The American Vison: Modern Times

168 CHAPTER 12 Becoming a World Power168

Growth andConflict

1789–1877

1789• Washington

elected president

1794• Polish rebellion

suppressedby Russians

1812• Napoleon’s

invasion andretreat from Russia

1821• Mexico and

Greece declareindependence

1832• Male voting

rights expandedin England

1842• China opened

by force toforeign trade

1820• Missouri Compromise

proposed by Henry Clay

1832• Democrats hold their

first presidentialnominating convention

. The Big Ideas ,SECTION 1: The New Republic

Societies change over time. The young republic saw the growth of the federal government and nationalism. Industry prospered in the North, while Southern agriculture depended on slavery.

SECTION 2: Growing Division and ReformDifferences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to division within a nation. Sectionaldisputes increasingly gripped the nation, while reformers sought to improve society.

SECTION 3: Manifest Destiny and CrisisDifferences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to division within a nation. Duringthe mid-1800s, the United States expanded westward and sectional conflict escalated.

SECTION 4: The Civil WarDifferences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to division within a nation. Unableto reach a compromise in the controversy over slavery, the North and South resorted to civil war.

SECTION 5: ReconstructionSocial and economic crises lead to new roles for government. Republicans introduced many reformsduring Reconstruction but some of these failed, creating new hardships for newly freed African Americans.

The American Vision: Modern Times Video The Chapter 2 video, “The Battle ofNew Orleans,” focuses on this important event of the War of 1812.

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▲Washington 1789–1797

▲J. Adams

1797–1801Jefferson

1801–1809Madison

1809–1817

▲Monroe

1817–1825

▲J.Q. Adams1825–1829

Jackson1829–1837

Van Buren1837–1841

W. Harrison1841

Tyler1841–1845

1790 1820

1808• Congress bans

international slave trade

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Charge by Don Troiani, depicts the advance of the EnglishPennsylvania Cavalry during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

1848• Karl Marx and Frederich

Engels’s The CommunistManifesto published

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1877• Compromise of 1877

ends Reconstructionefforts

1850 1880

1846• United States begins

war with Mexico

1850• Compromise of

1850 adopted in an attempt toease sectionaltensions

1861• Fort Sumter bombarded

by Confederate forces;the Civil War begins

1865• Lee surrenders to

Grant at AppomattoxCourthouse; JohnWilkes Boothassassinates Lincoln

Hayes1877–1881

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the American Vision:Modern Times Web site at

andclick on Chapter Overviews—Chapter 2 to preview chapterinformation.

tav.mt.glencoe.com

Polk1845–1849

Taylor1849–1850

Fillmore1850–1853

Pierce1853–1857

Buchanan1857–1861

Lincoln1861–1865

A. Johnson1865–1869

Grant1869–1877

1868• Meiji Restoration

begins Japanesemodernization

1859• Darwin’s Origin of

Species published

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http://tav.mt.glencoe.com

When authors write books, they try to anticipate the questions theirreaders are likely to ask and to provide the information that answers

those questions. One way to make sure you understand what you arereading is to ask questions of the text. This means that you think aboutquestions you would like answered. By formulating questions in your mindas you read, you increase your ability to understand and remember.

An easy way to practice asking questions during reading is to turn theheadings into questions. For example, a heading that reads “John Brown’sRaid” can be turned into “What was John Brown’s raid?” When you turnthe heading into a question, you can expect that it will be answered in thepassage. You can ask more than one question. For instance, another goodquestion would be “Why was John Brown’s raid important?”

Read the following passage and note how the questions from above were answered.

Brown developed a plan to incite an insurrection, or rebellion, against slaveholders. To obtain weapons,he and about 18 followers seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) on thenight of October 16, 1859. A contingent of U.S. Marines,commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee, rushed fromWashington, D.C., to Harpers Ferry. Outnumbered,Brown surrendered, and a Virginia court tried and convicted him and sentenced him to death.

Many Northerners viewed Brown as a martyr in anoble cause. For most Southerners, Brown’s raid offeredall the proof they needed that Northerners were actively plotting the murder of slaveholders. (page 199)

The first highlighted area answers the first ques-tion by telling what the raid was about: a raid on afederal arsenal to obtain weapons. The second high-lighted area explains the importance of the raid, thesecond question posed. The raid was one moreinstance pitting Northerners against Southerners.

Read the following headings with a partner and turn them into questions.What do you expect to discover?

The Civil War (Section 4) Reconstruction (Section 5)The Opposing Sides Reconstruction BeginsThe Opposing Economies Lincoln and the Radical RepublicansThe Political Situation The Wade-Davis BillThe First Modern War The Freedman’s Bureau

170

Questioning

QUESTIONINGAs you read the passage, besure to take note of the sup-porting details the author provides. For example, noticethe explanation aboutBrown’s conviction.

Chronological and Spatial Thinking To better understand historical events both in thepast and the present, you should learn to relate current events to the physical and humancharacteristics of places and regions.

171

Relating Current Events

The events of the past can have a long-lasting impact, extending even to thepresent day. For example, the work of the framers of the Constitution is a

continued topic of interpretation and debate. Lawyers, legislators, and citizensregularly debate the intent of the Constitution, especially regarding issues such as the right to bear arms, the purpose of the electoral college, or the balancebetween personal freedoms and national security.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, a number of events had a long-rangeimpact on the United States. During this volatile time in our nation’s history, deci-sions were made about the removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands.In addition, a war with Mexico resulted in the vast expansion of American territo-ries in the West. Finally, a Supreme Court ruling declared that African Americanscould never become citizens.

Read the following passages about how Presidents Jackson and Van Buren moved NativeAmericans from their homelands to the West.

In 1830 Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which helped the states relocate NativeAmericans to largely uninhabited regions west of the Mississippi River. (page 185)

In 1838 Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s successor, sent in the army to forcibly move theCherokee. Roughly 2,000 Cherokee died in camps while waiting for the westward marchto begin. On the journey, known to the Cherokee as the Trail of Tears, about 2,000 othersdied of starvation, disease, and exposure. (page 185)

With the passage of the Indian Removal Act and the forced removal of theCherokee, by 1838 most Native Americans had left the eastern part of the UnitedStates. They now lived on government reservations west of the Mississippi River.

As you read this chapter, consider how theseeds of unrest were sown during this criti-cal period. What human characteristics moti-vated some Americans to seek the physicaland political isolation of Native Americansand African Americans? What is the impacttoday of this legacy of separation? How has a Mexican history influenced western states,particularly those bordering on Mexico, suchas California?

Analysis Skill Standard CS4

Chronological and Spatial Thinking To better understand historical events both in thepast and the present, you should learn to relate current events to the physical and humancharacteristics of places and regions.

172 CHAPTER 2 Growth and Conflict

Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous chapter, you studied thedevelopment of state constitutions andthe national Constitution. In this section,you will discover how the new nationcontinued to develop and how Americansdeveloped a sense of nationalism.

• The United States established a federalgovernment, created the Bill of Rights,and witnessed the first political parties.(p. 173)

• During the Jefferson administration, the Supreme Court established judicialreview, and the country doubled insize. (p. 175)

• After the War of 1812, Americansfocused on policies that brought thenation together. (p. 176)

• New industries and railroads trans-formed the North in the early 1800s,while slavery expanded in the South.(p. 178)

Content Vocabularycabinet, enumerated powers, impliedpowers, judicial review, nativism, labor union

Academic Vocabularyclause, ambiguous

People and Terms to IdentifyBill of Rights, Louisiana Purchase,McCulloch v. Maryland, Monroe Doctrine,Industrial Revolution, Eli Whitney

Places to LocateDistrict of Columbia, Louisiana Territory

Reading Objectives• Describe the rise of political parties,

nationalism, and the Supreme Court.• Explain why industrialization thrived

in the North and cotton dominated theSouthern economy.

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about the earlyyears of the American republic, completea graphic organizer by listing actions thatstrengthened the federal government athome and abroad.

Preview of Events

The New Republic

1789George Washingtonbecomes president

1793Eli Whitney inventsthe cotton gin

1803Marbury v. Madisoncase decided; LouisianaPurchase made

✦1785 ✦1800 ✦1815 ✦1830

1812United Statesdeclares waron Britain

1823MonroeDoctrineannounced

Government Actions

. The Big Idea ,Societies change over time. During this time of change, the federal governmentbecame stronger, political parties developed, and the Supreme Court establishedjudicial review. The country expanded westward with the Louisiana Purchase.Nationalism increased after the War of 1812 as the government focused on nationalpolicy. Great change also came during the Industrial Revolution.

The following are the mainHistory–Social Science Standardscovered in this section.

11.1.2 Analyze the ideological ori-gins of the American Revolution, the

Founding Fathers’ philosophy ofdivinely bestowed unalienable natural

rights, the debates on the drafting andratification of the Constitution, and the

addition of the Bill of Rights.

11.1.3 Understand the history of theConstitution after 1787 with emphasis on

federal versus state authority and growingdemocratization.

11.2 Students analyze the relationshipamong the rise of industrialization, large-scale

rural-to-urban migration, and massive immi-gration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The Early Years of the Republic

The United States established a federal gov-ernment, created a Bill of Rights, and witnessed the firstpolitical parties.

Reading Connection Of all the freedoms that aregranted to Americans, which do you consider most precious,and why? Read on to learn about the ratification of the Bill ofRights, which guarantees basic freedoms to all Americans.

The newly elected members of Congress met evenbefore the Constitution had been ratified. Americanswere confident, though, because they knew GeorgeWashington would be the first president.

On April 6, 1789, the ballots of the presidential elec-tors were officially counted in the new United StatesSenate. As expected, George Washington became thefirst president of the United States under the newConstitution. Americans everywhere greeted the newswith great joy, but Washington remained unexcited.Calling his election “the event which I have longdreaded,” he described his feelings as “not unlike thoseof a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.”

Although Washington had high hopes for the newConstitution, he did not know if it would work asintended. “I am . . . [bringing] the voice of the peopleand a good name of my own on this voyage; but whatreturns will be made of them, Heaven alone can fore-tell.” Despite his doubts and frustrations with the “tenthousand embarrassments, perplexities and troublesof the presidency,” the new president retained hisfaith in the American people. He explained that “noth-ing but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality arenecessary to make us a great and happy people. . . .We are surrounded by the blessings of nature.”

—adapted from Washington: The Indispensable Man

When President Washington and the newlyelected Congress took office, one of their first taskswas to organize the government itself. In the summerof 1789, Congress created three executive depart-ments: the Department of State, the Department ofthe Treasury, and the Department of War, along withthe Office of the Attorney General. Washington thenchose his cabinet—the individuals who would head

these departments and advise him. His appoint-ments included Thomas Jefferson as Secretary ofState and Alexander Hamilton as Treasury Secretary.

Congress also organized the judicial branch. TheJudiciary Act of 1789 outlined the makeup of theSupreme Court and established lower federal courts.As the first Chief Justice of the United States,Washington chose John Jay.

The Bill of Rights One of the most important actsof Congress in 1789 was to propose amendments tothe Constitution. During the campaign to ratify theConstitution, the Federalists had promised to add abill of rights detailing the rights of American citizens.In December 1791, the Bill of Rights—the first 10amendments to the Constitution—were ratified.Eight of the amendments protect the rights of individ-uals against the government. The Ninth Amendmentstates that the people have other rights that are notlisted in the Constitution. The Tenth Amendmentadds that any powers not specifically given to the fed-eral government are reserved for the states.

Tackling Financial Troubles With the bureau-cracy up and running, the most pressing concernsinvolved the economy. The federal government hadinherited a huge debt from the ContinentalCongress. As Secretary of the Treasury, AlexanderHamilton proposed a plan to pay off all debts. Healso wanted the federal government to acceptresponsibility for the states’ outstanding debts.Hamilton called for the creation of a national bank tomanage the country’s finances.

CHAPTER 2 Growth and Conflict 173

George Washington

➤

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and othersfavored less government interference in the economy.They also pointed out that establishing a bank wasnot one of the federal government’s enumeratedpowers—the powers specifically mentioned in theConstitution. Hamilton rebuffed this criticism by cit-ing Article I, Section 8, which gives the federal gov-ernment the power “to make all laws which shall benecessary and proper” to fulfill its responsibilities.The “necessary and proper” clause, he said, createdimplied powers—powers not explicitly listed in theConstitution but necessary for the government to doits job. A national bank, Hamilton argued, wasneeded to collect taxes, regulate trade, and providefor the common defense.

Hamilton eventually won approval for his financialprogram after promises to Southern congressmen thatthe nation’s capital would be moved to the District ofColumbia on land donated by Virginia and Maryland.With that settled, the Bank of the United States wasestablished in 1791 for a 20-year period.

The same year, Congress enacted a high tax onwhiskey. The new tax brought in needed revenue,but it proved extremely unpopular among Westernfarmers who resisted the tax by terrorizing tax collec-tors, robbing mail, and destroying whiskey-makingstills of those who paid the tax. In August 1794,President Washington sent nearly 13,000 troops tocrush the Whiskey Rebellion.

The Rise of Political Parties The handling of theWhiskey Rebellion intensified the tensions that hadarisen over Hamilton’s financial program. By 1794the factions in Congress had solidified into rivalpolitical parties.

Hamilton’s supporters called themselvesFederalists. They favored a strong national govern-ment led by the “rich, well born, and able.” TheFederalist Party included many manufacturers, mer-chants, and bankers, especially in the urbanNortheast who believed that manufacturing andtrade were the basis of national wealth and power.

Their opponents, led by Madison and Jefferson,took the name Democratic-Republicans, althoughmost people at the time referred to them asRepublicans. They favored strict limits on the federalgovernment’s power and protection of states’ rightsand supported agriculture over commerce and trade.The party had a strong base among farmers in therural South and West.

Tough Times for Adams After two terms as presi-dent, a weary George Washington stepped downfrom office. His Farewell Address to the Americanpeople warned of the dangers of party politics andsectionalism—pitting North against South, or Eastagainst West. Washington also urged Americans “tosteer clear of permanent alliances with any portion ofthe foreign world.”

Washington’s successor as president was a fellowFederalist, John Adams. One of Adams’s most urgentchallenges was averting war with France. France wasenraged by a treaty between the United States andBritain and had begun seizing American ships at sea.The two nations soon were fighting an undeclaredwar at sea until negotiations finally brought an endto hostilities in 1800.

Meanwhile, the division between the two politicalparties had been deepening. The Federalists resentedthe harsh Republican criticism. Using their majorityin Congress, they passed the Alien and Sedition Actsin 1798. One of these laws made it a crime to utter orprint anything “false, scandalous, and malicious”against the federal government or any federal offi-cial. The other laws were directed at aliens—foreign-ers living in the country—who often wereanti-British and tended to vote Republican once theybecame citizens. The new laws made it harder forthem to gain citizenship and left them vulnerable todeportation without trial.

Many Americans denounced the Alien andSedition Acts as an infringement on people’s free-doms. In 1798 and 1799, Kentucky and Virginia


Hamilton and the Federalists

Strong national government

Ruling power given towealthy, educated

Government should promote manufacturing

Loose interpretation of theConstitution

Protective tariffs protectdomestic industries

Jefferson and theDemocratic-Republicans

Strong stategovernment

Ruling power given to alllandowners

Government should promote agriculture

Strict interpretation of theConstitution

Protective tariffs burdenfarmers

Competing National Visions

1. Interpreting Charts Which party did not supporttariffs, and why?

2. Making Generalizations Which party usuallyattracted bankers and manufacturers?

passed resolutions challenging the laws’ constitu-tionality. At the time, few states accepted the prem-ise behind the resolutions that states had a right todecide on the validity of federal laws. Many yearslater, states used these ideas to defend their interests.

The Election of 1800 When he ran for reelectionin 1800, John Adams could not overcome publicanger over the Alien and Sedition Acts and a newtax the Federalists had passed. The winner, how-ever, was not clear. Thomas Jefferson had unexpect-edly tied with Aaron Burr, his running mate forvice president.

The Constitution specified that citizens wouldvote for electors who would then vote for presidentand vice president. Collectively known as theElectoral College, the electors—a fixed number fromeach state—would vote for two persons. The candi-date receiving the most votes would become presi-dent; the runner-up would become vice president. Tieswould be decided by the House of Representatives.The election results of 1800 revealed a flaw in this sys-tem for selecting the president, because no oneexpected a tie between political allies.

The divided House took days to reach a decision,but the members finally voted to make Jeffersonpresident and Burr vice president. The Federalists,who controlled both the army and the government,stepped down. The election of 1800 established thatpower could be peacefully transferred despite dis-agreements between political parties. It also led tothe Twelfth Amendment in 1804, providing for sepa-rate ballots for the president and vice president.

Examining What is the differencebetween enumerated powers and implied powers?

The Republicans Take Power

During the Jefferson administration, theSupreme Court established judicial review, and thecountry doubled in size.

Reading Connection Are there times when you feelespecially patriotic? Read on to learn about the War of 1812,which generated a new spirit of patriotism.

Tumultuous times continued with PresidentJefferson’s attempts to limit the federal governmentand the power of the judiciary. At the same time, thecountry greatly expanded in size and faced anotherwar with Great Britain.

Reading Check

Jefferson in Office Thomas Jefferson came toWashington committed to limiting the scope of gov-ernment. He began paying off the federal debt, cutgovernment spending, did away with the hatedwhiskey tax, and trimmed the armed forces.

Weakening the Federalists’ control of the judiciarywas another aim of the new administration. On his lastday in office, President Adams had appointed dozensof new Federalist judges and court officers. Jeffersonasked the incoming Republican Congress to abolishsome of the new positions and to withhold the paper-work confirming other appointments. One of thosewho didn’t receive his documents, William Marbury,took the matter to the Supreme Court. The Court sym-pathized with Marbury but ruled in 1803 that it couldnot issue an enforcement order. According to ChiefJustice John Marshall and his colleagues, the law thatauthorized the Court to write such orders actually wasunconstitutional and invalid.

With the case of Marbury v. Madison, the Courtasserted its right of judicial review, the power todecide whether laws are constitutional and to strikedown those that are not. John Marshall remained asChief Justice for more than 30 years, continuing tobuild the Supreme Court into a powerful independ-ent branch of the federal government.

Westward Expansion Under Jefferson, the size ofthe country increased considerably. The Treaty ofParis of 1783 had already established the Mississippias the western border of the United States. After thedefeat of Native Americans in the NorthwestTerritory and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, more


War Between the Parties This cartoon reveals the emotions of Americanpolitics in the 1790s. Republican Matthew Lyon and Federalist Roger Griswold areshown fighting in the House of Representatives. How did Federalists respondto Republican attacks?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

Boston Public Library

settlers poured into the region. During Washington’sterm, Kentucky and Tennessee had become newstates, and Ohio followed suit in 1803.

In 1800 Spain had given Louisiana back toFrance. To finance his plans for European conquest,the French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, now offeredto sell all of the Louisiana Territory, as well as NewOrleans, to the United States. Congress overwhelm-ingly approved the Louisiana Purchase of April 30,1803. The United States paid $11.25 million and alsoagreed to take on French debts of about $3.75 mil-lion owed to American citizens. The United Stateshad more than doubled its size and gained controlof the entire Mississippi River.

The War of 1812 A foreign relations crisis loomedwhen Republican James Madison became presidentin 1809. The British regularly seized American shipsat sea and often practiced impressment, kidnappingsailors to serve in the British navy. Americans in theWest also accused Britain of inciting NativeAmericans to attack white settlers. President Jeffersonhad tried economic sanctions with the Embargo Actof 1807, but the actions mostly hurt the United States.

Like Jefferson, President Madison first respondedwith economic measures. After several attempts, themeasures finally began to have the desired effect.Unfortunately, word of British cooperation came toolate—Congress had already declared war.

At the beginning of the War of 1812, conqueringCanada was the primary objective of the UnitedStates. American forces on Lake Erie and LakeChamplain were victorious but they could not pre-vent the British from marching into Washington, D.C.and setting fire to both the White House and theCapitol. In Baltimore, though, the British encountereda strong defense. After bombarding the city’s harborthroughout the night of September 13, the Britishabandoned their attack early the next morning. Thesight of the American flag still flying at dawn inspiredFrancis Scott Key to pen “The Star-Spangled Banner,”which later became the national anthem.

With battles still raging, peace talks began in theEuropean city of Ghent. The Treaty of Ghent, signedon December 24, 1814, restored prewar boundariesbut did not mention neutral rights or impressment.Still, it increased the nation’s prestige overseas andgenerated a new spirit of patriotism. The Americanvictory also destroyed the Federalist Party, whichhad strongly opposed the war.

Explaining Why is the SupremeCourt decision Marbury v. Madison important?

Reading Check

The Growth of AmericanNationalism

After the War of 1812, Americans focused onpolicies that brought the nation together.

Reading Connection Do you know of any SupremeCourt decisions that had a significant national impact? Read onto learn about Supreme Court decisions that strengthened thepower of the federal government.

After the war of 1812, a sense of nationalism sweptthe United States. More and more Americans beganto consider themselves to be part of a whole, ratherthan identifying with a state or region. Riding thiswave of nationalism was Republican James Monroe,the nation’s fifth president. Harmony in national pol-itics reached a new high, mostly because only oneparty, the Republicans, had any power. At the sametime, the war had taught Americans that a strongerfederal government was advantageous. In the post-war years, Republican leaders shifted their focusfrom world affairs to national growth.

Economic Nationalism As Monroe’s presidencybegan, Congress prepared an ambitious economicprogram that included creating a new national bank.The charter of the First Bank of the United States hadnot been renewed, and the results had been disas-trous. State-chartered banks and other private banksgreatly expanded their lending with bank notes thatwere used as money. Without the regulatory presenceof the national bank, prices rose rapidly during theWar of 1812.

Other legislation included the Tariff of 1816,aimed at protecting American manufacturers by tax-ing imports. The Republicans also wanted to buildroads and canals. President Madison vetoed this leg-islation, arguing that the Constitution did notempower Congress to improve transportation.Nevertheless, road and canal construction soonbegan with support from private businesses andstate and local governments.

Judicial Nationalism The judicial philosophy ofthe Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall,provided another boost to postwar nationalism. Inseveral important cases between 1816 and 1824,Marshall interpreted the Constitution broadly to sup-port federal power.

The 1819 case of McCulloch v. Maryland involvedMaryland’s attempt to tax the Baltimore branch of the


Second Bank of the United States. Before addressingMaryland’s right to tax the national bank, the SupremeCourt first ruled on the federal government’s right tocreate a national bank in the first place. In the Court’sopinion, written by John Marshall, the Constitutiongave the federal government the power to collect taxes,to borrow money, to regulate commerce, and to raisearmies and navies. The national bank helped the fed-eral government exercise these powers. Marshall con-cluded that the “necessary and proper” clause allowedthe federal government to use its powers in any waynot specifically prohibited by the Constitution. ; (Seepage 1005 for more information on McCulloch v. Maryland.)

Marshall then went on to argue that the federalgovernment was “supreme in its own sphere ofaction.” This meant that a state government couldnot interfere with an agency of the federal govern-ment exercising its specific constitutional powerswithin a state’s borders.

In another case, Gibbons v. Ogden, the Court ruledthat states could regulate commerce only within theirborders, but that control of interstate commerce was afederal right. Defenders of states’ rights attackedmany of Marshall’s decisions, which helped make the“necessary and proper” clause and the interstate com-merce clause vehicles for expanding federal power. ; (See page 1005 for more information on Gibbons v. Ogden.)

Nationalist Diplomacy Postwar nationalism alsoinfluenced foreign affairs. During the early 1800s,Spanish-held Florida was a source of frustration forSoutherners. Many runaway slaves hid there, and theSeminole, a Native American group, often clashedwith American settlers across the border in Georgia.

When Spain was unable to control the border,Secretary of War John C. Calhoun sent troops underthe command of Andrew Jackson into Florida.President Adams then put pressure on Spain in ongo-ing border questions. Occupied with problemsthroughout its Latin American empire, Spain gave inand ceded all of Florida to the United States in theAdams-Onís Treaty of 1819.

Spain had good reason to worry about LatinAmerica. Many of Spain’s colonies there were declar-ing their independence. Meanwhile, some Europeanmonarchies expressed their interest in helping Spainsuppress these Latin American revolutions. NeitherGreat Britain nor the United States wanted Spain toregain control of its colonies.

The Monroe administration also had concerns atthis time about Russia’s growing interest in theAmerican northwest. In 1821 Russia had announcedthat its empire extended south from Alaska to theOregon territory.

Under these circumstances, Monroe decided toissue a statement in December 1823. In the MonroeDoctrine, the president declared that the Americancontinents should no longer be viewed as open to col-onization. He specifically advised Europe to respectthe sovereignty of new Latin American nations. ;(See page 994 for more information on the Monroe Doctrine.)

Analyzing How did the decisionsof the Marshall Court strengthen the federal government?

Reading Check


Marbury v. Madison (1803) Declared congressional act unconstitutional; Court asserts power of judicial review

Fletcher v. Peck (1810) Protected contracts from legislative interference; Court could overturn state laws thatopposed specific provisions of Constitution

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816) Court can accept appeals of state court decisions and review state decisions that involve federal statutes or treaties; asserted the Supreme Court’s sovereignty over state courts

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Upheld constitutionality of the Bank of the United States; doctrine of “implied powers” provided Congress more flexibility to enact legislation

Cohens v. Virginia (1821) Reasserted federal judicial authority over state courts; argued that when states ratified Constitution, they gave up some sovereignty to federal courts

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) Revoked an existing state monopoly; Court gave Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce

Major Supreme Court Decisions, 1801–1824

Source: The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States1. Interpreting Charts In which case did Chief

Justice Marshall assert the Court’s right of judicialreview?

2. Analyzing Was Marshall a strict interpreter of theConstitution? Use a case to support your answer.

A Revolution in Trans-portation With the UnitedStates expanding rapidly,Americans sought new waysto connect the distant regionsof the country. The first stepscame in 1806, when Congressfunded the building of a major east-west highway. TheNational Road turned out tobe the only great U.S.-fundedtransportation project of itstime. American leaders dis-agreed on whether the Con-stitution permitted such internalimprovements. Instead, states,localities, and private busi-nesses took the initiative bylaying hundreds of miles oftoll roads.

Rivers offered a more effi-cient and cheaper way to movegoods than did early roads.Loaded boats and barges,however, could usually travelonly downstream, as tripsagainst the current with heavycargoes were impractical. Thesteamboat changed all that.The first successful such ves-sel, the Clermont, was devel-oped by Robert Fulton and

promoted by Robert R. Livingston. By 1850 more than700 steamboats, also called riverboats, traveled theMississippi, the Great Lakes, and other waterways.

Railroads also appeared in the early 1800s. Awealthy, self-educated industrialist named PeterCooper built the Tom Thumb, a tiny but powerfullocomotive based on engines originally developed inGreat Britain. Perhaps more than any other kind oftransportation, trains helped settle the West andexpand trade among the nation’s different regions.

Industrialization Sweeps the North Along withdramatic changes in transportation, a revolutionoccurred in business and industry. The IndustrialRevolution, which began in Britain in the middle1700s, brought large-scale manufacturing using com-plex machines and organized workforces in factories.Manufacturers sold their wares nationwide or abroadinstead of just locally. By the early 1800s, these inno-vations had reached the United States. They trans-formed not only the economy, but society as well.


500 kilometers0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

500 miles0

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EW

80°W90°W

30°N

40°N

70°W

ATLaNTICOCEaN

Gulf ofMexico

BRITISHNORTH AMERICA

REP. OFTEXAS

WIS.TERR.

IOWATERR.

MO.

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LA.

ILL.IND.

MICH.

KY.

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MISS. ALA.GA.

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Chicago

St. Louis

New Orleans

Nashville

Pittsburgh

Detroit

Wheeling

St. Augustine

Charleston

Savannah

Wilmington

Mobile

NorfolkRichmond

Washington, D.C.Baltimore

Philadelphia

New York City

Portland

Boston

BuffaloGreenBay

Sault Ste. Marie

Roads, Canals, and Railroads, 1820–1840

CanalRailroadRoad

1. Interpreting Maps Which Southern state had the mostmiles of railroad track?

2. Applying Geography Skills Why do you think canalswere more common in the North than in other areas?

A Growing Nation

New industries and railroads transformedthe North in the early 1800s, while slavery expanded in the South.

Reading Connection What kinds of businesses generatethe most wealth in the United States today? Read on to learnabout the critical role that farming and industry played duringthe early 1800s.

The early 1800s were a time of rapid change in theUnited States. Transportation greatly improved accessto different regions, while the Industrial Revolutionturned the North into a manufacturing center. TheSouth, meanwhile, continued to rely on agriculture.

The United States industrialized quickly for sev-eral reasons. Perhaps the key factor was theAmerican system of free enterprise based on privateproperty rights. People could acquire and use capitalwithout strict governmental controls while competi-tion between companies encouraged them to try newtechnologies. The era’s low taxes also meant thatentrepreneurs had more money to invest. In addi-tion, beginning in the 1830s, many states encouragedindustrialization by passing general incorporationlaws that greatly eased the forming of businesses.

Industrialization began in the Northeast, wheremany swift-flowing streams provided factories withwaterpower. The region was also home to many entre-preneurs who were willing to invest in British technol-ogy. Soon textile mills sprung up throughout theNortheast. The use of interchangeable parts, or stan-dard components, popularized by a New Englandernamed Eli Whitney, led to factories producing lum-ber, shoes, leather, wagons, and other products. Thesewing machine allowed inexpensive clothes to bemass produced, and canning allowed foods to bestored and transported without fear of spoilage.

In 1832 a major improvement in communicationstook place when Samuel F.B. Morse began perfectingthe telegraph and developing Morse code. Journalistsbegan using the telegraph to speedily relay news. By1860 more than 50,000 miles of telegraph wire con-nected most parts of the country.

Urban Growth and Immigration The industrial-ization of the United States drew thousands of peo-ple from farms and villages to towns in search ofhigher-paying factory jobs. Many city populationsdoubled or tripled. In 1820 only New York boastedmore than 100,000 residents. By 1860 eight othercities had reached that size.

Immigrants hoping for a better life in the UnitedStates also contributed to urban growth. Between1815 and 1860, over 5 million foreigners journeyed toAmerica. While thousands of newcomers, particu-larly Germans, became farmers in the rural West,many others settled in cities, providing a steadysource of cheap labor. A large number of Irish—over44,000—arrived in 1845, after a devastating potatoblight caused widespread famine in their homeland.

The presence of people from different cultures,with different languages and different religions, pro-duced feelings of nativism, a preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration.Several societies sprang up to keep foreign-born per-sons and Catholics—the main religion of the Irishand many Germans—from holding public office. In

1854 delegates from some of these groups formed theAmerican Party. This party came to be called theKnow-Nothings because its members, when ques-tioned about their activities, were supposed toanswer, “I know nothing.”

By 1860, factory workers numbered roughly 1.3million. They included many women and children,who would accept lower wages than men. Not evenmen were well paid, however, and factory workerstypically toiled for 12 or more drudgery-filled hoursa day. Hoping to gain higher wages or shorter work-days, some workers began to organize in laborunions—groups of workers who press for betterworking conditions and member benefits. During thelate 1820s and early 1830s, about 300,000 men andwomen belonged to these organizations. Early laborunions had little power. Most employers refused tobargain with them, and the courts often saw them asunlawful conspiracies that limited free enterprise.Decades would pass before organized labor achievedreal influence.


Factory Worker This young girl worked in the new factories ofthe Northeast.

The Continuing Importance of AgricultureDespite the trend toward urban and industrialgrowth, agriculture remained the country’s leadingeconomic activity. Until the late 1800s, farmingemployed more people and produced more wealththan any other kind of work.

Farming was even more important in the South,which had few cities and less industry. The Souththrived on the production of several major cashcrops, including tobacco, rice, and sugarcane. Nocrop, however, played a greater role in the South’sfortunes during this period than cotton, which wasgrown in a wide belt stretching from inland SouthCarolina west into Texas.

In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin—“gin” being short for engine—that quickly and effi-ciently removed cotton seeds from bolls, or cottonpods. Cotton production soared, and by 1860Southern cotton accounted for nearly two-thirds ofthe total export trade of the United States.Southerners began saying, rightly, “Cotton is King.”

While agriculture brought prosperity to Southernstates, they lagged behind the North in industrial-

ization. Compared to the many textile mills and fac-tories in the North, the Southern region had onlyscattered iron works, textile mills, and coal, iron, salt,and copper mines. Together, these accounted for only16 percent of the nation’s total manufacturing.

Enslaved and Free African Americans Thespread of cotton plantations boosted the Southerneconomy, but it also made the demand for slave laborskyrocket. Congress had outlawed the foreign slavetrade in 1808, but a high birthrate among enslavedwomen—encouraged by slaveholders—kept thepopulation growing. Between 1820 and 1850, thenumber of slaves in the South rose from about 1.5million to nearly 3.2 million, to account for almost 37percent of the total Southern population.

The overwhelming majority of enslaved AfricanAmericans toiled in the fields on small farms. Somebecame house servants, while others worked intrades. All enslaved persons, no matter how welltreated, suffered indignities. State slave codes forbadeenslaved men and women from owning property,leaving a slaveholder’s premises without permission,


hopper

cylinder

brushes

grate

Cotton bolls aredumped into thehopper.

1 A crank turns the cylinderwith wire teeth. The teethpull the cotton past a grate.

2 Slots in the grate allowthe cotton, but not itsseeds, to pass through.

3

A second cylinder withbrushes pulls the cottonoff the toothed cylinderand sends it out of the gin.

4 crank

TheCotton GinWhile visiting CatherineGreene’s Georgia plantationin 1793, Eli Whitney had aninspiration. He built a devicethat removed the seeds ofthe “green-seed” cottonvariety that grew in abun-dance throughout theSouth. Whitney devised a“gin” (short for engine) thatcombed the seeds out of thecotton. This simple cottongin was easy to mass pro-duce, and it increased cot-ton’s profitability for manySouthern farmers. How didthe invention of the cottongin affect the South’seconomy?

or testifying in court against awhite person. Laws even bannedthem from learning to read andwrite. Frederick Douglass, whorose from slavery to become aprominent leader of the anti-slavery movement, recalled howlife as an enslaved personaffected him:

“My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellectlanguished; the disposition to read departed; thecheerful spark that lingered about my eye died out;the dark night of slavery closed in upon me, andbehold a man transformed to a brute.”

—from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Music helped many African Americans endure thehorrors of slavery. Songs also played a key role inreligion, one of the most important parts of AfricanAmerican culture.

Many enslaved men and women found ways toactively resist the dreadful lifestyle forced on them.Some quietly staged work slowdowns. Others broketools or set fire to houses and barns. Still othersrisked beatings or mutilations by running away.Some enslaved persons turned to violence, killingtheir owners or plotting revolts.

Free African Americans occupied an ambiguousposition in Southern society. In cities like Charlestonand New Orleans, some were successful enough tobecome slaveholders themselves. Almost 200,000 freeAfrican Americans lived in the North, where slavery

had been outlawed, but they were not embracedthere either. Still, in the North free African Americanscould organize their own churches and voluntaryassociations. They also were able to earn money fromthe jobs they held.

Describing How did the IndustrialRevolution change American society?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: cabinet, enumer-

ated powers, clause, implied powers,judicial review, nativism, labor union,ambiguous

2. People and Terms Identify: Bill ofRights, Louisiana Purchase, McCullochv. Maryland, Monroe Doctrine,Industrial Revolution, Eli Whitney

3. Places Locate: District of Columbia,Louisiana Territory

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Discussing Does the Monroe Doctrine

represent a continuation or a change inPresident Washington’s foreign policy?Why or why not?

Critical Thinking5. Synthesizing Name at least three key

moments in the early 1800s when fed-eral authority clashed with state author-ity. What trend developed in theresolution of these disputes?

6. Organizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list exam-ples of nationalism in the United Statesafter the War of 1812.

Analyzing Visuals7. Posing Questions Study the chart of

Supreme Court decisions on page 177.Use the information to construct a 10-question quiz to give to your classmatesto assess their understanding of theMarshall Court.

Writing About History8. Expository Writing Imagine you

are a newspaper editor in Georgia orSpanish-held Florida. Write an editorialin which you criticize or defend theAlien and Sedition Acts.

CA 11WS1.1; 11WA2.4a

Examples of Nationalism

Economic Judicial Diplomatic

For help with the concepts in this section of AmericanVision: Modern Times go to andclick on Study Central.

tav.mt.glencoe.com

Study CentralHISTORY

“. . . the dark nightof slavery closed inupon me . . .”

—Frederick Douglass


Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous section, you learned howchanges in politics, territory, and produc-tion methods changed the United States.In this section, you will discover howgrowing sectional disputes affected thenation and how reformers sought toimprove society.

• Sectionalism increased after the War of1812, while voting rights expanded forAmerican citizens. (p. 183)

• The Second Great Awakening broughtan era of reform. (p. 186)

Content Vocabularyspoils system, caucus, secede, nullification, temperance, abolition,emancipation

Academic Vocabularyitem, academic

People and Terms to IdentifyMissouri Compromise, John C. Calhoun,Trail of Tears, Whig, Second GreatAwakening, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,Frederick Douglass

Places to LocateMissouri, Seneca Falls

Reading Objectives• Discuss the issues surrounding the

Missouri Compromise.• Explain the goals of the temperance

movement, the women’s movement,and the abolition movement.

Reading StrategySequencing As you read about growingdivision and reform in the early 1800s,complete a time line similar to the onebelow to record key events.

Preview of Events

Growing Divisionand Reform

1820MissouriCompromiseproposed

1830Jackson signs IndianRemoval Act

1833American AntislaverySociety founded

✦1840 ✦18501848 Seneca Falls Convention

1851Maine passesfirst state prohibition law

✦1820 ✦1830


early1800s

1820 1828

1824 c.1835

1848

11.10.7 Analyze the women’s rights movement fromthe era of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony andthe passage of the nineteenth Amendment to the

movement launched in the 1960s, including differingperspectives on the roles of women.

. The Big Idea ,Differences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to divisionwithin a nation. Sectional differences increased as new states joined the Unionand issues over slavery continued to divide free and slave states. Adding to the ten-sions, South Carolina threatened to leave the Union over high tariffs that raised theprice of needed goods. President Jackson initiated the effort to move NativeAmericans west. Many protested his decision to dissolve the Second Bank of theUnited States. In response, a new party, the Whigs, organized. During this time,reformers began to work to improve society. Religious reformers focused on reviv-ing Americans’ commitment to religion in what became known as the Second GreatAwakening. Social reformers were involved in different reform efforts focusing onwomen’s rights, educational reform, and the abolition of slavery.


11.1.3 Understand the history of theConstitution after 1787 with emphasis

on federal versus state authority andgrowing democratization.

11.3.1 Describe the contributions of various religious groups to American civic

principles and social reform movements(e.g., civil and human rights, individual

responsibility and the work ethic, anti-monarchy and self-rule, worker protection,

family-centered communities).

11.3.2 Analyze the great religious revivalsand the leaders involved in them, including

the First Great Awakening, the Second GreatAwakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social

Gospel Movement, the rise of Christian liberaltheology in the nineteenth century, the impact

of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise ofChristian fundamentalism in current times.

11.3.3 Cite incidences of religious intolerance in the United States (e.g., persecution of Mormons,

anti-Catholic sentiment, anti-Semitism).

slavery could not expand, new free states wouldeventually give the North enough votes in the Senateto outlaw slaveholding.

Missouri’s territorial government requestedadmission into the Union as a slave state in 1819. Thenext year, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts,sought statehood. The Senate voted to admit Maineas a free state and Missouri as a slave state. TheSenate added an amendment to prohibit slavery inthe rest of the Louisiana Territory north of Missouri’ssouthern boundary. Southerners agreed, viewing thisNorthern region as unsuitable for farming anyway.

Henry Clay carefully steered the MissouriCompromise through the House of Representatives,which passed it by a close vote in March 1820. The nextyear, Missouri became the twenty-fourth state, and theMissouri Compromise temporarily settled the disputeover the westward expansion of slavery. Like Jefferson,however, many leaders feared more trouble ahead.

A Disputed Election Although the Republicansremained the only official political party, sectional-ism was strong in the election campaign of 1824. OnElection Day, four Republicans ran for president.Andrew Jackson of Tennessee led in the popular voteand in the Electoral College, but he did not win thenecessary majority of electoral votes. In accordancewith constitutional procedure, the decision went tothe House of Representatives, whose memberswould select the president from the top three withthe most votes.

Henry Clay of Kentucky,who had placed fourth, waseliminated. As the Speakerof the House, Clay enjoyedtremendous influence, andhe threw his support to JohnQuincy Adams of Mas-sachusetts. On February 9,1825, Adams won the Houseelection easily, with 13 votesto Jackson’s 7 and WilliamCrawford’s 4.

Upon taking office, thenew president named Clayas his secretary of state.Jackson’s supporters imme-diately accused the pair ofstriking a “corrupt bar-gain,” whereby Clay hadsecured votes for Adams inreturn for a cabinet post.Adams and Clay denied

The Resurgence of Sectionalism

Sectionalism increased after the War of 1812,while voting rights expanded for American citizens.

Reading Connection What do you see as the definingcharacteristics of your state and region? Read on to learn whyconflicts between different sections of the United States arosein the early and mid-1800s.

The Louisiana Purchase and improved transporta-tion spurred new settlement in the West. Soon someof the territories grew large enough to apply forstatehood.

As May approached in 1820, Thomas Jeffersonshould have been enjoying his retirement from publiclife. Instead, a bitter political controversy had him feel-ing deeply troubled. After more than a year of debate,Congress had finally crafted a plan to allow theMissouri Territory to enter the Union as a slave statewhile Maine came in as a free state. This arrangementpreserved the delicate balance in the number of freeand slave states. The arrangement, known as theMissouri Compromise, highlighted the growing dis-pute over slavery’s expansion into the Western ter-ritories—a dispute that Jefferson feared could tear the nation apart:

“This momentous question, like a firebell in thenight, awakened and filled me with terror. I consideredit at once as the knell [funeral bell] of the Union. It ishushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieveonly, not a final sentence.”

—quoted in The Annals of America

The matter of statehood for Missouri stirred uppassionate disagreements. Increasingly, sectional dis-putes came to divide Americans.

The Missouri Compromise In 1819 the Unionconsisted of 11 free and 11 slave states. Admitting anynew state, either slave or free, would upset the bal-ance of political power in the Senate. ManyNortherners opposed extending slavery into thewestern territories because they believed that humanbondage was morally wrong. The South feared that if


Thomas Jefferson➤

any wrongdoing, and no evidence of a deal everemerged. Still, Jackson’s outraged supportersdecided to break with the faction of the party alliedwith Adams. The Jacksonians called themselvesDemocratic Republicans, later shortened toDemocrats. Adams and his followers becameknown as National Republicans.

A New Era in Politics Throughout the firstdecades of the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of whitemales gained the right to vote. This was largelybecause many states lowered or eliminated propertyownership as a voting qualification. They did sopartly to reflect the ideals of the Declaration ofIndependence and the social equality of frontier life.In addition, as cities and towns grew, the percentageof working people who did not own propertyincreased. These people paid taxes and had an inter-est in the political affairs of their communities, and sothey wanted a say in electing those who representedthem. The expansion of voting rights was very muchin evidence by 1828. That year, more than 1.13 millioncitizens voted for president, compared with about355,000 in 1824.

The campaign that yearpitted John Quincy Adamsagainst Andrew Jackson, whobelieved that the presidencyhad been unjustly denied himfour years earlier. The candi-dates resorted to mudslinging,attacking each other’s person-alities and morals. When theresults came in, Jackson had56 percent of the popular voteand 178 of the 261 electoralvotes, a clear victory. Much ofhis support came from theWest and South, where ruraland small-town residents,many voting for the first time,saw Jackson as the candidatemost likely to represent theirinterests.

As president, Jackson ac-tively tried to make the gov-ernment more inclusive. In aneffort to strengthen democracy,

he vigorously utilized the spoils system, the practiceof appointing people to government jobs based onparty loyalty and support. In his view, he was gettingrid of a permanent office-holding class and openingup the government to more ordinary citizens.

Jackson’s supporters also moved to make thepolitical system—specifically, the way in which pres-idential candidates were chosen—more democratic.At that time, political parties used the caucus systemto select presidential candidates. The members of theparty who served in Congress would hold a closedmeeting, or caucus, to choose the party’s nominee.Jackson’s supporters believed that such a methodrestricted access to office to mainly the elite and wellconnected. The Jacksonians replaced the caucus withthe national nominating convention, where delegatesfrom the states gathered to decide on the party’spresidential nominee.

The Nullification Crisis Jackson had not been inoffice long before he had to focus on a national crisis.It centered on South Carolina but highlighted thegrowing rift between the nation’s northern andsouthern regions.

During the early 1800s, South Carolina’s economyhad been growing increasingly weak. Many residentsblamed their troubles on the nation’s tariffs. With lit-tle state industry, South Carolina purchased many ofits manufactured goods from England. Tariffs made


36˚ 30 NMissouri Compromise Line

Claimed by U.S.and Great Britain

UNORGANIZEDTERRITORY

OREGONCOUNTRY

ARK. TERR.

FLORIDATERRITORY

MICHIGANTERRITORY

S.C.

N.C.

N.J.

N.Y.

VT.

MAINE

CONN.

MASS.N.H.

R.I.

DEL.MD.VA.

KY.

TENN.

GA.ALA.MISS.

ILL.

MO.

IND.OHIO

PA.

LA.

MEXICO

The Missouri Compromise, 1820

States admitted under conditionsof the Missouri Compromise

States and territories closed to slavery

States and territories open to slavery

1. Interpreting Maps The Missouri Compromise allowedwhich two states to enter the Union?

2. Applying Geography Skills Why did the South readilyagree to making slavery illegal in the unorganizedLouisiana Territory?

these items extremely expensive. When Congresslevied a new tariff in 1828—which critics called theTariff of Abominations—many South Caroliniansthreatened to secede, or withdraw, from the Union.

The growing turmoil particularly troubled VicePresident John C. Calhoun, who was from SouthCarolina. To pave the way for his home state tolegally resist the tariff, Calhoun had put forth theidea of nullification in 1828. He argued that becausethe states had created the federal union, they had theright to declare a federal law null, or not valid.

The issue of nullification intensified in January1830, when Senators Robert Hayne of South Carolinaand Daniel Webster of Massachusetts confrontedeach other on the Senate floor. Hayne, asserting thatthe Union was no more than a voluntary associationof states, advocated “liberty first and Union after-ward.” Webster, perhaps the greatest orator of hisday, countered that neither liberty nor the Unioncould survive without binding federal laws. Heended his speech with a stirring call: “Liberty andUnion, now and for ever, one and inseparable!”

The war of words erupted into an explosive situa-tion in 1832 when Congress passed yet another tarifflaw. South Carolinians stepped up their call for seces-sion, while a special session of the state legislaturevoted to nullify the law. President Jackson considerednullification an act of treason and sent a warship toCharleston. As tensions rose, Senator Henry Claymanaged to defuse the crisis. At Clay’s insistence,Congress passed a bill that would lower tariffs grad-ually until 1842. South Carolina then repealed its nul-lification of the tariff law.

Native American Removal Slavery remained adivisive question, but President Jackson decided tofocus on other matters, including Native Americans.Although Jackson wanted to ensure the survival ofNative American peoples, he accelerated an effortthat had been going on for years—moving them outof the way of white settlers. In 1830 Jackson signedthe Indian Removal Act, which helped the states relo-cate Native Americans to largely uninhabited regionswest of the Mississippi River.

The Cherokee in Georgia fought back by appeal-ing to the Supreme Court, hoping that their territorialrights would be legally recognized. Chief JusticeMarshall supported the Cherokees’ right to controltheir land in two decisions, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia(1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832). Jackson refusedto carry out the Court’s decision. “Marshall has madehis opinion,” the president reportedly said, “now lethim enforce it.” ; (See page 1007 for more information onWorcester v. Georgia.)

In 1838 Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s successor, sentin the army to forcibly move the Cherokee. Roughly2,000 Cherokee died in camps while waiting for thewestward march to begin. On the journey, known tothe Cherokee as the Trail of Tears, about 2,000 othersdied of starvation, disease, and exposure.

Missionary-minded religious groups and a fewmembers of Congress, like Henry Clay, declared thatJackson’s policies toward Native Americans stainedthe nation’s honor. Most citizens, however, sup-ported them. By 1838 the majority of NativeAmericans still living east of the Mississippi hadbeen forced onto government reservations.

i n H i s t o r y

John C. Calhoun1782-1850

John C. Calhoun of South Carolinahad a great impact on the history of theUnited States. As an influential memberof Congress, he had urged war withGreat Britain in 1812. He also was anardent nationalist in his early career.After the War of 1812, Calhoun helpedintroduce congressional bills for a newBank of the United States, a permanent

road system to bind the nation together,and a tariff to protect the nation’s indus-tries. In the 1830s Calhoun abandonedhis nationalist stance in favor of states’rights and sectional interests. Fearingthat the North intended to dominate theSouth, Calhoun spent the rest of hiscareer trying to prevent the federal gov-ernment from weakening states’ rightsand from interfering with the Southernway of life.


A New Party Emerges President Jackson alsodecided to dismantle the Second Bank of the UnitedStates. He resented the power that its wealthy stock-holders exercised. Jackson vetoed a bill that wouldhave extended the Bank’s charter for 20 years. Then,by withdrawing the government’s deposits, heforced the Bank to end.

By the mid-1830s, those who criticized Jackson’sdecision had formed a new political party, theWhigs. Led by former National Republicans likeHenry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and DanielWebster, the Whigs wanted to expand the federalgovernment, encourage industrial and commercialdevelopment, and create a centralized economy.Such policies differed from those of the Democrats,who favored a limited federal government. TheWhigs ran three candidates for president in the elec-tion of 1836. Jackson’s continuing popularity, how-ever, helped assure victory for his handpickedsuccessor, Democrat Martin Van Buren.

Shortly after Van Buren took office, a cripplingeconomic crisis hit the nation. The roots of the crisisstretched back to the end of Jackson’s term, a periodin which investment in roads, canals, and railroadsboomed, prompting a wave of land speculation andbank lending. This heavy spending pushed up infla-tion, which Jackson feared eventually would renderthe nation’s paper currency worthless. Just before

leaving office, therefore, Jackson issued theSpecie Circular, which ordered that all pay-ments for public lands must be made in theform of silver or gold.

Jackson’s directive set off the Panic of 1837.With easy paper credit no longer available,land sales plummeted and economic growthslowed. In addition, the National Bank,which could have helped stabilize the econ-omy, no longer existed. As a result, manybanks and businesses failed and thousands offarmers lost their land through foreclosures.Van Buren, a firm believer in his party’s phi-losophy of limited federal government, didlittle to ease the crisis.

With Van Buren clearly vulnerable, theWhigs easily won the 1840 election by nomi-nating General William Henry Harrison, ahero of the battle against Native Americans atTippecanoe in 1811. Harrison, who spoke athis inauguration for two hours in bitter coldwithout coat or hat, died one month later of

pneumonia. Vice President John Tyler, a Southernerand former Democrat who had left his party inprotest over the nullification issue, then took over.

Tyler’s ascendancy to the presidency dismayedWhig leaders. Tyler sided with the Democrats onnumerous key issues, refusing to support a highertariff or a new national bank. The new president didwin praise, however, for the 1842 Webster-AshburtonTreaty, which established a firm boundary betweenthe United States and Canada.

Summarizing What caused thenullification crisis?

The Reform Spirit

The Second Great Awakening brought an eraof reform.

Reading Connection Identify a local, national, or worldissue that you believe citizens and lawmakers need to address.Why is this issue important to you? Read on to find out aboutthe issues that attracted the attention of reformers during the mid-1800s.

During the mid-1800s, many citizens worked toreform various aspects of American society. Thereform movement stemmed in large part from arevival of religion that began at the turn of thecentury.

Reading Check


Major American Political Parties Since 1789

Federalist

Democratic-Republican

National Republican

Democratic

Whig

Republican

1789 1804 1820 1836 1852 1868 1884 1900 1916 1932 1948 1964 1980 19961796 1812 1828 1844 1860 1876 1892 1908 1924 1940 1956 1972 1988 2002

Source: Governing by Consent

1. Interpreting Graphs What party shown had theshortest life span?

2. Comparing How long have Republicans and Demo-crats been major political rivals?

The Second Great Awakening Many churchleaders sensed that the growth of scientific knowl-edge and rationalism were challenging the doc-trine of faith. In the early 1800s, religious leadersorganized to revive Americans’ commitment to reli-gion. The resulting movement came to be called the Second Great Awakening. Various Protestantdenominations—most often the Methodists, Baptists,and Presbyterians—held camp meetings wherethousands of followers sang, prayed, and partici-pated in emotional outpourings of faith. One of themost successful ministers was Charles G. Finney, aformer lawyer. Using some methods he learned incourt, Finney pioneered many methods of revivalismevangelists still use today.

As membership in many Protestant churchesswelled, other religious groups also flourished.Among them were Unitarianism, Universalism, andthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whosefollowers are commonly known as Mormons. JosephSmith began preaching the Mormon faith in NewYork in the 1820s. After enduring much harassment inNew York, Ohio, Missouri, and elsewhere, Mormonsacross the Midwest moved to Illinois. There the groupprospered, and their settlement of Nauvoo grew toabout 15,000 in 1844. Persecution continued, however,and following the murder of Joseph Smith, theMormons headed west, finally putting down perma-nent roots in the Utah Territory.

Revivalists preached the power of individuals toimprove themselves and the world. Lyman Beecher,one of the nation’s most prominent Presbyterian min-isters, insisted that the nation’s citi-zenry, more than its government, wasresponsible for building a better society.

Associations known as benevolentsocieties sprang up in cities and townsacross the country. At first, they focusedon spreading the word of God andattempting to convert nonbelievers.Soon, they sought to combat a numberof social problems. One of the moststriking features of the reform effort wasthe overwhelming presence of women.Young women in particular had joinedthe revivalist movement in much largernumbers than men. One reason was thatmany unmarried women with uncer-tain futures discovered in religion afoundation on which to build their lives.As more women turned to the church,many of them also joined religious-based reform groups.

Social Reform The optimism and emphasis on theindividual found in religion gave rise to dozens ofutopian communities in which people wanted to finda better life. While only a few chose that path, manymore attempted to reform society instead. A numberof these reformers, many of them women, arguedthat no social vice caused more crime, poverty, orfamily damage than the excessive use of alcohol.

Although advocates of temperance, or modera-tion in the consumption of alcohol, had been activesince the late 1700s, the new reformers energized thecampaign. Temperance groups formed across thecountry, preaching the evils of alcohol and urgingheavy drinkers to give up liquor. In 1833 a number ofgroups formed a national organization, the AmericanTemperance Union, to strengthen the movement.

While persuading people not to drink, temperancesocieties pushed to halt the sale of liquor. In 1851Maine passed the first state prohibition law, an exam-ple a dozen other states followed by 1855. Otherstates passed “local option” laws, which allowedtowns and villages to prohibit liquor sales withintheir boundaries.

Other reformers focused on prisons and educa-tion. Around 1816 many states began replacing over-crowded prisons with new penitentiaries whereprisoners were to be rehabilitated rather than simply


Religious Zeal J. Maze Burban’s Religious Camp Meeting shows a charis-matic preacher reaching many in the audience. From studying the image, canyou suggest other reasons people might want to attend?

History Through Art

locked up. States also began funding schools inwhich students would become better-educatedworkers and voters.

The Women’s Movement Since women had novote in the 1800s and did not need to become educatedvoters, they were largely left out of the educationreform. In addition, with the rise of factories and otherwork centers in the 1800s, men left home to go towork, while women tended the house and children.

Most people believed the home was the properplace for women, partly because the outside worldwas seen as dangerous and partly because of theera’s ideas about the family. For many parents, rais-ing children was treated as a solemn responsibilitybecause it prepared young people for a properChristian life. Women were viewed as better able toserve as models of piety and virtue for their families.At that time, most women did not feel that their rolein life was too limited. Instead, the era’s ideasimplied that wives were partners with their hus-bands, and, in some ways, morally superior.

Nonetheless, a number of women took advantageof the reform movement to create more educationalopportunities for girls and women. The early 1800ssaw the funding of schools for girls that taught academic subjects. In 1837 the first higher educationinstitution for women, Mount Holyoke FemaleSeminary in Massachusetts, opened.

The idea that women had an important role inbuilding a virtuous home was soon expanded to soci-ety. As women became involved in reform move-ments, some argued for the right to promote theirideas. In 1848 activists Lucretia Mott and ElizabethCady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Conventionin New York. This gathering of women reformersmarked the beginning of an organized woman’smovement. The convention issued the Declaration ofSentiments and Resolutions, better known as theSeneca Falls Declaration. It began with words expand-ing the Declaration of Independence: “We hold thesetruths to be self-evident: that all men and women arecreated equal. . . .” ; (See page 994 for more information onthe Seneca Falls Declaration.)

Although Stanton shocked the women presentwhen she proposed a focus on suffrage, or the rightto vote, the convention narrowly passed her pro-posal. Throughout the 1850s, women organized con-ventions to promote greater rights for themselves.

The Abolitionist Movement Of all the reformmovements that began in the early 1800s, the move-ment calling for abolition, or the immediate end to

slavery, was the most divisive. By pitting Northagainst South, it polarized the nation and helpedbring about the Civil War.

Opposition to slavery in the United States hadactually begun as early as the Revolutionary War era.Quakers and Baptists in the North and South agreednot to enslave people, viewing the practice as a sinthat corrupted both slaveholder and slave. In Virginiain 1789, the Baptists recommended “every legal meas-ure to [wipe out] this horrid evil from the land.”

One notable antislavery effort in the early 1800swas the formation of the American ColonizationSociety (ACS) in December 1816. This group, sup-ported by such prominent figures as President JamesMonroe and Chief Justice John Marshall, encouragedAfrican Americans to resettle in Africa. The privatelyfunded ACS chartered ships and helped relocatebetween 12,000 and 20,000 African Americans alongthe west coast of Africa in what became the nation ofLiberia. Still, there were more than 1.5 millionenslaved persons in the United States in 1820. Many ofthem, already two or three generations removed fromAfrica, strongly objected to the idea of resettlement.

The antislavery movement gained new momen-tum in the 1830s, thanks largely to William LloydGarrison. In his newspaper, the Liberator, Garrisoncalled for the immediate emancipation, or freeing, ofenslaved persons. Garrison attracted enough follow-ers to found the New England Antislavery Society in1832 and the American Antislavery Society in 1833.

Many women also gave their efforts to the aboli-tionist cause. Prudence Crandall worked as a teacherand abolitionist in Connecticut. Lucretia Mott alsospoke out in favor of abolition. Some Southernwomen, such as the South Carolina sisters Sarah andAngelina Grimké, also joined the crusade.

African American Abolitionists Not surpris-ingly, free African Americans took a prominent role inthe abolitionist movement. The most famous wasFrederick Douglass, who had escaped from slaveryin Maryland. He published his own antislavery news-paper, the North Star, and an autobiography. Anotherimportant African American abolitionist wasSojourner Truth. She gained freedom in 1827 whenNew York freed all remaining enslaved persons in thestate. In the 1840s her eloquent and deeply religiousantislavery speeches attracted huge crowds.

While many Northerners disapproved of slavery,some objected to abolitionism even more. Theyregarded the movement as a dangerous threat to theexisting social system. Some whites, including manyprominent businesspeople, warned that it would


produce a destructive war between the North and theSouth. Others feared it might bring a great influx offreed African Americans to the North, overwhelmingthe labor and housing markets. Many Northernersalso had no desire to see the South’s economy crum-ble. If that happened, they might lose the huge sumsSouthern planters owed to Northern banks as well asthe Southern cotton that fed Northern textile mills.

To most Southerners, slavery was a “peculiar insti-tution,” one that was distinctive and vital to theSouthern way of life. The South had remained mostlyagricultural, becoming increasingly tied to cottonand the enslaved people who planted and picked it.Southerners responded to the growing attacksagainst slavery by vehemently defending the institu-tion. South Carolina’s governor called it a “nationalbenefit,” while Thomas Dew, a leading academic ofthe South, claimed that most slaves had no desire forfreedom, as they enjoyed a close and beneficial rela-tionship with their slaveholders. “We have no hesita-tion in affirming,” he declared, “that . . . the slaves ofgood [slaveholders] are his warmest, most constant,and most devoted friends.”

In 1831, when a slave rebellion left more than 50white Virginians dead, Southerners were outraged.They cracked down on slaves throughout the regionand railed against the North. Further, they demandedthe suppression of abolitionist material as a conditionfor remaining in the Union. Southern postal workersrefused to deliver abolitionist newspapers. In 1836,under Southern pressure, the House of Representativespassed a “gag rule” providing that all abolitionist peti-tions be shelved without debate.


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: spoils system,

caucus, item, secede, nullification, temperance, academic, abolition,emancipation.

2. People and Terms Identify: MissouriCompromise, John C. Calhoun, Trail ofTears, Whig, Second Great Awakening,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, FrederickDouglass.

3. Places Locate: Missouri, Seneca Falls.4. Describe the changes President

Jackson instituted in order to make government more inclusive anddemocratic.

Reviewing Big Ideas5. Explaining What were the issues

behind the Missouri Compromise?

Critical Thinking6. Understanding

Change How did the Second GreatAwakening affect the reform spirit ofthe mid-1800s?

7. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to identify keyfacts about the political parties active inthe 1830s.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examining Art Study the painting on

page 187 of the camp meeting. Whatelements of the image suggest that therevival attracted many working-classpeople?

CA HI2Writing About History

9. Persuasive Writing Imagine that youare active in one of the reform move-ments of the early 1800s. Write aspeech to persuade others to supportyour cause. Make sure you clearlydescribe your cause and include at least three reasons why others shouldsupport it. CA 11WS1.1

Party Leaders Policies

Democrats

Whigs

Frederick Douglass (center left) attending an abolitionist rallyin Cazenovia, New York, in August 1850

➤Such measures did not deter the foes of slavery.

Although the abolitionist movement was still rela-tively small, it continued to cause an uproar, and theNorth-South split continued to widen.

Comparing How did Northerners’views on abolition differ from those of Southerners?

Reading Check


tav.mt.glencoe.com




Old-FashionedSchool Days

Public schools in the early to mid-1800swere rough-and-ready affairs. Studentscame in all ages and sizes, teachers oftenhad little training, and books and supplieswere hard to obtain.


• School Desk

• Hand BellIn a lot of schools, teach-ers rang the hand bell tocall their students to class.Most districts could notafford an expensive belltower, so teachers stoodin the doorway or school-yard to ring the bell.

• First ReadersGenerations of students used McGuffey’s Readers, first pro-duced in the 1830s by William McGuffey. His readers—the firstEclectic Reader is pictured here—ranged from simple toadvanced and aimed to give students a happy, positive feel-ing. A college president at the end of his life, McGuffey beganteaching in frontier Ohio schools when he was only 13.

(t)National Museum of American History/Smithsonian Institution, (c)Ron Huntley, (b)Royalty-Free/CORBIS

UNDERSTANDING THE TIME

Checking for Understanding1. Explaining Why would an increase in voting rights

be a reason for broader public education?

Critical Thinking2. Synthesizing What could you have done to mini-

mize the distractions in a one-room schoolhouse?

• One-Room SchoolhouseThe painting New England School byCharles Frederick Bosworth tells the taleof teachers’ challenges in early publicschools. With a mixed-aged class, theteacher had to teach a few students at a time, leaving the others to their owneducation—or entertainment.

• School LunchPail

• School Ink Jar

(t)Massachusetts Historical Society, (c)Mercer Museum/Bucks County Historical Society, (b)Picture Research Consultants


Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous section, you learnedabout social reform and growing ten-sions between states. In this section, youwill discover how slavery continued todivide the country and how the electionof Abraham Lincoln as president resultedin the secession of Southern states.

• In the 1840s, the nation expanded assettlers moved west. (p. 193)

• Continuing disagreements over thewestward expansion of slaveryincreased sectional tensions betweenthe North and South. (p. 195)

• The slavery controversy shook up politi-cal parties and accelerated the crisisbetween North and South. (p. 198)

• The election of Abraham Lincoln led the Southern states to secede from theUnion. (p. 199)

Content VocabularyManifest Destiny, annexation, popularsovereignty, secession, UndergroundRailroad, transcontinental railroad, insur-rection, Confederacy

Academic Vocabularyadjacent, prospect

People and Terms to IdentifyJohn C. Frémont, Bear Flag Republic,Wilmot Proviso, Harriet Tubman,Republican Party, Dred Scott, Crittenden’sCompromise, Jefferson Davis

Places to LocateHarpers Ferry

Reading Objectives• Describe the issues surrounding the

War with Mexico and the statehood ofTexas and California.

• Evaluate how the Fugitive Slave Actand the transcontinental railroadheightened sectional tensions.

• Analyze the significance of the DredScott decision and John Brown’s raidon Harpers Ferry.

• Explain how the election of AbrahamLincoln as president led to the seces-sion of the South.

Reading StrategyOrganizing Complete a graphic organ-izer similar to the one below to describethe outcomes of disputes that arose dur-ing this period.

Preview of Events

Manifest Destiny and Crisis

1846Oregon boundary dispute settled

1854Kansas-Nebraska Act adopted

1857Supreme Court announcesDred Scott decision

✦1850 ✦18551860South Carolina secedesfrom the Union

Dispute Outcome

✦1860✦1845

. The Big Idea ,Differences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to divisionwithin a nation. As the United States continued to expand even farther west, sec-tionalism and disagreements over slavery in the new territories continued to plaguethe nation. The crisis between free states and slave states resulted in the destructionof the Whig Party and division within other political parties. After the raid on HarpersFerry, Southern Democrats became convinced that Northerners and Republicanswould stop at nothing to end slavery. Spurred by failing compromises and the elec-tion of Abraham Lincoln as president, Southern states seceded from the Union, pro-claimed themselves a separate nation known as the Confederate States of America,and appointed Jefferson Davis as their president.


11.1.3 Understand the history of theConstitution after 1787 with emphasis

on federal versus state authority andgrowing democratization.

11.2.6 Trace the development of theUnited States and its emergence as a

major industrial power, including itsgains from trade and the advantages of

its physical geography.

11.10.2 Examine and analyze the keyevents, policies, and court cases in the

evolution of civil rights, including DredScott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson,

Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke,

and California Proposition 209.

Manifest Destiny

In the 1840s, the nation expanded as settlersmoved west.

Reading Connection To which country did Californiaand Texas belong before they became part of the United States?Read on to learn how the two states entered the Union.

With the Louisiana Purchase opening up the West,thousands of people began pushing into the Midwestand beyond, journeying all the way to California andthe Oregon Territory.

In July 1821, Stephen F. Austin set off from Louisianafor the Texas territory in the northeastern corner ofMexico. The Spanish government had promised togive his father, Moses, a huge tract of Texas land if theelder Austin settled 300 families there from the UnitedStates. Moses died before he could fulfill his end of the deal. On his deathbed, his dying wish was thatStephen take his place in Texas.

Stephen Austin was favorably impressed with theregion. As he surveyed the land grant between theBrazos and Colorado Rivers, he noted its naturalabundance:

“The Prairie comes bluff to the river . . . and affordsa most beautiful situation for a Town or settlement. . . .The country . . . is as good in every respect as mancould wish for, Land all first rate, plenty of timber, fine water, beautifully rolling.”

—quoted in Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas

Between the late 1830s and early 1860s, more than250,000 Americans braved great obstacles to venturewest along overland trails.

Pushing West The opportunity to farm fertile soil,enter the fur trade, or trade with foreign nationsacross the Pacific lured farmers, adventurers, andmerchants alike. Most emigrants, like the majority ofAmericans, believed in Manifest Destiny. ManifestDestiny was the idea that the nation was meant tospread to the Pacific.

Latecomers to the Midwest set their sights onCalifornia and Oregon, although other nations hadalready claimed parts of these lands. The United

States and Great Britain had agreed in 1818 to occupythe Oregon land jointly. The British dominated theregion until about 1840, when the enthusiasticreports of American missionaries began to attractlarge numbers of would-be farmers to the region.

California was a frontier province of Mexico.Because few Mexicans wanted to make their homesin California, the local government welcomed for-eign settlers. By 1845 more than 700 Americans livedin and around the Sacramento Valley. Though thecentral government in Mexico City relied on theseAmerican settlers, it was suspicious about theirnational loyalties.

By the 1840s, several east-to-west routes had beencarved, including the Oregon Trail, the CaliforniaTrail, and the Santa Fe Trail. As the overland trafficincreased, the Plains Indians came to resent the threatit posed to their way of life. They feared that the buf-falo herds, on which they relied for food, shelter,clothing, and tools, would die off or migrate else-where. Hoping to ensure peace, the federal govern-ment negotiated the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851.Eight Plains Indian groups agreed to specific geo-graphic boundaries, while the United States prom-ised that the defined territories would belong to the Native Americans forever. White settlers stillstreamed across the plains, however, provokingNative American hostility.


Stephen F. Austin

➤

Texas and Oregon Enter the Union One of theregions settled was the Mexican region of Texas,which at the time was part of the state of Coahuila.Although Mexico at first had encouraged Americansto settle there, tensions developed. Mexicans dis-trusted the Americans who refused to accept the con-ditions of Mexico’s offer. When Mexico in 1830 closedits borders to further immigration, the settlers, underthe leadership of Stephen Austin and Sam Houston,tried to negotiate changes to that policy. Repeated

attempts failed, and theydecided to separate fromTexas and organize their own government. Devastat-ing losses at the Alamo andGoliad galvanized the Amer-icans, who were able to defeatMexican forces at the Battle ofSan Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

Five months later, inSeptember, the citizens ofTexas voted in favor of annex-ation—absorption—by theUnited States. However, Texaswished to enter the Union as aslave state, which antislaveryleaders opposed. In addition,Mexico continued to claimownership of Texas. To avoidconflict, President AndrewJackson made no movetoward annexation.

Texas statehood became akey issue as the presidentialrace of 1844 began. TheDemocratic nominee, James K.Polk of Tennessee, promisedto annex not only Texas butalso the contested OregonTerritory in the Northwest. Inaddition, he vowed to buyCalifornia from Mexico. Theplatform appealed to bothNortherners and Southernersbecause it furthered ManifestDestiny while promising tomaintain the delicate balancebetween free and slave states.

The Whig nominee, Henry Clay, originally opposedannexing Texas. He later announced his support ofannexation if it could be done without causing warwith Mexico. Many Whigs opposed to slavery felt sobetrayed that they gave their support to James G.Birney of the pro-abolition Liberty Party. With theWhig vote split, Polk won the election. Even beforePolk took office, in February 1845, Congress passed ajoint resolution to annex Texas, and in December1845, Texas became a state. Six months later, Britainand the United States agreed to divide Oregon alongthe 49th parallel. Britain took the Canadian provinceof British Columbia, and the Americans received theland that later became the states of Oregon,Washington, and Idaho.


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SacramentoFeb. 1847

Buena VistaFeb. 1847

MonterreySept. 1846

Mexico CitySept. 1847

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1. Interpreting Maps Which American officer assistedFrémont’s attacks in northern California?

2. Applying Geography Skills What land did the UnitedStates obtain under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

The War With Mexico, 1846–1848

War With Mexico Texas’s entry into the Unionoutraged the Mexican government, which promptlybroke diplomatic relations with the United States.Matters worsened when the two countries disputedTexas’s southwestern border.

President Polk’s designs on California added tothe conflict. In November 1845, he sent John Slidell asan envoy to Mexico City to try to purchase Californiaand resolve other differences. Mexico’s new presi-dent, José Joaquín Herrera, refused even to meet withSlidell.

With no realistic chance of a diplomatic solution,the president ordered General Zachary Taylor inJanuary 1846 to lead troops across the Nueces Riverinto territory claimed by both the United States andMexico. Polk wanted Mexican troops to fire the firstshot. If he could say Mexico was the aggressor, hecould more easily win support for a war. Finally, onMay 9, news reached him that a force of Mexicanshad attacked Taylor’s men. Four days later, theSenate and House both overwhelmingly voted infavor of the war.

Even before war with Mexico was officiallydeclared, settlers in northern California, led byAmerican general John C. Frémont, had begun anuprising. The official Mexican presence in the terri-tory had never been strong, and the settlers had littletrouble overcoming it. On June 14, 1846, theydeclared California independent and renamed theregion the Bear Flag Republic. Within a month,American navy forces arrived to occupy the ports ofSan Francisco and San Diego and claim the republicfor the United States.

Despite the loss of California and defeat in severalbattles, Mexico refused to surrender. Polk decided tosend General Winfield Scott to seize Mexico City.After a 6-month campaign beginning in the GulfCoast city of Veracruz, Scott’s forces capturedMexico’s capital in September 1847.

Defeated, Mexico’s leaders signed the Treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. Mexicogave the United States more than 500,000 squaremiles (1,295,000 sq. km) of territory—what are nowthe states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well asmost of Arizona and New Mexico and parts ofColorado and Wyoming. Mexico also accepted theRio Grande as the southern border of Texas. In

return, the United States paid Mexico $15 million andtook over $3.25 million in debts the Mexican govern-ment owed to American citizens.

With Oregon and the former Mexican territoriesnow under the U.S. flag, the dream of ManifestDestiny had been realized, but this expansion hadcost more than 12,000 American lives. Furthermore,the question of whether the new lands should allowslavery would soon lead the country into anotherbloody conflict.

Explaining What is the idea ofManifest Destiny?

Slavery and Western Expansion

Continuing disagreements over the west-ward expansion of slavery increased sectional tensionsbetween the North and South.

Reading Connection Under what circumstances, if any,do you believe that citizens are justified in disobeying a law?Read on to learn how some Northerners responded to theFugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required them to aid in thecapture of runaway slaves.

When California applied for statehood, attemptsby Congress to find a compromise further height-ened opposing viewpoints on slavery.

Reading Check


Independence for California In June 1846, John C. Frémont and otherCalifornia settlers declared their independence from Mexico. When didCalifornia become part of the United States?

History

Impact of the War With Mexico In August1846, Representative David Wilmot, a Democrat fromPennsylvania, proposed that in any territory theUnited States gained from Mexico, “neither slaverynor involuntary servitude shall ever exist.” Despitefierce Southern opposition, a coalition of NorthernDemocrats and Whigs passed the Wilmot Proviso inthe House of Representatives. The Senate refused tovote on it. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolinaargued that Americans settling in the territories hadthe right to bring along their property, includingenslaved laborers, and that Congress had no powerto ban slavery in the territories.

Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan suggested that thecitizens of each new territory should be allowed todecide for themselves if they wanted to permit slav-ery. This idea, which came to be called popular sov-ereignty, appealed strongly to many members ofCongress because it removed the slavery issue fromnational politics. It also appeared democratic, sincethe settlers themselves would make the decision.Abolitionists, however, argued that it still deniedAfrican Americans their right to be free.

As the 1848 election approached, both major can-didates—Democrat Lewis Cass and General Zachary

Taylor, the Whig nominee—sidestepped the slaveryissue. Many Northern opponents of slavery decidedto join with members of the abolitionist Liberty Partyto form the Free-Soil Party, which opposed thespread of slavery onto the “free soil” of the westernterritories. Adopting the slogan “Free soil, freespeech, free labor, and free men,” they chose formerpresident Martin Van Buren as their candidate. OnElection Day, support for the Free-Soilers pulledvotes away from the Democrats. When the ballotswere counted, the Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor,had won a narrow victory.

Congress Struggles for a Compromise Withina year of President Taylor’s inauguration, the issue ofslavery took center stage. A year earlier, in January1848, a carpenter named James Marshall found tracesof gold in a stream near a sawmill in Sacramento,California. Word of the find leaked out, and SanFranciscans abandoned their homes and businessesto pile into wagons and head to the mountains insearch of gold. During the summer, news of the findswept all the way to the East Coast and beyond, andthe California Gold Rush was on.

By the end of 1849, over 80,000 “Forty-Niners” hadarrived in California hoping to make their fortunes.Mining towns sprang up overnight, and the frenzyfor gold led to chaos and violence. Needing a stronggovernment to maintain order, Californians decidedto seek statehood. With the encouragement ofPresident Taylor, California applied to enter theUnion as a free state in December 1849.

At the time, there were 15 free states and 15 slavestates. If California tipped the balance, the slavehold-ing states would become a minority in the Senate.Southerners dreaded losing power in national poli-tics, fearful it would lead to limits on slavery. A fewSouthern politicians began to talk of secession—tak-ing their states out of the Union.

In early 1850, one of the most senior and influen-tial leaders in the Senate, Henry Clay of Kentucky,tried to find a compromise that would enableCalifornia to join the Union and resolve other sec-tional disputes. Among other resolutions, Clay pro-posed allowing California to come in as a free stateand organizing the rest of the Mexican cession with-out any restrictions on slavery. Clay further proposedthat Congress would be prohibited from interferingwith the domestic slave trade and would pass astronger law to help Southerners recover AfricanAmerican runaways. These measures were intendedto assure the South that the North would not try toabolish slavery after California joined the Union.


Poster calling for antislavery meeting

➤

Clay’s proposal triggered a massive debate inCongress. When President Taylor, who opposed thecompromise, died unexpectedly of cholera in July1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore succeeded himand quickly threw his support behind the measure.By September, Congress had passed all parts of theCompromise of 1850, which had been divided intoseveral smaller bills.

The Fugitive Slave Act To Northerners, one of themost objectionable components of the Compromiseof 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Act. Under this law, aslaveholder or slavecatcher had only to point outalleged runaways to have them taken into custody.The accused would then be brought before a federalcommissioner. With no right to testify on their ownbehalf, even those who had earned their freedomyears earlier had no way to prove their case. An affi-davit asserting that the captive had escaped from aslaveholder, or testimony by white witnesses, was alla court needed to order the person sent South.Furthermore, federal commissioners had a financialincentive to rule in favor of slaveholders: such judg-ments earned them a $10 fee, while judgments infavor of the accused paid only $5.

In addition, the act required federal marshals toassist slavecatchers. Marshals could even deputizecitizens to help them. It was this requirement thatdrove many Northerners into active defiance. Theabolitionist Frederick Douglass, himself an escapeefrom slavery, would work crowds into a furor overthis part of the law. Northerners justified their defi-ance of the Fugitive Slave Act on moral grounds. Inhis 1849 essay “Civil Disobedience,” Henry DavidThoreau wrote that if the law “requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.”

A key to many African Americans’ escape from theSouth was the Underground Railroad. This informalbut well-organized network of abolitionists helpedthousands of enslaved persons flee north.“Conductors” transported runaways in secret, gavethem shelter and food along the way, and saw themto freedom in the Northern states or Canada withsome money for a fresh start. The most famous con-ductor was Harriet Tubman, herself a runaway.Again and again, she risked journeys into the slavestates to bring out men, women, and children.

New Territorial Troubles The opening of theOregon country and the admission of California tothe Union brought further problems. Many peoplebecame convinced of the need for a transcontinental

railroad to promote growth in the territories alongthe route. The choice of the railroad’s eastern startingpoint, though was contentious.

Many Southerners favored the southern route,from New Orleans to San Diego. Since part of thatroute would lead through northern Mexico, theUnited States purchased the necessary land for $10 million. Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglasof Illinois, though, wanted the eastern starting pointto be in Chicago. He knew that any route from thenorth would run through the unsettled lands west ofMissouri and Iowa and prepared a bill to organizethe region into a new territory to be called Nebraska.Key Southern committee leaders prevented this billfrom coming to a vote in the Senate. These senatorsmade it clear that before Nebraska could be organ-ized, Congress would have to repeal part of theMissouri Compromise and allow slavery in the newterritory.

At first, Douglas tried to gain Southern supportfor his bill by saying that any states organized in thenew Nebraska territory would be allowed to exercisepopular sovereignty, deciding themselves whether toallow slavery. When this did not satisfy Southern


Legislative Item

• California admitted to the Union as free state

• Popular sovereignty to determine slavery issue in Utah and New Mexico territories

• Texas border dispute with New Mexico resolved

• Texas receives $10 million

• Slave trade, but not slavery itself, abolished in the District of Columbia

• Strong federal enforcement of new Fugitive Slave Act

Victory for?

Clear victory for the North

Moderate victory for both sides

Moderate Southern victories

Moderate Northern victory

Clear victory for the South

The Compromise of 1850

1. Interpreting Charts Did the newFugitive Slave Act appeal to the Northor the South?

2. Generalizing Which side, North orSouth, achieved more of its goals inthe Compromise of 1850?

leaders in the Senate, Douglas proposed to repeal theantislavery provision of the Missouri Compromiseand to divide the region into two territories.Nebraska, adjacent to the free state of Iowa,appeared to become a free state, while, located westof the slave state of Missouri, Kansas would becomea slave state. Warned that the South might secedewithout such concessions, President Pierce eventu-ally gave his support to the bill. Despite fierce oppo-sition, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act inMay 1854.

Intent on creating an antislavery majority, hordesof Northerners hurried into Kansas. Before the Marchelections of 1855, however, thousands of armedMissourians—called “border ruffians” in the press—swarmed across the border to vote illegally, helpingto elect a pro-slavery legislature. Furious antislaverysettlers countered by drafting their own constitutionthat prohibited slavery. By March 1856, Kansas hadtwo governments, one opposed to slavery and theother supporting it. As more Northern settlersarrived, border ruffians began attacks. “BleedingKansas,” as newspapers dubbed the territory, hadbecome the scene of a territorial civil war betweenpro-slavery and antislavery settlers.

Analyzing Why did theCompromise of 1850 not succeed in ending sectional division?

Reading Check

The Crisis Deepens

The slavery controversy shook up politicalparties and accelerated the crisis between North andSouth.

Reading Connection Do you know of Supreme Courtdecisions that have sparked major debates? Read on to learnabout Dred Scott, who sued to end his slavery.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act enraged many oppo-nents of slavery because it reopened the territories toslavery and made obsolete the delicate balance previ-ously maintained by the Missouri Compromise.While a few people struck back with violence, othersworked for change through the political system.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act shattered the WhigParty. Many Northern Whigs left their party andjoined forces with Free-Soilers and a few antislaveryDemocrats during the congressional elections of 1854to organize as the Republican Party. Their main goalwas to stop Southern planters from becoming an aris-tocracy that controlled the government. Republicansdid not agree on whether slavery should be abol-ished in the Southern states, but they did agree that ithad to be kept out of the territories. A large majorityof Northern voters shared this view, enabling the

Republicans to make great strides in the elections.At the same time, public anger against the

Northern Democrats enabled the AmericanParty—better known as the Know-Nothingsbecause party members were sworn to secrecy—tomake gains as well, particularly in the Northeast.The American Party was an anti-Catholic andnativist party. In the 1840s and early 1850s, a largenumber of immigrants, many of them Irish andGerman Catholics, had begun to arrive. Prejudiceand fears that immigrants would take away jobsenabled the Know-Nothings to win many seats inCongress and the state legislatures in 1854. Theparty quickly began to founder when Know-

Nothings from the Upper South split with Know-Nothings from the North over theirsupport for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. MostAmericans considered slavery a far moreimportant issue than immigration. Even-tually, the Republican Party absorbed theNorthern Know-Nothings.

The 1856 presidential campaign pittedRepublican John C. Frémont, Democrat JamesBuchanan, and former president MillardFillmore, the Know-Nothing candidate, against

198 CHAPTER 2 Growth and ConflictThe Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka

Bleeding Kansas These antislaverysettlers in Topeka, Kansas, were amongthose on both sides who resorted toviolence. What act triggered violencein Kansas?

History

each other. Buchanan had not taken a public stand onthe Kansas-Nebraska Act and campaigned on theidea that only he could save the Union. When thevotes were counted, Buchanan had won easily.

Sectional Divisions Grow Just two days afterBuchanan’s inauguration, the Supreme Court ruledin a landmark case involving slavery, Dred Scott v.Sandford. Dred Scott was a Missouri slave who hadbeen taken north to work in free territory for severalyears. After he returned with his slaveholder toMissouri, Scott sued to end his slavery, arguing thatliving in free territory had made him a free man. OnMarch 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled againstScott. As part of his decision, Chief Justice Roger B.Taney stated that Congress’s ban on slavery in thewestern territories, enacted as part of the MissouriCompromise, was unconstitutional and void.

While Democrats cheered the Dred Scott decision,Republicans called it a “willful perversion” of theConstitution. They argued that if Dred Scott couldnot legally bring suit, then the Supreme Court shouldhave dismissed the case without considering the con-stitutionality of the Missouri Compromise. ; (Formore on Dred Scott v. Sandford, see page 1004.)

After the Dred Scott decision, the conflict in“Bleeding Kansas” intensified. Hoping to end thetroubles, Buchanan urged the territory to apply forstatehood. The pro-slavery legislature scheduled anelection for delegates to a constitutional convention,but antislavery Kansans boycotted it. The result-ing constitution, drafted in 1857 in the town ofLecompton, legalized slavery in the territory.

An antislavery majority then voted down theLecompton constitution in a territory-wide referen-dum, or popular vote on an issue. Although theSenate approved the vote, Republicans and NorthernDemocrats in the House blocked the measure, argu-ing that it ignored the people’s will. Finally, in 1858,President Buchanan and Southern leaders inCongress agreed to allow another referendum inKansas. Again the voters in Kansas overwhelminglyrejected the Lecompton constitution. Not until 1861did Kansas become a state—a free one.

John Brown’s Raid About a year after the secondrejection of the Lecompton constitution, nationalattention shifted to John Brown, a fervent abolitionistwho opposed slavery not with words but with vio-lence. After pro-slavery forces sacked the town ofLawrence in the Kansas Territory, Brown tookrevenge by abducting and murdering five pro-slavery settlers living near Pottawatomie Creek.

Brown developed a plan to incite an insurrection,or rebellion, against slaveholders. To obtainweapons, he and about 18 followers seized the fed-eral arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now WestVirginia) on the night of October 16, 1859. A contin-gent of U.S. Marines, commanded by Colonel RobertE. Lee, rushed from Washington, D.C., to HarpersFerry. Outnumbered, Brown surrendered, and aVirginia court sentenced him to death.

Many Northerners viewed Brown as a martyr in anoble cause. For most Southerners Brown’s raidoffered all the proof they needed that Northernerswere actively plotting the murder of slaveholders.

Evaluating How did the issue ofKansas statehood reflect the growing division between Northand South?

The Union Dissolves

The election of Abraham Lincoln led theSouthern states to secede from the Union.

Reading Connection Think of a time when you wereunable to compromise over an issue. Read on to learn whySouthern states refused to compromise in 1861 and insteaddecided to secede from the Union, sparking a bloody civil war.

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry became aturning point for the South. Many Southerners wereterrified and enraged by the idea that Northernerswould deliberately try to arm enslaved people andencourage them to rebel. Although Republican lead-ers quickly denounced Brown’s raid, many Southernnewspapers and politicians blamed Republicans forthe attack. To many Southerners, the key point wasthat both the Republicans and John Brown opposedslavery.

In April 1860, with the South still in an uproar,Democrats from across the United States gathered inCharleston, South Carolina, to choose their nomineefor president. Southern Democrats wanted their partyto uphold the Dred Scott decision and defend slave-holders’ rights in the territories. Northern Democrats,led by Stephen Douglas, preferred to continue sup-porting popular sovereignty. When Northerners alsorebuffed the idea of a federal slave code in the territo-ries, 50 Southern delegates stormed out of the conven-tion. The walkout meant that neither Douglas noranyone else could muster the two-thirds majorityneeded to become the party’s nominee.

Reading Check


In June 1860, the Democrats reconvened inBaltimore. Again, Southern delegates walked out.The Democrats who remained then chose StephenDouglas to run for president. The Southerners whohad bolted organized their own convention inRichmond and nominated John C. Breckinridge ofKentucky, the sitting vice president.

Meanwhile, many former Whigs and others werealarmed at the prospect of Southern secession. Theycreated a new party, the Constitutional Union Party,and chose former Tennessee senator John Bell as theircandidate. The party took no position on issuesdividing North and South. Their purpose, they said,was to uphold the Constitution and the Union.

The Republicans, realizing they stood no chance inthe South, needed a candidate who could sweepmost of the North. They turned to Abraham Lincoln,who had gained a national reputation during hisdebates with Douglas. Although not an abolitionist,

Lincoln believed slavery to be morally wrong, and heopposed its spread into western territories.

During the campaign the Republicans remainedtrue to their free-soil principles, but they reaffirmedthe right of the Southern states to preserve slaverywithin their borders. They also supported higher tar-iffs to protect manufacturers and workers, a newhomestead law for settlers in the West, and federalfunds for a transcontinental railroad.

The Republican proposals greatly angered manySoutherners. As expected, Lincoln won no Southernstates; in fact, his name did not even appear on theballot in some states. With the Democrats divided,the Republicans won in only their second nationalcampaign. Lincoln won with the electoral votes of allof the free states except New Jersey, whose votes hesplit with Douglas.

Many Southerners viewed Lincoln’s election as athreat to their society and culture, even their lives.They saw no choice but to secede. The dissolution ofthe Union began with South Carolina, where seces-sionist sentiment had been burning the hottest formany years. Shortly after Lincoln’s election, the statelegislature called for a convention. On December 20,1860, amid marching bands, fireworks, and militiadrills, the convention voted unanimously to repealthe state’s ratification of the Constitution and dis-solve its ties to the Union.

By February 1, 1861, six more states in the LowerSouth—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,Louisiana, and Texas—had also voted to secede.Although a minority in these states did not want toleave the Union, the majority of Southernersviewed secession as similar to the AmericanRevolution—a necessary course of action to upholdpeople’s rights.

Compromise Fails Although Lincoln was electedpresident in November 1860, he would not be inau-gurated until the following March. The Union’s ini-tial response to secession remained the responsibilityof President Buchanan. Declaring that the govern-ment had no authority to forcibly preserve the Union,Buchanan urged Congress to be conciliatory.

In December, Senator John J. Crittenden ofKentucky proposed a series of amendments to theConstitution. Crittenden’s Compromise, as thenewspapers called it, would guarantee slavery whereit already existed. It would also reinstate the MissouriCompromise line and extend it all the way to theCalifornia border. Slavery would be prohibited in allterritories north of the line and protected in all terri-tories south of the line.


• Disagreement over the legality,morality, and politics of slavery

• Kansas-Nebraska Act sparkedviolence in Kansas.

• Dred Scott ruling voided any limitations on expansion of slavery.

• John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferrypolarized North and South.

• Southern states seceded fromthe Union.

• Confederates attacked FortSumter in South Carolina.

• Slavery was outlawed in theUnited States.

• Southern states rebuilt their economy.• African Americans gained citizenship

and voting rights.• The first U.S. civil rights laws were

passed.

Analyzing What do you think was the most importantcause of the Civil War? Why?

Mounting sectional tensions erupted into open warfare in 1861.

At Lincoln’s request, congressional Republicansvoted against Crittenden’s Compromise. Acceptingslavery in any of the territories, Lincoln argued,“acknowledges that slavery has equal rights with lib-erty, and surrenders all we have contended for.”

On February 8, 1861, delegates from the secedingstates met in Montgomery, Alabama, where theydeclared themselves to be a new nation—theConfederate States of America, also known as theConfederacy. They drafted a frame of governmentbased largely on the U.S. Constitution but with someimportant changes. The Confederate Constitutionacknowledged the independence of each state, guar-anteed slavery in Confederate territory, banned pro-tective tariffs, and limited the president to a singlesix-year term.

The convention delegates chose former Mississippisenator Jefferson Davis to be president. In his inau-gural address, Davis declared, “The time for compro-mise has now passed. The South is determined to . . .make all who oppose her smell Southern powder andfeel Southern steel.” He then called on the remainingSouthern states to join the Confederacy.

Explaining Why did SouthernDemocrats walk out of the Democratic Convention?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: Manifest Destiny,

annexation, popular sovereignty, seces-sion, Underground Railroad, adjacent,transcontinental railroad, insurrection,prospect, Confederacy.

2. People and Terms Identify: John C.Frémont, Bear Flag Republic, WilmotProviso, Harriet Tubman, RepublicanParty, Dred Scott, Crittenden’sCompromise, Jefferson Davis.

3. Places Locate: Harpers Ferry4. Explain why the Gold Rush created a

new crisis over slavery.

Reviewing Big Ideas5. Comparing and Contrasting Examine

the argument to leave the Union fromthe perspective of a Secessionist. Howdoes their argument compare with an

American colonists’ argument for inde-pendence from Great Britain. How werethe situations similar? How were theydifferent?

Critical Thinking6. Synthesizing

How did the ruling in Dred Scott v.Sandford increase sectional division?

7. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to group keyevents of the 1840s and 1850s accord-ing to whether they were executive, leg-islative, judicial, or nongovernmental.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examining Photographs Study the

poster on page 196 advertising an anti-slavery meeting. What was one mainreason that the poster designersopposed slavery?

CA HI1; HI2 Writing About History9. Expository Writing Write a research

report about the Underground Railroad,the California Gold Rush, or the DredScott decision. In your report, explainwhat impact the topic had on sectional-ism. Make sure you carefully checkyour report for correct spelling, gram-mar, and punctuation.

CA 11WS1.1; 11WS1.6; 11WA2.4

CORBIS

Executive

Legislative

Judicial

Nongovernmental


tav.mt.glencoe.com


Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis from Mississippi waschosen as the president of the newly formed Confederacy. How did theconstitution of the Confederacy differ from the U.S. Constitution?

History


Very soon after I wentto live with Mr. and Mrs.Auld, she very kindlycommenced to teach methe A, B, C. After I hadlearned this, she assistedme in learning to spellwords of three or four let-ters. Just at this point ofmy progress, Mr. Auldfound out what wasgoing on, and at once for-bade Mrs. Auld to instructme further, telling her,among other things, thatit was unlawful, as well asunsafe, to teach a slave toread. . . . [“]Now,” said[Mr. Auld], “if you teach that [boy] . . .how to read, there would be no keep-ing him. It would forever unfit him tobe a slave. He would at once becomeunmanageable, and of no value to hismaster. As to himself, it could do himno good, but a great deal of harm. Itwould make him discontented andunhappy.” These words sank deepinto my heart, stirred up sentimentswithin that lay slumbering, and calledinto existence an entirely new train ofthought. It was a new and special rev-elation, explaining dark and mysteri-ous things, with which my youthfulunderstanding had struggled, but

struggled in vain. . . . From thatmoment, I understood the pathwayfrom slavery to freedom. It was justwhat I wanted, and I got it at a timewhen I least expected it. Whilst I wassaddened by the thought of losing theaid of my kind mistress, I was glad-dened by the invaluable instructionwhich, by the merest accident, I hadgained from my master. Though con-scious of the difficulty of learningwithout a teacher, I set out with highhope, and a fixed purpose, at what-ever cost of trouble, to learn toread. . . . That which to [Mr. Auld]was a great evil, to be carefullyshunned, was to me a great good, to

from Narrative of the Lifeof Frederick Douglass

by Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was borninto slavery in Maryland in 1818.During the course of his incre-dible life, he escaped from slav-ery and eventually becamerenowned for eloquent lecturesand writings for the causes ofabolition and liberty. One of hismost famous works is his auto-biography about growing upunder the shadow of slavery. Inthe following excerpt, Douglassis around eight years old, andMrs. Auld, the wife of his slave-holder, has begun to teach himto read. Mr. Auld discovers whathis wife has been doing, and hisreaction causes young Frederickto decide to learn to read andwrite on his own, no matterwhat.

Read to DiscoverWhy did some slaveholders notwant the enslaved to learn toread?

Reader’s Dictionaryrevelation: discovery

stratagem: scheme

chattel: property

contemplate: consider


Frederick Douglass welcomes guests to his new office inWashington, D.C.

➤

be diligently sought; and the argument which he sowarmly urged, against my learning to read, onlyserved to inspire me with a desire and determinationto learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much tothe bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindlyaid of my mistress.I acknowledge thebenefit of both. . . .

I lived in Mas-ter Hugh’s familyabout seven years.During this time, Isucceeded in learn-ing to read andwrite. In accom-plishing this, Iwas compelled toresort to variousstratagems. I hadno regular teacher.My mistress, whohad kindly com-menced to instructme, had, in compli-ance with theadvice and direc-tion of her hus-band, not onlyceased to instruct,but had set herface against mybeing instructedby any one else. Itis due, however,to my mistress tosay of her, that shedid not adopt this course of treatment immediately.She at first lacked the depravity indispensable toshutting me up in mental darkness. It was at least nec-essary for her to have some training in the exercise ofirresponsible power, to make her equal to the task oftreating me as though I were a brute.

My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul shecommenced, when I first went to live with her, to treatme as she supposed one human being ought to treatanother. In entering upon the duties of a slaveholder,she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her therelation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me asa human being was not only wrong, but dangerously

so. Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me.When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering forwhich she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry,clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner

that came withinher reach. Slaverysoon proved itsability to divest herof these heavenlyqualities. Under itsinfluence, the ten-der heart becamestone, and the lam-blike dispositiongave way to one oftiger-like fierce-ness. The first stepin her downwardcourse was in herceasing to instructme. She now com-menced to practiseher husband’s pre-cepts. She finallybecame even moreviolent in her oppo-sition than her hus-band himself. . . .

From this time Iwas most nar-rowly watched. If Iwas in a separateroom any consid-erable length oftime, I was sure to

be suspected of having a book, and was at once calledto give an account of myself. All this, however, wastoo late. . . .

The plan which I adopted, and the one by which Iwas most successful, was that of making friends of allthe little white boys whom I met in the street. Asmany of these as I could, I converted into teachers.With their kindly aid, obtained at different times andin different places, I finally succeeded in learning toread. When I was sent of errands, I always took mybook with me, and by going one part of my errandquickly, I found time to get a lesson before my return.I used also to carry bread with me, enough of whichwas always in the house, and to which I was always


Enslaved African Americans picking cotton.➤

welcome; for I was much better off in this regard thanmany of the poor white children in our neighbor-hood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungrylittle urchins, who, in return, would give me thatmore valuable bread of knowledge. . . .

I was now about twelve years old, and the thoughtof being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon myheart. Just about this time, I got hold of a book enti-tled “The Columbian Orator.” Every opportunity Igot, I used to read this book. Among much of otherinteresting matter, I found in it a dialogue between amaster and his slave. The slave was represented ashaving run away from his master three times. Thedialogue represented the conversation which tookplace between them, when the slave was retaken thethird time. In this dialogue, the whole argument inbehalf of slavery was brought forward by the master,all of which was disposed of by the slave. The slavewas made to say some very smart as well as impres-sive things in reply to his master—things which hadthe desired though unexpected effect; for the conver-sation resulted in the voluntary emancipation of theslave on the part of the master.

. . . The more I read, the more I was led to abhorand detest my enslavers. I could regard them in noother light than a band of successful robbers, whohad left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolenus from our homes, and in a strange land reduced usto slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as

well as the most wicked of men. As I read and con-templated the subject, behold! that very discontent-ment which Master Hugh had predicted wouldfollow my learning to read had already come, to tor-ment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As Iwrithed under it, I would at times feel that learningto read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It hadgiven me a view of my wretched condition, withoutthe remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, butto no ladder upon which to get out. In moments ofagony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred thecondition of the meanest reptile to my own. Anything, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition thattormented me. . . .

I often found myself regretting my own existence,and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope ofbeing free, I have no doubt but that I should havekilled myself, or done something for which I shouldhave been killed. . . . I looked forward to a time atwhich it would be safe for me to escape. I was tooyoung to think of doing so immediately; besides, Iwished to learn how to write, as I might have occa-sion to write my own pass. I consoled myself withthe hope that I should one day find a good chance.Meanwhile, I would learn to write.

Freed African Americans learn to read in Richmond, Virginia.➤


Analyzing Literature

1. Recall Why did Mr. Auld oppose the idea of

Douglass learning to read?

2. Interpret What do you think Douglass means

when he speaks of “a revelation, explaining

dark and mysterious things”?

3. Evaluate and Connect How would you feel if

someone had forbidden you to learn to read?

What would you do?

Interdisciplinary ActivityArt Design a poster promoting literacy. Includereasons why everyone should learn to read andwrite and get an education.

CA 11RC2.4; 11RC2.5; 11RL3.4

Beloved (Fiction)by Toni Morrison

Once an enslaved person on Sweet Home Farm, Seth escapes and travels north with herchildren. Before being recaptured, she kills a daughter rather than allowing her to sufferthe brutal life of slavery. After the Civil War, Beloved, the spirit of Seth’s murdered daugh-ter, comes back into her life and complicates her attempts to live a normal family life. Toldin a series of flashbacks, Seth’s fictional history captures the violence and indignities, aswell as the courage and compassion, of thousands of humans who were once enslaved.

For other literature selections that relate to the enslavement of African Americans, you might consider the following book suggestions.

The Fire Next Time (Nonfiction)by James Baldwin

In a powerful letter to his nephew, Baldwin relates his thoughts on racism on the 100thanniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Baldwin’s essay, which contains his ownmemories of life in Harlem, powerfully appeals to both African Americans and whites to recognize the perils of racism and to accept that we live in a multicultural society.

Jubilee (Fiction)by Margaret Walker

This book tells the story of Vyry, the daughter of an enslaved African American woman,and her slaveholder. Readers follow Vyry’s life before, during, and after the Civil War asshe travels north trying to find her version of the American Dream. Based on the memo-ries of Ms. Walker’s maternal grandmother, the story counters the popular images ofthe Civil War portrayed in the film Gone With the Wind by describing life from the pointof view of enslaved African Americans.

Roots (Biography/Autobiography)by Alex Haley

This saga of the Haley family begins with Kunta Kinte’s capture in Africa and follows hisfamily through seven generations. Made into a popular television mini-series, the bookbecame a symbolic history for many African Americans who also could trace their fami-lies back to slavery.



Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous section, you learned howthe division between the North and theSouth resulted in the secession of theSouth. In this section, you will discoverhow the Civil War began and find outabout the factors that led to the Union’svictory over the Confederate army.

• The plan to resupply Fort Sumter trig-gered the beginning of the Civil War. (p. 207)

• The North and South each had distinctadvantages and disadvantages at thebeginning of the Civil War. (p. 208)

• With Union casualties rising, PresidentLincoln issued the EmancipationProclamation. (p.210)

• With the help of key victories atVicksburg and Gettysburg, the Northdefeated the South after four long yearsof fighting. (p. 212)

Content Vocabularymartial law, greenback, conscription,habeas corpus, attrition, siege, mandate

Academic Vocabularyconceive, subordinate

People and Terms to IdentifyRobert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant,Emancipation Proclamation, GettysburgAddress, Thirteenth Amendment

Places to LocateFort Sumter, Antietam, Vicksburg,Gettysburg, Appomattox Courthouse

Reading Objectives• Contrast the political situations of the

Union and Confederacy.• Identify the major battles of the war,

and assess their impact.• Discuss Lee’s surrender and the events

of the war’s aftermath.

Reading StrategyCategorizing As you read about themajor battles of the Civil War, complete a chart similar to the one below by fillingin the name of each battle and its results.

Preview of Events

The Civil War

✦April 1863 ✦April 1865

April 1861Fort Sumterbombarded

April 1862Confederate Congresspasses conscription law

July 1863Battle ofGettysburg

April 1865Lee surrenders atAppomattox Courthouse;Lincoln assassinated.

Battle Results

✦April 1861

January 1863EmancipationProclamationtakes effect

. The Big Idea ,Differences in economic, political, and social beliefs can lead to divisionwithin a nation. Confederate forces took control of Fort Sumter in Charleston,South Carolina, making war with the Union unavoidable. The North maintainedseveral advantages over the South. It had a strong naval tradition, more than twicethe population from which to draw an army, a larger treasury to help support thewar, and more industries and railroads to manufacture and transport supplies.While the South maintained a stronger military tradition, it could not adequatelyfinance the war and was able to receive only limited overseas supplies due to theNorth’s blockade of Southern ports. After many battles and casualties and muchdestruction, Confederate forces surrendered. As the country entered the period ofReconstruction, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln.


11.1 Students analyze the significantevents in the founding of the nationand its attempts to realize the philoso-phy of government described in theDeclaration of Independence.

11.1.3 Understand the history of theConstitution after 1787 with emphasis on federal versus state authority andgrowing democratization.

11.1.4 Examine the effects of the Civil Warand Reconstruction and of the industrialrevolution, including demographic shifts andthe emergence in the late nineteenth centuryof the United States as a world power.

11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events,policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford,Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education,Regents of the University of California v. Bakke,and California Proposition 209.

Mary Chesnut

➤

The Civil War Begins

The plan to resupply Fort Sumter triggeredthe beginning of the Civil War.

Reading Connection If you believed in a cause, whatwould you do to convince others to join you? Read on to learnhow President Lincoln held on to the border states.

In April Lincoln announced that he intended tosend needed supplies to Fort Sumter in CharlestonHarbor, one of the few federal military bases thatSoutherners had not already seized. The Confederacynow faced a dilemma.

“I do not pretend to sleep,” wrote Mary Chesnut of thenight of April 12, 1861. “How can I?” Hours earlier, herhusband, former South Carolina senator JamesChesnut, had gone by rowboat to Fort Sumter inCharleston Harbor. He was delivering an ultimatum toU.S. Army Major Robert Anderson to surrender thefort by four o’clock in the morning or be fired upon bythe South Carolina militia.

Through the long night Mary Chesnut lay awake, untilshe heard chimes from a local church ring four times.The hour of surrender had arrived, and, she con-fessed, “I beg[a]n to hope.” But her hopes of a peace-ful outcome faded when, a half hour later, she heardthe cannons begin to boom. “I sprang out of bed. Andon my knees . . . I prayed as I never prayed before.”

In a nightgown and shawl, Chesnut ran to the roof,where others had gathered to watch the bombard-ment of Fort Sumter. The sectional conflict that hadbrewed in debate and broken out in periodic violencehad become a war. On her rooftop, Mary Chesnutshivered and felt the first terrifying evidence of thehorrors to come. “The regular roar of the cannon—there it was. And who could tell what each volleyaccomplished of death and destruction.”

—adapted from Mary Chesnut’s Civil War

President Lincoln had tried to avoid war. In hisinaugural speech on March 4, 1861, he addressed theseceding states directly, repeating his commitmentnot to interfere with slavery where it already existed.Still, he insisted that “the Union of these States is

perpetual.” He did not threaten to attack the secededstates, but he did announce his intention to “hold,occupy, and possess” federal property in those states.Lincoln also made an eloquent plea for reconciliation,stating: “The government will not assail you. . . .Though passion may have strained, it must not breakour bonds of affection.”

When President Lincoln announced his plan toresupply Fort Sumter, Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis was faced with a problem. To tolerateU.S. troops in the South’s most vital Atlantic harborseemed unacceptable for a sovereign nation.However, firing on the supply ship would undoubt-edly provoke war with the United States. Jeffersondecided to demand the surrender of Fort Sumterbefore the supply ship arrived. The fort’s com-mander, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson, stoodfast. Confederate forces then bombarded Fort Sumterfor 33 hours on April 12 and 13, until Anderson andhis exhausted men gave up. No one had been killed,but the Civil War had begun.

After the fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincolncalled for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the militaryfor 90 days. Lincoln’s action created a crisis in theUpper South. Many people in those states did notwant to secede, but they were not willing to take uparms against fellow Southerners. Between April 17and June 8, 1861, four more states chose to leave theUnion—Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, andTennessee. The Confederate Congress then estab-lished Richmond, Virginia, as the capital.


With the Upper South gone, Lincoln could notafford to lose the slaveholding border states as well.Delaware seemed safe, but Lincoln worried aboutKentucky, Missouri, and particularly Maryland.Virginia’s secession had placed a Confederate stateacross the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. IfMaryland joined the South, Washington, D.C., wouldbe surrounded by Confederate territory. To preventMaryland’s secession, Lincoln imposed martiallaw—military rule—in Baltimore, where angrymobs had already attacked federal troops. Althoughmany people objected to this suspension of theirrights, Maryland stayed in the Union.

Kentucky initially declared neutrality in the con-flict, but when Confederate troops occupied part ofKentucky, the state declared war on the Confederacy,and Lincoln sent troops to help. In Missouri, despitestrong public support for the Confederacy, the stateconvention voted to stay in the Union. Federal troopsthen ended fights between the pro-Union govern-ment and secessionists.

The war shattered old loyalties and made enemiesof former friends. For the next several years, thebloody war between the states divided Americansand resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Examining Why did the call formilitary volunteers lead more states to secede?

Reading Check

The Opposing Sides

The North and South each had distinctadvantages and disadvantages at the beginning of theCivil War.

Reading Connection Do you believe the government isjustified limiting civil liberties during wartime? Read on to learnhow President Lincoln decided to suspend writs of habeas cor-pus during the Civil War.

On the same day that he learned his home state ofVirginia had voted to secede from the Union, RobertE. Lee—one of the best senior officers in the UnitedStates Army—received an offer from GeneralWinfield Scott to command Union troops. AlthoughLee had spoken against secession and consideredslavery “a moral and political evil,” he refused tofight against the South. Instead, he offered his serv-ices to the Confederacy.

Lee was one of hundreds of military officers whoresigned to join the Confederacy. In 1860 seven of thenation’s eight military colleges were in the South.These colleges provided the region with a large num-ber of trained officers to quickly organize an effectivefighting force.

Just as the South had a strong military tradition,the North had a strong naval tradition. More thanthree-quarters of the Navy’s officers came from theNorth, and the crews of American merchant shipswere almost entirely from the North. They provideda large pool of trained sailors for the Union navy as itexpanded.


70

60

50

40

30

80

90

100

20

10

0

Resources of the Union and of the Confederacy

Union Confederacy

Population Manufacturedgoods

Exports Merchantships

Miles ofrailroad track

Grainproduction

Number offarms

Ironproduction

Bankingcapital

71%

92%

8%

56%

44%

90%

72%

28%

69% 67%

33%

94%

6%

82%

18%

31%

10%

29%

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States

1. Interpreting Graphs In which category is the differ-ence between the Union and the Confederacy thegreatest?

2. Making Inferences What additional factors are notconsidered when comparing population percentagesbetween the Union and the Confederacy?

The Opposing Economies Although the Southhad many experienced officers to lead its troops inbattle, the North had several economic advantages.In 1860 the population of the North was about 22 mil-lion, while the South had about 9 million people. TheNorth’s larger population gave it a great advantagein raising an army and in supporting the war effort.

The North’s industries also gave the region animportant economic advantage over the South. In1860 almost 90 percent of the nation’s factories werelocated in the Northern states. The North could pro-vide its troops with ammunition and other suppliesmore easily. In addition, the South had only half asmany miles of railroad track as the North and hadonly one line—from Memphis to Chattanooga—con-necting the western states of the Confederacy to theeast. This made it much easier for Northern troops todisrupt the Southern rail system and prevent themovement of supplies and troops.

The Union also controlled the national treasuryand could expect continued revenue from tariffs. Inorder to make more money available for emergencyuse, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, creating anational currency and allowing the government toissue paper money. The paper money came to beknown as greenbacks, because of its color.

The Confederacy did not fare as well. MostSouthern planters were in debt and unable to buybonds. Southern banks were small and had few cashreserves; as a result, they could not buy many bondseither. The best hope for the South to raise moneywas by taxing trade. Then, shortly after the warbegan, the Union Navy blockaded Southern ports,which reduced trade and revenues. The Confederacyhad to resort to direct taxation of its people, but manySoutherners refused to pay.

The Confederacy also printed paper money to payits bills. This caused rapid inflation in the South, andConfederate paper money eventually became almostworthless. By the end of the war, the South had expe-rienced 9,000 percent inflation, compared to only 80percent in the North.

The Political Situation President Lincoln had todeal with a number of issues. Although many fellowRepublicans were abolitionists, Lincoln wanted topreserve the Union, even if it meant allowing slaveryto continue. The president also had to contend withthe Democrats, who were divided themselves over apossible war.

One major disagreement between Republicansand Democrats concerned the enactment in 1862 of amilitia law that allowed states to use conscription—

or forcing people through a draft into military service—if this was necessary to fill their regiments.Criticism also greeted President Lincoln’s decision tosuspend writs of habeas corpus. A writ of habeascorpus is a court order that requires the governmenteither to charge an imprisoned person with a crimeor let the person go free. When writs of habeas cor-pus are suspended, a person can be imprisonedindefinitely without trial. In this case, PresidentLincoln suspended the writ for anyone who openlysupported the rebels or encouraged others to resistthe militia draft. “Must I shoot a simple-minded sol-dier boy who deserts,” the president asked, “while Imust not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induceshim to desert?”

Although the South had no organized oppositionparty, Confederate president Jefferson Davis stillfaced political problems. The Confederate constitu-tion emphasized states’ rights and limited the centralgovernment’s power. This often interfered withDavis’s ability to conduct the war with a united com-mitment from every Confederate state government.Some Southern leaders opposed Davis when he sup-ported conscription and established martial law earlyin 1862. They also opposed the suspension of writs ofhabeas corpus, which the South, like the North, hadintroduced.

The outbreak of the Civil War put the major gov-ernments of Europe in a difficult situation. While theUnited States government did not want theEuropeans interfering in the war. Confederate lead-ers wanted them to recognize the South and provideit with military assistance. Southern leaders knewthat European textile factories depended on Southerncotton. To pressure the British and French, manySouthern planters agreed to stop selling their cottonin these markets until the Europeans recognized theConfederacy. Despite these efforts, both countrieschose not to go to war against the United States.

The First Modern War The North and Southwere about to embark on what was, in manyrespects, the first modern war. Unlike earlierEuropean wars, the Civil War involved huge armiesthat consisted mostly of civilian volunteers andrequired vast amounts of supplies. By the 1850s,French and American inventors had developed aninexpensive conoidal—or cone-shaped—bullet thatwas accurate at much greater distances. This resultedin much higher casualties. Attrition—the wearingdown of one side by the other through exhaustion ofsoldiers and resources—also played a critical role asthe war dragged on.


Early in the war, Jefferson Davis imagined astruggle similar to the American war for independ-ence against Britain in which Southern generalswould pick their battles carefully, attacking andretreating when necessary to avoid heavy losses. Bywaging a defensive war of attrition, Davis believedthe South could force the Union to spend itsresources until it became tired of the war and agreedto negotiate. Instead, President Davis felt pressure tostrike for a quick victory, especially since manySoutherners believed that their military traditionsmade them superior fighters. In the war, Southerntroops went on the offensive in eight battles, suffer-ing 20,000 more casualties than the Union by charg-ing enemy lines. These were heavy losses the Southcould not afford.

The general in chief of the United States, WinfieldScott, suggested that the Union blockadeConfederate ports and send gunboats down theMississippi River to divide the Confederacy in two.The South, thus separated, would gradually run outof resources and surrender. Many Northernersrejected the strategy, which they called theAnaconda Plan, after a snake that slowly stranglesits prey to death. They thought it was too slow andindirect for certain victory. Lincoln eventuallyagreed to implement Scott’s suggestions andimposed a blockade of Southern ports. He and otherUnion leaders realized that only a long war thatfocused on destroying the South’s armies had anychance of success.

Comparing In what areas did theopposing sides have advantages and disadvantages?

Reading Check

The Early Stages

With Union casualties rising, PresidentLincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Reading Connection Do you know someone who livedthrough the food rationing during World War II? Read on tolearn how the war affected daily life.

During the first few months of the war, PresidentLincoln felt tremendous pressure to strike hardagainst the South. He approved an assault onConfederate troops gathered near ManassasJunction, Virginia, only 25 miles (40 km) south ofWashington, D.C. The First Battle of Bull Run, as itcame to be called, started well for the Union as itforced Confederate troops to retreat. Then the tideturned when reinforcements under the command of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson helped theConfederates defeat the Union forces. This outcomemade it clear that the North would need a large, well-trained army to prevail against the South.

Lincoln had originally called for 75,000 men toserve for three months. The day after Bull Run, hesigned another bill for the enlistment of 500,000 menfor three years. The North initially tried to encouragevoluntary enlistment by offering a bounty—a sum ofmoney given as a bonus—to individuals who prom-ised three years of military service. Eventually boththe Union and the Confederacy instituted the draft.

The Naval War While the Union and Confederacymobilized their armies, President Lincoln proclaimeda blockade of all Confederate ports in an effort to cutConfederate trade with the world. Although the block-ade became increasingly effective as the war draggedon, Union vessels were thinly spread and found it dif-ficult to stop the blockade runners—small, fast vesselsthe South used to smuggle goods past the blockade,usually at night. By using blockade runners, the Southcould ship at least some of its cotton to Europe inexchange for shoes, rifles, and other supplies.

As part of its effort to close Southern ports, theUnion navy developed a plan to seize New Orleansand gain control of the lower Mississippi River. InFebruary 1862, David G. Farragut took command of acombined Union force consisting of 42 warships and15,000 soldiers led by General Benjamin Butler. OnApril 25, 1862, Farragut arrived at New Orleans. Sixdays later, General Butler’s troops took control of thecity. The South’s largest city, and a center of the cot-ton trade, was now in Union hands.


•Control the Mississippiwith Union gunboats

•Divide the eastern part ofthe Confederacy from thewestern part

•Capture New Orleans,Vicksburg, and Memphis

•Cut off shipping to andfrom interior

The Anaconda Plan

•Blockade Southern ports on the Atlantic

•Isolate the Confederacy from European aid and

trade

•Cut off flow of supplies,equipment, money, foodand cotton

•Exhaust Southern resources, forcing

surrender

The War in the West In February 1862, asFarragut prepared for his attack on New Orleans,Union general Ulysses S. Grant began a campaign toseize control of the Cumberland and TennesseeRivers. Control of these rivers would cut Tennesseein two and provide the Union with a river route deepinto Confederate territory.

All of Kentucky and most of western Tennesseesoon came under Union control. Grant next headedup the Tennessee River to attack Corinth, Mississippi.Seizing Corinth would cut the Confederacy’s onlyrail line connecting Mississippi and westernTennessee to the east. Early on April 6, 1862,Confederate forces launched a surprise attack onGrant’s troops, which were camped about 20 miles(32 km) north of Corinth near a small church namedShiloh. The Union won the Battle of Shiloh the fol-lowing day, but both sides paid an enormous cost.Twenty thousand troops had been killed orwounded, more than in any other battle up to thatpoint. When newspapers demanded Grant be firedbecause of the high casualties, Lincoln refused, say-ing, “I can’t spare this man; he fights.”

The War in the East While Grant fought his bat-tles in the West, another major campaign was beingwaged in the East to capture Richmond, Virginia, theConfederate capital. In late June 1862, Confederategeneral Robert E. Lee began a series of attacks on theUnion army that became known collectively as theSeven Days’ Battle. Although Lee was unable to deci-sively defeat the Union army, he did force its retreat.Together the two sides suffered over 30,000casualties.

As Union troops withdrew, Lee decided to attackthe Union forces defending Washington. The maneu-vers by the two sides led to another battle at BullRun, near Manassas Junction, the site of the firstmajor battle of the war. The South again forced theNorth to retreat, leaving the Confederate forces only20 miles (32 km) from Washington, D.C. Soon after,Lee’s forces invaded Maryland.

Both Lee and Jefferson Davis believed that only aninvasion would convince the North to accept theSouth’s independence. They also thought that a vic-tory on Northern soil might help the South winrecognition from the British and help the PeaceDemocrats gain control of Congress in the upcomingmidterm elections. By heading north, Lee also couldfeed his troops from Northern farms and draw Uniontroops out of Virginia during harvest season.

On September 17, 1862, Lee’s forces met Uniontroops under the command of General George B.

McClellan at Antietam (an·TEE·tuhm) Creek. TheBattle of Antietam, the bloodiest one-day battle inAmerican history, ended with over 6,000 men killedand around another 16,000 wounded. AlthoughMcClellan did not break Lee’s lines, he inflicted somany casualties that Lee decided to retreat toVirginia.

The Battle of Antietam was a crucial victory for theUnion. The British government had been ready tointervene in the war as a mediator if Lee’s invasionhad succeeded. Britain also had begun making plansto recognize the Confederacy in the event the Northrejected mediation. Lee’s defeat at Antietam changedeverything. The British again decided to wait and seehow the war progressed. With this decision, theSouth lost its best chance at gaining internationalrecognition and support. The South’s defeat atAntietam had an even more important politicalimpact in the United States. It convinced Lincoln thatthe time had come to end slavery in the South.

The Emancipation Proclamation Most Democratsopposed any move to end slavery, while Republicanswere divided on the issue. With Northern casualtiesrising to staggering levels, however, moreNortherners began to agree that slavery had to end,in part to punish the South and in part to make thesoldiers’ sacrifices worthwhile.

On September 22, 1862, encouraged by the Unionvictory at Antietam, Lincoln publicly announced thathe would issue the Emancipation Proclamation—adecree freeing all enslaved persons in states still inrebellion after January 1, 1863. Because theProclamation freed enslaved African Americans onlyin states at war with the Union, it did not addressslavery in the border states. Short of a constitutional

The “Hornet’s Nest” at the Battle of Shiloh

➤

amendment, Lincoln could not end slavery in theborder states, nor did he want to endanger their loy-alty. ; (See page 995 for more on the EmancipationProclamation.) The Proclamation, by its very existence,transformed the conflict over preserving the Unioninto a war of liberation.

Life During the Civil War As the war intensified,the economies of the North and South went in differ-ent directions. By the end of 1862, the South’s econ-omy had begun to suffer greatly. The collapse of theSouth’s transportation system and the presence ofUnion troops in several important agricultural regionsled to severe food shortages in the winter of 1862. Inseveral communities, food shortages led to riots.Hearing of such hardships, many Confederate soldiersdeserted to return home to help their families.

In contrast, the North actually experienced an eco-nomic boom because of the war. With its large, well-established banking industry, the North raisedmoney for the war more easily than the South. Itsgrowing industries also supplied Union troops withclothes, munitions, and other necessities.

Innovations in agriculture helped minimize the lossof labor as men left to fight. Greater use of mechanicalreapers and mowers made farming possible withfewer workers, many of whom were women. Womenalso filled labor shortages in various industries, partic-ularly in clothing and shoemaking factories.

Both Union and Confederate soldiers endured ahard life with few comforts. They faced the constantthreat of disease and extreme medical procedures if

they got injured in battle. Life for prisoners of warwas just as difficult, especially in Southern prisonsthat faced food shortages.

While the war brought hardship to manyAmericans, it offered new opportunities for AfricanAmericans. The Emancipation Proclamation officiallypermitted African Americans to enlist in the Unionarmy and navy. Almost immediately, thousands ofAfrican Americans rushed to join the military.

Women helped in the war effort at home by manag-ing family farms and businesses. Perhaps their mostimportant contribution to the Civil War was in servingas nurses to the wounded. One of the most prominentwar nurses was Clara Barton, who left her job in aWashington patent office to aid soldiers on the battle-field. The Civil War was a turning point for theAmerican nursing profession. The courage shown bywomen helped break down the belief that womenwere emotionally weaker than men.

Analyzing Why do you think somany African Americans were willing to volunteer to fight?

The Turning Point

With the help of key victories at Vicksburgand Gettysburg, the North defeated the South after fourlong years of fighting.

Reading Connection Recall a time when you faced a sit-uation you had been dreading. Did the outcome surprise you?Read on to learn about Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1863 an end to the war still was not in sight. Twomore long years of battle lay ahead for Americans.

Vicksburg and Gettysburg Gaining control of theMississippi River was a vital element of the Unionstrategy for winning the Civil War. If the Union couldcapture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last majorConfederate stronghold on the river, then the Northcould cut the South in two.

On May 19, 1863, Grant launched an all-outassault on Vicksburg, but the city’s defendersrepulsed the attack and inflicted high casualties.When a second attack also failed, Grant decided toput the city under siege—cutting off its food andsupplies and bombarding the city until its defendersgave up. On July 4, 1863, with his troops literally onthe verge of starvation, the Confederate commanderat Vicksburg surrendered.

Reading Check

Battlefield Medicine The greatest impact women had on the battle-field was through serving as nurses. In what non-military ways didwomen contribute to the war effort?

History

Emboldened by recent victories against Uniontroops, Lee decided in June 1863 to invade the North.At the end of June, as Lee’s army foraged in thePennsylvania countryside, some of his troops headedinto Gettysburg, hoping to seize a supply of shoes.When they arrived near the town, they discoveredtwo brigades of Union cavalry. On July 1, 1863, asConfederates pushed the Union troops out of thetown, the main forces of both armies hurried to thescene of the fighting.

On July 2, Lee attacked, but the Union troops heldtheir ground. The following day, Lee ordered nearly15,000 men under the command of General George E.Pickett and General A.P. Hill to make a massiveassault. In the attack, which became known asPickett’s Charge, Union cannons and guns inflicted7,000 casualties in less than half an hour of fighting.

Pickett’s Charge failed to break the Union lines.Fewer than 5,000 men made it up the ridge, andUnion troops quickly overwhelmed those who did.“It is all my fault,” said Lee. “It is I who have lost thisfight.” Lee’s troops retreated back to Virginia. AtGettysburg, the Union suffered 23,000 casualties, butthe South’s toll was an estimated 28,000 casualties,more than one-third of Lee’s entire force.

The disaster at Gettysburg proved to be the turn-ing point of the war in the East. The Union’s victorystrengthened the Republicans politically and ensuredonce again that the British would not recognize theConfederacy. For the remainder of the war, Lee’sforces remained on the defensive, slowly givingground to the advancing Union army.

In November 1863, Lincoln came to Gettysburg todedicate a part of the battlefield as a cemetery. Hisspeech, the Gettysburg Address, became one of thebest-known orations in American history. In it,Lincoln reminded his listeners that the nation was“conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposi-tion that all men are created equal”:

“It is . . . for us to be here dedicated to the great taskremaining before us—that . . . we here highly resolvethat these dead shall not have died in vain; that this,nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom;and that the government of the people, by the people,and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

—from the Gettysburg Address

; (See page 996 for the complete text of the Gettysburg Address.)

Grant Secures Tennessee After the Union’smajor victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, fiercefighting erupted in Tennessee near Chattanooga, a

vital railroad junction. Both the North and Southknew that if Union forces captured Chattanooga,they would control a major railroad running south toAtlanta. Following several battles, union forcesunder the command of General Grant succeeded inscattering the Confederate soldiers who blocked theway to the city.

By the spring of 1864, Grant had accomplishedtwo crucial objectives for the Union. His capture ofVicksburg had given the Union control of theMississippi River, while his victory at Chattanoogahad secured eastern Tennessee and cleared the wayfor an invasion of Georgia. Lincoln rewarded Grantby appointing him general in chief of the Unionforces and promoting him to lieutenant general, arank no one had held since George Washington. Thepresident had finally found a general he trusted towin the war.

Grant Versus Lee By the spring of 1864, Unionleaders knew that the only way to end the long andbloody war was to defeat Lee’s army. General Grantput his most trusted subordinate, William TecumsehSherman, in charge of Union operations in the West.Grant then took command of the Union troops facingLee. His campaign led to battles in the Wilderness, adensely forested area near Fredericksburg, Virginia,and Spotsylvania Courthouse southeast of theWilderness. Convinced that his relentless attackshad weakened and demoralized Lee’s troops, Grantdecided to launch an all-out assault at Cold Harbor,a strategic crossroads northeast of Richmond. The

CHAPTER 2 Growth and Conflict 213Library of Congress

Vicksburg Besieged Union troops used this house as a headquartersduring the siege of Vicksburg. Nearby are Union trenches and the openingto a tunnel being dug under Confederate lines. For how long was thecity of Vicksburg under siege by Grant’s Union forces?

History

wide. By December 21, 1864, they had reached thecoast and seized Georgia’s first settlement, the cityof Savannah.

After reaching the Atlantic coast, Sherman turnednorth and headed into South Carolina, the state thatmany people believed had started the Civil War.“The whole army,” Sherman wrote, “is burning withan insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon SouthCarolina.” Sherman’s troops burned and pillagednearly everything in front of them. The march greatlydemoralized Southerners. As one South Carolinianwrote, “[T]o fight longer seems madness.”

The South Surrenders The capture of Atlantacame just in time to revitalize Northern support forthe war and for Lincoln himself. On Election Day, vot-ers elected the president to another term. Lincolninterpreted his reelection as an approval of his warpolicies and as a mandate, or clear sign from the vot-ers, to end slavery permanently by amending theConstitution. To get the amendment throughCongress, Republicans appealed to Democrats whowere against slavery to help them. On January 31,1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution,banning slavery in the United States, was narrowlypassed by the House of Representatives and was sentto the states for ratification.


Civil War620,000World

War II407,000

WorldWar I

107,000

Vietnam War58,000

Korean War36,500

Revolutionary War25,000

War with Mexico13,000Other major

wars5,000

(approximate figures)American War Deaths

Source: United States Civil War Center; For the Common Defense

400

300

200

350

250

150

100

50

0

Civil War Casualties, 1861–1865

SouthNorth

Troo

ps (i

n th

ousa

nds)

Total Deaths Battle-RelatedDeaths

Non-BattleDeaths

Source: For the Common Defense.

attack failed miserably, costing the Union 7,000casualties, compared to only 1,500 for the South.

Grant then tried another plan. He ordered GeneralPhilip Sheridan to distract Lee with a cavalry raid out-side Richmond. Grant headed south to capture thenearby town of Petersburg and thus cut off the rail linesupplying Richmond and Lee’s forces. The strength ofthe city’s defenses intimidated the Union troops, whowere already exhausted and demoralized. Realizing afull-scale frontal assault would be suicidal, Grantordered his troops to lay siege to the city.

Union Victories in the South On August 5, 1864,the Union navy under David Farragut tried to securethe last major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexicoeast of the Mississippi—Mobile, Alabama. After get-ting past the Confederate forts, Farragut’s shipsdestroyed a Confederate fleet defending Mobile Bay.Although Farragut did not capture Mobile, he didseal off the bay.

At the same time, General Sherman marched hisarmy from Chattanooga toward Atlanta, Georgia. Inlate August 1864, his army easily took the city.Sherman’s troops set fires to destroy railroads, ware-houses, mills, and factories. The fires spread quickly,destroying more than one-third of Atlanta.

On November 15, 1864, Sherman led his troopseast across Georgia in what became known as theMarch to the Sea. The purpose of the march was tomake Southern civilians understand the horrors ofwar and to pressure them into giving up the strug-gle. Sherman’s troops cut a path of destructionthrough Georgia that was at times 60 miles (97 km)

1. Interpreting Graphs How do the battle-relateddeaths compare to non-battle deaths?

2. Understanding Cause and Effect What do thesegraphs tell you about conditions on and off the battlefield in both the North and South?

Meanwhile, Lee knew that time was running out.On April 1, 1865, Union troops led by Philip Sheridancut the last rail line into Petersburg at the Battle of FiveForks. The following night, Lee’s troops withdrewfrom their positions near the city and raced west.

Lee’s desperate attempt to escape Grant’s forcesfailed when Sheridan’s cavalry got ahead of Lee’stroops and blocked the road at AppomattoxCourthouse. When his troops failed to breakthrough, Lee sadly observed, “There is nothing leftfor me to do but go and see General Grant, and Iwould rather die a thousand deaths.” With hisragged and battered troops surrounded and outnum-bered, Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865.

Grant’s generous terms of surrender guaranteedthat the United States would not prosecuteConfederate soldiers for treason. When Grant agreedto let Confederates take their horses home “to put ina crop to carry themselves and their families throughthe next winter,” Lee thanked him, adding that thekindness would “do much toward conciliating ourpeople.” As Lee left he shook hands with Ely Parker,a Senecan who served as Grant’s secretary. “I amglad to see a real American here,” Lee told the NativeAmerican. Parker replied, “We are all Americans.”

With the war over, Lincoln delivered a speechdescribing his plan to restore the Southern states tothe Union. In the speech, he mentioned includingAfrican Americans in Southern state governments.One listener, actor John Wilkes Booth, sneered to afriend, “That is the last speech he will ever make.”

Although his advisers had repeatedly warned himnot to appear unescorted in public, Lincoln went toFord’s Theater with his wife to see a play on theevening of April 14, 1865. Just after 10 P.M., Boothslipped quietly behind the president and shot him inthe back of the head. Lincoln died the next morning.

The president’s death shocked the nation. Onceviewed as an unsophisticated man unsuited for thepresidency, Lincoln had become the Union’s greatestchampion. Tens of thousands of men, women, andchildren lined railroad tracks as Lincoln’s body wastransported back to Springfield, Illinois.

The North’s victory in the Civil War saved theUnion and strengthened the power of the federalgovernment over the states. It transformed Americansociety by ending slavery, but it also left the Southsocially and economically devastated, and manyquestions unresolved. No one knew how to bring theSouthern states back into the Union or what the sta-tus of African Americans would be in Southern soci-ety. Americans from the North and the South tried toanswer these questions in the years following theCivil War—an era known as Reconstruction.

Examining Why did GeneralSherman march his army to the sea?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: martial law, green-

back, conscription, habeas corpus, attri-tion, siege, conceive, subordinate,mandate.

2. People and Terms Identify: Robert E.Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, EmancipationProclamation, Gettysburg Address,Thirteenth Amendment.

3. Places Locate: Fort Sumter, Antietam,Vicksburg, Gettysburg, AppomattoxCourthouse.

4. Explain why Robert E. Lee refused tocommand Union troops.

Reviewing Big Ideas5. Identifying What developments prior

to the Civil War gave the North anadvantage over the South?

Critical Thinking6. Analyzing What

effect do you think would the Emanci-pation Proclamation and the ThirteenthAmendment have on African Amer-icans? Why?

7. Organizing Complete a graphic organ-izer similar to the one below to explainPresident Lincoln’s reasons for issuingthe Emancipation Proclamation and theeffects the Proclamation had on the war.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examining Graphs Study the graphs of

war deaths on page 214. What wouldaccount for the thousands of non-battledeaths listed in one of the graphs?

CA HI4

Writing About History9. Descriptive Writing Imagine that you

are living in one of the border states atthe beginning of the Civil War. Write aletter to a relative explaining why youplan to join either the Union orConfederate army. Include in your letterspecific reasons for your decision. Alsodiscuss any fears you might have aboutfighting in the war. CA11WS1.2; 11WA2.1

Reasons forEmancipationProclamation

Effect onWar


tav.mt.glencoe.com



Steps to . . . the Declarationof Independence

Over many centuries, there was little develop-ment in political theory that addressed the relation-ship between the individual and the government.The changes that came about after the period knownas the Enlightenment culminated in the 1700s withthe American Declaration of Independence.

Government by and for the People With veryfew exceptions, the world knew only monarchies and

absolute rulers at the time the Declara-tion of Independence was written.

Drawing from new political theories, the Declarationput forth a different idea: governments derive “theirjust powers from the consent of the governed.” Inother words, governments exist to serve the people.

The main function of a government, the documentdeclared, was to protect the “unalienable rights” of itscitizens—the most important of which were the rightsto “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Whena government failed to live up to this obligation, thepeople had the right to “throw off such Government,and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

In shaping this political philosophy, the Founderslooked to the works of many people, including suchclassical thinkers as Aristotle, who had identified

Why It Matters As late as 1860, Jefferson Davis was delivering speeches calling for peaceand discouraging Southern secessionists. In 1861, however, delegates from seceding states met inMontgomery and elected Davis president of the Confederacy. Despite his fears about the South’s ability towin the war, Davis spoke eloquently in his inaugural address about the justice of the Southern cause. Likemany Southerners, Davis believed they were following the principle on which the nation was founded: thatpeople should not have to live under a government that infringes on their basic rights.

The North’s point of view was quite different: Southerners were destroying the nation by placing theirauthority above that of the federal government. The origins of this feud trace back to the Declaration ofIndependence. In crafting this document, the Founders advocated an entirely new relationship between agovernment and its citizens. They prompted a continuing debate over how to balance individual and states’rights with the power of a central authority.

The Declaration ofIndependence

“Our present condition . . . illustrates the Americanidea that governments rest upon the consent of thegoverned, and that it is the right of the people to alteror abolish governments whenever they become destruc-tive to the ends for which they were established.”

—Jefferson Davis, 1861

216

three forms of government—democracy, oligarchy,and monarchy. The Founders believed the best gov-ernment would combine all three forms of govern-ment and balance them against each other. TheConstitution partly reflects these ideas. The presi-dent received powers similar to a monarch; theSenate was intended to protect the elite; and theHouse of Representatives, elected by the people,was the most democratic. The Founders also lookedto the ideas of eighteenth-century Enlightenmentthinkers. The greatest influence on American think-ing, however, was probably the English philosopherJohn Locke. Locke’s writings promoted the idea thatpower in society rested ultimately with its citizens.

A List of Grievances In declaring their inde-pendence from Britain, colonial leaders argued thatthe British government had failed to live up to its obligations to the colonists. In a section that has become known as the list of grievances, theDeclaration of Independence spells out preciselyhow the British king had suppressed the rights ofthe colonists and failed to look out for their interests.

These 27 charges against the king were patternedafter several documents, including the English Bill ofRights (1689), which criticized various actions of theking. Ideas for the Declaration’s list of grievances alsocame from several papers of the Stamp Act Congressand the First and Second Continental Congress.

A Debate Over the Constitution The underly-ing belief of the Declaration of Independence was thatgovernment derives its power from the people. Thiscore idea led to a great debate in 1787 over whether toratify the U.S. Constitution. Those who supported theConstitution, known as Federalists, favored a strongcentral government in order to create a more organ-ized and unified nation. Antifederalists, those whoopposed the Constitution, feared that the creation of astrong central government eventually would lead to

the same kind of tyranny that thecolonists had endured under Britain.

In particular, the Antifederalists crit-icized the fact that the proposedConstitution did not contain a bill ofrights to protect the personal libertiesof the people. The absence of such pro-tections, argued one Antifederalistleader, “put Civil Liberty and happi-ness of the people at the Mercy ofRulers who may possess the greatunguarded powers given.”

Promoting Limited Government In the end,the Federalists agreed to add a bill of rights to theConstitution. The Bill of Rights is the name given tothe first ten amendments to the Constitution. Theseamendments guarantee Americans protection oftheir basic civil rights, some of which they haddemanded in the Declaration of Independence.These included the right to oppose or petition thegovernment for change, the right to a trial by jury,and the right to refuse the quartering of soldiers.

In various other ways, the U.S. Constitutionsought to limit the power of government and pro-mote the rights of the people. It created three dis-tinct branches of government: the executive, thelegislative, and the judicial. The colonists distrustedconcentrated political power, and so the separationof power among the branches was meant to preventany such concentration.

To reinforce the Founders’ goal of limited gov-ernment, the Constitution also implemented a sys-tem of checks and balances among the branches sothat no one branch could become too powerful. Italso granted members of Congress only a certainnumber of years in office before they had to runagain for election. These limits were meant to pre-vent any one person or groups of persons fromgaining too much political power over the nation.

Checking for Understanding1. According to the Declaration of Independence, what is the

main duty of a government? 2. How did Aristotle’s ideas influence the Founders’ approach to

the Constitution?

Critical Thinking1. How is the U.S. Constitution a compromise between the

Federalists and Antifederalists? 2. Do you agree or disagree that the secession of the Southern

states marked a second American Revolution? Explain.

Signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia


Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous section, you learned howwar became unavoidable and the Northeventually defeated the South. In this sec-tion, you will discover the obstacles thatReconstruction presented as the countrybegan to rebuild.

• In the months after the Civil War, thenation began the effort to rebuild andreunite. (p. 219)

• Radical Republicans, angered withPresident Johnson’s actions, designedtheir own policies. (p. 221)

• As African Americans entered politics,some Southerners began to resistRepublican reforms. (p. 223)

• Reconstruction came to an end asDemocrats regained power in the Southand in Congress. (p. 224)

Content VocabularyReconstruction, amnesty, pocket veto,freedman, black codes, impeach, tenantfarmer, sharecropper

Academic Vocabularyinfrastructure, circumstance

People and Terms to IdentifyFreedmen’s Bureau, Andrew Johnson,Fourteenth Amendment, MilitaryReconstruction Act, FifteenthAmendment, Compromise of 1877

Reading Objectives• Describe the major features of con-

gressional Reconstruction and its politi-cal impact.

• Discuss Republican rule in the Southduring Reconstruction.

• Explain how Reconstruction ended,and contrast the New South and theOld South.

Reading StrategyTaking Notes As you read aboutReconstruction, use the major headingsof the section to create an outline similarto the one below.

Preview of Events

Reconstruction

1864Lincoln vetoesWade-Davis bill

1866Congress passesFourteenthAmendment

1867Congresspasses MilitaryReconstruction Act

✦1860 ✦1865 ✦1870 ✦18751870FifteenthAmendmentis ratified

1877Compromiseof 1877 reached

I. Reconstruction BeginsA.B.C.D.

II.

. The Big Idea ,Social and economic crises lead to new roles for government. The coun-try faced many challenges during Reconstruction, such as securing the rights ofAfrican Americans and repairing the South’s devastated economy. PresidentLincoln hoped to initiate plans that would unite the country and help the Southrecover. Radical Republicans believed his plans were too lenient. After Lincoln’sassassination, Andrew Johnson continued his predecessor’s moderate policies.Southern states defied the North by continuing to deny rights to AfricanAmericans and electing former Confederate officers to Congress. DissatisfiedRadical Republicans gained support and pushed through their Reconstructionplans. Some Southerners formed secret societies to undermine Republican rule.With the country slipping into a deepening economic depression, Democratswere able to win back control of the House of Representatives and gain seats inthe Senate. As the political atmosphere shifted, a “New South” began to develop.


11.1 Students analyze the significantevents in the founding of the nationand its attempts to realize the philoso-phy of government described in theDeclaration of Independence.

11.1.3 Understand the history of theConstitution after 1787 with emphasis onfederal versus state authority and growingdemocratization.

11.1.4 Examine the effects of the Civil Warand Reconstruction and of the industrialrevolution, including demographic shifts andthe emergence in the late nineteenth centuryof the United States as a world power.

11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events,policies, and court cases in the evolution of civilrights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v.Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regentsof the University of California v. Bakke, andCalifornia Proposition 209.

Reconstruction Begins

In the months after the Civil War, the nationbegan the effort to rebuild and reunite.

Reading Connection Think of a war you have studied ina history course. What were the terms of achieving peace, andwho benefited? Read on to learn about President Lincoln’s poli-cies after Union victory in the Civil War.

No one looked forward to a Union victory morethan enslaved African Americans in the South. Only avictory could give them the freedom the EmancipationProclamation had promised.

Houston Holloway was ready for freedom. By 1865the 20-year-old enslaved man had toiled under threedifferent slaveholders. President Lincoln’s Eman-cipation Proclamation, delivered in 1863, had freedhim—but only in theory. The proclamation freedenslaved persons in the Confederacy, but because theUnion could not enforce its laws in Confederate terri-tory, many African American men and women in theSouth remained enslaved. Holloway knew that hisonly hope of freedom was a Northern victory in theCivil War.

The time of that victory finally arrived. On the spring day in 1865 when Union troops overran hiscommunity in Georgia on their way to defeating theConfederacy, Holloway rejoiced upon reaching truefreedom:

“I felt like a bird out of a cage. Amen. Amen. Amen. I could hardly ask to feel better than I did that day. . . .The week passed off in a blaze of glory.”

—quoted in A Short History of Reconstruction

Helping Holloway and other freed AfricanAmericans find their way as citizens of the UnitedStates was only one of a myriad of problems thenation faced. At the end of the Civil War, the Southwas a defeated region with a devastated economy.While some Southerners were bitter over the Unionmilitary victory, for many the more important strug-gle after the conflict was rebuilding their land andtheir lives. Meanwhile, the president and Congressgrappled with the difficult task of Reconstruction, orrebuilding the nation after the war.

Lincoln and the Radical Republicans In Decem-ber 1863, President Lincoln set forth his moderate planfor reuniting the country in the Proclamation ofAmnesty and Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to recon-cile the South with the Union instead of punishing it fortreason. He offered a general amnesty, or pardon, to allSoutherners who took an oath of loyalty to the UnitedStates and accepted the Union’s proclamations concern-ing slavery. When 10 percent of a state’s voters in the1860 presidential election had taken this oath, theycould organize a new state government. Certain people,such as Confederate government officials and militaryofficers, could not take the oath or be pardoned.

Resistance to Lincoln’s plan surfaced at onceamong a group of Republicans in Congress known asRadical Republicans. Led by Representative ThaddeusStevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumnerof Massachusetts, the radicals wanted to prevent theleaders of the Confederacy from returning to powerafter the war. They also wanted the Republican Partyto become a powerful institution in the South. Finally,and perhaps most importantly, they wanted the fed-eral government to help African Americans achievepolitical equality by guaranteeing their right to vote inthe South.

Congressional Republicans knew that the aboli-tion of slavery would give the South more seats in theHouse of Representatives. Before the Civil War, en-slaved people had only counted in Congress as three-fifths of a free person. Now that African Americanswere free, the South was entitled to more seats in


Artist depiction of an emancipated African American

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Congress. This would endanger Republican controlof Congress, unless Republicans could find a way toprotect African American voting rights in the South.

Although the radicals knew that giving AfricanAmericans in the South the right to vote would helpthe Republican Party win elections, most were notacting cynically. Many of them had been abolitionistsbefore the Civil War and had pushed Lincoln intomaking emancipation a goal of the war.

The Wade-Davis Bill Many moderate Republicansthought Lincoln was being too lenient, but they alsothought the radicals were going too far in their supportfor African American equality and voting rights. By thesummer of 1864, the moderates and radicals had comeup with a plan for Reconstruction that they could bothsupport. This alternative to Lincoln’s plan was theWade-Davis Bill of 1864, which required the majority ofthe adult white men in a former Confederate state totake an oath of allegiance to the Union. The state couldthen hold a constitutional convention to create a newstate government. The people chosen to attend the con-stitutional convention had to take an “ironclad” oathasserting that they had never fought against the Unionor supported the Confederacy in any way. Each state’sconvention would then have to abolish slavery, rejectall debts the state had acquired as part of theConfederacy, and deprive all former Confederate gov-ernment officials and military officers of the right tovote or hold office.

Although Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill,Lincoln blocked it with a pocket veto, that is, he letthe session of Congress expire without signing thelegislation. While Lincoln sympathized with some ofthe radical goals, he felt that imposing a harsh peacewould only alienate many whites in the South.

The Freedmen’s Bureau Lincoln realized that theSouth was already in chaos, with thousands unem-ployed, homeless, and hungry. At the same time, thevictorious Union armies had to try to accommodatethe large numbers of African Americans who flockedto Union lines as the war progressed. As Shermanmarched through Georgia and South Carolina, thou-sands of freed African Americans—now known asfreedmen—began following his troops seeking foodand shelter.

In March 1865, Congress established the Bureau ofRefugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, betterknown as the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Bureau wasgiven the task of feeding and clothing war refugeesin the South using surplus army supplies. Beginningin September 1865, it issued nearly 30,000 rations aday for the next year.

The Bureau helped formerly enslaved people findwork on plantations and negotiated labor contractswith planters. Many Northerners argued that thosewho were formerly enslaved should receive land tosupport themselves now that they were free. To oth-ers, however, taking land from plantation owners andgiving it to freedmen seemed to violate the nation’scherished commitment to individual property rights.As a result, Congress refused to confirm the right ofAfrican Americans to own the lands that had beenseized from plantation owners and given to them.

Johnson Takes Office Shortly after Congressestablished the Freedmen’s Bureau, Lincoln wasassassinated. Although his successor, Vice PresidentAndrew Johnson, was a Democrat from Tennessee,he had remained loyal to the Union. Like Lincoln, hebelieved in a moderate policy to bring the South backinto the Union.

In the summer of 1865, with Congress in recess,Johnson began to implement what he called hisrestoration program, which closely resembledLincoln’s plan. Johnson offered to pardon all formercitizens of the Confederacy who took an oath of loy-alty to the Union and to return their property. Heexcluded from the pardon the same people Lincolnhad excluded. Like Lincoln, Johnson also requiredSouthern states to ratify the Thirteenth Amendmentabolishing slavery.

The former Confederate states, for the most part,met Johnson’s conditions. They then organized newgovernments and elected people to Congress. By thetime Congress gathered for its next session inDecember 1865, Johnson’s plan was well underway.Many members of Congress were astonished andangered when they realized that Southern voters had

History

War-Shattered City The Civil War wreaked terribledevastation on Richmond, Virginia. Why do you thinkthe women pictured here are dressed in black?

elected dozens of Confederate leaders to Congress.Moderate Republicans joined with the RadicalRepublicans and voted to reject the new Southernmembers of Congress.

Congressional Republicans also were angry thatthe new Southern state legislatures had passed lawsknown as black codes limiting the rights of AfricanAmericans in the South. These codes seemedintended to keep African Americans in a conditionsimilar to slavery. African Americans were generallyrequired to enter into annual labor contracts. Thosewho did not could be arrested for vagrancy andforced into involuntary servitude. Several codesestablished specific hours of labor and also requiredthem to get licenses to work in nonagricultural jobs.

Comparing How did the recon-struction plans of Lincoln and Congress differ?

Congressional Reconstruction

Radical Republicans, angered with PresidentJohnson’s actions, designed their own policies.

Reading Connection If you disagree with a politicaldecision, how can you change it? Read on to learn about theRepublicans’ reaction to Johnson’s plan.

With the election of former Confederates to officeand the introduction of the black codes, more andmore moderate Republicans joined the radicals.Finally, in late 1865, House and Senate leaders cre-ated a Joint Committee on Reconstruction to developtheir own program for rebuilding the Union.

The Fourteenth Amendment In March 1866,congressional Reconstruction began with the passageof an act intended to override the black codes. TheCivil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to all per-sons born in the United States except for NativeAmericans. The act guaranteed the rights of AfricanAmericans to own property and stated that they wereto be treated equally in court. It also gave the federalgovernment the power to sue people who violatedthose rights. Johnson vetoed the act, arguing that itwas unconstitutional and would “[cause] discordamong the races.” The veto convinced the remainingmoderate Republicans to join with the radicals tooverride Johnson’s veto, and the act became law.

Fearing that the Civil Rights Act might later beoverturned in court, however, the radicals introducedthe Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This

Reading Check


amendment granted citizenship to all persons born ornaturalized in the United States and declared that nostate could deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop-erty “without due process of law.” It also declaredthat no state could deny any person “equal protectionof the laws.” In June 1866, Congress passed theamendment and sent it to the states for ratification. Itwas ratified in 1868.

President Johnson attacked the FourteenthAmendment and made it the major issue of the 1866congressional elections. He hoped Northernerswould vote out the Radical Republicans and electrepresentatives who would support his plan forReconstruction. Instead, the Republicans achieved anoverwhelming victory, winning approximately athree-to-one majority in Congress. They now had thestrength of numbers to override any presidential vetoand could claim that they had a mandate, or com-mand, from the American people to enact their ownReconstruction program in place of Johnson’s plan.

Military Reconstruction Begins In March 1867,Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act,which essentially nullified Johnson’s programs. Theact divided the former Confederacy, except forTennessee—which had ratified the FourteenthAmendment in 1866—into five military districts. AUnion general was placed in charge of each districtwith orders to maintain peace and “protect the rightsof persons and property.”

In the meantime, each former Confederate statehad to hold another constitutional convention todesign a constitution acceptable to Congress. The

Andrew Johnson ➤

whose appointment hadrequired the Senate’s consent.

Determined to challengethe Tenure of Office Act, onFebruary 21, 1868, Johnsonfired Secretary of War EdwinM. Stanton who supportedthe Republicans. Three dayslater, the House of Rep-resentatives voted to impeachJohnson, meaning that theycharged him with “highcrimes and misdemeanors” inoffice. They accused Johnsonof breaking the law by refus-ing to uphold the Tenure ofOffice Act.

As provided in the Con-stitution, the Senate then putthe president on trial. If two-thirds of the senators foundthe president guilty of thecharges, he would be remov-ed from office. In May 1868,the Senate voted 35 to 19 thatJohnson was guilty of highcrimes and misdemeanors.This was just one vote shortof the votes needed forconviction.

The Election of 1868 Although Johnson remainedin office, he finished his term quietly and did not runfor election in 1868. That year, the Republicans nomi-nated Ulysses S. Grant. During the campaign, Uniontroops in the South enabled African Americans tovote in large numbers. As a result, Grant won sixSouthern states and most of the Northern states. TheRepublicans also retained large majorities in bothhouses of Congress.

Congressional Republicans now moved rapidly toexpand their Reconstruction program. Recognizingthe importance of African American suffrage, theRepublican-led Congress passed the FifteenthAmendment to the Constitution. This amendmentdeclared that the right to vote “shall not be denied . . .on account of race, color, or previous condition ofservitude.” In March 1870, the Fifteenth Amendmentwas ratified by the states and became part of theConstitution.

Analyzing Why did congressionalRepublicans pass amendments to the Constitution?

Reading Check


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Military Districts, 1867

Military District Commander

General John Schofield

General Daniel Sickles

General John Pope

General Edward Ord

General Philip Sheridan

1870 Date of readmission to union

1. Interpreting Maps Only one former Confederate statewas not part of a military district. What was it?

2. Applying Geography Skills How many years after thewar was the last Southern state readmitted to the Union?

new state constitutions had to give the right to voteto all adult male citizens, regardless of race. Each alsohad to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before itwould be allowed to elect people to Congress.

Johnson’s Impeachment The Republicans knewthat they had the votes to override presidentialvetoes, but they also knew that President Johnsoncould still interfere with their plans by refusing toenforce the laws they passed. To restrict Johnson,Congress passed two new laws: the Command of theArmy Act and the Tenure of Office Act. The Com-mand of the Army Act required all orders from thepresident to go through the headquarters of the gen-eral of the army. This was the headquarters of GeneralGrant, whom Congressional Republicans trusted. TheTenure of Office Act required the Senate to approvethe president’s removal of any government official

Cook Collection/Valentine Museum

Reconstruction and Republican Rule

As African Americans entered politics, someSoutherners began to resist Republican reforms.

Reading Connection Have you heard of recent activitiesof the Ku Klux Klan? Read on to find out when and why theKKK was founded.

By the fall of 1870, all of the former Confederatestates had rejoined the Union under the congressionalReconstruction plan. With many issues unresolved,Reunification did little to restore harmony betweenthe North and South.

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags During Recon-struction, a large number of Northerners traveled tothe South. Many were eventually elected orappointed to positions in the South’s new state gov-ernments. Southerners, particularly supporters of theDemocratic Party, referred to these newcomers as car-petbaggers because some arrived with their belong-ings in suitcases made of carpet fabric. Local residentssaw them as intruders seeking to exploit the South’spostwar turmoil for their own gain.

Some white Southerners worked with the Repub-licans and supported Reconstruction. OtherSoutherners called these people scalawags—an oldScotch-Irish term for weak, underfed, worthless ani-mals. The scalawags were a diverse group. Some wereformer Whigs who had grudgingly joined theDemocratic Party before the war. Many were ownersof small farms who did not want the wealthy plantersto regain power. Still others were business people whofavored the Republican economic plans for the South.

African Americans Having gained theright to vote, African Americans quicklybegan organizing politically. Within a fewremarkable years, African Americans wentfrom enslaved workers to legislators andadministrators on nearly all levels of govern-ment. Hundreds of formerly enslaved peo-ple served as delegates to the conventionsthat created the new state constitutions.They also won election to numerous localoffices, served in Southern state legislatures,and were elected to the House of Repre-sentatives. Two others served in the Senate.

Many African Americans desired an edu-cation, something they had been deniedunder slavery. In the first years ofReconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, with

the help of Northern charities, had establishedschools for African Americans across the South.Gradually, the number of both African American stu-dents and teachers increased, and by 1876 about 40percent of all African American children (roughly600,000 students) attended school in the region.

Formerly enslaved people across the South alsoworked to establish their own churches. Churchesserved as the center of many African American com-munities, as they housed schools and hosted socialevents and political gatherings.

Republican Politics and Reforms Because ofpast disloyalty, some Southern whites were barredfrom participating in the new Southern governments,and many others simply refused to do so. As a result,a coalition of Northerners, Southern-born whites,and African Americans created Republican govern-ments in the Southern states. Republicans had thesupport of a large number of white Southerners.These were usually poor white farmers, whoresented the planters and Democratic Party that haddominated the South before the war.

The newly elected Republican governments in theSouth quickly instituted a number of reforms. In addi-tion to repealing the black codes, they establishedstate hospitals and institutions for orphans. Toimprove the infrastructure, they rebuilt roads, rail-ways, and bridges damaged during the Civil War andprovided funds for the construction of new railroadsand industries in the South.

Schools for African Americans O.O. Howard, head of theFreedmen’s Bureau, is pictured here (far right) with the students of a Freedmen’s school. Why do you think these schools were so successful?

History

Most white Southernersscorned these reforms,which did not come with-out cost. Many state gov-ernments were forced toborrow money and to im-pose high property taxesto pay for the repairs andnew programs. Many pro-perty owners, unable topay these new taxes, losttheir land.

Southern Resistance Unable to strike openly atthe Republicans running their states, some Southernopponents of Reconstruction organized secret soci-eties to undermine Republican rule. The largest ofthese groups was the Ku Klux Klan. Started in 1866by former Confederate soldiers in Pulaski, Tennessee,the Klan spread rapidly throughout the South.Hooded, white-robed Klan members rode in bands atnight terrorizing African Americans, white Repub-licans, carpetbaggers, teachers in African Americanschools, and others who supported the Republicangovernments. Republicans and African Americansresponded to the attacks by organizing their ownmilitias to fight back.

As the violence increased, Congress passed threeEnforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871, one of which out-lawed the activities of the Klan. Although localauthorities and federal agents arrested more than3,000 Klan members, only a few hundred were con-victed and served time in prison.

The Troubled Grant Administration During hisfirst term, Ulysses S. Grant faced a growing numberof Republicans who were concerned that interests in

making money and sellinginfluence were beginning to dominate the RepublicanParty. These critics also argued that the economic policies most Republicanssupported, such as high tar-iffs, favored the rich over the poor. Eventually thesecritics, known as Liberal Republicans, broke with theRepublican Party in 1872and nominated their own

candidate, the influential newspaper publisherHorace Greeley. Despite this split, Grant easily wonreelection.

During Grant’s second term, a series of scandalsdamaged his administration’s reputation. In addition,the nation endured a staggering and long-lasting eco-nomic crisis that began during Grant’s second term.After a powerful banking firm declared bankruptcy, awave of fear known as the Panic of 1873 quicklyspread though the nation’s financial community. Thepanic soon set off a full-fledged depression that lasteduntil almost the end of the decade.

The scandals in the Grant administration and thenation’s deepening economic depression hurt theRepublicans politically. In the 1874 midterm elec-tions, the Democrats won back control of the Houseof Representatives and made gains in the Senate.

Explaining Why did only someSoutherners support Republican reforms?

Reconstruction Ends

Reconstruction came to an end as Democratsregained power in the South and in Congress.

Reading Connection What values and policies do youassociate with today’s Republican and Democratic Parties? Read on to learn about the roles these parties played duringthe Reconstruction period.

The rising power of the Democrats in Congressand Republican concerns over scandals and the econ-omy led to an end of Reconstruction.

Democrats Regain Strength In the 1870s,Democrats began to regain power in the South. Theydid so in part through intimidation and fraud, and inpart by defining the elections as a struggle betweenwhites and African Americans. They also won backsupport by promising to cut the high taxes theRepublicans had imposed and by accusingRepublicans of corruption. Southern Democratsviewed their efforts to regain power as a crusade tohelp save the South from Republican rule. By 1876the Democrats had taken control of all but threeSouthern state legislatures.

That year, the nation’s presidential election pit-ted Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, a former gov-ernor of Ohio, against Democrat Samuel Tilden, awealthy corporate lawyer and former governor ofNew York. On Election Day, twenty electoral votes

Reading Check


Student WebActivity Visit theAmerican Vision:Modern Times Web siteatand click on StudentWeb Activities—Chapter 2 for an activ-ity on Reconstruction.

HISTORY

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Early KKK robe and hood

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Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: Reconstruction,

amnesty, pocket veto, freedman, blackcodes, impeach, infrastructure, tenantfarmer, sharecropper, circumstance.

2. People and Terms Identify:Freedmen’s Bureau, Andrew Johnson,Fourteenth Amendment, MilitaryReconstruction Act, FifteenthAmendment, Compromise of 1877.

3. Explain the major goals of the RadicalRepublicans.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Explaining What new amendments

were added to the Constitution duringthe Civil War and Reconstructionperiod?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Do

you think Presidents Lincoln andJohnson were wise in not seeking harshtreatment of the Southern states? Whyor why not?

6. Analyzing Whydid Southerners resent both carpetbag-gers and scalawags?

7. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to describe theeffects of the Civil War.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examining Photographs Study the

photograph of O.O. Howard and aFreedmen’s school on page 223. Howwould you describe the childrendepicted in this photograph?

CA HI3

CA HI2

Writing About History9. Expository Writing Write a short

essay explaining what you consider tobe the three most important events ofthe Reconstruction period. Explain whyyou chose these events. Check youressay for grammar, spelling, and punc-tuation. CA 11WS1.1; 11WA2.4a

Civil War

Effects on South

were disputed. Nineteen of the votes were in thethree Southern states controlled by Republicans. Asa result, congressional leaders worked out an agree-ment known as the Compromise of 1877.

Historians are not sure if a deal really took place orwhat its exact terms were. Among the conditions thatwere reported, the Republicans agreed to withdrawthe remaining federal troops from the South. In April1877, after assuming the presidency, Hayes did pullfederal troops out of the South. Without soldiers tosupport them, the last remaining Republican govern-ments in the South quickly collapsed. Reconstructionhad come to an end.

A “New South” Arises During his inauguralspeech in March 1877, President Hayes expressed hisdesire to move the country beyond the quarrelsomeyears of Reconstruction. Hoping to narrow the divi-sions of sectionalism that had long plagued thenation, he vowed “to put forth my best efforts inbehalf of a civil policy which will forever wipeout . . . the distinction between North and South.”

Eventually the South did develop closer ties withthe North. Southern leaders realized the South couldnever return to the pre–Civil War agricultural econ-omy dominated by the planter elite. Instead, theseSoutherners called for the creation of a “New South”based on a strong industrial economy. An alliancebetween Southerners and Northern financiersbrought great economic changes to some parts of theSouth. Northern capital helped to build thousands ofmiles of railroads and dozens of new industries.

The South, in fact, changed very little. Despite itsindustrial growth, the region remained largely agri-cultural. As late as 1900, its number of manufacturingestablishments equaled only 4 percent of its numberof farms. For many African Americans in particular,the end of Reconstruction meant a return to the “oldSouth” and an end to their hopes of owning theirown land. Instead many returned to plantationsowned by whites, where they, along with many poorwhite farmers, either worked for wages or becametenant farmers paying rent for the land they farmed.Most tenant farmers could not afford to buy theirown land and became sharecroppers. They paid ashare of their crops, often as much as two-thirds, tocover their rent as well as the cost of the seed, fertil-izer, tools, and animals they needed.

Although sharecropping allowed African Americanfarmers to control their work schedules and workingconditions for the first time in their lives, they rarelyhad enough crops left over to sell to enable them tobuy their own land. The Civil War ended slavery, butReconstruction’s failure left many African Americans,as well as many whites, trapped in economic circum-stances beyond their control.

Explaining What major issue wassettled by the Compromise of 1877?

Reading Check


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The FourteenthAmendment

Key provisions of the FourteenthAmendment (1868) made all persons bornin the United States citizens of both thenation and the state where they resided.States were prohibited from abridging therights of citizenship or depriving personsof due process and equal protection of thelaw. The Supreme Court has often citedthe Fourteenth Amendment when review-ing whether state or federal laws andactions violate the Constitution. The Court continues to do so today.

1896In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decided that Jim Crow laws—state-mandated segregation of publicfacilities such as railroad cars—did notviolate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court ruled that separate facilitiescould be equal and allowed segrega-tion to continue.

Testing the 14th Amendment✦1896 ✦1954

1954In Brown v. Board of Education, the Court found that segre-gated education denied minority schoolchildren like LindaBrown (far left) the equal protection of the laws provided bythe Fourteenth Amendment. This decision partially reversedPlessy v. Ferguson.


ANALYZING THE IMPACT

Check for Understanding1. Explaining What did the Fourteenth Amendment

prohibit?

Critical Thinking2. Evaluating What is due process of the law? How

was it violated in Gideon v. Wainright?

✦1963 ✦2000

1963In Gideon v. Wainright, the Supreme Court ruled thatthe state of Florida had violated the due process clausewhen it refused to appoint a lawyer to representClarence Gideon (left). The ruling extended the Bill of Rights to state courts.

2000In the presidential race between George W.Bush and Al Gore (at right), the Supreme Courtcase of Bush v. Gore was based on the Four-teenth Amendment. Justices argued that a lackof uniform standards for hand recounts ofballots in Florida violated the equal protection of all the state’s voters. The decision allowedBush to claim a controversial victory.

SOURCE 1:In November 1860, Mississippi passed resolutions support-ing separation from the United States. These MississippiResolves summarized the views of Southern secessionists.They were designed to unite the South and to convince theNorth that the South was not bluffing.

Whereas, The Constitutional Union was formed bythe several States in their separate sovereign1 capacityfor the purpose of mutual advantage and protection;

That the several States are distinct sovereignties,whose supremacy is limited so far only as the samehas been delegated by voluntary compact2 to aFederal Government, and when it fails to accomplishthe ends for which it was established, the parties tothe compact have the right to resume, each State foritself, such delegated powers;

That the institution of slavery existed prior to theformation of the Federal Constitution, and is recog-nized by its letter, and all efforts to impair its value or lessen its duration by Congress, or any of the freeStates, is a violation of the compact of Union and isdestructive of the ends for which it was ordained, but in defiance of the principles of the Union thusestablished, the people of the Northern States haveassumed a revolutionary position towards theSouthern States;

That they have set at defiance that provision of theConstitution which was intended to secure domestictranquility among the States and promote their generalwelfare, namely: “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping intoanother, shall, in consequence of any law or regulationtherein, be discharged from such service or labor.” . . .

That they declare in every manner in which publicopinion is expressed their unalterable determinationto exclude from admittance into the Union any newState that tolerates slavery in its Constitution, andthereby force Congress to a condemnation of thatspecies of property; . . .

SOURCE 2:Francis W. Pickens, the newly elected governor of SouthCarolina, doubted that it was possible to compromisewith the North. In his inauguration speech of December1860, he urged South Carolina to protect its rights as anindependent state.

Although tensions had been rising between the North and the South, in 1860 no one anticipateda war. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, each side attempted to pressure the other into compromising on the key question of slavery.


Francis W. Pickens➤

➤1sovereign: independent2compact: agreement

In the Southern States these are two entirely dis-tinct and separate races, and one has been held insubjugation3 to the other by peaceful inheritancefrom worthy and patriotic ancestors, and all whoknow the races well know that it is the only form ofGovernment that can preserve both, and administerthe blessings of civilization with order and in harmony.

Anything tending to change or weaken this govern-ment and the subordination between the races, notonly endangers the peace, but the very existence ofour security. We have for years warned the Northernpeople of the dangers they were producing by theirwanton and lawless course. We have often appealed to our sister States of the South to act with us in con-cert upon some firm but moderate system, by whichwe might be able, if possible, to save the FederalConstitution, and yet feel safe under the general com-pact of Union. But we could obtain no fair hearingfrom the North, nor could we see any concerted planproposed by our co-States of the South, calculated tomake us feel safe and secure.

Under all these circumstances, we now have noalternative left but to interpose our sovereign power asan independent State, to Protect the rights and ancientprivileges of the people of South Carolina.

This State was one of the original parties to theFederal Compact of the Union. We agreed to it . . .when we were surrounded with great external pressurefor purposes of national protection and for the generalwelfare of all the States equally and alike; and when itceases to do this it is no longer a perpetual Union. . . .

SOURCE 3:Abraham Lincoln delivered his Inaugural Address inMarch 1861 under the growing shadow of war.Supporters of the Union thought that the speech showedLincoln to be reasonable and generous. Backers of seces-sion heard a threat of force.

One section of our country believes slavery is rightand ought to be extended, while the other believes itis wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the onlysubstantial dispute. . . .

Physically speaking, we can not separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each othernor build an impassable wall between them. A hus-band and wife may be divorced and go out of thepresence and beyond the reach of each other, but thedifferent parts of our country can not do this. . . .

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen,and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.The Government will not assail you. You can have noconflict without being yourselves the aggressors. Youhave no oath registered in heaven to destroy theGovernment, while I shall have the most solemn oneto "preserve, protect, and defend it."


President Lincoln delivers his First Inaugural Address.➤

➤3subjugation: under control

Source 1: Why do you think the Mississippi Resolvesdescribe Northern states as having assumed a rev-olutionary position?

Source 2: Why does Pickens believe that SouthCarolina has the right to leave the Union?

Source 3: Why does Lincoln believe that compro-mise must be reached?

Comparing and Contrasting SourcesHow does Lincoln differ from Pickens and theauthors of the Mississippi Resolves about the conflict between the North and the South?

CA HR4; HI2; HI3; HI4

Reviewing Content VocabularyOn a sheet of paper, use each of these terms in a sentence.

1. cabinet2. enumerated

powers3. implied

powers4. judicial review5. caucus6. nullification7. temperance8. abolition

9. emancipation10. Manifest

Destiny11. annexation12. popular

sovereignty13. secession14. Confederacy15. martial law16. conscription

17. habeas corpus18. attrition19. mandate20. Reconstruction21. amnesty22. pocket veto23. freedman24. black codes25. impeach

26. clause27. ambiguous28. item29. academic30. adjacent

31. prospect32. conceive33. subordinate34. infrastructure35. circumstance

Reviewing the Main IdeasSection 136. What were three actions that strengthened the federal gov-

ernment after the War of 1812?

Section 237. What issue did the Missouri Compromise temporarily settle?

38. What were the results of the Seneca Falls Convention?

Section 339. How did the transcontinental railway contribute to

sectional tensions?

Section 440. How did the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth

Amendments advance civil rights?

Section 541. What were said to be the provisions of the Compromise

of 1877?

Critical Thinking42. Questioning Return to the Reading

Skill on page 170 and evaluate the questions you formed forthe headings under “Apply the Skill.” Did the text under eachheading provide the answers to your questions?

43. Civics President Lincoln suspended writs of habeas corpus toprevent interference with the draft. Do you think suspendingcivil liberties is justified in some situations? Why or why not?

44. Analyzing How did the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scottdecision affect formerly enslaved African Americans living inthe North?

Writing About History45. Relating Current Events

Research in the library and on the Internet and write a reportabout one group of Native Americans that was forced tomove west. Include recent events. CA CS4

Reviewing Academic VocabularyOn a sheet of paper, use each of these terms in a sentence thatreflects the term’s meaning in the chapter.

Civil War

Chapter SummarySectional Tensions

Reconstruction

• Fugitive Slave Act passed to help Southerners recoverenslaved people who escaped to the North

• Kansas-Nebraska Act passed; angered Northerners byrepealing the Missouri Compromise

• Dred Scott decision by Southern-dominated SupremeCourt upsets Northerners

• Southern States secede, establishing the Confederacy inFebruary 1961

• The Battle of Antietam marks the bloodiest one-daybattle in U.S. history

• Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect inJanuary 1863

• North wins decisive victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg • The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution bans

slavery in the United States in January 1865

• Congress passes the Fourteenth and FifteenthAmendments

• Military Reconstruction Act divides the South into fivemilitary districts

• New state constitutions have to guarantee voting rightsfor citizens

• Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction

Standards 11.1, 11.1.2, 11.1.3, 11.1.4, 11.2, 11.2.6, 11.3.1, 11.3.2, 11.3.3, 11.10.2, 11.10.7


Directions: Choose the best answer to the following question.

Which of the following actions reflect PresidentJefferson’s goal of limiting the power of the federalgovernment?

A He increased the size of the army.

B He proposed renewing the Alien and Sedition Acts.

C He dissolved the Republican Party to eliminate political conflict.

D He cut the federal budget.

50.

Standards Practice

46 . Imagine that you are a newspaper editor in1817. You have been asked to write an article on the highand low points of the first four presidential administrations.Use evidence to support your reflections.

47. Mock Peace Convention Hold a mock peace conventionto try and reverse the secession of the Southern states. As aclass, create a convention in which students are delegatesfrom Union or secessionist states. Students should write aposition paper for their assigned state proposing an ideathat could help the states compromise. Write a summary ofthe proceedings.

48. Interpreting Primary Sources In McCulloch v. Maryland,the Supreme Court was asked whether Congress had thepower to set up the Bank of the United States. The follow-ing excerpt is from Chief Justice John Marshall’s ruling.Read the excerpt and answer the questions that follow.

“The government of the United States . . . though lim-ited in its powers, is supreme; and its laws, when madein pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme lawof the land. . . . Among the enumerated powers, we donot find establishing a bank or creating a corporation.But there is no phrase in the instrument which . . .requires that everything granted shall be expressly andminutely described. . . . Among the enumerated powersof government . . . we find the great powers to lay andcollect taxes; to borrow money; to regulate commerce;to declare war and conduct a war; and to raise and sup-port armies and navies. . . . A government entrustedwith such ample powers . . . must also be entrusted withample means for their execution. . . . All means whichare appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end,which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter andspirit of the constitution, are constitutional. . . .”

—from McCulloch v. Maryland

a. What was Marshall’s opinion about the power of the government of the United States?

b. Why do you think the ruling in McCulloch v. Marylandmade American nationalism stronger?

CA 11RC2.5

CA 11WA2.1a

W. VA. separatedfrom VA. in 1861

and was admitted tothe Union in 1863.

S.C. was thefirst state to secede

from the Union.

On February 8, 1861,delegates from severalSouthern states created

the Confederacy.

30°N

50°N

80°W

TROPIC OF CANCER

90°W

Gulf of Mexico

PaCIFicOcean

ATLaNTicOcean

WIS.MICH.

OHIOIOWA

MINN.DAK.TERR.

COLO.TERR.

IND.ILL.

KY.

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MO.KANS.

NEBR. TERR.

LA.TEX.

UNORG.TERR.

UTAHTERR.

WASH.TERR.

NEV.TERR.

OREG.

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N. MEX.TERR.

FLA.

N.C.

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N.H.

VT.

MASS.R.I.

CONN.N.J.

DEL.

MD.VA.W.

VA.

N.Y.

PA.

ME.

Lambert Equal-Areaprojection

400 kilometers0

400 miles0

N

S

EW

Seceding States, 1860–1861

Union free stateUnion slave stateSlave state secedingbefore Fort Sumter, April 1861Slave state secedingafter Fort Sumter, April 1861

Union-Confederate border

Territory

Geography and History49. The map above shows seceding states from 1860 to 1861.

Study the map and answer the questions below.a. Interpreting Maps Which slave states remained in the

Union after the Fort Sumter attack?

b. Applying Geography Skills Which states did not secedeuntil after the Fort Sumter attack?

Self-Check QuizVisit the American Vision: Modern Times Web site at

and click on Self-Check Quizzes—Chapter 2 to assess your knowledge of chapter content.

HISTORY

tav.mt.glencoe.com

Standard 11.1.3: Understand the history of the Constitutionafter 1787 with emphasis on federal versus state authorityand growing democratization.


The American Vison: Modern Times

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Transcript of The American Vison: Modern Times