Paul Finkelman - Congress and the Peoples Contest

Donald R. Kennon, Series Editor

Congress and the Emergence of Sectionalism: From the Missouri Compromise to the Age of Jackson, edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

In the Shadow of Freedom: The Politics of Slavery in the National Capital, edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

Congress and the Crisis of the 1850s, edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation, edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

Congress and the Peoples Contest: The Conduct of the Civil War, edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

Edited by Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon

PUBLISHED FOR THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL HISTORICAL SOCIETY BY OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

ohioswallow.com

2018 by Ohio University Press

All rights reserved

To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).

Printed in the United States of America

Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper

28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 5 4 3 2 1

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8214-2304-2

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8214-2305-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-0-8214-4616-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in publication data available upon request.

Contents

Paul Finkelman

IT BEGAN LIKE no other war in American history. The forms of government, the rules of the Constitution, the role of Congress did not exactly work. The Constitution requires that Congress vote to declare war before the United States can actually fight a war. Congress had done that in 1812 against Great Britain and in 1846 against Mexico. (Congress would also do this in 1898, 1917, and 1941.) In the wars with Great Britain and Mexico, Congress had appropriated funds for soldiers, weapons, uniforms, and supplies. Congress had even created new slots for officers needed during the wars, with the understanding that these positions might be eliminated after the war. Since the creation of the government under the Constitution in 1789, Congress had also appropriated funds for excursions against Indian tribes, allowing the president, as commander in chief, to send small armies to the frontier to battle Indians, negotiate treaties, and then, starting with the Madison administration, remove them to lands west of the Mississippi River. Although often called wars, they were really something less than warsshort-lived military encounters, often consisting of only a few battles,

In the experience of the nation, warseven major warswere short, involving few men, leading to relatively few casualties, and fought against distant enemiesGreat Britain, Mexico, and Indians living on the edge of American society. Only about 2,200 Americans were killed in the War of 1812 (although another 13,000 or so died of disease and other causes). The war with Mexico lasted less than two years and had similar human costs: there were about 2,000 combat-related deaths, although more than 11,000 died of disease. Historically, the involvement of Congress had been minimal: declaring war, appropriating funds, and ratifying the peace.

But the Civil War was different in so many ways. Unlike the second war with Britain and the recent war with Mexico, there was no deliberative consideration of whether or not to go to war. In 1812 and 1846 the president had sent a war message to Congress, the Congress had debated the message, and then it declared war. In April 1861 there was a crisis, but almost no one seemed to believe it would lead to war.

Congress was not even in session as the nation moved toward war. The Thirty-Seventh Congress, elected in November 1860, was not scheduled to start its first session until December 1861. The old Congress, elected in November 1858, had expired on March 4, 1861, the day Lincoln became president. By the time Lincoln entered the White House, seven states had seceded, declaring that they had left the United States to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America. Trying not to antagonize these rebellious states, in hopes that they would voluntarily return to their normal status within the Union, the president did not call Congress into special session. He believedor at least hopedthat if he acted with patience and did nothing to initiate conflict, the crisis would evaporate. His plan was to give Southerners time to cool off and reconsider their dangerous (indeed suicidal) course. He assumed Southerners would then return to their rightful place in the Union.

Optimistic that his strategy would work, he promised Southerners that his administration would not threaten slavery, reiterating from his previous speeches, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. He pledged to preserve the Union, but only in the most peaceful ways possible:

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.

With these peaceful and nonthreatening promises set out, he ended his first inaugural address on a hopeful and conciliatory note: Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Southern leaders were far less patient than Lincoln. Perhaps they understood, as Lincoln hoped, that if nothing happened for a long enough time, the states would soon resume normal communication, trade, and political discussions. Moreover, as long as nothing happened, the largest and most important slave statesTennessee, Kentucky, and most of all Virginiawere unlikely to join the Confederacy. Thus, Confederate officials pushed for some sort of military action to prove they had an independent nation. Lincoln refused to cooperate and continued to bide his time. Finally, on April 12, Confederate troops in South Carolina opened fire on the U.S. Army detachment stationed at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. The fort, built to protect the harbor against an invasion from the ocean, was not well suited to withstand an attack from the mainland. On the 14th, Fort Sumter surrendered.