Highlights from the Civil War and Restoration
Terms
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- Abraham Lincoln
- President of the United States, 1861-1865. He is generally rated among America's greatest presidents for his leadership in restoring the Union. Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes booth before he could implement his Reconstruction program.
- Andrew Johnson
- Vice president who took over after Lincoln's assassination. An ex-democrat with little sympathy for former slaves, his battles with Radical Republicans resulted in his impeachment in 1868. He avoided conviction and removal from office by one vote.
- Border States
- Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri; these slave states stayed in the Union and were crucial to Linoln's political and military strategy. He feared alienating them with emancipation of slaves and adding them to the Confederate cause.
- Carpetbaggers
- northerners who went South to participate in Reconstruction governments; although they possessed a variety of motives, southerners often viewed them as opportunistic, poor whites -- a carpetbag was cheap luggage -- hoping to exploit the South.
- Charles Sumner
- senator for Massachusetts who was attacked on the floor of the Senate (1856) for antislavery speech; he required three years to recover but returned to the Senate to lead the Radical Republicans and tofight for racial equality. Sumner authored Civil Rights Act of 1875.
- Compromise of 1877
- agreement that ended the disputed election of 1876 between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden; under its terms,the South accepted Hayes's election. In return, the North agreed to remove the last troops from the South, support southern railroads, and accept a southerner into the Cabinet. The compromise of 1877 is generally considered to mark the end of Reconstruction.
- Copperheads
- northerners (mostly Democrats) who supported the southern cause; they were strongest in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Former Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham was the most notorious Copperhead. Many of Lincoln's arbitrary arrests were directed against this group.
- Cotton Diplomacy
- A failed southern strategy to embargo cotton from England until Great Britain recognized and assisted the Confederacy; southerners hoped the economic pressure resulting from Britain's need for cotton for its textile factories would force Britain to aid the South. But direct aid was never forthcoming.
- Dred Scott Decision (1857)
- Chief Justice Roger Taney led a pro-slavery Supreme Court to uphold the extreme southern position on slavery; his ruling held that Scott was not a citizen (nor were any African Americans), the slavery was protected by the Fifth Amendment and could expand into all territories, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
- Emancipation Proclamation
- executive order issued January 1, 1863, granting freedom to all slaves in states that were in rebellion; Lincoln issued it using his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief as a military measure to weaken the South's ability to continue the war. It did not affedct the Border States or any region under northern control on January 1. However, it was a stepping stone to the Thirteenth Amendment.
- Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
- granted black males the right to vote and split former abolitionists and women's rights supporters, who wanted women included as well.
- Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
- granted citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States; this amendment protectws citizens from abuses by state governments, and ensures due process and equal protection of the law. It overrode the Dred Scott Decision.
- Freedmen's Bureau
- A U.S. government-sponsored agency that provided food, established schools and tried to redistribute land to former slaves as part of Radical Reconstruction. It was most effective in educatio, where it created over 4000 schools in the South.
- George McClellan
- Union general wh was reluctant to attack Lee because of military/political reasons. His timidity promted Lincoln to fire him twice during the war. He ran unsuccessfully for president against Lincoln in 1864 on an antiwar platform.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Author of Uncle tom's Cabin, a best selling novel about the cruelty of slavery. OFten called the greatest propaganda novel in United States history, the book increased tension between sections and helped bring on the Civil War.
- James Buchanan
- Weak, vacillating president of the United States, 1857-1861. Historians rate him as a failure for his ineffective response to secession and the formation of the Confederacy in 1860 and 1861.
- Jefferson David
- President of the Confederate States of America. A leading southern politician of the 1850s, hhe believed slavery essential to the South and held that it hsould expand into the territories without restriction. He served as a U.S. senator from Mississippi (1847-1851, 1857-1861) and secretary of war (1853-1857) before becoming president of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865). After the war, he served two years in prison for his role in teh rebellion.
- John Breckinridge
- Vice president under James Buchanan and Democratic presidential nominee in 1860 who supported slavery and states' rights. He split the Democratic vote with Stephen Douglas and lost the election to Lincoln. He served in Confederate army and as secretary of War.
- John Brown
- Violent abolitionist who murdered slaveholders in Kansas and Missouri (1856-1858) before his raid at Harpers Ferry (1859), hoping to invite a slave rebllion. He failed and was executed, but his martyrdom by northern abolitionsts frightened the South.
- John Fremont
- Explorer, soldier, politician, and first presidential nominee of the Republican Party (1856). His erratic personal behavior and his radical views on slavery made him controversial and unelectable.
- Ku Klux Klan
- Terrorist organization active throughout the South during REconstruction and after, dedicated to maintaining white supremacy. Through violence and intimidation, it tried to stop freedmen from exercising their rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments.
- Radical Republicans
- Repubclian faction in Congress who demanded immediate emancipation of the slaves at the war's beginning. After the war, tehy favored racial equality, voting rights, and land distribution for the former slaves. Lincoln and Johnson opposed their ideas as too extreme.
- Robert E. Lee
- Highly regarded Confederate general who was first offered command of the Union armies but declined. Lee was very successful until he fought against Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and 1865. He surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on April 9, 1865, to end major fighting in the war.
- Scalawags
- White southerners who cooperated with and served in Reconstruction governments. Generally eligible to vote, they were usually considered traitors to their states.
- Ten-percent plan
- Reconstrutions pland of Lincoln and Johnson. When 10 percent of the number of voters in 1860 took an oath of allegiance, renounced secession, and approved the 13th Amendment, a southern state could form a government and elect congressional representatives. The plan involved no military occupation and provided no help for freedmen. It was rejected by the Radical Republicans in December 1865.
- Tenure of Office Act (1867)
- Radical attempt to further diminsh Andrew Johnson's authority by providing that the president oculd not remove any civilian offical without Senate approval. Johnson violated the law by removing Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, and the House of Representatives impeached him over his actions.
- Thaddeus Stevens
- Uncompromising Radical Republican who wanted to revolutionize the South by giving equality to blacks. A leader in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, he hoped for widespread land distribution to former slaves.
- Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
- Abolished slavery everywhere in the United States.
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Hard-fighting Union general whose relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee finally brought the war to an end in April 1865. Elected president in 1868, he presided over two disappointing and corrupt terms and is considered a failure as president.
- Wade-David Bill (1864)
- Harsh Congressional Reconstruction bill that provided the president would appoint provisional governments for conquered states until a majority of voters took an oath of loyalty to the Union. It required the abolition of slavery by new state constitutions, the disenfranchisement of Confederate officals, and the repudiation of Confedederate debt. Lincoln killed the bill with a pocket veto.