The Second American Revolution

14.3

Liberty

• Northern Liberty– Each man enjoys the product of his labor

• Southern Liberty “mastership”– Power to do as they please w/ other men, and

the products of other men’s labor

• Union victory makes the Northern understanding of freedom the national norm

Union

• To Lincoln the American nation embodied a set of universal ideas, centered on political democracy and human rights

• Gettysburg Address 1863– Identified the nation’s mission w/ the principle

that all men are created equal

A Nation

• New national self-consciousness – Talk of us being a nation instead of a union– A unified political entity instead of a union of

separate states.

The War & American Religion

• Northern Protestants combined Christianity & patriotism into civic religion.

• War was transforming America into a true land of freedom

• The Battle Hymn of the Republic• Lincoln used religious symbolism to

generate public support• Religion helped people cope w/ mass

death

Liberty in Wartime

• Intense nationalism made criticism of the war or Lincoln’s policies seem like treason

• Lincoln consolidates power and twice suspended the writ of habeas corpus for people accused of “disloyal activities”

• 1000’s arrested– Paper editors, Dem. pol, people discouraging

enlistments

Ex parte Milligan, 1866

• After war the court made clear that the Constitution was not suspended in wartime

Lincoln not a Dictator

• Most arrested quickly released

• Democrat press flourished

• Contested elections held

Legacy

• War showed the fragility of civil rights in times of aggressive patriotism and demands for national unity.

• Continues to happen

The North’s Transformation

• Wartime prosperity

• Industry boomed (war contracts)– NE mills (blankets & uniforms)– PA coal & iron mines– Machinery improved boot & meat packing

• Agriculture boomed & pushed westward settlement– Machines & immigrants

Government & Economy

• North finally gets to do what they want

• Policies passed to promote economic growth

Morrill Land-Grant Act, 1862

• Assist states build Colleges & Universities

• Agricultural & mechanical

Homestead Act, 1863

• Pushed agricultural development

• 160 acres free to settlers

• By 1930 400,000 new farms

Transcontinental Railroad 1869

• Huge federal land grant– 100M acres

• Union Pacific & Central Pacific RR Co.– 1st Fed. corporate charter since 2nd Bank 1816

• 20,000 men (Irish & Chinese immigrants)

• Omaha to SF

Results

• Expands national markets

• Spreads settlement & investment west

• Dooms the Plains Indians

The War & Native Americans

• Western troops removed least to increased Indian settler conflicts– Sioux attack in MN

• Navajo removed to reservation

• Slave-owning tribes like Cherokee side w/ Confederacy

New Financial System

• Needed to pay for war

• Tariff super high

• Taxes on production & consumption

• 1st income tax

• “greenback” dollars – National currency – Issued by national banks

Captains of Industry

• Wartime policies benefited northern manufacturers, railroad men, & financiers

• Andrew Carnegie – iron & steel

• John Rockefeller – oil

• Jay Gould – financier

• JP Morgan – financier

• Philip Armour - meat

Avoiding the Draft

• Many escaped military service by purchasing exemption or hiring a substitute

Result

• Union’s economic policies increased power & size of federal gov’t

• Fed. govt nations largest employer– Clerks, tax collectors, officials

• Temporary, but fed workforce would never return to prewar level

Women & the War

• Join workforce as nurses, factory workers, gov’t clerks

• Many northern women took part in humanitarian orgs.

• Northern women gained a taste of independence

• Clara Barton - Am Red Cross

The Divided North

• Copperheads – opposed to the war

• Mounting casualties & rapid changes in society divide north

• Disaffection strongest in states w/ southern born pop. OH, IN, IL

• Working class Catholics eastern cities

Northern Social Tensions

• Growing federal power

• Draft law causes widespread indignation

• Workers resent manufacturers & financiers who reaped large profits while workers fell behind (inflation)– Labor movement back / strikes

• Racist reaction to change in station of blacks

Northern Democrats

• Criticize Lincoln’s policies

• Divided

• “War Democrats” support war, but criticize emancipation & draft

• “Peace Democrats” immediate end to war

NYC Draft Riot

• July 1863 introduced followed by 4 days of rioting

• Mob of Irish immigrants assaulted symbols of the new order– Draft offices– Mansions of wealthy Republicans– Industrial establishments– Black population

• Union troops from Gettysburg brought in• 100 people died