:market for May 1864: " Boots, $200; coats, $350; pantaloons, $10o; shoes, $125; See also:flour, $275 per See also:barrel; See also:meal, $6o to $8o per See also:bushel; See also: There is an evident significance in the exemption from military See also:duty in the Confederate States of " one agriculturist on such See also:farm, where there is no white male adult not liable to duty, employing 15 able-bodied slaves between ten and fifty years of See also:age." But, to the See also:honour of the enslaved See also:race, no insurrection took place . 244 . The pressing need for men in the army made the See also:Con-federate Congress utterly unable to withstand the growth of executive power . Its bills were prepared by the Confederate See also:cabinet, and the action of Congress was quite per- Congress functory . The suspension of the writ of habeas and Presicorpus, and the vast powers granted to President dent . Davis, or assumed by him under the plea of military necessity, with the absence of a watchful and well-informed public See also:opinion, made the Confederate government by degrees almost a despotism . It was not until the closing months of the war that the expiring Confederate Congress mustered up courage enough to oppose the president's will . (See CONFEDERATE STATES OF See also:AMERICA.) The organized and even See also:radical opposition to the war in the North, the meddlesomeness of Congress and its " committees on the conduct of the war," were no doubt unpleasant to Lincoln but they carried the country through the crisis without the effects visible in the South . 245 . Another act of Federal legislation — the National Bank Act (Feb . 25, 1863; supplemented by the act of June 3, 1864)—should be mentioned here, as it was closely connected with the See also:sale of bonds . The banks were to National be organized, and, on depositing United States Banking bonds at Washington, were to be permitted to system• issue notes up to 9o% of the value of the bonds deposited . As the redemption of the notes was thus assured, they circulated without question all over the United States . By a subsequent act (1865) the remaining state bank circulation was taxed out of existence . (See BANKS AND BANKING: United States.) 246 . At the beginning of 1862 the lines of demarcation between the two powers had become plainly marked . The western part of Virginia had separated itself from See also:Admission the See also:parent state, and was admitted as a state (1863) of west under the name of West Virginia . It was certain virginia. that Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri had been saved to the Union, and that the battle was to be fought out in the territory to the south of them . 247 . At the beginning of the war the people and leaders of the North had not desired to interfere with slavery, but circumstances had been too strong for them . Lincoln had declared that he meant to See also:save the Union as he best could—by preserving slavery, by destroying it, or by destroying part Prices In Paper . and preserving part of it . Just after the battle of See also:Antietam (17 See also:Sept . 1862) he issued his proclamation calling on the revolted The &nand- states to return to their See also:allegiance before the next See also:Paten See also:Pro- year, otherwise their slaves would be declared cIamation. free men . No state returned, and the threatened See also:declaration was issued on the 1st of See also:January 1863 . As president, Lincoln could issue no such declaration; as See also:commander-in-See also:chief of the armies and navies of the United States he could issue directions only as to the territory within his lines; but the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his lines . It has therefore been debated whether the proclamation was in reality of any force . It may fairly be taken as an announcement of the policy which was to See also:guide the army, and as a declaration of freedom taking effect as the lines advanced . At all events, this was its exact effect . Its See also:international importance was far greater . The locking up of the world's source of cotton See also:supply had been a See also:general calamity, and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected that the See also:English and See also:French governments, or at least one of them, would intervene in the war for the purpose of raising the blockade and releasing the Southern cotton . The See also:conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery made intervention impossible for governments whose peoples had now a controlling influence on their policy and intelligence enough to understand the issue . 248 . Confederate agents in See also:England were numerous and active . Taking See also:advantage of every loophole in the British See also:Foreign Enlistment Act, they built and sent to See also:sea Pri eteerstethe " See also:Alabama " and " See also:Florida," which for a time almost drove Federal See also:commerce from the ocean . Whenever they were closely pursued by United States vessels they took refuge in neutral ports until a safe opportunity occurred to put to sea again . Another, the " See also:Georgia," was added in 1863 . All three were destroyed in 1864 . (See ALABAMA See also:ARBITRATION.) Confederate attempts to have iron-clads equipped in England and France were unsuccessful . 249 . The turning-point of the war was evidently in the See also:early days of July 1863, when the victories of See also:Vicksburg and The Current See also:Gettysburg came together . The national govern-of Success ment had at the beginning cut the Confederate changes . States down to a much smaller See also:area than might well have been expected; its armies had pushed the besieging lines far into the hostile territory, and had held the ground which they had gained; and the war itself had See also:developed a class of generals who cared less for the See also:conquest of territory than for attacking and destroying the opposing armies . The great drafts on the future which the See also:credit of the Federal government enabled the North to make gave it also a startling See also:appearance of prosperity; so far from feeling the war, it was See also:driving See also:production of every See also:kind to a higher See also:pitch than ever before . 250 . The war had not merely developed improved weapons and munitions of war; it had also spurred the people on to a more careful See also:attention to the welfare of the soldiers, the fighting men drawn from their own number . The sanitary See also:commission, the See also:Christian commission, and other voluntary associations for the See also:physical and moral care of soldiers, received and disbursed very large sums . The national government was paying an average amount of $2,000,000 per day for the See also:prosecution of the war, and, in spite of the severest taxation, the See also:debt grew to $500,000,000 in June 1862, to twice that amount a year later, to $1,700,000,000 in June 1864, and reached its maxi-mum on the 31st of See also:August 1865—$2,845,907,626 .
But this lavish See also:expenditure was directed with See also:energy and See also:judgment
.
The blockading fleets were kept in perfect See also:order and with every See also:condition of success
.
The railway and telegraph were brought into systematic use for the first time in See also:modern warfare
.
Late in 1863 See also:Edwin M
.
See also:Stanton, the secretary of war, moved two See also:corps of 23,000 men from Washington to See also:Chattanooga, 1200 m., in seven days
.
A year later he moved another corps, 15,000 strong, from Tennessee to Washington in eleven days, and within a See also:month had collected vessels and transferred it to North Carolina
.
251
.
On the other See also:hand, the Federal armies now held almost all the great southern through lines of railroad, except the Georgia lines and those which supplied See also:
All the resistance was put down; but exemptions and substitute purchases were so freely permitted that the draft in the North had little effect except as a stimulus to the states in filling their quotas of volunteers by voting bounties
.
252
.
In 1864 Lincoln was re-elected with See also:Andrew See also: |