The prelude, chief events of the Civil War (1861-1865) and its major consequences.

 

 

In 1854 the old issue of slavery in the territories of Kansas and Nebraskawas renewed and the quarrel became more bitter. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the entire region was closed to slavery. However, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois persuaded Congress to allow the inhabitants of the territories to resolve the slavery issue within their own borders and this led to violent clashes between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. Moreover, in 1857 the Supreme Court passed a decision which denied blacks the rights of American citizens and legalized slavery in the western territories. The country was dramatically moving towards Civil War. In 1858, when Senator Douglas ran for reelection to Congress, he was challenged

by Abraham Lincoln and the newly formed Republican party. In a series of historic debates with Douglas, which was followed by the whole nation, he demanded a halt to the spread of slavery.

The Republican party was formed in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. It united the industrialists of the North, the free farmers and many inhabitants of the towns. Abraham Lincoln (1809 — 1865) became a leading figure in the party. He was the son of a poor settler of Kentucky. Their rich neighbour, a planter and slave holder, took a dislike to the Lincoln family, because they were friendly with the blacks. As a result Lincoln's father had to sell his farm and move west, to the new territory. Young Lincoln helped his father on the farm. He was an excellent worker and was well known for his physical strength. Lincoln took up different jobs in his youth. He was a clerk in a store, a raftsman on the Mississippi River. He was respected in his home country and was elected postmaster. During the period he held this post, he prepared for his law examinations which he successfully passed. In 1848 Lincoln was elected a member of Congress. In 1858 during the election campaign he made a series of brilliant speeches and achieved stature as a national figure. He said in one of them: "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people". Here is another part of his speech: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time". Sectional strife was growing more acute.

On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown, an abolitionist, led a band of followers in an attack on an arsenal at Harper's Ferry in the present state of West Virginia, hoping to use the weapons to start a slave uprising. After two days of fighting Brown and his surviving men were seized by federal troops.

Brown was tried and hanged. The antislavery supporters hailed Brown as a national martyr and hero. In the presidential election of 1860 the Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln as its candidate. Lincoln won the popular vote and became president of the USA. A few weeks later, South Carolina voted to leave the Union. It was eventually joined by the other southern states. These 11 states proclaimed themselves an independent nation — the Confederate States of America or Confederacy with its own government, flag, budget and paper money. On March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he refused to recognize the secession and appealed to the South to restore the union. But the South turned deaf ears and on April 12 the Civil War (1861 — 1865) began when the Southerners opened fire on the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. A war had begun in which more Americans would die than in any other conflict before or since. In material resources the North enjoyed a major advantage. Twenty three states of the North with a population of 22 million confronted 11 states of the South inhabited by 9 million. The industrial capacity of the North far exceeded the economic base of the South which could not support a modern war effort. Similarly, the network of railways in the North was beyond comparison. However, the Confederates had some advantages. Primarily, they were fighting a defensive war on their own territory and their morale was high. They had superb soldiers, cavalry men and more experienced military leaders, though they were greatly outnumbered by the Union army. The Union navy quickly imposed a blockade, which created serious shortagesin the South. For the first years, the South would often win many battles, but not the war.

Lincoln's main tasks were to keep the country together, and to abolish slavery. The Homestead Act of 1862, which granted settlers 160 acres of public land free, was a timely move which rallied the support of thousands of farmers in the course of the war. Another major decision of Lincoln was the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863 which granted freedom to all slaves in the states still controlled by the Confederacy. Moreover, it also authorized the recruitment of Negroes into the Union army. Following the Emancipation Proclamation the Union army recruited and trained many units of black soldiers who fought with great courage in the years of the Civil War. The Southern army was under the command of an experienced leader, General Robert E. Lee, while in the Union army two generals won distinction: Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman.

The Confederates, having won some important victories, marched north into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863. General Lee met the Union army at Gettysburg in July, and the largest battle ever fought on American soil took place. After three days of desperate fighting, the Confederates were defeated: more than 3,000 Union soldiers and almost 4,000 Confederates were killed at Gettysburg with more than 20,000 wounded oneach side. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln dedicated a new national cemetery at Gettysburg making the most famous address in US history.

The victory of the North marked the turning point of the war, although the bloodshed continued for more than a year. In 1864, a Union army under General Sherman marched across Georgia laying the whole territory to waste. Meanwhile General Grant defeated Lee's forces in Virginia. On April 2, 1865 Lee was forced to give up Richmond, the Confederate capital, and on April 9, 1865 he surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. The remaining Confederate forces soon surrendered marking the end of the bloodiest war in American history with 635,000 dead on both sides. On April 14, President Lincoln held his last Cabinet meeting. That evening he attended a performance at Ford's Theatre where he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Virginia actor embittered by the South's defeat. Booth was killed some days later and his accomplices were later executed. Lincoln died on the following day. However, nothing could change the development of events after the victory of the Naccomplices were later executed. Lincoln died on the following day. However, nothing could change the development of events after the victory of the North which settled two most important issues A Firstly, it put an end to slavery, which was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. It also decided forever, that the USA was not a collection of different semi-independent states, but a single united nation. Abraham Lincoln went down in American history as the greatest American president. The war left the country a mixed heritage of good and evil results. The war left an animocity between North and South that lasted for decades — the hatred that Lincoln had hoped to sweep away.

 

10) The development of the USA after the Civil War. The Monroe doctrine. American expansionism at the end of the 19^th century.