A Just Cause voices of the american civil war Sept. 22, 2012–Jan. 7, 2013 | Library, West Hall | The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens rawn entirely from The DHuntington’s collections of manuscripts and printed materials, “A Just Cause: Voices of the American Civil War” displays some 80 letters, diaries, and other writings by Northerners and Southerners, including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, as well as by those less famous Union and Confederate soldiers and their families, clergymen, physicians, charity workers, lawyers, and academics. The exhibition complements the major photographs exhibition “A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War,” on view Oct. 13, 2012, through Jan. 14, 2013, in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery at The Huntington.

James Alvin Bell (1834–1864), carte-de-visite, ca. 1862. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Background: Abraham Lincoln, letter to Ulysses S. Grant, Apr. 30, 1864. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. "From Our Special War Correspondent.” Harper's Weekly, April 15, 1865. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

“And now with a brave army, and a just cause, may God sustain you”

—Abraham Lincoln. Letter to Ulysses S. Grant. April 30, 1864

hese were the parting words that the over the founding principles of the republic had Tpresident of the United States addressed to Gen. come to center on slavery. One side condemned Ulysses S. Grant as he embarked on what turned slavery as a stain on the republic to be eradicated. out to be the deadliest campaign of the Civil War. A few denounced human bondage as a gross affront Three years earlier, the president of the Confederacy, to the spirit of the gospel and the principles of the Jefferson Davis, had also invoked “the blessings of Declaration of Independence. Many more resented Providence on a just cause.” the “Slave Power,” a powerful special interest of But what was this just cause? For 150 years landed slaveholding aristocracy of the South that Americans have been struggling to make sense of the threatened free society, free markets, and free labor. bloodiest war in the nation’s history. The many names The other side extolled the Southern “peculiar we’ve given it—the War of Southern Independence, institution” as a divinely ordained, uniquely American the War for the Union, the War of the Rebellion, tradition, sanctioned by the Bible and protected by the War of Northern Aggression, the Freedom War, the Constitution, as a precious heritage to be cher- and even the Second American Revolution—epito- ished and preserved. To them, the real danger lay not mize this great and still very much ongoing dispute. in slavery but in abolitionism. There were many in the For those who lived through it, there was no single North and in the South who agreed with a celebrated answer either. South Carolina preacher that the conflict over slavery The disagreement began long before the first pitted “atheists, socialists, communists, red republi- shots were fired at Fort Sumter. In the decades leading cans, Jacobins, on the one side, and friends of order up to the war, the never-ending American debate and regulated freedom on the other.” Many envisioned the “more perfect Union” as one single, indivisible American nation that could not exist “half slave, half free.” Many others insisted that the Union was a compact between sovereign states, each free to maintain its own “domestic arrangement.” In the 1850s, slavery and abolitionism became political issues. The North resented the effort to extend slavery into the Western territories. The South saw any effort to limit its extension or even criticize its “domestic arrangements” as the ultimate insult to its honor. All attempts to engineer a com- promise failed in an increasingly spectacular fashion. In 1861, it had become obvious that compro- mise had exhausted itself. On Feb. 4, 1861, represen- tatives of seven slaveholding states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America. Two months later, the Confederacy, now joined by four more states, was at war with the United States. In April 1861, Northerners and Southerners rushed to arms with equal fervor. Young Southerners flooded recruitment offices moved by hatred of the “Yankee nation” and its tyrannical abolitionist presi- dent intent on subjugating and plundering their country. Northern young men did the same, eager side, against the enemy waging an unholy crusade. to put down the rebellion that threatened the most The vision of a just war, with a united nation of pa- precious legacy of the Founders—the Union. triots, noble citizen-soldiers, unimpeachable leaders, Both sides believed that they were fighting a and civic-minded citizenry, severely tested by the just war with God and the Founding Fathers on their brutal logic of war, gave rise to impassionate and divisive debates. Can a just war be cruel? Can a good cause unleash so much evil in the world? Could victory be purchased by giving up a nation’s ideals and principles? The nations’ leaders could not provide simple answers. In an era without peacetime general staff, there were no clearly defined war doctrines, contingency plans, or exit strategies. All the leader- Frederick Douglass, autograph sentiment, Dec. 11, 1861. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical ship on both sides could Gardens. Above: Winslow Homer, In the Trenches. Lithograph from the series “Life in Camp,” 1864. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. do was react to pressing Confederate pictorial envelope, Charleston, S.C., ca. 1861. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. political and military problems. As the war raged on, became Americans, citizens who had fought and its mission was redefined and continually questioned. died for their country. The Confederacy set out to prove that an In 1865, as the war neared its end, Abraham independent modern nation could be built on a Lincoln pointed out that the opposing sides “read commitment to states’ rights, individual liberties, and the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each slavery. Yet as the war ground on, in the name of invokes His aid against the other.” He mused: “The independence, the South was pressed to sacrifice not prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither only its blood and treasure but its founding principles, has been answered fully. The Almighty has His including the sanctity of its “peculiar institution.” own purposes.” The North went into war trying hard not to vindicate the Southern charge of abolitionism. The nation’s military and political leadership insisted that —Olga Tsapina, Norris Foundation Curator of American the war had nothing to do with slavery. The United Historical Manuscripts, The Huntington Library, Art States was fighting to suppress an insurgency, uphold Collections, and Botanical Gardens the Constitution, and restore the Union. Yet the war ended by a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery throughout the United States. The Constitu- tion that had been worshipped as the immutable monument to the legacy of the Founding Fathers was amended to enact changes unimagined by the framers. In the beginning of the war, American “Negroes” were largely dismissed as a nameless mass of human chattel, passive victims of slaveholders’ cruelty, or pawns in the political designs of abolitionists. Yet by the end of the war the proud figure of the Union black soldier emerged as a powerful counterpoint to these stereotypes. The antebellum “Africans” OF RELATED INTEREST

Exhibition: “A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Public Program: Civil War Living History Day Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War” Sat., Oct. 27, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Oct. 13, 2012–Jan. 14, 2013 Enjoy the music of the Civil War era presented by the This major exhibition is the first drawn exclusively from Band of the California Battalion who re-create music The Huntington’s collection of photographs related to of the times with period instruments. The reenactment the Civil War, offering an unprecedented opportunity group New Buffalo Soldiers also present demonstrations to bring this rare and evocative material to light, and of Civil War life. The Buffalo Soldiers refers to the exploring how images explained, reflected, and shaped African American men who served as members of the a national fixation on death and mourning. MaryLou U.S. Calvary during the Civil War. Free with admission. and George Boone Gallery. Lecture: Drew Gilpin Faust and Ric Burns on Book Series: Civil War “Death and the Civil War” Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.–noon Wed., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m. Series I: Sept. 12, Oct. 17, Nov. 21, Jan. 16 Series II: Sept. 19, Oct. 24, Nov. 28, Jan. 23 Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, best-selling author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Take part in a lively four-session discussion of books talks with filmmaker Ric Burns about his new film, “Death with Civil War themes, including both fiction and non- and the Civil War,” based on Faust’s book. Friends’ Hall. fiction works by contemporary authors. Judith Palarz Free, but advance tickets required. 800-838-3006 or is the facilitator. Choose either Series I or II. (The same brownpapertickets.com books will be featured in each series.) Members: $85. Non-Members: $95. Registration: 626-405-2128. Curator Tour: “A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Curator Tour: “A Just Cause: Voices of the American Civil War” Civil War” Wed., Dec. 5, 4:30–5:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 10, 4:30–5:30 p.m. Curator Jennifer Watts gives a private tour of the Curator Olga Tsapina gives a private tour of the exhi- exhibition. Members: $15. Non-Members: $20. bition. Members: $15. Non-Members: $20. Registration: Registration: 626-405-2128. 626-405-2128.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens 1151 Oxford Road • San Marino, California 91108 www.huntington.org This exhibition is made possible by the Robert F. Erburu Exhibition Endowment.

Above: John Baker Tapscott (1835–ca. 1907), Design for the Confederate flag, February 1862. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. On the cover: Recruitment handbill, chromolithograph, 1863. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.