WarTime Presidents: Lincoln, Wilson, FOR An interview with Richard Striner, Part One SG: Please comment on the anti-war sentiment that each presidentfaced. RS: In Lincoln's c.ase, the anti-war sentiment had several origins. Some of the people who were opposed to the war were the "Peace Democrats" or "Copperheads." Like most Democrats in those days (at least after the Kansas­ Nebraska schism and the departure of the Free Soil Democrats), many of them were white supremacists and supporters ofslavery, and they blamed the Republicans for fomenting an unnecessary war by pushing the slave stares into secession. (1he "War Democrats" largely agreed with such views, while believing that secession was treason that had to be stOpped, Abraham lincoln and His Gellm~ls/LinctJin Finantial Collt-flitm OC-1-180 by war if necessary and through negotiations if possible). Another own economic interests. One form of advent of the Spanish-American War source ofopposition to the war this belief was the view that corporate in 1898 under President McKinley. that Lincoln had to face were the profits depended on foreign markers. William Jennings Bryan, the people in both parries who were so Since the wealthy elite kept domestic Democratic candidate in 1896 and in appalled by the casualties, at least by wages down, the domestic market 1900, was Wilson's first secretary of 1863, that they regarded the war as for manufuctured goods was weak state, and he argued steadily against unwinnable. By the summer of 1864, in purchasing power; consequently, American involvement in the war and even leading Republicans like Horace the "surplus" production had to be also against military preparedness. Greeley were Aining with this belief. "dumped" abroad, and imperialism, Among rhe Republicans, progressives In the case of Wilson, a great with w;tr as irs spearhead, facilitated such as Robert LaFollette felt much many Democrats and Socialists were this upper-class method. Many the same way. Also, as in the case opposed to Americ-an involvement (though by no means all) Socialists of the Civil War, people who were in World War One, and some of were pacifistic in principle, blaming understandably sickened by the them continued ro be opposed after war on capitalism itself. Less radical carnage of World War One believed the declaration ofwar in April 1917. left-of-center leaders were inclined it morally imperative for the United To a certain extent, left-of-center to the view that war was often an States to avoid getting involved in opposition to war in general during unnecessary distraction that business what appeared to be a meaningless the early twentieth century Rowed interests would use to short-circuit slaughter. Finally, there was a from the belief that the enemies of the campaigns for economic democracy at geographical basis for some opposition working class-what the Socialists home. Many Democrats and former to the war. People in the Midwestern would call "capitalists" and what the Populists remembered how the grass­ States were often more susceptible liberals would call "big business"­ roots economic insurgency of the ro a mood of non-interventionism used war as a means of advancing their 1890s largely melted away with the in the case of foreign wars. Lincoln Lore is the bulletin of The A llen County Public Library and The Friends of the Lincoln Collection oflndiana

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• SPRING 2014 In the 1930s, under FOR, the aforementioned attitude; from the 1910s continued to be influentiaL The historian Charles A. Beard had produced a macro-historical theory that purported to prove that American wars in general had been fomented by the wealthy elite ro short-circuit domestic reform. Many l ew Dealers were susceptible to this point ofview. 1 hey looked back upon IJ)I: ll&o were bolstered process, stop fighting against it or jealousy was almost incurable. When by the hearings of the so-called 1 ye pretending that you can control it; it came to the issue of slavery as it Committee, which purported to simply accept it, endure it, record it." figured in the war, both Seward show that America n involvement in In 1940, isolationist opinion and Chase weighed in. lhe most World War One had been fomented was largely orchesrmred by the obvious example of cabinet divisions by a scheming cabal of bankers bipartisa n America First Committee. in regard to slavery :.sa war issue and munitions makers. There was Democrats like Burton K. Wheeler was the mixed reaction to Lincoln's also opposition to war on the right, and Republicans like Gerald Nyc Emancipation Proclamation when among conservatives who might joined forces across party lines to he first announced it ro the cabinet have been-or who clearly were­ oppose U.S. entry into the war. in July 1862. 1\ s to the conduct pro-fuscist. They did not want to After Pearlllarbor, isolationism of the war it

ro countenance travel by American FDR had a comparatively easy politicized in their editorial poHcies, civiHans on passenger liners that situation with his cabinet. He got as they had been since the early days carried munitions. When Wilson along well with his secretary of of the republic. Si nee Democratic declined to take his advice in state, Cordell Hull-with whom Party doctrine since Jackson's rime the aftermath of the Lusitmzia he worked closely on plans for the had been white supremacist and also sinking, he resigned. !lis successor, United Nations-and with Henry contemptuous of"big government" Lansing, was unhappy with Wilson Stimson, whom he appoinred (except when it came ro Indian throughout his tenure as secretary secretary of war in1940. Stimson, removal), the Republican policy of ofstare, and Wilson reciprocated however, engaged in a heated using federal power for the benefit Lansing's displeasure. But Wilson policy debate with Secretary of the of African Americans was anathema could never bring himself to replace Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., to most Democrats-although Lansing. I nsread, he relied almost in regard to the latter's proposal there were some exceptions to this exclusively upon advice from his to dismember Germany after generalization in the case of Free friend and confidential diplomatic the war and reduce the German Soil Democrats who eventually emissary, Colonel Edward economy to an agricultural joined the Republican Parry due to M. House. As Wilson did so, base. FDR preliminarily agreed their opposition to secession. In any Lansing felt ignored, beHrtled, and with Morgenthau, but the plan case, Democratic editors Rayed the humiliated. Lansing also dissented was abandoned by the Truman Lincoln administration and Lincoln from Wilson's views on the Leag1.1e administration. Morgenthau, who personally at every opportunity, of Nations and he undermined was Jewish, pressed Roosevelt especially in the aftermath of Wilson's positions in regard to the on measures to counteract the the Emancipation Proclamation. postwar settlement. The two men Holocaust, especially in light of The Democratic Chicago Times finally had a furious falling-our in rhe State Department's frosty condemned Lincoln's Gettysburg the early months of 1920. Wilson inaction (the department was rife Address and its arg1.1ment that had trouble with his first secretary with anti-semitism and Hull had the Founders had created a nation of war, Lindley Garrison, who thwarted efforts ofJ ewish refugees dedicated to the proposition that believed (in many ways rightly) to enter the United States). In 1944, all men are created equal. The that Wilson was moving too Morgenthau persuaded FDR to Chicago Times said that Lincoln slowly on preparedness measures create the War Refugees Board. was desecrating the memory of the in 1914 and 1915. Wilson got SG: What role did newspapers men who died at Gettysburg: "How along much berrer with Garrison's play informingpublic opinion? dare he, then, Standing on their successor, Newton Baker. And RS: In Lincoln's case, it was a graves, misstate the cause for which Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels rare Democratic newspaper that they died, and libel the statesmen was an ardent admirer of Wilson, was not overtly hostile and at times who founded the government? so he gave the president no trouble. grossly abusive. Most newspapers They were men possessing too Compared to Lincoln and Wilson, in Lincoln's time were candidly much self-respect to declare that • SPRING 2014 negroes were their equals.") n the to be reckoned with, especially correspondent for the New York election year 1864, Democratic in 1864. Like Greeley, he urged E·vming Post. After Wilson editor' were unapologetically Lincoln to consider an offer of peace dismissed Tumult)• in 1916 due to scabrous. "!he Columbus Crisis in negotiations, at least as a political pressure from his wife and others, Ohio de~ried the "negro-loving, ploy for the sake of damage control. Lawrence convinced \Vilson to negro-hugging worshippers ofold In the case of Woodrow Wilson, reinstate him. Wilson's relations Abe," and the New York Frumani newspapers were extremely with Lawrence varied greatly due journal had this to say about the important in shaping public debates to changing circumstances and president: "Abc Lincoln-passing about American nemr:olity (before the changing nature of Wilson's the question as to his taint of the 1917 war declaration), w;or moods. Wilson would sometimes Negro blood ... is altogether an mobilization policie>, civil liberties use Lawrence as a channel for imbecile .... He is filthy. He is in wartime, and the postwar peace leaking "tips" to the press, but at obscene .... lie is an animal." 'ettlcment, especially the controversy other time> Wilson would turn It was ofcourse a different story over the ratification of the Ver>ailles on Lawrence as he did in 1917 with Republican newspaper editors. Treaty. Though newspapel"i were when he scolded Lawrence and But even though these editors shared still openly political in their editorial other journalists for inquiring too most of Lincoln's objectives, they policies, the partisan viewpoints of closely into the dea);ngs of Wilson's sometimes criticized administration their editorials were less formulaic confidential adviser, Colonel Edward policy, both in mi litary and non­ than was the case in Lincoln's time, House. Wilson told Lawrence that military matters. Some of these since both of the major parties in "you newspapermen can have no editors were political forces in their the 1910s were internally divided conception ofwhat fire you are own right. Joseph ~led ill of the between ideological faction': playing with .... It is perfectly Chirago Trihunt advised Lincoln in progressives \'ersus conservatives, evident to C\'cryone that what the couT>e of the Lincoln-Douglas interventionists versus non... Colonel I louse is attempting to debates and helped to deliver the interventionists. \Vii 'iOn at his best do neither brings peace nearer nor Republican nomination to Lincoln tried to cultivate the press-he sets it further off, and that it is my in 1860. l lonace Greeley of the instituted regular press conferences stern and serious judgment that the New York Tribune was a power to in his first term-hut over time whole matter ought to be let alone." be reckoned with in Republican he became more reclusive in his A not her newspaperman who politics and policy-making, and he methods. His private secretary, was influential with Wilson was was a mercurial thinker. In 1862, Joseph Tumulry, often took the Frank Cobb, who succeeded Joseph he urged Lincoln to act boldly initiative in trying to shape public Pulitzer as editor of the New York on emancipation. In 1864, he opinion. Tumulty could sometimes World. Cobb was an idealistic urged Lincoln to consider peace influence \Vilson to cultivate liberal to whom \Vilson sometimes negotiations with the Confederates. public opinion more vigorously. confided his hopes and fears. Greeley had to be handled with After the war declaration, \Vilson In Wibon's time, the editors of kid gloves, and Lincoln recurrently established the Committee on magazine;, both political journ;ols dealt with him either through Public Information, or CPI, under and mass-circulation mag;ozincs, public actions or behind-the-scenes the leadership ofjournalist George could he as in flucntial as newspaper machinations. l lenry Raymond, Creel, to coordinate press relations, editors, and sometimes more so. who edited the Ntw York Times, institute a measure of censorship, Walter Lippmann and Herbert Croly was alo;o the chairman of the and generate war propaganda. of the New Rtpublic commanded Republican Xational Committee, David Lawrence, a former student \Vilson's rc;pect, even when they and he, like Greeley, was a force of Wilson's, \YaS \Vashington criticized his policies. During

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NUMBER 1905 • u.~ the war Lippmann criticized the Ntw York Daily Nro;s--asked ==0 t he a d mm•strauons . . . • crac kd·- own to cnli&t for military service after __.. on dis>ent, but he 'erved the Pearl IIJrbor, FDR berated him administration as an adviser to in the Oval Office. In 1942, when Secreta') of War Newton Baker the Htrald-Tribunt, the Chicago and also as a member of"The Tribunt, and the Daily NtwS jointly lnquiry"-a -.elect group of advisers revealed that rhe United States had I on issues of American war aims btoken the japanese naval code, and postwar principles. Lippmann FDR ordered his attorney-general worked for W ilson in Paris during Francis Biddle to convene a grand the peace conference. Another jury to consider whether the editors journalist who was inAuential with had violated the Espionage Act of Wilson was Ray Stannard Baker, 1917. But the charges were later who accompanied W ilson to Paris to dropped. In 1943, FDR directed help coordinate press coverage. Baker the War Dcp:mment to bar editors later wrote a biography of Wilson. from tmvelling to combat zones. In FDR's time, both parties The newspaper tit:m William continued to have significant Randolph llearst was also a fierce divisions in regard to matte~ of isolationht, a fact rhar was ironic in policy and ideology. By the late light of his earlier role in fomenting 1930s, this w:~s particularly true the Spanhh-American War. Bur r,,.. &.z!Nif #II JVtwr,Jv N.xvl Air Stlllif/11 in regard to foreign policy and Hearst's mercurial personality led to dmw.tU tlv .(T•I'U'J ofthnrfti/(I(.L SJihn 6/JM the threat ofw ar. Consequently, ever-shifting political and ideological 111 p,.,r/ H11rW,/R(("l/vr 7. 1941 newspaper coverage and newspaper positions. Like the i\ lcCormicks and LC-USZ61·10.1790 editorials would vary accordingly. Pattersons, he too was accused of &11om: U'Troifl,_(t (JfUSSAr;:oml, Prar/1/ar/Jrir, 1/awu.I:Httmhr 7,1941 Like W ilson, FDR had numerous being pro-Axis, or at least pro-Nazi. LC-USZb1-/11Q48 press conferences, and he tried One of FOR's major journalistic to cultivate the press as much supporters on the issues of foreign as possible. I lis e:1rly success policy and war was the Republ ican Go-Round" column ro accuse in charming the Washington W il liam Allen W hite, who the Roosevelt administration of press corps gave way to a more owned and edited the Emporia dragging its heels in opening up a confrontational situation with (Kansas) Gaulle. A prominent western front in Europe. He alleged journalistic critics in the years Republican progressive who had that FDR wanted to see "Russia leading up to World War II. One supported ~nd befriended Theodore bled white." FDR retaliated by of Roosevelt's harshest critics was Roosevelt, White helped to found calling Pearson "a chronic liar," Robert Rutherford "Colonel" the interventionist Committee and Pea=n got even by breaking ~ l cCormick, the editor of the to Defend America by Aiding the story about the 1943 "slapping" Chimgo Tribunt. An even more the Allies in I940. A liberty ship incident involving General George virulent editorial enemy was during World War II was named Patton. When Pearson accused Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson, who in his honor. Another Republican General Douglas i\lacArthur of was the owner, publisher, and interventionist was llenry improper behavior, MacArthur sued editor of the Washington Herald­ Luce, the owner and publisher Pearson for def.1mation but dropped Tribune. Adamantly isolationist, of Time :mel Lift ma!r-lzines. the suit after Pearson threatened Republican, and possibly pro-Axis, Syndicated columnist Walter to rebtse some love letters that Cissy Patterson attacked FDR W inchell was close to FDR on MacArthur deemed embarrassing. and American interventionists almost all issues: pro-New Deal, (P.Jrt Tu:o ofProftsJllr Strintr's lnttrctino tt:i/1 savagely. The .McCormicks and anti-Nazi, and anti-isolationist. ap~ar In tlv '"''""'' Huu of Lmcoln iAn.) the Patter-on> were inter-related: W inchell steadily attacked Colonel ~lcCormick, who was both Nazism and American ABOUT THE AUTHOR joseph~ ledill's grandson, was Cissy isolationism, alleging that many Pane=n's cousin. Feelings between leading isolationim were Richard Striner FDR and the ;\lcCormick-Patterson anti-Semitic llitler worshippers. Roc:hlrd Svone< teaches u Washongton College. He is author clan became so strained that when Another syndicated columnist, ol!mcoln ond Rtxe. I.Jncoln's Way: How Cissy's more moderate brother Drew Pearson, was sympathetic Srx Grea1 Pres>d

• SPRING 1014 Lincoln and the West McMurtry Lecture at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, on September /0, 2013. • • • James M . M cPherson

On the afternoon ofApril new transcontinental 14, 1865, President Abraham railroad when it was Lincoln and his wife Mary took a completed. Lincoln had carriage ride through the streets signed the bill for federal of Washington. These rides were land grants and loans one of the president's few forms of to build that railroad, relaxation during the Civil War. For which was already under many months he had been losing construction in 1865. weight; the circles around his eyes California and the West had been growing darker; and the were on Lincoln's mind signs ofexhaustion were growing that day. In the morning stronger. lhe crushing pressures of he had met with Speaker war had visibly aged his appearance of the House Schuyler well beyond his fifty-six years. Colfax, who was about Friends noted that he rarely told to depart for the West his trademark humorous stories coast. Lincoln said that he any more. But during this carriage wished he could go too, R4t1d rhrqugh tiN mqtmtaim ofUtah, ctU by J/x buildtn ride, Mary Lincoln was pleasantly and then launched into a oj'Jix TranJ

• SPRING 2014 1840s, induding those acquired Jeffer'On Davis of :'\1ississippi from ;\texico, were un>uitable for denounced the author> of California's slavery. Thus there was no need to free·state constitution as "a few provoke the South by antislavery adventurers uniting with a herd legislation. An exasperated Southern as various in color and neo~rly as congres;man complained in 1850 ignorum of our government as that the controversy over slavery in Jacob's cattle." Although Davis the territories was a quarrel over "an had never been to California, he imaginary negro in an impossible insisted that "the European race> place." Senator John). Crittenden now engaged in •vorking the mines of Kentucky declared that "the of California sink under the burning right to carry slaves to New Mexico heat and sudden changes of the or California is no great matter, climate, to which the Afric:m race whether granted or denied, the are altogether better adapted." (lie more especially when it seems to be seems to have confused California's agreed that no sensible man would climate with i\lississippi·s.) carry his slaves there if he could." Despite its constitution, California B.Jr roo..r llf lhi w:inn In Daniel Webster's famous, or was a sort of sla••e state for a few l.C·D/C-Pf""'"-32179 infamous, Seventh of;\ larch speech years. In 1852 the legislature enacted supporting the Compromise of a law that permitted slaveholders 1850, he insisted that nature would to "sojourn" in the state indefinitely serried by the Missouri Compromise exclude slavery from the Mexican with their human property. The law in 1820, which had divided these cession, so why insult Southern was rwice renewed before expiring territories at the latitude of 36• honor by passing the \ Vii mot in 1855, and during those years there 30'. In a way, California also Provi"<> to exdude it. "I would not were scores ofslaves in California. prompted an eruption ofa new take pains uselessly to reaffirm i\ leanwhile, both ;-.lew i\ texico and controversy about the territories an act of nature," said Webster, Utah territories lcgali7.ed slavery, because it w·as the proposal for a "nor to reenact the will of Cod." though few slaves were ever taken tr.tnscontincntal railroad that put Bur would nature keep slavery there and none were counted in in motion the events that led to out of New Mexico or California? New i\ texico in the 1860 census. the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Many prosla•·ery Southerners However, the prospect of a real slave Before the route of the railroad insisted otherwise. Slave labor had state in the lands acquired from could be survered, the territories proven successful in mining and i\ texico was not entirely dead. The through which it would run must be other industries in the South :md pro-slavery wing of the California organized. Slavery had been banned in l.atin America. The Chnrltslon Democrutic Parry proposed to by the Missouri Compromise in Mumry, one of the South's leading divide the state in rwo, with slavery what would become Kansas and newspapers, prodaimed that "there legalized in the southern part, where Nebraska territories. Southern is no vocation in the world in sl3\•es might grow cotton, rice, senators held their organization which slavery can be more useful and sugar. In 1859 the legislature hostage to a demand for the repeal and profitable, than in mining." passed a bill splitting off southern of the ban on slavery therein. The Southtm Quarterly maintained Californi.t at approximately the Senator Stephen A. Douglas, that "California is by nature latitude of San Luis Obispo, subject chairman of the Senate Committee peculiarly a slaveholding State." to approval by a two-thirds majority on Territories, caved in to this i\ It hough several Southerners in the affected counties. lhey did demand. Douglas's bill, which migrated to California with their approve, but when the application narrowly passed Congress, sla••e> in the 1849 gold rush, and reached Congress at the end of 1859 repealed that part of the :'\lhsouri put them to work in the mine>, it died a quiet death in the I louse, Compromise and organi7.ed the the majority of Forry-Niners where Republicans were now the territories on the basis ofwhat he disagreed that California should be largest p:trty. F'or better or worse, called "popular sovereignty"­ a slaveholding state. 1l1ey adopted California remained one state. allowing the residents of a territory a constitution that banned sl:tvery Long before these antics came to choose whether or not to legalize and then applied for admission to to an end, the dispute over the slavery. "lhe question of when they statehood. In the congressional expansion of slavery shifted to the could make this choice, during debate on the Compromi

HUHBER 1905 • u..J passage of the Kansas-Nebraska lay north of the latitude established economic growth. Before 1861, ...:: 0 Act set off a shooting war between by the Missouri Compromise. The sectional conflicts over the route __. proslavery and antislavery settlers only thing that had kept slavery such a railroad should rake, plus the in Kansas that became a violent out of ltlinois, which was directly violence in Kansas that spilled over extension of the sectional conflict across the Mississippi River from into national politics, prevented the between North and South. It Missomi, was the legislate ban in launching of this project. Lincoln did more than anything else to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. had his own ideas as to the location I bring on disunion and civil war And similar legislation was the of the eastern terminus of such a seven years later. It also propelled only thing that would keep it our railroad. In 1859 he visited Council Abraham Lincoln back into the of Kansas and orher territories. Bluffs, Iowa, across tl1e Missouri maelstrom of antislavery politics. On this platform Lincoln was River from what became the ciry Lincoln had left political life elected president in 1860. Once of Omaha, Nebraska, to inspect after he finished his single term in the war broke our, the issue was some land he held as collateral for Congress in 1849. He had hoped no longer the expansion of slavery a loan to a friend. While there for appointment as Commissioner but the preservation of the Union he met a young civil engineer of the General Land Office by and, by the latter half of the war, named Grenville Dodge, who the incoming the abolition of slavery everywhere. was building a railroad in Iowa administration in that year, but rhe Specifically Wesrern issues became and answered Lincoln's questions job went to another man. Taylor did subsumed in the larger question about the viabiliry of a potential offer Lincoln the governorship of of national su rvival. But these route wesr from Council Bluffs. Oregon Territory. He was tempted Western issues did nor disappear. Three years later Lincoln signed to accept, but Mary Lincoln said that One of them that remained very the Pacific Railroad Act that she would nor go, so her husband much alive even in wartime was provided generous land grants and turned it down and returned to the transcontinental railroad. As government loans to companies Springfield co build an increasingly a Whig and a devotee of Henry that undertook ro build east successful law practice. '£he Kansas­ Clay in the 1830s and 1840s, from Sacramento and west from Nebraska Act fell like a thunderclap Lincoln had been a strong advocate somewhere in Iowa or Missouri. on Lincoln, and, as he later said, of Clay's American System to 1l1e law authorized the president "aroused me as I had never been promote economic development to specify the gauge and select before." He plunged back into by means of banks, a protective the railroad's eastern terminus. In politics and during the next six tariff, and government support 1863 Lincoln summoned Dodge ro years delivered as estimated 175 for what were rhen called internal Washington for consultation. By this speeches with a "central message" improvements and which today we time the former railroad builder had of the necessity ro exclude slavery call infrastructure: roads, canals risen tO the rank of brigadier general from the territories as a first step railroads, improvements of river commanding a division in Grant's toward placing it on the course to navigation, and the like. Having Army of the Tennessee, where ultimate extinction, as he put it in grown up on hard-scrabble frontier he proved himself a good combat his House Divided speech in 1858. subsistence farms, Lincoln disliked commander, as well as an engineer In 1854 Lincoln stumped for the f•rm work his father required officer in charge of constructing the "anti-Nebraska" candidates of him and fled from it as soon as and repairing military railroads. and subsequently helped organize he could. In politics his advocacy After talking with D odge, Lincoln the Republican Party in Illinois. ofgovernment support for internal fixed the eastern terminus of the He challenged Stephen Douglas's improvements was motivated in part Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha. argument that popular sovereignty by his desire to bring subsistence After the war, Dodge became chief would keep slavery out of Kansas farmers into the market economy. In engineer of the Union Pacific as Territory as effectively and less the Illinois legislature he continued it crept across the plains to meet provocatively than legislative tO champion such subsidies, even the Central Pacific Rai lroad that exclusion because the cl imate of as the state was going bankrupt was pushing eastward across the Kansas would prevent the institution following the Panic of 1837. cowering Sierra Nevada Mountains from raking root there. This was a Thus it was natural for Lincoln to and forbidding Nevada desert. "lullaby argument," said Lincoln. The support the idea of a railroad from 'There was not a specific standard temperature, soil, and rainfall in the the Old Northwest to California, railroad gauge at that time. Most eastern part of Kansas were similar nor only to bind the Pacific Coast railroads used the gauge of four to the same conditions in Missouri. to the rest of the Union bur also to feer-8.5 inches that would soon In fact, Lincoln pointed our, five develop the vast resources of the become the standard gauge, but slave states, like Kansas, actually region for the benefit of American others had different gauges. The

• IPRJNG 2014 later, as the Civil War East, where Robert E. Lee's Army ~ neared its end, Lincoln of Northern Virginia drove George overruled Secretary B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac - of War Edwin M. away from Richmond and then Stanton's refusal to launched a counter-offensive that authorize the Central invaded Maryland in September 5 Pacific's purchase 1862. In East Tennessee the ~ of 5,000 kegs of Confederates also regrouped and gunpowder for blasting invaded Kentucky and rhreatened a grade through the Louisville and even Cincinnati. mount-ains and signed These Confederate successes forced the perm it himself. Lincoln to devore his attention Ofcourse, it would almost entirely to those theaters, be a great exaggeration while the effort to capture Vicksburg to say that Lincoln and open the entire Mississippi River played a dominant languished. When a judge in St. role in the building of Louis accused Lincoln of neglecting the transcontinental the Mississippi Valley, he responded railroad. Many that he was strongly committed to people had a hand opening the river, but he had to in that remarkable focus on the threatS tO Kenrucky as T•p: Bu111 Cily/LC-DTG-ppmua-2JI).I4 achievement. Bur as well as to Maryland. "The country Bollom: Golil minnl, El Doratlo. CA!ifomia/LC-DIG-tls-()./487 commander in chief will not allow us to send our whole of rhe Western force down the Mississippi," and navy, Lincoln Lincoln told him, "while the enemy Californians favored a five foot gauge certainly had a dominant role in sacks Louisville and Cincinnati." for the transcontinenta.l project. If Union victory. And wirhout that In the f.1ll of 1862 the pressure adopted, this might have become victory, would railroad have been to capture Vicksburg, plus the the national standard. A delegation built when and where it was .. . and growing strength of the anti-war of Californians descended on the completed by 1869? Not Hkely. Copperhead Democrats in the Old White House on January 20, 1863, [n any event, Lincoln's actions as Northwest prompted Lincoln to to persuade Lincoln to choose the commander in chief had another embark on a military strategy he five-foot gauge. 'The president was bearing on the theme of Lincoln and later regretted. The central figure non-committal, bur the next day he the West, in this case the Western in this strategy was Major-General did announce in fi•vor of the five· theater of the war, defined as the John A. McCiernand, an IIHnois foot gauge. This decision did not Mississippi Valley. lhe war had gone Democrat whom Lincoln had stand long, however. Pressured by well for the Union in this theater and known since they served together Eastern railroad interests, Congress adjacent regions drained by the great in the Illinois legislature in the in March 1863 overruled Lincoln river's tributaries in the first halfof 1830s. As part of his endeavor to and enacted the four feet-8.5 inch 1862. Northern army and navy task enlist prominent Democrats for gauge for the transcontinental, forces had captured Nashville, New the war effort in 1861, Lincoln and the president acquiesced. Orleans, Memphis, and Corinth, and had commissioned McClernand a However, Lincoln did manage had gained control of vast stretches brigadier general and was gratified to help the Californians on two of Confederate territory plus the by rhe general's success in mobilizing other important matters. In 1863 entire Mississippi River, except for his constituency for the Union cause. he designated the relatively Aat the portion between Vicksburg and McClernand demonstrated some land just east of Sacramento as the Port Hudson, Louisiana. 'These aptitude as a military commander, western base of rhe Sierra 1 evadas successes had important effects on but his superior, General Grant, so the railroad could obtain the the progress of emancipation because did nor share McClernand's high larger government loan for building many thousands ofslaves in this opinion of himself. McClernand through mountainous terrain. region came under Union control chafed under Grant's authority and As the Central Pacific lobbyist and thereby took the first steps sought an independent command. joked about this twenty-one mile toward freedom in greater numbers He persuaded eight governors redefinition of the Sierras: "You than in any other theater of the war. to petition Lincoln to give him see my pertinacity and Abraham's At the same time, however, the command "either of a Department faith moved mountains." Two years war had not gone so weU in the or army, in some active field of NUMBER 1905 • 1...1..1 opera6ons, particularly in the Confederates. The drain on the ~ Mississippi Valley." McClernand Union treasury to finance the war ....J went to Washington in September compounded the usual corruption of 1862 and personally lobbied the Indian agents and delayed annuity president to put him in charge payments to the Dakotas who had of the new three-year regiments sold most of their land in Minnesota being raised in the states of the Old Lilllt Crfi'W. to the government. Many Indians Northwest for a campaign down the Siouxch;rj fuced starvation. Some of them 1 and ltadtrof Mississippi to capture Vicksburg. Indian i\1aS1(1(1'( began to speak openly of reclaiming McClernand advanced political as of/862 in ancestral hunting grounds. On welJ as military arguments tO support MimttSOtn August 17, 1862, several Dakotas this request. Copperheads were LC-USZ61-83 looking for food killed five white talking of forming an independent settlers. This event blew the lid "Nonhwest Confederacy" composed Halleck and calling on the president off a tense situation. Angry young of these states to make a separate to restore his independent command. Indians, anticipating a white peace with the Confederacy in order Lincoln refused. At this time he backlash, persuaded Chief Little to open the Mississippi River to was also bedeviled by infighting Crow to lead a preemptive strike in shipment of their f.um products. among generals in the Army of south-central Minnesota in which This conspiracy might muster the Potomac following that army's the Indians killed perhaps as many powerful support, McCicrnand disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg. as five hundred white settlers. warned Lincoln, unless Union He was in no mood to countenance I lastily mobilized militia and military forces opened the river. McCiernand's efforts to promote Union army troops, who were rushed How seriously Lincoln took this similar conflict within the Army to the state, managed eventually supposed plot for a Northwest of the Tennessee. lie wrote to suppress the uprising. The top­ Confederacy is not clear. But McCiernand a stern letter advising ranking military officer in Minnesota significant Democratic gains in the him for his own good to bow to was General John Pope, sent there congressional elections of 1862 were the inevitable and become a loyal after his defeat in the second battle a danger signal. Lincoln decided to subordinate to Grant. "I have roo of Bull Run. White Minnesotans give McCiernand his independent many~ controversies (so to demanded revenge, and Pope was command and ordered him to speak), already on my hands," eager to gratify them. A military organize the new regiments from Lincoln wrote, "to voluntarily take court tried rhc captured warriors and several states "to clear the Mississippi up another. You are now doing well­ sentenced 303 of them to death by River and open navigation to New -well for the country, and well for hanging. When news of these trials Orleans." 'fhc president added yourself--much better than you could reached Lincoln, he was appalled. that "J feel deep interest in the possibly be, if engaged in open war He ordered Pope to carry out no success of this expedition , and with General Halleck. Allow me to executions without presidential desire it to be pushed forward beg, that for your sake, for my sake, approval and rold him to send the with all possible despatch." & for the country's sake, you give trial transcripts to Washington. Grant heard rumors about your whole attemion to the better Lincoln's personal history might McCiernand's command and sought work." McCiernand submitted with have predisposed him toward harsh clarification of his own authority ill grace and took part in Grant's retaliation against the Indians. from General-in-Chief Henry W. Vicksburg campaign as commander His own grandfather, also named Halleck. Whether Halleck consulted ofthe n•• Corps. But he was not Abraham Lincoln, had been killed Lincoln on this matter is unclear. around for the capture of Vicksburg by Indians in Kemucky. Young Tn any event, he telegraphed Gr•nt in July 1863, fo r he had sniped at Abraham doubtless heard this srory that he had command of all troops Grant one time too many, and that many times from his father Thomas, sent to his Department, including general finally removed McCiernand. who had witnessed the murder as those that McCiernand expected Lincoln supported Grant's action. a six-year old boy. In 1832 Lincoln to form his independent army. ln At the same time that Lincoln was had enlisted in the lllinois militia January 1863 Grant issued an order dealing with internecine conflicts to fight the Sac and Fox Indians constituting those troops as the 13'" within his two principal armies, he who were trying to regain their Army Corps with McCiernand as faced anorher rhorny problem in the ancestral homeland under Chief their commander. Finding himself at Old Northwest, the f.11lout from Black Hawk. Elected captain of the head of a mere corps instead of the uprising of Dakota Indians in his company, Lincoln might have an army, McCJernand fired off bitter Minnesota. Most soldiers had been expected to share their murderous letters of protest to Lincoln damning withdrawn from the state to fight hostility toward Indians. Lincoln's

• SPRING 2014 company saw no combat in the Black explained to the Senate, which had 1864, the president proudly noted Hawk War. But they did see the called on him for an explanation, the continued growth even in mutilated bodies of white women he was careful to approve capital wartime of the white population and children as they marched sentences for only those "who were and of resources extracted in the along. One day an old I ndian man, proved to have participated in far Western states and territories, I unarmed and harmless, wandered massacres, as distinguished from and the progress in surveying into their camp. The men wanted participation in battles." So in the and grading the transcontinental to kill him, but Lincoln ordered bleak month of December 1862, railroad. It goes without saying them to let the Indian go. They the month of humiliating Union that these proceedjngs ultimately accused theit captain of cowardice. military defeats at Fredericksburg doomed the independence of Lincoln defied them with the and Chickasaw Bayou, the month Indian nations in that vast region. words: "If any man thinks I am a in which Republican senators tried Lincoln recognized that the coward, let him test it." The men to force Lincoln to reorganize his corrupt alliance between Indian backed down and let the Indian go. cabinet, the president commuted the agents and traders to exploit Native The leading historian of Lincoln sentences of 265 of the 303 Indians Americans for their own enrichment and the Indians, author ofa book from hanging to imprisonment. lay at the root of much of the with that title, is somewhat critical Lincoln paid a political price for injustice that provoked conflict and of the administration's overall Indian this act. Perhaps the smallest part violence between Indians and whites. policy. But he does acknowledge of that price was a reduced majority l nfluenced by Episcopal Bishop that "Lincoln was clearly more in Minnesota when he ran for re­ Henry Whipple of Minnesota, a humanitarian toward Indians election in 1864. One ofMinnesota's prominent champion of Indian than most of the main military senators told him, halfjokingly, rights, Lincoln advocated "reform" of and political figures of his time." that "if he had hung more Indians, the system oflndian agencies in each Having famously insisted in his we should have given him his old of his annual messages to Congress. debates with Stephen Douglas that majority." Lincoln did not find this What he meant by reform remained blacks were included in the category remark amusing. "I could not afford vague, however, and little came of "all men" that the Declaration to hang men for votes," he repHed. these recommendations during the of Independence claimed were Lest we praise Lincoln too much Civil War. Whipple later wrote that "created equal," Lincoln believed for his courage and commitment in 1862 Lincoln had promised him that Indians were included as well. to justice in this aff.1it, we might that "if we get through this war, and In 1862 Lincoln could have note that he bowed to the demand J live, this Indian system shall be allowed the execution of the 303 of Minnesotans that the Dakota reformed." Lincoln got through the Dakotas to go forward. He came Indians-and for good measure war. But just as he did not live to under enormous pressure from the Winncbagoes, who had not travel to California on the railroad governors, senators, and many participated in the uprising but he had helped bring into being, or to others in Lincoln's own region of whose land white Minnesotans carry out the reconstruction program the Old Northwest to do just that. coveted-be removed to Dakora he promised soon to announce General Pope repeatedly warned territory. The 265lndians, whose after what turned out to be his last the president that if he intervened, sentences Lincoln commuted, speech on April 11, 1865, neither lynch mobs in Minnesota would remained for almost four years in did he live to fulfill his promise to take the law into their own hands prison, where several of them died, Bishop Whipple. The American and kill many other Indians in until President Andrew Johnson \.Yest and the South were deprived addition to the condemned 303. pardoned them in 1866. The of Lincoln's leadership in rhe But as he had done thirty years president had nothing to do with the postwar years. Truly John Wilkes earlier in his miUtia company, notorious Sand Creek massacre of Booth had much to answer for. Lincoln stood against thjs pressure. Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians by 'vVith the help of two lawyers in Colorado mi litia in November 1864, the Interior Department, he went but that did happen on his watch. ABOUT THE AUTHOR carefully over the trial transcripts. And Lincoln remained a strong They discovered that much of the proponent of the westward evidence was hearsay and some of expansion of white settlers whose james McPherson it was non-existent. Only thirty· farms, ranches, mines, and railroads James McPherson of Princeton eight of the 303 had unquestionably continued to make the story of the University won the Pulitzer Prize for been guilty of murder or rape. Most American West a story of westward Sortie Cry o( Freedom. Other books include.: War on lhe Water. Trkd by War: of the rest had undoubtedly gone contraction for Indians. In his annual Abraham Uncoln as Commander on the warpath. But as Lincoln message to Congress in December m Chief; and Th~ Mighty Scovrge. NUMBER 1905 • ~ Abraham Lincoln's Religion I •.. s, M'm" A M onr much desire to see as Jerusalem." (xvu) Seeking to verify that these were indeed Mrs. Lincoln's words, he cites Don E. and Virginia Fehrenbacher's Ruollttted Words of Abraham Lintoln, which calls this a "quotation about who:>e authority there is more than average doubt." The Fehrenbachers also remark, "One may doubt that Lincoln would have expressed such reverent aspirations ft-lary L~tuoln was o mtmlkr ofFml Pushyt~rian Chr11'fb in Sprmg!i~ld u.'hm /Nr huth.uulboughtthis JWWfor hitfilmilyi ldt, while watching prolta/Jly ;, 1852,111 "" rstimllfrJ toll ofaround ISO. 1/x ptw tit.lt num/>c' 20on tht ltflsi4/t, Yf.lfntb IYI'Wfrom thtjio11t. Mrs. the comedy, 'Our l.mtoln was 4 memkr oft/)( thurth, hut A1r. LintOin Wl'l' not, altMugh & alltntltd tJ.•irh miJOtlah!tfrttpun?. In 1871 Jh( th11rrh American Cousin'." mrxtfdfNJm its original /()(IIfton to onr on &vmth Strut, 1111J tlv fl'W wm lnf'.Jf.Ydfrom 1/vJormtr sanrtury in 19 I1 . PlauJ in tlx lflf'tAa,fomrgtlx sir«<, it u • lrJ~trutllltr.utio'l. Photo l1y l»t14 Bhn.thttu. The Fehrenbachers anribute this quotation to Reading Lincoln'! Balli• with David Davis, a long-time Noyes ~liner, a Baptist minister in God: /I Presidmt's Struggl• with friend and political supporter, Springfield and former neighbor of Faith and What It Meant for suggests why this is so: the l.incolns in Springfield, about Amtri(a, by Stephen Mansfield " I don't Know anything about whom they say that "the religiosity" Clnomas Nelson, 201 2; 242 pages), Lincoln's Ret;gion --don't think in some of his recollections "may a treatise on a familiar subject, anybody Knew. The idea that reAect (his] capacity for invention 1 prompted me to re-read ~lichael Lincoln talked to a stranger about .•• ." When i\liner spoke with Burkhimer's Lin(oln's Christianity his religion or religious views-or ~I rs. Lincoln in 1882, her health­ (Westholme, 2007; 203 pages). made such speeches, remarks &c ment;tl and physical--was precarious, Together, these books led me about it as published is :tbsurd to me. as it had been for yc

NUHBER 1905 • ...... ,. marry. Reading and writing poetry of 100 Essmtial Lin«Jin Books.9 as God's 'almost chosen people' ~ gave expression to his woes. His called to world responsibility."" --' religious views, "though somewhat There is abundant evidence that In Lincoln the President: Last muddled seemed stable:" He was the issues addressed in these books Full Measure (1955),J. G. Randall neither an atheist nor a Christian in are oflong-standing interest.10 and Richard 1 • Current wrote: the classic sense of both terms. (42) In 1866 Josiah Holland published "Surely among successful American Perhaps Lincoln's views could A Lifo ofAbraham Lituoln, an politicians, Lincoln is unique in I be clarified through interactions admiring work with a number of the way he breathed the spirit with Reverend James Smith. He sections on Lincoln's religious beliefs. of Christ while disregarding the first encountered Smith's books in Early in the book we read: "He letter of Christian doctrine. . . . his f.1ther-in-law's library and later recognized an immediate relation Whatever the source of Lincoln's debated key poinrs with him. Smith between God and himself, in all religious feeling, it became a became close to both Abraham and the actions and passions of his life. vibrant force in his thought Mary Lincoln when he conducted He was not professedly a Christian and action as President."'' the funeral of their young son Eddie that is, he subscribed to no creed, VVayne C. Temple, a student in 1850. Two years later Mary joined joined no organization of Christian of Randall decades ago, traces Smith's Presbyterian church, and her disciples." And near the end: "He Lincoln's connections with religion husband sometimes accompanied always remained shy in the exposure in irs many forms- from his her to worship there. Yet, Smith of his religious experiences, but those ancestry in England, through his and others could not convert around him caught golden glimpses boyhood and 1 ew Salem years, Lincoln to orthodox Christianity. of a beautiful Christian character."" continuing through his years as a In the next chapter Burkhimer William E. Barton, in ?he Soul of lawyer, politician and president. explores the influence of"early Abraham Li11co!tz (1920), traces the As to Lincoln's beliefs, Temple Christian sources on Lincoln's treatment of religion in biographies concludes in Abraham Lincoln: From rhetoric," mainly the New of Lincoln. He credits Holland's Skeptic to Prophet, that "Abraham Testament. He devotes too much as the best in telling the story of Lincoln was indeed a most religious of it to something called the "

• SPRING 2014 will or with Christian holiness set Lurheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, of C:arwudine's c:arccr and :awurd him apart from it." Mainstream for example--being a Christian in winning publications, he would h.avc looked for a different cx.tmplt. preachers in many denominations a meaningful sense involves, along pressed him insistently but without with com mitmcnts to the teachings 7 The li$1 includes 7lJ< Faith of8a1'11tA 06ama, 7lJ< Faith Dj'Gto'X' IV Bu1h, 1bt success to abandon that hesitancy. of the Bible and prayer, profession Failh ofllmtrit~n S.lrlim. and 1lJ< Faoth Yet, one of them, a Lincoln admirer, of rhe Apostles and Nicene Creeds, ofSaro!J Palin (coauthored); also books remarked, "if Mr. Lincoln was not beliefin the Trinity, and the central on Booker T. Washington, Georg< a Christian he w·.1s acting like one; place in their lives of Baptism and Wsshington, Pope Bcncdkt XVI, ~lormons, Winston Churchill. and P.aul 1-bnocy 'The author, a professor at Oxford lloly Communion. In that sense, (coauthon:d), aod Opm Winfn:y. University, notes that Lincoln spoke Lincoln was nor a Christian. 8 The index citsngcs, 46 of them in the significant, as he was anempting right: "i\lr. Lincoln had no hope Gospels of,\ buhs, 2003), Church; but still, as I believe, he was cites .about the same number. a do:tm of pronoun-"responsibility to my them from the Old Testament. 129-130. God; "promise to my maker"-in a religious man by narure. He first 9 (Yardl<>·, Pk Cumberland Hou>e, 2003). ways that suggested a beliefin a seemed to think about the subject AU the: ~ks idrn1i6cd 1-1 ei!Cnlial arc more personal God." As is true of when our boy Willie died, and then accomp:anicd by rcvKw$ of about 700 wonts. both of White's books, this is a rich, more than e\·er about the rime he 10 for a good summary of"'Lincoln ;and readable, well-balanced resource went to Gettysburg; but it was a Religion among Historians," sec Lucas E. for anyone yearning to understand kind of poetry in his nature, and he Morel, Untolni Sarwrl Effort (l..anh•m. Lincoln's purpose and power.13 was never a technical Christian."" MD: l..cxiogton Books, 2000), 13·21. AUen Guelzo's Abrnhmn Linroln: II (Springfield. MA: Gordon Bull)), 61. -'69.1 his boolr-. rna) be accc~!s<, 2005), 165. the grace to do the loving."" and "an11ng to go to Jeru~lem. h does. 1hoogh. include 1hi'\ line: "ber) "on!. then 18 {New York: Alfred A. In a C-Span interview on April Knopf. 2006), 227·228. uuered. i~ decpl) cngr.l\cn upon m) poor 16, 2000, Guclzo remarked that brot..c.:n heart .. Ju~m G. Turner and Linda 19 (Gnnc! R•pids. Mkhigo.n: many Christian believers were I <>on I umcr. liar) Todd L.mcoln: Her uf< William B. Eerdm>ns, 1999), 446. disappointed that in hi> book he and t..uu> (~<" Vorl.: Alfn:d A. Knopf. 1972), 285 I here i< no mcnt1011 of these 20 Bri2n Lamb and Susan Swai.n. Abrr~htl"' did not call Lincoln a Christian. Li""ln: GrLill Anurian HUrorUuu t;rr Clir uonh 10 A. Lutcoln: Jlu Last14 Hours. b) "\VeU the truth of the marter is that SixtmubPrairlml(Publk Alf.,n, 2008),189. \\ ,....tncl"'iiO'l Red. (Columbia: t· ni' rrSit} of he was not. .. in fa.ct, he really had !>outh Can>hna l're<.<. 1987). and Th< Da)· 21 Doughs 1... Wil'iOfland Rodnc:) 0. only the most minimal religious uncoln lliu Shot. b) Jim Bishop (X<" [)a,·is, eds.. H""doni Lonsor o( history Ronald C. White, Jr., Richard emeritus at Drake Un•veniry. hves •n Are there any convincing Carwardinc, and Allen C. Gudzo. conclusions to be drawn about Monticello. Illinois. He is the author of Dolly l.J(e "' lhe Unoted Stoles, Lincoln's Christianity? To S 1he F"c:hrcnbachtN c:all this :another .. qunt.ation :about whose ~authority there: 1960-1990: Decodes o( DIScord and members of many denominations­ is more than average dovbt."' 374. Commumues o( Fronk Lloyd Wrogh~ Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Toloeson ond 8e)'Ond. 6 li•d he grasped the subsmncc HUMBER 1905 • ~An Interview with Frank Williams 1:~0~arding 1864 SG: What was the mood of tht nation as 1864 began' FW: Weary of war but the troops - :-.Jonh and South- remained committed. lhe , orth hoped for victory with peace when President Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as general in chiefat the beginning of 1864. With General set to reach Atlanta and Grant to take Richmond and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, the country expected much. It was not to be. Despite N('UJ York Tribu11t editor Horace Greeley's prediction of the end of war by July 4, 1864, the Union armies were bogged down in front of Atlanta and Richmond. Grant's overland campaign in the spring led to 90,000 Dmd ofEwdft Curf't. Spo11Jit¥mio. MaJ I 864/ LC-DIC-ppmom-.119.14 casualties. 'lhe number between May 5 to July 4 was three-fifths of the total in the last three years. dominated the convention in in 1862. Chase's involvement with On July 12, the N('UJ York World, Baltimore when it met in June. Pomeroy's circular placed him in the a Democratic paper, called the Chase's chances had diminished role ofdouble crossing the president stalemate, "a 11ational humiliation. • gready after his involvement with the he sen"Cd. Secretary of the Navy Lincoln, usually politically astute, "Pomeroy Circular" in which radical Gideon \ Velie~ viewed Stanton called for 500,000 more volunteers Republicans criticized the president and Secretary of State W illiam I I. on July 18. 'fhose states not meeting unmercifully. Lincoln received Sew:ard conferring and enjoying their quota with volunteers would all the votes at the convention Chase's humiliation at being caught be required to draft the difference. but for 22 from Missouri. 'These doing this. In typical Lincoln style, '01e North was distressed at this. supported Montgomery Blair-the he kept Chase at Treasury, despite conservative Postmaster General their strained relationship, to avoid SG: Dtscriht tht relationship from ;\lissouri and ;\hryland - criticism that would ensue if he btt'IIH!tn Cabinet membtn anti who was despised by the radical fired him. The President would the President at the time. Republicans. Another ,\(issourian, wait for another Chase mishap FW: I think most of the president- Attorney GenerJl Edward Bates, before accepting prior proffered cabinet activity in 1864 had to wrote in his diary that the Missouri resignations from his treasury do with the national election that delegates were a II in~tructed to secretary who could not overcome November as well as internecine vote for Mr. Lincoln, •· ... but the presidcnti:tl bug. Lincoln warfare with Congress over many of them hated to do it .." would tell colleagues that he sti II respective powers of the execurivc When Senator Samuel C. admired Chase's skills as treasury and legislative branches as it played Pomeroy published his "stricdy secretary and considered him for out over Reconstruction policy. private" circular in February 1864 ChiefJustice of the United States John C. Fremont, the 1856 praising Cha over the appointment of Lincoln's reconstruction plan Republicans, forcefully explained the assistant treasurer in New even though it was undenva} in why abandonment ofslavery w:~s a York City. Lincoln then accepted Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennes•ee. precondition for peace. "i'lo human Chase's resignation. On October 12, On July 2, it passed and was sent to power can subdue this rebellion Taney died and President Lincoln the President. Lincoln believed that without using the Emancipation I appointed Chase as his successor. Congress had overstepped its bounds lever as I h;we done .. ." lle pointed Two of his rivals were Secretary of as, "Congress has no constitutional out that 100,000 black soldiers and War Edwin M. Stanton and former power over slavery in the States." sailors were fighting for the Union. Po.tmaster General ~ lontgomery Pocketing the bill after Congre>S "If they stake their lives for us they Blair who was looking for work adjourned 'vas the death knell for must be prompted by the strongest since his removal from the cabinet the legislation. While Lincoln motive -- even the promise of to end the threat of Fremont's wrote a veto message,"... being freedom. And, the promise being independent bid for the presidency. fully satisfied with the system for made, must be kept." Lincoln at Pormer Attorney General Ed,vard restoration contained in the Bill," once realized the contradiction Bates, who resigned on November he did not \vant to be "inflexibly of these comments with his "Let 24, was also interested in the post. comm irted to any single plan .. ." Jeffcr.on D-Avis try me" challenge. On July I, Lincoln nom ina ted Radicals were not appeased. Davis Lincoln never sent the letter. lie, Senator William P. Fessenden, and \Vade sought 'vays to unseat his cabinet, and almost everyone head of the Senate Committee on Lincoln as the Republican nominee else now thought he would be Finance, to be his next Secretary of for president, in part, by issuing what defeated for re-election. I le told the Treasury. Lincoln did not consult became known as the Wade-Davis a visitor, "I am going to be beaten Fessenden before the nomination Manifesto ~•lleging the President and unless some great change takes and his quick senate confirmation. had usurped Congress's prerogatives. place, b"dly bettten." On August Fessenden penned a letter of Secretary Welles recognized it for 23, he received a letter from NtW declination asking the President what it was - an effort to "pull down York TimtJ owner and national to withdraw his name. Lincoln the President." Stanton remained Republican Parry chairman, llenry refused and persuaded him to serve. on good terms with both Wade Raymond, who wrote, "lhe tide is While this was playing out, and Davis, giving the impression setting strongly against us" because a radic:1l movement by Senator that he agreed with them. While of the lack of military success and and Representative Stanton continued to support the requiring the end of slavery as a Henry Winter Davis threatened president's more generous plan of condition for peace. Lincoln then Lincoln's relationships with the recon>truction, a year after Lincoln's wrote hi• "blind memorandum" and radicals in Congress. The Wade­ assassination, Stanton made clear asked all of his cabinet members to Davis bill would have altered a that he believed Reconstruction endor;e it sight unseen by signing previous act of Congress passed belonged to Congress. the b:ock of the sealed envelope. on july 17, 1862, allowing the Peace became an overriding issue "lhis morning, as for some days president tO, "at any time by during the summer and abortive past, it seems exceedingly probable proclamation, extend pardon and peace missions and efforts caused that this Administration will not amne.ry to persons participating great consternation for Lincoln, be re-elected. Then it will be my in the rebellion ... as he may deem his cabinet and the i'!orthern and duty to so co-operate with the expedient for the public welfure." Southern public. The pressure on the President-elect, as to save the Davio, who never forgave Lincoln President to remove emancipation as Union between election and the for not giving him a cabinet post, a pre-condition for peace caused him inauguration; as he will have secured became an outspoken critic of the to draft a letter on August 17 to a his election on such ground that he President and insisted the 1862 act Wisconsin newspaper editor Stttting, can not possibly save it afterw:~rds." be revised. Lincoln, in his annual "To me, it seems plain that saying A II of the cabiner members worked me.sage to Congress on December re-union and abttndonment of slavery hard for Lincoln's re-election, 8, 1863, appended a proclamation would be considered, if offered, is including Chase who gave a number offering amnesty to almost all in not saying that nothing tlse or less of speeches in support of Lincoln the Confederacy as well us his 10 would be considered," concludit1g, "If and the :odministration -after all, an percent plan for reestablishing state Jefferson D~•vis wishes ... to know appointment as Chief justice was in governments. While not exceeding what I would do if he were to offer the offing. On • ovember II, after his presidential powers, Lincoln's peace and re-union, saying nothing his victory at the polls (2,200,000 actions, nonetheless, provoked wide about sla,·ery, let him try me." Yet, for him and 1,800,000 for George condemnation by the radicals. The Lincoln, in the same letter and in B. ~lcCiellan), Lincoln opened the Wade-Davis bill would repudiate an interview with two Wisconsin envelope and asked the cabinet if

NUHBER 1905 • I.L.I they remembered signing, without Ferdinand Maximilian as emperor To add to their misery, the river ~ knowing the content;. r.incoln there. 'lne Union was concerned that level fell. Porter a;kccl for help from --1 explained how he would approach Napoleon not attempt any incursion the army and Colonel President-elect McClellan indicating into the trans-Mississippi states. Joseph Bailey, with 3,000 s:oilors that he (McClellan) had more Admiral and soldiers, made dams below the support from the people than he. would move up the Red River as rapids at Alexandria so that Porter's So, let us try and save the country well as provide transport for Union gunboats could run the rapids. ' !his I by you raising as many troop> as you ground forces commanded by ignominiously ended the campaign. can for military victory and I will General Xathaniel P. Banks. At SC: Tbestorytifth~ 1864 actions devote all of my energies to ending the same time, General F'rederick by US Colon~/ Kit Canon and the war. Secretary Seward said, Steele's army would move southwest his tuatmmt tifth~ Navajos isn't "And the General would answer from Little Rock, Arkansas, always c~ud. Pl~as~ tommtnl. you 'Yn, Yn' & so on forever and to form a pincer movement at FW: Christopher Houston ("Kit") would have done nothing at all." Shre\·eport. Despite the combined Carson had alte2dy made a name When Bates resigned in forces of Poner and Banks, the for himself by the beginning of i'Jovember, Lincoln thought of oper:ttion turned into a fiasco. the Civil War. In 1842, Carson appointing Judge Advocate General Beginning on .\larch 12, Porter's met John C. Fremont and served Joseph Holt but llolt demurred and command moved ahead of the slower as a guide and scout for Fremont's suggested fellow Kentuckian, fifty­ army transports with 10,000 trOOps western expeditions. Fremont two year old Jam e. Speed for the under Brigadier General A. J. Smith lavished praise on the young Carson post. Speed, while superbly qualified, and mn into trouble eight miles as the archetypical American was also the brother of Lincoln's below Fon DeRussy with obstacles frontiersman. During the war with very close friend from Springfield, preventing the approach. Porter iVIexico, Carson guided General IIIinois days, Joshua Speed. was to use an alternate route to get Stephen Kearny's expedition from As 1864 closed, things looked behind the fort, and Smith would l ew Mexico Territory to California better. Sherman had c:~ptured march his men overland. On March where he helped Kearny successfully Savannah after his March to 15, the small gunboat force under prevail over a challenge to United the Sea and General George Ueutenanr Seth Ledyard Phelps States authority in the region. 1homas had virt1.tally :mnihilatcd fired :u the fort, which promptly Prior to the Civil War, Carson General John Bell llood's Army of su rrendered. '!his was soon followed served as Indian agent for New Tennessee outside N:tshville. 111e by the surrender of Alexandria Mexico Territory and when the Confederacy h:.d been conm1ctcd after the arrival ofgunboats and war broke out, he resigned his on every front. 1l1e President, his a small detachment of marines commission as Indian agent to cabinet and :-lortherners entered and sailors. It was rwo weeks later organize the 1'' New Mexico 1865 with renewed hope. when Banks and his force reached Volunteer Infantry. l ie was SC: What was tlu Red Alexandria. Now defeat followed. appointed Lieutenant Colonel and River Campaign I While Porter pushed toward his unit saw action at the Battle FW: This 1864 campaign along Alexandria, Banks marched his of Val Verde, New J\lexico, and troops on the west side of the the Red River, in Loubiana, ,.,.~, also at Glorieta Pass in 1862, the last large river assault in the river- about rwenry miles away thus preventing the Confederate from any fire support that could war by Union military leader;. occupation of :-lew.\ le.~ico Territory. They believed, as did Pre>ident have been given him by the navy .\lost of his efforts during the Civil Lincoln who urged this operation, gunboat>. On April 8, the wily \Var, however, were dealing with that pressing up the Red Rh·er Confederate .\lajor General Richard Indians in the territory, including the would gh·e control of the area to the Taylor (son of the fonmer President Kiowas and .\lescaleros. But mo>t of Federals and act as a gateway into Zachary Taylor) trapped Banks at his conflicts were with the Navajo . Texas. There were also economic and .\lansfield, Louisiana- also called Notwithstanding his reputation political objectives too. Opening a abine Crossroads. Trounced, as a mediator and moderate when new supply ofcotton would assist Banks retreated south to Pleasant he served as Indian agent before !Jill. In conference with his other the Northern textile mills as their the war, his actions again~t the supply was greatly diminished by commanders, Banks decided to pull Navajo in New.\ texico Territory his troops back to New Orleans. the war. Louis l apoleon Il l had were draconian. When the avajo violated the non-incursion policy of 1l1is forced Porter to descend the tribe refused to enter government the Monroe Doctrine by invading river. 1l1e 's long trip was reservations in 1863, Carson and occupying Mexico, as well encumbered by Confederate artillery waged an economic war against as installing Austrian Archduke and sniper fire all along the river. them. 1his included pillaging ancl • IPRING 2014 burning villages and government refused to slaughtering livestock. recognize the United Without the resources States Colored Troops necessary to survive, and the individual the Navajo fell prey Confederate soldier to the other tribes in I felt threatened by the the region including sight of former slaves Utes, Puebloes, and wearing Union blue. Hopis. Finally, in The fort had been 1864, the majority of held by 580 Union Navajo surrendered soldiers with 285 from to Carson who forced the 13'" Tennessee 8,000 of them, Cavalry and 292 including women and African-American children, ro march soldiers who were 300 miles from part of the 6d. U.S. present-day Arizona Heavy A rrillery and to Fort Sumner, New 6•• U.S. Colored Mexico. This forced Light Artillery. march became known When Forrest finally as "the long walk." gained control, he While brevetted ordered his troops Brigadier General ro cease firing bur in 1865 for his close ro 50% of the successful efforts Federal troops had against the Navajo, he TtJp: Bllttl~ if' tiN Wild~rn~ss-Dts~mt~fight Qlll/x Orong~ C. H. Plani. RfXId, tuarTodd'sTowrn. M<1J6tb, 1864/ LC-USZC4-1748 perished with the was reduced in rank B•tt•m L

against the "Ewell Shoe." While General Philip Sheridan's cavalry a brilliant tactical maneuver by the Union troops broke through the fought heavy skirmishes in this shifting his operations south of rebel lines with several thousand area and he repulsed a Confederate the James River with Petersburg men captured as prisoners ofwar arrack at Bethesda Church. Grant the objective. Possession of from Ewell's Corps and a threat received reinforcements from the this rail juncrure woltld force to break Lee's entire line, Lee X VIJI and a portion of X Corps. the Confederates to flee the established a new defense at the base General Sheridan was ordered capital of Richmond. Caprure of of the salient and further assaults by Grant to occupy the crossroads Petersburg was thwarted by lack by Burnside and Horatio Wright's at Cold Harbor on May 31. Lee ofcommunication and the lack of Corps were repu !sed. '!he salient attempted to recapture the strategic initiative by subordinates to enter turned into hand-to-hand fighting position on June 1 but was repulsed. Petersburg while there were few and became known as rhe "Bloody Attacks against Lee's lines by defenders and before Lee had a Angle." lt was among the worst of Wright's VI Corps and William chance to reinforce. In any event, the entire war. While there were Smith's XVIIl Corps were repltlsed by the end ofjune, Petersburg 'vas skirmishes that followed, the worst and Grant then waited for the arrival under siege and Lee's army had of the fighting was over with Lee of Hancock's 11 Corps. Heat and been forced into defensive lines losing almost 12,500 at Spotsylvania. fatigue slowed Hancock's troops that would become longer and Among the dead wasj.E.B. Stuart and a planned attack for June 2 was thinner over the next 10 months. who was mortally wounded on postponed, giving Lee a chance to The Overland campaign, which May 11 at Yellow Tavern. Grant's create a srrong line of defense. On produced over 90,000 Union and losses were much higher. June 3, Grant's 11, VI, and XVlli Confederate casualties, was over. Once again, Grant moved along Corps attacked the rebel lines and SG: Why was the Battle of Lee's right, forcing the Confederates were repulsed with heavy losses. Mobile Bay significantr to abandon their defensive positions. Union losses were about 7,000 and FW: The Battle of Mobile Bay in Combat occurred along the North Confederates suffered only 1,500. the summer of 1864 was significant Anna River from May 20 to 26. Remaining in the vicinity of in several respects. First, politically, Grant then crossed the Pamunkey Cold Harbor until mid-June, this was an important Union River to Totopotomoy Creek. Grant executed what some consider triumph boosting Northern morale NUHBER 1901 • ....., and assisting Lincoln's chances for C§ re-election that November. Second, --' while the surrender of the city of Mobile would nor occur until sometime after Admiral Farragut's victory in Mobile Bay with the capture of Forts Morgan, Gaines, I and Powell, it prevented the city of Mobile and its bay from being used by blockade runners. By this time in the war, there were only two major ports still unoccupied by the Union-Mobile Bay, Alabama, and Wilmington, North Carolina. Mobile was also the leading port on the Gulfof Mexico, especially after New Orleans feU in April 1862. Gr~alnnwl vifiOI'_\' ;n A1obil~ Bfly, Aug. 511> 186-1/LC-DIG-dJ-()4()25 By the summer of 1864, Admiral David G . Farragut had assembled 17 vessels to break through Forts cannon from the Union , Union fleet were bombarding Fort Gaines and Morgan at the entrance Buchanan attacked the enemy Morgan. General Richard L. Paige, to Mobile Bay. The forts were alone. Fire damaged the Termessee~ commander of the fort, ordered defended by a smaller Confederate steering and Buchanan was forced his powder bunker destroyed, squadron commanded by Admiral to disengage and go north of Fort believing that a direct hit would Franklin Buchanan. With a four Gaines' guns where he surrendered. blow up the fort. On August 23, to one advantage in fire power, on Fort Powell's defenders abandoned Paige surrendered Fort Morgan. August 3, Union General Gordon the fortification on the night of Farragut's victory can be explained, Granger, with 1,500 troops, landed August 6 after it came under in part, by the Confederacy's weak on the west side of Dauphin Island intense fire. From August 6 to coastal defenses around Mobile. which consisted of Fort Gaines on 8, Fort Gaines was under siege Proposed attacks against Mobile the eastern side. The Confederate from both land and sea with were made months earlier by garrison retreated in an effort to about 3,000 Federal infantry and Adm ira I Farragut and General obtain reinforcements from Mobile artillery entrenched west of the Grant to no av-a.il, as Secretary of the to Fort Gaines. While the fort fort. Devastating cannonade from Navy Gideon Wells and President was distracted, Admiral Farragut Farragut's monitors, at point blank Lincoln thought that the Red River prepared to run his fleet through range, pounded the fort. The armor campaign and the re-capture of the entrance of Mobile Bay. With from Fort Gaines bounced off Fort Sumter, with the surrender of four ironclad monitors in the lead to the thick armor of the monitors. CharlestOn, 'vas more important. protect his wooden-hulled frigates When offered a flag of truce by Both efforts ended in Union disaster. from the 180 mines placed in the Farragut on August 7, Colonel Union Victory in Mobile Bay bay by Confederates, Farragut's fleet Anderson, in command of Fort ended the blockade running in and began its entry early on August 5. Gaines, surrendered on August 8. out of Mobile. lhe city of Mobile Fort Morgan's howit'Lers and On August 9, General Granger's would remain in Confederate cannon opened up on the fleet. The infantry, with newly arrived hands until April1865. lead USS Temmseh hit a mine and reinforcements from New Orleans, {Part Two ofthis article will appear sank. The Union fleet stalled, only landed ncar Fort Morgan and in the summer issue ofLincoln L(}re.) to be exhorted by Farragut's, "Damn moved tO\vards the fort, making rhe torpedoes. Full speed ahead." it to within a few hundred yards. ABOUT THE AUTHOR The Union fleet passed both Forts Fort Morgan, having withstood a Gaines and Morgan to a location in two-week siege from land batteries Frank Williams the bay out of range of the guns. and naval gunfire, attempted to Frank Williams recently retired Admiral Buchanan, in the resist, but Union gunboats kept up as Chief Justice of