Angelique Gayle (European Diplomacy--Civil War)

European Diplomacy during the Civil War (1861-62)

During the Civil War Europe ties to America was only through the south that never let go of their dream of foreign intervention, and during the wart that intervention was heavily needed for the south if they wanted to continue winning the war. However, neither the Britts nor the French would go along with any policy that involved fighting to preserve slavery, as slavery was not an issue in the war until the fall of 1862.

The government repeatedly declared that they were fighting solely to save the union and that if the Britts could aide the south without defending slavery, and prove their case then there would not have been a problem. This led to a threat of European intervention. If Europe were to intervene the union would have not been successful at winning the war as they may have been overwhelmed by the south.

In October of that same year Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent two distinguished men to represent the Confederacy overseas, James M. Mason and John Slidell. They departed on a British mail steamer entitled Trent. However, the Trent never made it pass the Bahamas. Based on some international law when a country is at war it has the right to search any neutral ships that were speculated to be carrying enemy dispatches. This was the case for the Trent incident and on November 8, 1861, Wilkes raided the ship and led the confederate dispatches off of the steamer. Perhaps, this was the raid that could have snatched the dream of a unified union to an immediate halt. Though the union congress was happy about the raid Europeans was not too fond of the “heroic” gesture, and this almost brought on war between the union and Europe.

Europe demanded an apology from the U.S. and an immediate release of the prisoners. The irony of this stands because something of this nature showed itself earlier on in American history with the war of 1812 when the Britts had done the same thing to –the U.S. and they reversed the matter.

The Trent incident had brought enormous strain in the relationship between the United States and Europe and the thought of another provocation (no matter how minor) may have brought on war.


Another flare-up in the Anglo-American relations were the unneutral building of Confederate commerce-raiders, the most noted being the Alabama. These were not warships because the ships did not leave the port armed they left the port bare and went elsewhere to obtain their guns and ammunition. The ship was flying the confederate flag and has confederate officers but was controlled by British troops. During this time Britain was the chief naval base for the Confederacy, which led the union to believe that Europe was intervening in the war and therefore, they were defending slavery instead of remaining neutral as agreed.

The reality of the matter is that the south was desperate and if they wanted to win and keep slavery, they needed the Britts to aide them as supplies and food were running low, and their economy plummeting rapidly as each day passed. The Britts were in it purely for self gain, and was willing to help the south because then they will have gained a safe haven or a frontier so to speak if they had intervened successfully. I mean after all America was once theirs. But because they weren’t successful in their plan they both lost. And this was indeed a determining factor in how the war would turn out for both sides.

Links:
http://www.teacheroz.com/civilwar.htm
http://www.iol.ie/~kiersey/civwar.html



~Thought to Ponder~ Yes, this is your question…

If Europe had successfully intervened, what may have been the outcome of the war, and what would this have meant for both north and south? How could this outcome have affected the post events of the civil war up until Lincoln’s death?

18 Reconstruction: Legacies of the War: Devastated South and Booming North

The time period for which is considered “Reconstruction” is the years 1863-1877

Now that the pesky Confederacy has been silenced and slavery gone, the U.S. is trying to recover form all of the fighting and resolving some issues with the secessionist southern states (you know, them, the ones who got put in their place).

The South was in ruins, physically, socially and economically, for good reason.

B y the end of the Civil War, the South was in a state of political upheaval, social disorder, and economic decay. The Union’s tactics of total war destroyed southern crops, plantations, and entire cities, and hundreds of thousands of emancipated slaves rushed to Union lines as their masters fled the oncoming Union army. Inflation became so severe that by the end of the war a loaf of bread cost several hundred Confederate dollars. Thousands of southerners starved to death, and many who did not starve lost everything they owned: clothing, homes, land, and slaves. As a result, by 1865, policymakers in Washington had the nearly impossible task of southern Reconstruction.

Reconstruction encompassed three major initiatives: restoration of the Union, transformation of southern society, and enactment of progressive legislation favoring the rights of freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction—issued in 1863, two years before the war even ended—mapped out the first of these initiatives, his Ten-Percent Plan. Under the plan, each southern state would be readmitted to the Union after 10 percent of its voting population had pledged future loyalty to the United States, and all Confederates except high-ranking government and military officials would be pardoned. After Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, President Andrew Johnson adopted the Ten-Percent Plan and pardoned thousands of Confederate officials. Radical Republicans in Congress, however, called for harsher measures, demanding a loyalty oath from 50 percent of each state’s voting population rather than just 10 percent. Although such points of contention existed, both presidents and Congress agreed on one major point, that the southern states needed to abolish slavery in their new state constitutions before being readmitted to the Union.

Ultimately, the most important part of Reconstruction was the push to secure rights for former slaves. Radical Republicans, aware that newly freed slaves would face insidious racism, passed a series of progressive laws and amendments in Congress that protected blacks’ rights under federal and constitutional law. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment granted blacks citizenship, the Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 attempted to ban racial discrimination in public places.

Reconstruction was a mixed success. By the end of the era, the North and South were once again reunited, and all southern state legislatures had abolished slavery in their constitutions. Reconstruction also laid to a rest the debate of states’ rights vs. federalism, which had been a pressing issue since the late 1790s. But Reconstruction failed in most other ways. When President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops to leave the South in 1877, former Confederate officials and slave owners gradually returned to power. Southern state legislatures quickly passed “black codes,” imposed voter qualifications, and allowed the sharecropping system to thrive, ensuring that the standard of living did not improve for freed slaves. A conservative Supreme Court aided southern Democrats by effectively repealing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1875. By 1877, northerners were tired of Reconstruction, and violations of blacks’ civil rights were essentially going ignored. Ultimately, the rights promised to blacks during Reconstruction would not be granted fully for almost another century.


In the end reconstruction was, a success, for the most part.



Question:

The South was crippled, and the North was prosperous, but what else made reconstruction so difficult?

4. Samantha: The Displacement of Native Americans

The Displacement of Native Americans
Indians in the West

After the Civil War, the Great West was still not heavily populated
Populated by a few Mormons and Mexicans
White settlers began to move to the Great West à the Indians were beginning to turn against each other
But they were infected with diseases, and food shortage
Displacement also caused Indians to fight each other
Americans tried to make treaties with “chiefs” (couldn’t understand the no government form)

-Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853

Native Americans didn’t recognize authorities outside of their families.

1860s, the U.S. government begin to focus more on reservations like the Dakota Territory
- Indians promised that they wouldn’t be bothered after moving out of their lands
- Some Indians were pawned off with shoddy food, blankets, protection
- White men never kept to treaties, though, and gave them cheap, worn out stuff
· Many Native American tribes attack Whites from 1868 to 1890 called the “Indian Wars”
- Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Custer all battled Indians.

Sympathy for the Indians came in 1880s
- Helen Hunt Jackson’s novels, A Century of Dishonor and Ramona.
White missionaries would force Indians to convert
1884, missionaries urged the government to outlaw the sacred Sun Dance which led to the Battle of Wounded Knee

The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887-
If the Indians behaved the way Whites wanted them to behave, they could receive full U.S. citizenship in 25 years

Dawes Act caused Indians to further lose more land
1934 Indian Reorganization Act, helped the Indian population grow

Other things I remember:

Its also important to note that Manifeast Destiny played a huge role in Indinan removal. It gave Polk the support he needed to move west and to get rid of the Indians.

President Jefferson found state rights to be top so he when it came to the Inidans in the south, they were able to do with them as they pleased.

Links:

http://www.indianwars.org/

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKIntro.html

http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/lewisandclark/presidentindian.html

http://www.apfn.org/thewinds/1998/03/weapons_of_destruction2.html

http://www.cherokee-nc.com/history.php?Name=Trail%20of%20Tears

Essay Question:

Explain whether or not the Native Americans and the Western expansionists would have been able to live in peace together.

Mormons in Utah

· In 1820 Joseph Smith received a vision from God to Start a new Church
· 1823- Got a new vision. An angel named Moroni told him where to find stones which had ancient writing which he would have to translate.
· He translated them into the Book of Mormon, which was published in 1830.
· Same year he organized the Church of Latter Day Saints.
· Currently was in New York.
· Sent missionaries to west frontier and got many converts
· In 1831 converted Minister Sidney Rigdon. Told Joe to move to Kirtland, Ohio where Rigdon had a following.
· In 1836 made temple there, but left area because made a bank there that failed and there was hostility from non Mormons (due to them believing mormons were wrong for their polygamous ways.)
· Moved to Far West, Misoirri. Violence from nonmormons erupted in 1838. That same year Missourri’s governor Lilburn Boggs asked the mormons to leave or face termination.
· 1839 Built Nauvoo, a city in Hancock County, Illinois. I.L. state legislature wanted their votes so granted them a city charter in 1840, allowing them to have own court system and militia (the Nauvoo Legion, which consisted of 5,000 Mormons.) Economy based off the contributions of the newcomers and the rich Mormon leaders.
o Here Smith was mayor, head of city council, and chief justice. His city aldermen served as associate justices. (this complete power in hands of mormons angered nonmormons in are.)
o In 1841 anounced their doctrine of plural marriage and encouraged mormons to practice it.
o In 1844 smith ran for president with Rigdon as vice. A local newspaprer, Nauvoo Expositor, demeaned Mormon church. Smith shut it down and was put in jail for that in Carthage Illinois. There he was killed by a mob.
o Charter taking away six months later
o Bingham Young elected leader of the mormons (part of council of twelve since 1835, ruling body of the church.).
o In 1845 biggest city in I.L. They encouraged converts from u.s., England, and Canada to move to the city.
o Same year mob violence from anti mormons was increasing
o Brigham and twelve decided it was time to leave with the thousands of current members

· Travelled to utah on foot. Arrived 7/24/1847. 70,000 travled there over course of next 22 years. Plans were made to make Great Salt Lake City.
· City Council set up by end of 1847 and ordinances made by 1/1/1848
o Churches, homes, and schools built there
o Many newcomers came because of the California gold rush, so not all were morm
§ Many of these temporary settlers went back est telling the federal gov’t of the Mormon’s non-traditional beliefs and practices.
o Perpetual Emigrating Company – raise fund to bring American and English morms to utah.
o 1850 utah made into territory with young as governor
o In 1852 Young publicly announced to nonmormons the Mormon polygamous ways. (CONTROVERSIAL)
o Morms believed in following the principle (law of the land.) There were no laws against it. Only 10% of morm practiced it.
o Not many liked polygamy ( some tourist to Salt Lake City were curious.)
o Republican party formed in 1854 and wanted to fight slavery and polygamy, the “twin relics of barbarism.”
o Young removed as governor in 1857 and congress made polygamy illegal in 1862.
o Had to marry secretly but it was then made illegal to live with someone you weren’t married to.

Utah war
The northwest ordinances provided for three judges who would be the supreme court of the territory. The Mormon community was a theocracy and the judges were seen as intrusive meddlers. Young ignored the judges and made his own rulings in the Supreme Court. In 1857 president Buchanan accused the mormons of rebellion. Young was removed as governor and in his place was Alfred cumming A military expedition was sent, the mormons became less trustful and felt like fighting but young decided for a more peaceful approach and decided to make the Mormon leader go into hiding. Volunteers raided supply wagons and burned nearby ft. bridger. Troops got to salt lake city and it was pretty deserted so they established camp 40 miles away. Never got along with eachother but did trade. They left when civil war started (took heat off of mormons.)

Railroad
Transcontinental railroad maid above utah.
Brought thousand of more mormons but also brought non mormons and non Mormon influences (gambling, prostitution, alcohol)
Helped spread missionaries and Mormon faith fast.
By 1890 polygamy was still a big issue.
Mormons wanted respect as Americans and thanks for their contribution to spreading the west. That year Mormon president Wilford Woodruff asked the mormons to stop engaging in plural marriages and on 1/4/1896 U.S. President Benjamin Harris Granted amnest to current polygamists and made utah a state.


The following is an article about what the mormons did for utah in terms of westward expansion.
Colonizing the desert
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons literally had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernadino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.












Oregon Question

Here’s the lowdown. The Oregon country was this vast land of northwestern America which had some Canada in it. Russia, Spain, us and Britian all wanted a piece of it but by 1825 because of treaties Russia and Spain signed, brit and America were the two players left in the game. Brit had people north of the Columbia River colonized by the Hudson’s bay company trading with indiands in the Pacific Northwest for furs. America thought the area should be theirs because Robert Gray found the Columbia River in 1852 and because Lewis and Clark passed through the area to the pacific. The u.s. also had missionaries south of the Columbia by the Willamette river valley. Joint occupation became the temporary solution between America and England. This meant who ever settled there got to keep the land. Of course since we lived in the area and brit lived so far away, we populated the area fast. We offered the area above the 49th parallel to them but they didn’t want to accept that because they felt the Columbia river was the saint Lawrence of the south.
So what happened? President Polk after wining his election decided to offer the 49th line once again. England realised this was the best choice since they knew america could populate all of the oregon country and since they realized the columbia really wasn’t the st. lawrence of the west.


Oregon
Chapter 19 p.g 375-377; 380

Mormons
http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE52&NewItemID=True
search: Mormon impact on u.s. society
utah war
key events in Mormon history
joseph smith
bringham young

http://www.americanwest.com/trails/pages/mormtrl.htm

Reconstruction and the impeachment of Johnson, Kelvin Rojas

21. Johnson’s impeachment and Reconstruction

Ok here is the knitty gritty:

Andrew Johnson (does anyone else see the significance of the initials AJ?)

Johnson comes to power after Lincoln, He lacks the martyred President’s wisdom, leadership, and prestige. (He is a Tennessee Democrat)

Johnson held the same idea that Lincoln had about reconstruction (it is an executive measure).

Congress is replete with radical republicans who opposed this view along with the “black codes.”

Laws designed to keep the negroes in subjection, which most of the Southern states enacted after the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.

They felt that the leaders of the confederacy should be punished for their part in rebellion.

Republicans were anxious to keep majority in congress and believe that this could be accomplished by securing the ballot for the negro.

Johnson’s veto is over ridden and congress passes the following measures in congress (1866-1867)

1. The Freed men’s Bureau Act – organization created to advance the general welfare of the negro (remind me of the NAACP…)
2. The Civil Rights Bill – made to protect the negro from being deprived of his civil rights
3. The Reconstruction Act – Made acceptance of fourteenth Amendment that basis for readmission into the union.

All these things cause a “…violent and undignified quarrel” between the legislative and executive branch.

That tension culminates at the passing of the Tenure of Office Act (1867).

This was a partisan measure. It meant that the president was prohibited from removing any official of the government without the senate’s consent. (This was like a meat check from the mostly Republican party in congress versus the democrat president)

When god forbid the Presidents wants to fire someone…

Johnson removes his Secretary of War, Stanton, who was obstructing him at every turn.

The House of Representatives impeached him. The charges were very shakey and the Senate only acquitted Johnson by one vote less than the 2/3 necessary.

Occurring about the same time…

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH

Congress asked the southern states to ratify the 14^th admen.

This includes:

1. defined citizenship; no state can deprive a citizen of is privileges.
2. Provided that any state which barred a citizen of voting would have its representation cut .
3. Barred leaders of the Confederacy from state and federal offices until pardoned by congress.
4. Forbade U.S. or any state to pay any debt in aid of the Confederate cause or to grant compensation for the emancipation of slaves.

No one did this except Tennessee.

So… Congress decided to forget about the southern governments that Lincoln and Johnson recognized.

This new act was called “THE ReconSTRUction Act of 1867”

This included:

1. Organization of the seceded states (except Tennessee) in five military Districts, each governed by a federal general.
2. The election of constitutional conventions, negroes as well as whites being elegible to vote for delegates, but Confederate leaders were barred.
3. The framing of new state constitutions extending the suffrage to nefroes as well as to white.
4. The submission of the new state constitutions to Congress for its approval
5. The admission of the new governments to representation in congress as soon as they ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.

That’s reconstruction and the impeachment of Johnson.

hopefully i did the right one, im not sure if i had number 21 or the number 5 about the gold rush.

The Essay Question...

this is one question

Think about measures that Congress wished to adopt in the South that were opposed by President Johnson?

To what extent are these measures partisan moves? Examine the partisan issue and compare it to similar partisan struggles in congress before 1861.

:-D Enjoy guys

#8. Whitney Blucher The Stengths and the weaknesses of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War.

For more read chapeter 20 of the American Pagent textbook.

Union Strengths:

• The North had the greater economy, which was also their greatest strength.



• Had control over the sea , a advanced navy that could easly set up blockades against the South.



• Had a larger reserve of manpower. What with a steady income of immigrants and a higher population than that of the seceding states.



• Soliders could were known for their discipline and determination.



• Had more weapons, was better organized, was farther along in the railroad business, and was sound in farming and industrial production.

Union Weaknesses:

• Northern boys were less prepared for battle and military life than the Southern boys were.



• Wasn't very fortunate in having higher ranking commanders.

Confederate Stengths:

• The Confederacy could fight defensively behind their lines. Knew the land well and how to best fight on it.



• The South had the more talented officers. Were bred to fight.



• Siezed weapons, ran Union blockades, and developed their own ironworks to obtain sufficient weaponery.



• General Robert E. Lee.

Confederte Weakness:

• Had a scarcity of factories.



• As war went on the Confederates experinced, grave shrtages on shoes, uniforms, and blankets.



• Soldiers and civilians would go hungry because of supply problems.



• Had a breakdown in their transportation system. Northern invaders would often cut or destroy the Southern railroad tracks.

Question:

Which factor was a strength for the North but a weakness for the South? Explain.

20. Johnson's Reconstruction program, Congressional opposition

pgs. 483-484 Presidential Reconstruction
pg. 485 Congressional Reconstruction
pgs. 486-487 Johnson Clashes with Congress

http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=220403
http://home1.gte.net/vze7ek8a/id32.html

• When Andrew Johnson took power, the radicals thought that he would do what they wanted, but he soon proved them wrong by basically taking Lincoln’s policy and issuing his own Reconstruction proclamation: certain leading Confederates were disfranchised, the Confederate debt was repudiated, and states had to ratify the 13th Amendment.
  

1. An outraged Northern public believed that the fruits of victory were being lost by Johnson's lenient policy. When Congress convened (Dec. 4, 1865) it refused to seat the Southern representatives. Johnson responded by publicly attacking Republican leaders and vetoing their Reconstruction measures. His tactics drove the moderates into the radical camp. The Civil Rights Act (Apr. 9, 1866), designed to protect African Americans from legislation such as the black codes, and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill (July 16), extending the life of that organization (see Freedmen's Bureau ), were both passed over Johnson's veto. Doubts as to the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act led the radicals to incorporate (June, 1866) most of its provisions in the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868).
2. The newly created Joint Committee on Reconstruction reported (Apr. 28, 1866) that the ex-Confederate states were in a state of civil disorder, and hence, had not held valid elections. It also maintained that Reconstruction was a congressional, not an executive, function. The radicals solidified their position by winning the elections of 1866. When every Southern state (except Tennessee) refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and protect the rights of its black citizens, the stage was set for more severe measures.