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Lincoln Chronology on Slavery and
Emancipation
Including Civil War Milestones
July 4, 1776
The Declaration of
Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is signed. It declares, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.” In an
earlier draft, Thomas Jefferson criticized the British slave trade, stating
that it violated “most sacred rights of life and liberty.” It was omitted in the final draft. Jefferson owns more than 200 slaves.[1]
July 13, 1787
The United States Congress passes the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787. It outlaws slavery in
the Northwest Territories, north of the Ohio River.[2]
September 17, 1787
The United States
Constitution is created. It
institutionalizes slavery by declaring that a slave will be counted only as
three-fifths of a person in determining representation in Congress. This gives slaveholding states a greater
representation in the House of Representatives.
The South would become the largest and most powerful slave system in the
modern world.[3] In addition, it contains a fugitive slave
clause. The blessings of liberty were
not for slaves. Dr. Benjamin Rush
declared, “No mention was made of negroes or slaves in this constitution, only
because it was thought the very words would contaminate the glorious fabric of
American liberty and government. Thus
you see the cloud, which a few years ago was no larger than a man’s hand, had
descended in plentiful dews and at last covered every part of our land.”[4]
1788
The U.S. constitution is ratified. Under its provisions, importation of slaves
will continue for 20 more years.
Fugitive slaves are to be returned to their owners. There are 13 states, seven free and six
slave.
June 21, 1788
The United States Constitution is ratified.
September 13, 1788
The Continental Congress passes resolution to
put the new Constitution into operation.
September 25, 1789
The Bill of Rights, consisting of the first ten
amendments to the U.S. Constitution, is created. These would guarantee a number of personal
freedoms. These include freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, a free press, freedom to associate, freedom from
unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from warrants without probable cause,
guarantee of a speedy trial by a jury of peers.
1790-1830
Numerous proposals for ending slavery by
gradual, compensated emancipation are introduced into the United States
Congress.[5]
1790
The first United States Census shows a total
population of 3,929,000; 1,961,174 live in slaveholding states. There are 757,181 Blacks, among whom 697,624
are slaves and 59,557 are free. Blacks
are now 19.3% of the population.[6]
The beginning of the Second Middle
Passage. Between1790 and the beginning
of the Civil War in 1860, more than one million enslaved individuals are sold
and moved to the deep south to work in the cotton fields. This is the largest forced migration in
American history. Countless generations
of enslaved families are separated forever.
The breeding of enslaved individuals for labor and for sale becomes ever
more widespread. More than three and a
half million individuals are born into slavery.
March 26, 1790
The U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790 restricts
naturalization for American citizenship to “free White persons.”
December 15, 1791
Bill of Rights is ratified.
June 1792
Kentucky is admitted to the Union as a slave state.
Congress seats their senators and representatives in November 1792.[7]
February 12, 1793
U.S. Congress passes
Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. It
is based on Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution. The law is in effect until the more powerful
Fugitive Slave Law is passed in 1850.[8]
October 28, 1793
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in
Georgia. He receives the patent on March
14, 1794. It makes cotton production
highly profitable. It is the catalyst
for exponential growth of the cotton industry in the deep south and west.[9]
March 22, 1794
United States Congress passes law forbidding
the slave trade from foreign ports. It
does not regulate the African slave trade to U.S. ports.[10]
1795-1835
A religious movement, known as the Great Awakening,
takes place. This movement is a catalyst
for the anti-slavery and abolitionist movement.
May 1800
U.S. Congress enacts new laws, restricting the
foreign slave trade. It prohibits U.S.
citizens from having financial interests in ships carrying slaves to foreign
ports.[11]
May 9, 1800
Future militant abolitionist John Brown is
born.
1802
The U.S. Congress rejects a bill that would
have strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.
February 28, 1803
U.S. Congress passes “An Act to Prevent the
Emportation of Certain Persons into Certain States, Where, by the Laws Thereof,
Their Admission is Prohibited.”[12]
1807
United States Congress enacts law prohibiting
the importation of slaves, to take effect January 1, 1808.[13]
March 2, 1807
President Jefferson signs the Act Prohibiting
Importation of Slaves into law. It takes
effect on January 1, 1808.
1808
The Kentucky state legislature enacts laws to
prohibit free Blacks from entering the state.
January 1, 1808
The U.S. Congressional Act Prohibiting
Importation of Slaves takes effect. More
than 400,000 slaves have been brought into the country from Africa. There are now one million slaves residing in
the United States. The US is the only
country where there is a natural increase in the enslaved population.[14]
February 12, 1809
Future sixteenth President of the U.S., Abraham
Lincoln, is born in Hardin County, Kentucky.
He is born in a one-room log cabin.[15]
In 1809, approximately one fifth of Kentucky’s
population is composed of enslaved individuals.
In Hardin County, where Lincoln was born, in 1811 it had a total
population of 7,500 individuals, more than 1,000 of whom were enslaved.
June 14, 1811
Harriet Beecher [Stowe], future author of the
landmark novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is
born.
December 1816
The Lincoln family moves from Kentucky to
southwestern Indiana.
December 28, 1816
American Colonization Society (ACS) is founded
in U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC. It seeks to settle free Blacks outside of the
United States. A number of its founding
members are southern political leaders and slave holders. They include Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun,
Bushnell Washington, and Francis Scott Key.
It is restricted to White members.
The ACS never opposes slavery, either legally or morally.
February 14, 1817
Future Black abolitionist leader Frederick
Douglass is born a slave on a plantation in Maryland.[16]
1818
The Illinois state constitution prohibits
slaves from being “hereafter introduced” into the state.
1819-1821
U.S. Congress debates the issue of extending
slavery into the new territories and whether or not to permit new slave states
to be admitted into the Union.[17] The new areas are Arkansas Territory and the
admission of Missouri as a state.
March 3, 1819
United States Congress passes stringent laws to
impede illegal smuggling of slaves into the country. The President can order the return to Africa
of slaves brought in illegally. The
President can now send armed U.S. naval vessels to Africa to interdict slave
ships. The British Navy cooperates in
this effort.[18]
March 2, 1820
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is passed by
Congress. The vote is very close, at 90
to 87. It prohibits all slavery north of
a line 36°30’. It allows Missouri to be
admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.[19]
May 15, 1820
The U.S. Congress passes a law declaring that
participating in the African slave trade will be considered an act of
piracy. Individuals who are convicted
are subject to capital punishment.[20]
1821
Congress enacts the Missouri Compromise. It prohibits slavery in the territories of
the Louisiana Purchase. The act includes
provision stating that fugitive slaves must be returned.[21]
1822
The American Colonization Society founds a
colony in Monrovia, Liberia for emancipated slaves.[22]
Pro-slavery individuals in Illinois try to
create a state constitution to legalize slavery.[23]
1828
Abraham Lincoln makes a
trip to New Orleans on a flatboat.
March 1830
The Lincoln family
moves to Macon County, Illinois.
January 1831
The New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) is
founded in Boston, Massachusetts. It advocates
for immediate abolition of slavery. It
states that slavery is immoral. It
opposes the American Colonization Society.
Its principal founder is William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison begins publication of the newspaper,
The Liberator. It is the foremost abolitionist paper. It continues publication until December 1865.[24]
July 1831
Abraham Lincoln moves to New Salem, Illinois.
1832
Approximately 8,500 slaves are sold and moved
annually from Virginia to the lower South.[25] Virginia Governor Randolph estimates that
260,000 enslaved individuals are sold and moved South between 1790 and
1832. After 1808, slaves are bred for
the expanding slave market in the lower cotton growing states. This is extremely profitable.
Lincoln votes for Henry Clay for
President. He is a life-long admirer of
Clay.[26]
Lincoln runs for Illinois state House of
Representatives and is defeated in a popular vote. He is only 23 years old.[27]
Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison publishes Thoughts on African Colonization. It opposes the colonization movement,
stating, “It is directly and irreconcilably opposed to the wishes of our
colored population as a body.”[28]
1833
Slavery is abolished in Canada by
Parliament. In practice, however, it
ended between 1790 and 1800.[29]
August 28, 1833
An act calling for
gradual, compensated abolition of slavery in the colonies is passed in the
British Parliament. United States
anti-slavery groups are encouraged and highly motivated by this action. American and English abolitionist groups will
increasingly work together.
December 1833
The American
Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) is founded in New York City. Its founding officers are William Lloyd
Garrison, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. It is the first national anti-slavery
organization founded in the U.S. It is
disbanded 1870. It publishes The Emancipator and The Anti-Slavery Standard.
The organization has 1,350 affiliated societies and 250,000 members in
1838. By 1840, there are 2,000
affiliated societies.[30]
December 4-6, 1833
The first convention of anti-slavery
organizations is held in Philadelphia.
1834
Great Britain abolishes slavery in its colonies,
1834-1838.
Lincoln’s father’s uncle dies. At the time of his death, he owned 43 slaves.
August 4, 1834
Abraham Lincoln is elected to first term in the
Illinois State House of Representatives.
He will serve four terms.[31]
1835
There are 225 anti-slavery societies in the
United States.[32]
December 7, 1835
President Andrew Jackson asks Congress to pass
laws prohibiting mailing of abolitionist literature through the U.S. mails.
1836
By the end of 1836, as many as five hundred
abolitionist groups have been organized in the United States.[33]
Henry Clay becomes president of the American
Colonization Society. He remains until
his death in July 1852.
January 11, 1836
Petitions are submitted to the United States
Congress calling for the ending of slavery in Washington, DC. They are strongly opposed by southern
lawmakers.
March 17, 1836
Republic of Texas is established. Its new constitution makes slavery legal
again in Texas.
May 26, 1836
The United States Congress issues the “Gag
Rule.” This prevents the reading and
circulation of anti-slavery petitions.
This rule remains in effect until 1844.[34]
1837
Cotton production in the United States is
estimated at 500 million pounds annually and two million slaves.
There are an estimated 1,006 abolitionist
groups in the United States.[35] There are only three in Illinois.[36]
January 20, 1837
Abraham Lincoln votes against pro-slavery
legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives.[37]
January 27, 1837
Lincoln delivers speech, “The Perpetuation of
our Political Institutions,” at the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield,
Illinois. He addresses the issue of
slavery. He declares, “There is no
grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance, the
promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true; that
is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and therefore proper to be
prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition of
mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.”[38]
February 6, 1837
The United States House of Representatives
rules that slaves did not have the right to petition Congress.
March 3, 1837
Illinois State Representative Abraham Lincoln
and colleague Dan Stone protest anti-abolitionist resolution adopted by State legislature
on January 20. They state “that the
institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that
the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate
its evils. They believe that the
congress of the United States has no power, under the constitution, to
interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States. They believe that the Congress of the United
States has the power, under the constitution, to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia; but that that power ought not to be exercised unless at
the request of the people of said District.
The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said
resolutions, is their reason for entering this protest.”[39]
April 1837
Abraham Lincoln moves to Springfield, Illinois.
October 26-27, 1837
Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society, at Upper
Alton, is founded by abolitionists Elijah P. Lovejoy and his brother, Owen
Lovejoy, a Congregationalist clergyman.
Eighty-six members meet. It calls
for the immediate abolition of slavery.[40]
November 7, 1837
Abolitionist newspaper publisher Elijah Lovejoy
is killed by anti-abolitionist mob, in Alton, Illinois.[41]
December 19, 1837
U.S. Congress passes stronger “Gag Rule”
against submissions of anti-slavery petitions.
1838
There are an estimated 1,406 abolitionist and
anti-slavery organizations in the United States, with approximately 115,000
members.[42]
January 3-12, 1838
South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun presents
laws to the Senate to provide protection of the institution of slavery. The Senate approves his measure, which
specifies that the Federal government should “resist all attempts by one
portion of the Union to use it as an instrument to attack the domestic
institutions of another.
September 3, 1838
Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery in
Baltimore, Maryland. He travels to New
York, then to New Bedford, Massachusetts.[43]
December 11, 1838
The U.S. House of Representatives renews the
Gag Rule, which was first adopted in 1836, preventing the submission of
anti-slavery petitions.[44]
1840
There are 2,487,455
slaves living in the United States.
There are also 386,303 free Blacks, for a total of 2,873,758. This is an increase of 26.62% from 1830.[45]
The 1840 census counts
a total of 331 enslaved individuals residing in Illinois.
William Henry Harrison
is elected president of the United States as a Whig candidate. Lincoln is re-elected to the Illinois state legislature. It is his last term.[46]
The anti-slavery Liberty
Party is founded by abolitionists. It
will play an influential role in American anti-slavery politics.
The American and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS) is founded after a split from the
American Anti-Slavery Society. It is
founded by Arthur and Lewis Tappan.
James G. Birney and Henry B. Stanton are elected secretaries. They begin publication of the National Anti-Slavery Standard.[47]
Between 200,000 and 300,000 Northerners have
become members of abolitionist societies.[48]
June 1840
The American Anti-Slavery Society begins
publishing its newspaper, The National
Anti-Slavery Standard. It remains in
publication until April 1870.[49]
July 9, 1841
Abraham Lincoln wins court case of “Bailey v.
Cromwell and McNaughton” before the Illinois Supreme Court. He wins freedom for slave girl Nance Legins
Cox.[50]
September 8, 1841
Abraham Lincoln sees 12 chained slaves being
transported on a steamboat on the Ohio River, chained together “like so many
fish on a trot-line.” Later, he recalls
the scene in a letter, “You may remember, as I well do, that … there were, on
board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. The sight was a continual torment to me; and
I see it something like every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.
… You ought … to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do
crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the constitution
and the Union.”[51] In 1855, Lincoln describes the same event in
a letter to Mary Speed: “A fine example was presented on board the boat for
contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. … [The slaves] were
chained six and six together. A small
iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this was fastened to the
main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from the others; so that
the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a
trot-line. In this condition they were
being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends,
their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from
their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery where the lash of
the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other where; and
yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think of them, they
were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures on board. … How true it
is that God … renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits
the best, to be nothing better than tolerable.”[52]
1842
Zebina Eastman begins
publication of the abolitionist newspaper, the Western Citizen.[53]
Lincoln decides not to run for re-election to
the Illinois state legislature. He
resumes his law practice.[54]
February 22, 1842
Lincoln delivers speech at a temperance society
in Springfield, Illinois. He declares
his opposition to slavery, saying that it would be a “happy day” when “all
appetites controlled, all passions subdued… when there shall be neither a
drunkard nor a slave on the Earth.”[55]
March 1, 1842
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of
“Prigg v. Pennsylvania.” It supports the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 by ruling that a Pennsylvania law that counters the
enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law is unconstitutional.[56]
November 4, 1842
Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd. She is from a slaveholding family.
1843
Great Britain and the United States enter into
agreement to send Naval patrol to the west coast of Africa to prevent shipment
of slaves. The result is the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
1844
Democratic candidate James K. Polk is elected
President, over Whig candidate Henry Clay and Liberty Party candidate James G.
Birney.
December 3, 1844
The US House of Representatives lifts the
enforcement of the “Gag Rule,” which prevented submissions of anti-slavery
petitions to Congress. It has been in
effect since 1836. Congressmen John
Quincy Adams and Joshua Giddings led the opposition to the “Gag Rule.”[57]
1845
Frederick Douglass’ influential book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
is published.[58]
March 3, 1845
Florida is admitted as the new 27th
state of the Union. It is a slave state.
December 29, 1845
Texas enters the Union as a slave state. It is the 28th state.
August 3, 1846
Abraham Lincoln is elected as a Representative
of the Whig Party from Springfield, Illinois to the United States Congress. He is the only Whig candidate elected from
Illinois.[59]
August 8, 1846
Congressman David Wilmont, of Pennsylvania,
introduces a Proviso into Congress to prohibit slavery in any territory
acquired from Mexico. The Proviso fails
to pass in the Senate.[60]
January 16, 1847
U.S. House of Representatives passes the Oregon
Bill. It prohibits the extension of
slavery from the Oregon Territory. The
Senate tables the measure.
March 4, 1847
Thirtieth U.S. Congress convenes in Washington. Lincoln will lodge in the same rooming house
with prominent abolitionist and anti-slavery Congressmen, such as Joshua
Giddings, Amos Tuck, of New Hampshire, John G. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, David
Wilmot (Wilmot Proviso), and Daniel Gott, of New York.[61]
June 30, 1847
Slave Dred Scott files a lawsuit in Circuit
Court in St. Louis, petitioning for his freedom.
October 16, 1847
Abraham Lincoln represents a slave holder,
Robert Matson, in court who seeks to regain ownership of his runaway
slaves. Lincoln loses the case and
slaves Anthony Bryant and his family are released from custody and from “all
servitude whatever from henceforth and forever.”[62]
December 6, 1847
First session of the Thirtieth United States
Congress convenes in Washington.
December 20, 1847
Congressman Abraham Lincoln votes against a
bill supporting the raising of additional troops for the war with Mexico.[63]
1848
Abraham Lincoln
actively campaigns for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor.
An Illinois
Constitutional Convention passes a referendum empowering the state legislature
to keep free Black persons out. The
referendum receives 70% of the vote.
January 12, 1848
Congressman Abraham
Lincoln criticizes President James K. Polk’s policy on the starting of the war
with Mexico. He states in a speech
before Congress that the war is based on “the sheerest deception…. He [Polk] is
deeply conscious of being in the wrong… he feels the blood of this war, like
the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him.”[64]
August 9-10, 1848
The Free Soil Party is founded in Buffalo, New
York. It includes members of the
“Conscience Whigs” Party, Democrats and members of the Liberty Party. The motto is, “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free
Labor and Free Men.” It is co-founded by
Salmon P. Chace and Gamaliel Bailey. The
Party opposes slavery in territories acquired in the Mexican War. It nominates Martin Van Buren for U.S.
President. The Party is active from 1848
to 1852. The Party’s support comes
largely from upstate New York. The Party
membership is absorbed by the Republican Party at its founding in 1854.[65]
August 14, 1848
Oregon Territory is established as a free
territory. Slavery is prohibited.
December 1848
The second session of the Thirtieth U.S.
Congress convenes.
January 10, 1849
U.S. Congressman Abraham Lincoln reads
resolution to report bill to U.S. House of Representatives for abolishing
slavery in the District of Columbia. It
calls for voluntary compensated emancipation of slaves in the District.[66] There are 3,700 enslaved persons residing in
the nation’s capitol. The total
population is 52,000, including 10,000 free African Americans. Abolitionist Congressman Joshua Giddings
fully supports Lincoln’s bill, state that it is “as good a bill as we could get
at this time.” Ardent abolitionists do
not, however, support the plan.
January 13, 1849
“Mr. Lincoln gave notice of a motion for
leave…”[67]
March 4, 1849
Thirtieth U.S. Congress adjourns. Abraham Lincoln is 40 years old. His political career appears to be at an
end. He will resume his law practice in
Springfield.
1850
The total population in the U.S. is
23,191,876. There are 3,204,313 slaves
in the United States. This is an
increase of 28.82% since 1840. There are
434,449 free Blacks, for a total of 3,638,762.
Blacks comprise 15.7% of the total U.S. population. There are 15 slave states.[68]
Illinois population doubles from 851,000 to 1.7
million since the 1840 census.
Congress enacts the
Missouri Compromise of 1850. California
is admitted to the Union as a free state.
The territories of New Mexico and Utah can decide by vote whether they
will be free or slave territory.[69]
Congress passes new Federal Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850. Slaves must be returned to
their owners. This strengthens the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. As a result,
many former slaves living in New England will settle in Canada.[70]
June 5, 1851
Serialized version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin begins publication in
anti-slavery newspaper, the National Era.
December 1851
Abolitionist leader Charles Sumner is elected
Senator in Massachusetts.
1852
Uncle
Tom’s Cabin,
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published.
More than a million copies are sold.
July 4, 1852
Frederick Douglass
gives Independence Day speech in Rochester, New York, entitled “What to the
Slave is the Fourth of July?” In it, he
states: “To him your celebration a sham;
your boasted liberty an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling
vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of
tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow
mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your
religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception,
impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a
nation of savages.”[71]
July 6, 1852
Lincoln delivers a eulogy for Henry Clay. He praises Clay highly for his anti-slavery
actions and politics in Congress.[72]
August 11, 1852
The newly formed Free Soil Party holds national
convention in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Its platform deeply opposes slavery.[73]
September 27, 1852
In Troy, New York, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is first performed as a play.
October 26, 1852
Anti-slavery Massachusetts Senator Charles
Sumner denounces the Fugitive Slave Act in a speech before the Senate.[74]
1853
State of Illinois passes law barring Blacks
from entering the state.[75]
January 1854
Congressional debates on the proposed
Kansas-Nebraska Act are conducted. The
Act would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and would allow extension of
slavery into new territories. It is
strongly opposed by abolitionist congressmen and senators.[76]
May 30, 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
creates the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allows for a vote by the
population to determine if they will be free or slave. This act repeals the anti-slavery clause of
the Missouri Compromise. The
three-fifths rule allows pro-slavery advocates to elect their candidate for
President. It also prevents further
suppression of the African slave trade.[77]
July 6, 1854
The Republican Party is formed. Many members of the Whig Free Soil Party and
Northern Democrats form the base of the party.[78]
September 12, 1854
Lincoln delivers speech on slavery at
Bloomington, Illinois. It is reported in
the Bloomington Weekly Pantagraph,
September 20, 1854.[79]
September 26, 1854
Lincoln delivers speech in Bloomington,
Illinois. It is reported in the Peoria
weekly on October 6, 1854. Lincoln
discusses the moral issue of slavery. “States
might make their own statutes, subject only to the Constitution of the whole
country;---no one disagreed with this doctrine. It had, however, no application
to the question at present at issue namely, whether slavery, a moral, social
and political evil, should or should not exist in territory owned by the
Government, over which the Government had control, and which looked to the
Government for protection---unless it be true that a negro is not a man; if
not, then it is no business of ours whether or not he is enslaved upon soil
which belongs to us, any more than it is our business to trouble ourselves
about the oyster-trade, cranberry-trade, or any other legitimate traffic
carried on by the people in territory owned by the Government. If we admit that
a negro is not a man, then it is right for the Government to own him and trade
in the race, and it is right to allow the South to take their peculiar
institution with them and plant it upon the virgin soil of Kansas and Nebraska.
If the negro is not a man, it is consistent to apply the sacred right of popular
sovereignty to the question as to whether the people of the territories shall
or shall not have slavery; but if the negro, upon soil where slavery is not
legalized by law and sanctioned by custom, is a man,
then there is not even the shadow of popular sovereignty in allowing the first
settlers upon such soil to decide whether it shall be right in all future time
to hold men in bondage there.”[80]
October 4, 1854
Lincoln delivers speech
in Springfield, Illinois, on the issue of slavery and its extension. It is reported in the Illinois Journal on October 5, 1854. Lincoln states: “What natural right requires Kansas and Nebraska to be
opened to Slavery? Is not slavery universally granted to be, in the abstract, a
gross outrage on the law of nature? Have not all civilized nations, our own
among them, made the Slave trade capital, and classed it with piracy and
murder? Is it not held to be the great wrong of the world? Do not the Southern
people, the Slaveholders themselves, spurn the domestic slave dealer, refuse to
associate with him, or let their families associate with his family, as long as
the taint of his infamous calling is known?
Shall that institution, which carries a rot and a murrain in it, claim
any right, by the law of nature, to stand by the side of Freedom, on a Soil
that is free?”[81]
October 5, 1854
Abolitionists and members of the Free Soil
Society meet in Springfield to form the Republican Party in Illinois.[82]
October 16, 1854
In a speech in Peoria,
Illinois, Abraham Lincoln declares his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
and its extension of slavery into the new western territories.[83] He criticizes the bill’s author, Senator
Stephan A. Douglas. Lincoln declares, “This declared indifference, but as I must think,
covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate
it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it
deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world---enables
the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as
hypocrites---causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our
sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst
ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil
liberty---criticising the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there
is no right principle of action but self-interest…. If all earthly power
were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. My
first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,---to
their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me, that
whatever of high hope, (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long
run, its sudden execution is impossible. ... What then? Free them all, and keep
them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their
condition? … What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially, our
equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know
that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling
accords with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, if indeed,
it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, can not
be safely disregarded. We can not, then, make them equals. It does seem to me
that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness
in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the south. … The
doctrine of self government is right---absolutely and eternally right---but it
has no just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that
whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is not
or is a man. … [If] the negro is a man, is it not to that extent,
a total destruction of self-government, to say that he too shall not govern himself?
When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs
himself, and also governs another man … that is despotism. If the negro
is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that ‘all men are created
equal;’ and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's
making a slave of another. … Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the
dust. Let us repurify it. … Let us turn slavery from its claims of ‘moral
right,’ back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of ‘necessity.’
Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it; and there let it rest in
peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the
practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south---let all
Americans---let all lovers of liberty everywhere---join in the great and good
work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have
so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving.”[84]
1855
Former slave and abolitionist leader Frederick
Douglass publishes his autobiography, My
Bondage and My Freedom. Douglass is
nominated as a state candidate for the anti-slavery Liberty Party.
February 8, 1855
Abraham Lincoln is unsuccessful in his bid for
the United States Senate.
March 30, 1855
Kansas holds first territorial election. A pro-slavery legislature is put into office,
despite accusation of fraud.
August 1855
Lincoln writes to Joshua Speed, “You enquire where
I now stand. That is a disputed
point. I think I am a whig; but others
say there are no whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. … I now do no more than
oppose the extension of slavery. I am
not a Know-Nothing. That is
certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of
negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to
be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began
by declaring that “all men are created
equal.” We now practically read it,
“all men are created equal, except
negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get
control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer
emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty—to
Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base
alloy of hypocracy.”[85]
1856
Conflict continues over the issue of extension
of slavery into the new Kansas Territory.
It further polarizes the country.
May 19, 1856
Anti-slavery U.S. Senator Charles Sumner is
severely beaten by pro-slavery Congressman Preston Brooks in the Senate
chamber.
May 29, 1856
Lincoln participates in the Illinois state
Republican Party convention. He delivers
the keynote speech. In it, he opposes
slavery.[86]
June 17-19, 1856
Republican Party holds national nomination
convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
John C. Frémont is nominated as candidate for president. The delegates call for the non-extension of
slavery into the new territories.
September-October 1856
Lincoln campaigns for Republican candidate for President
John C. Frémont. He delivers more than
100 speeches.[87]
November 1856
James Buchanan is elected President, defeating
Republican candidate John. C. Frémont.
March 6, 1857
The U.S. Supreme Court decides the Dred Scott
case. It states that Congress has no
power to limit slavery in the territories.
Three justices conclude that African Americans descended from slaves
have no rights as American citizens.[88] Supreme Court Chief Justice Tanney rules that
Blacks, both free and slave, are “beings of an inferior order and altogether
unfit to associate with the white race… and so far inferior, that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
June 26, 1857
Abraham Lincoln repudiates the Supreme Court
“Dred Scott” decision in a speech in Springfield, Illinois. He calls it “erroneous.”[89] Lincoln states, about the future of the enslaved
person, “All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him; ambition follows, and
philosophy follows, and the Theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house; they have
searched his person, and left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have closed the heavy
iron doors upon him, and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of
a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every
key; the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a
hundred different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what
invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the
impossibility of his escape more complete than it is.” About the Declaration of Independence and its
meaning with respect to equality, he declares, “I think the authors of that
notable instrument intended to include all
men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did
not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or
social capacity. They defined with
tolerable distinctness, in what respects they did consider all men created
equal—equal in ‘certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.’ … They meant to set up a standard maxim for free
society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked
to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained,
constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its
influence.”[90]
1858
Militant abolitionist John Brown begins plans
to create an organization comprised of armed guerrillas to fight slavery.
Republican Party gains new seats in the U.S.
Congress.
Abraham Lincoln is on the Board of Managers of
the Illinois Colonization Society.[91]
June 16, 1858
Abraham Lincoln is nominated as Republican
Senatorial candidate for Illinois. He
delivers speech: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure
permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to
be divided.”[92]
August 2, 1858
Voters in Kansas vote for the territory to
become a free territory. It becomes a
free state in 1861.
August 3, 1858
In a letter to Republican candidate David
Davis, Lincoln wrote, “I think the Negro is included in the word ‘men’ used in
the Declaration of Independence.”[93]
August 21-October 15,
1858
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas have
seven debates while campaigning for U.S. Senator from Illinois. Lincoln opposes slavery in the debates.[94] These debates, heavily covered by the press,
bring Lincoln to national consciousness.
October 1858
Abraham Lincoln declares in the seventh and
last of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in Alton, Illinois, that the Democratic
Party wants to “dehumanize the negro—to take away from him the right of ever
striving to be a man … to make property, and nothing but property of the Negro in all the states of this Union.”[95] “That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be
silent. It is the eternal struggle
between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. … The one is
the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. … It is
the same spirit that says, ‘You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat
it.’ No matter in what shape it comes,
whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own
nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an
apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.”[96]
1959
Abraham Lincoln has gone on record for five
years opposing the extension of slavery to the territories, since his Peoria,
Illinois, speech in 1854.
March 7, 1859
The United States Supreme Court rules in
Ableman v. Booth case. It upholds the
constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
October 4, 1859
Kansas Territorial voters ratify a new
anti-slavery constitution.
October 16-17, 1859
John Brown leads an attack on the U.S. Arsenal
at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The attack
is quickly put down. Brown and several
of his followers are captured.
December 2, 1859
John Brown is hanged along with four of his Black
soldiers in Charleston, Virginia.
December 19, 1859
In his message to Congress, President James
Buchanan states opposition to legalizing the importation of African slaves.
1860
There are 31,443,321 people living in the
United States. The North has 19,127,948.
The South has 12,315,373 people. The
1860 Census shows 3,953,760 slaves and 487,970 free Blacks in the United
States. There is an increase of 23.39%
in slave population compared to 1850.
The total Black population is 4,441,730, representing 14.1% of the total
U.S. population.[97]
The slave populations by state in the South are: Alabama:
435,080; Arkansas: 111,115;
Florida: 61,745; Georgia: 462,198; Louisiana: 331,726; Mississippi: 436,631; North Carolina: 331,059; South Carolina: 402,406; Tennessee: 275,719; Texas: 182,566; Virginia: 490,865.
According to the Constitution, enslaved individuals are counted as
three-fifths of a person for tallying representation in the U.S. House of
Representatives. These states have 45
congressional representatives and 14 senators.
The enslaved individuals residing in the South give the South
disproportionate representation in Congress.
The reason that the slave states can dictate national policy is the
direct result of the millions of enslaved individuals living within their
borders.[98]
There are an estimated 60,000 Blacks residing
in upper Canada. 45,000 are fugitive
slaves from the U.S.[99]
The price of a field hand slave is
approximately $1,200-1,800.
February 27, 1860
Abraham Lincoln delivers his famous Cooper
Union speech in New York City. (See
Appendix for excerpts.)[100]
March 5, 1860
Lincoln delivers speech in Hartford,
Connecticut. It is printed in the Hartford
Daily Courant on March 6.[101] He declares, “One-sixth of the population of
the United States is slave. One man of every six, one woman of every six, one
child of every six, is a slave. Those who own them look upon them as property,
and nothing else. They contemplate them as property, and speak of them as such.
The slaves have the same ``property quality,'' in the minds of their owners, as
any other property. The entire value of the slave population of the United
States, is, at a moderate estimate, not less than $2,000,000,000. This amount
of property has a vast influence upon the minds of those
who own it.”[102] … “For instance, out in the street, or in the
field, or on the prairie I find a rattlesnake. I take a stake and kill him.
Everybody would applaud the act and say I did right. But suppose the snake was
in a bed where children were sleeping. Would I do right to strike him there? I
might hurt the children; or I might not kill, but only arouse and exasperate
the snake, and he might bite the children. Thus, by meddling with him here, I
would do more hurt than good. Slavery is like this. We dare not strike at it
where it is. The manner in which our constitution is framed constrains us from
making war upon it where it already exists. The question that we now have to
deal with is, ‘Shall we be acting right to take this snake and carry it to a bed
where there are children?’ The Republican party insists upon keeping it out of
the bed.”[103]
… “The Republicans want to see all parts of the Union in harmony with one
another. Let us do our duty, but let us look to what our duty is, and do
nothing except after due deliberation. Let us determine, if we can, what will
satisfy the South. Will they be satisfied that we surrender the territories to
them unconditionally? No. If we promise never to instigate an invasion upon
slavery? No. Equally without avail is the fact that they have found nothing to
detect us in doing them any wrong. What then? We must say that slavery is
right; we must vote for Douglas's new Sedition laws; we must withdraw our
statement that slavery is wrong. If a slave runs away, they overlook the
natural causes which impelled him to the act; do not remember the oppression or
the lashes he received, but charge us with instigating him to flight. If he
screams when whipped, they say it is not caused by the pains he suffers, but he
screams because we instigate him to outcrying. We do let them alone, to be
sure, but they object to our saying anything against their system. They do not
ask us to change our free State constitutions, but they will yet do that. After
demanding what they do, and as
they do, they cannot stop short of this. They may be justified in this,
believing, as they do, that slavery is right, and a social blessing. We cannot
act otherwise than we do, believing that slavery is wrong. If it is right, we
may not contract its limits. If it is wrong, they cannot ask us to extend it.
Upon these different views, hinges the whole controversy. Thinking it right,
they are justified in asking its protection; thinking it wrong, we cannot
consent to vote for it, or to let it extend itself. If our sense of duty
forbids this extension, let us do that duty. This contrivance of a middle
ground is such that he who occupies it is neither a dead or a living man. Their
‘Union’ contrivances are not for us, for they reverse the scriptural order and
call the righteous, not sinners to repentance. They ask men who never had an
aspiration except for the Union, to swear fealty to the Union. Let us not be
slandered from our duties, or intimidated from preserving our dignity and our
rights by any menace; but let us have faith that Right, Eternal Right makes
might, and as we understand our duty, so do it!”[104]
In a
speech at Hartford, Connecticut, reported the next day in the Evening Press, Lincoln said: “Public
opinion at the South regards slaves as property and insists upon treating them
like other property. / On the other hand, the free states carry on their
government on the principle of the equality of men. We think slavery is morally
wrong, and a direct violation of that principle. We all think it wrong.
It is clearly proved, I think, by natural theology, apart from revelation.
Every man, black, white or yellow, has a mouth to be fed and two hands with
which to feed it---and that bread should be allowed to go to that mouth without
controversy. (Applause.)”[105] He further stated, “If slavery is right, it
ought to be extended; if not, it ought to be restricted---there is no middle
ground. Wrong as we think it, we can afford to let it alone where it of
necessity now exists; but we cannot afford to extend it into free
territory and around our own homes. Let us stand against it! / The “Union”
arrangements are all a humbug---they reverse the scriptural order, calling the
righteous and not sinners to repentance. Let us not be slandered or intimidated
to turn from our duty. Eternal right makes might---as we understand our duty,
let us do it!”[106]
March 6, 1860
In a
speech at New Haven, Connecticut, reported the next day in the New Haven Daily Palladium, Lincoln said: “To us it appears natural to think that slaves
are human beings; men, not property; that some of the things, at least,
stated about men in the Declaration of Independence apply to them as well as to
us. [Applause.] I say, we think, most of us, that this Charter of Freedom
applies to the slave as well as to ourselves ….
We think Slavery a great moral wrong, and while we do not claim the
right to touch it where it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the
Territories, where our votes will reach it. We think that a respect for
ourselves, a regard for future generations and for the God that made us,
require that we put down this wrong where our votes will properly reach it. We
think that species of labor an injury to free white men---in short, we think
Slavery a great moral, social and political evil, tolerable only because, and
so far as its actual existence makes it necessary to tolerate it, and that
beyond that, it ought to be treated as a wrong.”[107] Lincoln further stated: “It is easy to demonstrate that ‘our Fathers, who framed this
government under which we live,’ looked on Slavery as wrong, and so framed it
and everything about it as to square with the idea that it was wrong, so far as
the necessities arising from its existence permitted. In forming the
Constitution they found the slave trade existing; capital invested in it;
fields depending upon it for labor, and the whole system resting upon the
importation of slave-labor. They therefore did not prohibit the slave trade at
once, but they gave the power to prohibit it after twenty years. Why was this?
What other foreign trade did they treat in that way? Would they have done this
if they had not thought slavery wrong? / Another thing was done by some of the
same men who framed the Constitution, and afterwards adopted as their own act
by the first Congress held under that Constitution, of which many of the
framers were members; they prohibited the spread of Slavery into Territories.
Thus the same men, the framers of the Constitution, cut off the supply and
prohibited the spread of Slavery, and both acts show conclusively that they
considered that the thing was wrong. / If additional proof is wanting it can be
found in the phraseology of the Constitution. When men are framing a supreme
law and chart of government, to secure blessings and prosperity to untold
generations yet to come, they use language as short and direct and plain as can
be found, to express their meaning. In all matters but this of Slavery the
framers of the Constitution used the very clearest, shortest, and most direct
language. But the Constitution alludes to Slavery three times without
mentioning it once! The language used becomes ambiguous, roundabout, and
mystical. They speak of the ‘immigration of persons,’ and mean the importation
of slaves, but do not say so. In establishing a basis of representation they
say ‘all other persons,’ when they mean to say slaves---why did they not use
the shortest phrase? In providing for the return of fugitives they say ‘persons
held to service or labor.’ If they had said slaves it would have been plainer,
and less liable to misconstruction. Why didn't they do it. We cannot doubt that
it was done on purpose. Only one reason is possible, and that is supplied us by
one of the framers of the Constitution---and it is not possible for man to
conceive of any other---they expected and desired that the system would come to
an end, and meant that when it did, the Constitution should not show that there
ever had been a slave in this good free country of ours!”[108] He also stated, “I want every man to
have the chance---and I believe a black man is entitled to it---in which he can better his condition ---when he may look forward and
hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward,
and finally to hire men to work for him! That is the true system.”[109] He further stated, “So long as we call
Slavery wrong, whenever a slave runs away they will overlook the obvious fact
that he ran because he was oppressed, and declare he was stolen off. Whenever a
master cuts his slaves with the lash, and they cry out under it, he will
overlook the obvious fact that the negroes cry out because they are hurt…”[110]
March 8, 1860
Lincoln delivers “powerful” speech in
Woonsocket.[111]
May 9, 1860
In Baltimore, Maryland, the Constitutional
Union Party is founded.
May 16-18, 1860
Republican Party holds its nominating
convention in Chicago. It nominates Abraham Lincoln as its presidential
candidate. The Party platform opposes
the future expansion of slavery into the new western territories.[112]
May 19, 1860
Lincoln receives notice he has been nominated.[113]
May 21, 1860
Lincoln sends note to prominent Ohio
abolitionist and associate congressman Joshua Giddings: “It is indeed, most
grateful to my feelings, that the responsible position assigned me, comes
without conditions, save only such honorable ones as are fairly implied. I am
not wanting in the purpose, though I may fail in the strength, to maintain my
freedom from bad influences. Your letter comes to my aid in this point, most
opportunely. May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and
humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.”[114]
May 23, 1860
Lincoln accepts nomination as presidential
candidate of the Republican Party. He
writes to George Ashmun, President of the convention: “Imploring the assistance
of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who
were represented in the convention; to the rights of all the states, and
territories, and people of the nation; to the inviolability of the
constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am
most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared
by the convention. Your obliged friend, and fellow citizen.”[115]
June 18-23, 1860
The Democratic Party nominates Stephan A.
Douglas as its presidential candidate at its convention in Charleston, South
Carolina.
November 6, 1860
Abraham Lincoln is elected the Sixteenth
President of the United States, Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President. They are elected from the Republican
Party. They receive 1,866,452 votes and
win in 17 of 33 states. Lincoln is
elected President by a minority of only 40% of the popular vote.[116]
December 4, 1860
President James Buchanan gives report on the
State of the Union. About the abolition
of slavery, he states, “The long-continued and intemperate interference of the
Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern states has at
length produced its natural effects.” He
counsels against secession by declaring “The election of any one of our fellow-citizens
to the office of President does not of itself afford just cause for dissolving
the Union.”[117]
December 10, 1860
President-Elect Lincoln writes to Lyman
Trumbull, “Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there
be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again… The tug has to
come & better now, than any time hereafter.”[118]
December 11, 1860
President elect Lincoln writes to William
Kellogg, “Entertain no proposition for a
compromise in regard to the extension of slavery. The instant you do,
they have us under again; all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be
done over. Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his ‘Pop. Sov.’ Have
none of it. The tug has to come & better now than later. / You know I think
the fugitive slave clause of the constitution ought to be enforced---to put it
on the mildest form, ought not to be resisted.”[119]
New York Herald
reports about secession, “The president elect prepared for the inevitable
calamity, and his plans of action, it is said, are being adapted to it.[120]
December 13, 1860
Lincoln writes to Elihu B. Washburne, “Prevent,
as far as possible, any of our friends from demoralizing themselves, and our
cause, by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort, on ‘slavery extention.’ There is no possible compromise upon
it, but which puts us under again, and leaves all our work to do over again.”[121]
December 15, 1860
President-Elect Lincoln writes to Congressman
John Gilmer, of North Carolina, “I have no thought of recommending the
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, nor the slave trade among the
slave states, even on the conditions indicated; and if I were to make such
recommendation, it is quite clear Congress would not follow it.” He further writes, “You think slavery is
right and ought to be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be
restricted. For this, neither has any
just occasion to be angry with the other.”[122]
December 17, 1860
Lincoln writes to Congressman Thurlow Weed, “My
opinion is that no state can in any way lawfully get out of this Union, without
the consent of the others; and that is the duty of the president and other
government functionaries to run the machine as it is.”[123]
December 18, 1860
Senator John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky,
proposes a “compromise” to prevent southern states from seceding from the
Union. It states, in part, that “…no
amendment should be made which would give Congress power to abolish or
interfere with slavery in states where state laws permitted it.”[124]
December 20, 1860
By a vote of 169 to 0, South Carolina secedes
from the Union.[125]
December 22, 1860
Lincoln writes to Alexander H. Stephens, the
future vice-president of the Confederacy: “You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the
rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.”[126]
1861
A slave girl, Harriet Jacobs, publishes
influential slave narrative, Incidents in
the Life of a Slave Girl.
January 8, 1861
President Buchanan calls for the Congress to pass
and adopt the Compromise of Senator Crittenden.
He states, “Let us pause at this momentous point and afford the people
both North and South, an opportunity for reflection… Let the question be transferred from the
political assemblies to the ballot box.”[127]
January 9, 1861
At a state convention, Mississippi votes 84 to
15 to secede from the Union. It is the
second southern state to do so.[128]
January 10, 1861
At a state convention, Florida votes 62 to 7 to
secede from the Union. It is the third
southern state to do so.[129]
Senator William H. Seward of New York, an
abolitionist, accepts post of Secretary of State in President-Elect Lincoln’s
cabinet.[130]
January 11, 1861
At a state convention at Montgomery, Alabama
votes 61 to 39 to secede. It is the
fourth southern state to do so.[131]
Lincoln writes to Republican Congressman J. T.
Hale, “We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the
people. Now we are told in advance, the
government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten,
before we take the offices… If we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the
government.” He further writes, “There
is, in my judgment, but one compromise which would really settle the slavery
question, and that would be a prohibition against acquiring any more
territory.”[132]
Senator Seward, of the
state of New York, in a speech before the Senate, declares, “The alarm is
appalling; for the Union is not more the body than liberty is the soul of the
nation… A continuance of the debate on the constitutional power of Congress
over the subject of slavery in the Territories will not save the Union. The Union cannot be saved by proving that
secession is illegal or unconstitutional… I do not know what the Union would be
worth if saved by the use of the sword.”[133]
January 12, 1861
An amendment protecting slavery is adopted in
the Congress. It fails, however, to be
ratified by the states. Senator Seward
of New York says, in speech before the Senate, “The alarm is appalling; for the
Union is not more the body than liberty is the soul of the nation… A
continuance…”[134]
January 16, 1861
The proposed Crittenden Compromise is voted
down in the U.S. Senate.[135]
January 19, 1861
At a state convention in Milledgeville, the
state of Georgia votes 208-89 to secede from the Union. It is the fifth southern state to do so. However, some prominent state political
leaders oppose secession.[136]
January 21, 1861
The New York state legislature pledges support
for the Union.
January 23, 1861
The Massachusetts state legislature pledges its
support for the Union.
January 24, 1861
The Pennsylvania state legislature pledges its
support for the Union.
January 26, 1861
The state of Louisiana, at a convention in
Baton Rouge, votes 113 to 17 to leave the Union. It is the sixth state to do so.[137]
January 29, 1861
Congress votes to admit Kansas as the 34th
state. Its constitution prohibits
slavery in the new state.[138]
February 1, 1861
The state of Texas votes in the capital in
Austin, 166 to 7, to leave the Union.[139]
President elect Lincoln writes to Secretary of
State designate Seward. He refuses to
compromise on the extension of slavery into the territories: “I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on
the territorial question---that is, the question of extending slavery under the
national auspices,---I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists
or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.
And any trick by which the nation is to acquire territory, and then allow some
local authority to spread slavery over it, is as obnoxious as any other. / I
take it that to effect some such result as this, and to put us again on the
high-road to a slave empire is the object of all these proposed compromises. I
am against it.”[140]
February 4-9, 1861
Seven of the southern states that seceded meet
in Montgomery, Alabama, and adopt provisional confederate constitution on
February 9. They elect Senator Jefferson
Davis as provisional president.[141]
February 11, 1861
Lincoln leaves by train for Washington,
DC. The trip lasts 12 days and is 2,000
miles. He makes more than 100
spontaneous speeches at various state capitols and towns.
February 15, 1861
Lincoln gives speech in Cleveland, Ohio. He says, “I am convinced that the cause of
liberty and the Union can never be in danger. Frequent allusion is made to the
excitement at present existing in our national politics, and it is as well that
I should also allude to it here. I think that there is no occasion for any
excitement. The crisis, as it is called, is altogether an artificial crisis. In
all parts of the nation there are differences of opinion and politics. There
are differences of opinion even here. You did not all vote for the person who
now addresses you. What is happening now will not hurt those who are farther away
from here. Have they not all their rights now as they ever have had? Do they
not have their fugitive slaves returned now as ever? Have they not the same
constitution that they have lived under for seventy odd years? Have they not a
position as citizens of this common country, and have we any power to change
that position? (Cries of ``No.'') What then is the matter with them? Why all
this excitement? Why all these complaints? As I said before, this crisis is all
artificial. It has no foundation in facts.”[142]
February 18, 1861
Jefferson Davis describes slavery as “necessary
to self-preservation” in his inaugural address as President of the Confederacy.[143]
February 21, 1861
Lincoln addresses New Jersey Senate in Trenton:
“…in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a
small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, ‘Weem's
Life of Washington.’ I remember all the accounts there given of the battle
fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed
themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton,
New-Jersey. The crossing of the river; the contest with the Hessians; the great
hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any
single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how
these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then,
boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common
that those men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing which
they struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that
something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all
time to come; I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and
the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the
original idea for which that struggle was made.”[144]
To the New Jersey State General Assembly,
Lincoln declares: “I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful
settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted
to peace than I am. [Cheers.] None who would do more to preserve it. But it may
be necessary to put the foot down firmly.”[145]
February 22, 1861
In a speech in Philadelphia, Lincoln declares,
“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Independence…
In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of
bloodshed and war.”[146]
February 23, 1861
Texas voters approve referendum to secede from
the Union, 34,794 to 11,235 in favor.[147]
March 1861
The vice president of the Confederacy,
Alexander Stephens, states that his government “rested upon the great truth
that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to
the superior race, is a natural and normal condition… our new Government, is
the first in the history of the world, based upon this great physical,
philosophical, and moral truth.”
March 2, 1861
The United States Congress passes a proposed
constitutional amendment that the U.S. government would not “abolish or
interfere…with the domestic institutions” of the states. This amendment is not ratified.[148]
March 4, 1861
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated, in Washington
City, as President of the United States.
More than 50,000 attend the ceremony.
He states, in his inaugural address, “I hold, that in contemplation of
universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.
…It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can
lawfully get out of the Union,--that resolves
and ordnances to that effect are
legally void;… I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the
laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take
care,… that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. …
In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be
none unless it be forced upon the national authority. … One section of our
country believes slavery is right,
and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. … I have no purpose… to
interfere with the institution of slavery…
In your hands, my dissatisfied
fellow countrymen, and not mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The
government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being
yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to
destroy the government, while I shall
have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ it. … I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, streching from every battle-field,
and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely
they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”[149]
(See full speech in appendix.)
April 12, 1861
Start of the Civil War in the United States. Confederate Army begins the shelling of the
U.S. Army garrison at Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.[150]
April 15, 1861
Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to enlist for
three months. Black men who seek to
volunteer for the Union Army are turned back.[151]
April 17, 1861
General Benjamin F. Butler is replaced as
commander of the Union Department of Virginia, headquartered at Fortress
Monroe.[152]
May 13, 1861
United Kingdom issues
Proclamation of Neutrality in the war.[153]
Union troops occupy Baltimore, Maryland.
May 20, 1861
North Carolina secedes from the Union.[154]
May 22, 1861
Union General Benjamin F. Butler assumes
command of Fortress Monroe on the James River in Virginia, near Norfolk.[155]
May 23, 1861
Three enslaved individuals escape to Fortress
Monroe. Butler gives them sanctuary and
refuses to return them to their owners.
He refuses to abide by the Federal Fugitive Slave Act. Butler asserts that it did not apply because
it “did not affect a foreign country, which Virginia claimed to be.”[156]
Virginia votes three to one to approve
secession from the Union.[157]
May 24, 1861
Union General Benjamin
F. Butler declares fugitive slaves to be “contraband of war.” Fugitive slaves who escape to Fort Monroe,
Virginia, are put to work for the Union.[158]
Federal troops enter and occupy Alexandria,
Virginia.[159]
May 27, 1861
Forty-seven escaped slaves arrive at Fortress
Monroe. They call it “Freedom
Fort.” General Butler puts them to
work. He requests a decision from
Washington regarding his actions.
Lincoln approves of General Butler’s policy, calling it “Butler’s
fugitive slave law.”[160]
June 3, 1861
Senator Stephan A. Douglas dies.[161]
June 4, 1861
Southern newspapers recommend that slaves be
utilized in Confederate fortification, in lieu of state volunteer forces.[162]
July 4, 1861
Lincoln calls for a special Congressional
session. He has a special message
delivered, which enumerates the causes of the war and his proposed policies to
preserve the Union. The message does not
specifically mention slavery, but does refer to the “slave states.” He writes: “And this issue embraces more than
the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man, the
question, whether a constitutional [25]
republic, or a democracy---a government of the people, by the same
people---can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own
domestic foes. It presents the question, whether discontented individuals, too
few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any
case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other
pretences, or arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their Government, and
thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to
ask: ‘Is there, in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness?’ ‘Must a
government, of necessity, be too strong for the
liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain
its own existence?’ / So viewing the issue, no choice was left [26]
but to call out the war power [27]
of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by
force, for its preservation… This is essentially a People's contest. On the
side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form,
and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition
of men---to lift artificial weights from all shoulders---to clear the paths of
laudable pursuit for all---to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair
chance, in the race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures,
from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose
existence we contend.”[163]
July 21, 1861
Battle of Bull Run, or Blackburn’s Ford, in
Virginia. Union forces driven back in a
rout. It is the first major battle of
the Civil War. 460 Federals are killed
and 387 confederates.[164]
July 22, 1861
The Union is shocked over its defeat at Bull
Run. Major General George B. McClellan
is given command of the Army.[165]
The United States Senate declares that the war
was being fought “to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and
to preserve the Union,” and that “this war is not waged… for any purpose… of
overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions… [of
the] southern states.” Congress thus
declares that the principle war aim is to preserve the Union. Lincoln supports the resolution. It passes the House 117 to 2, and the Senate,
on July 25, 30 to 5.[166]
July 27, 1861
Major General McClellan is given command of the
Division of the Potomac by Lincoln.[167]
July 29, 1861
President Lincoln approves Congressional bill
to call up the state militias to fight the Rebellion. It amends the 1795 Militia Act. The Regular Army is enlarged by 11 regiments.[168]
July 30, 1861
More than 850 enslaved individual escape to
Fortress Monroe.[169]
General Benjamin Butler seeks to declare
escaped slaves freed. He writes to
Secretary of War Cameron, “In a loyal State I would put down a servile
insurrection. In a state of rebellion I
would confiscate that which was used to oppose my arms, and take all that
property, which constituted the wealth of that State, and furnished the means
by which the war is prosecuted, besides being the cause of the war; and if, in
so doing, it should be objected that human beings were brought to the free
enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, such objection might
not require much consideration.”[170]
August 1861
Daniel R. Goodloe, an abolitionist and
correspondent for the New York Times,
writes Emancipation and the War:
Compensation Essential to Peace and Civilization.[171]
August 1, 1861
The U.S. Senate debates a proposed bill to end
the insurrection.[172]
August 2, 1861
The United States Congress passes the first
national income tax bill. It calls for
new and higher tariffs.[173]
August 6, 1861
U.S. Congress ends its 34-day special session.
President Lincoln is at the U.S. Capitol to sign
new bills. The U.S. Congress passes the
First Confiscation Act. This act
authorizes the freeing of slaves in areas of Union Army occupation and where
slaves have been employed to support the Confederate military.[174]
August 8, 1861
Secretary of War Simeon Cameron writes General
Butler regarding federal policy toward returning slaves who have entered Union
lines. Butler determines that escaped
slaves from Confederate states would not be returned.[175]
August 10, 1861
Battle of Wilson’s Creek is fought in area
southwest of Springfield, Missouri. It
is a Union defeat. 1317 Union casualties;
Confederate casualties, 1230.[176]
August 16, 1861
Lincoln declares that the people of the
Confederate states “are in a state of insurrection against the United States,
and that all commercial intercourse” between Union and Confederates states is
illegal.[177]
August 30, 1861
Major General John C. Frémont invokes martial
law within his military command in Missouri.
Further, he issues a proclamation that frees slaves within his military
jurisdiction. He confiscates the property
of “those who shall take up arms against the United States” and declares that
“their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men.” Northern abolitionists support the order. He has no authorization to issue these
orders. On September 11, Lincoln
overrules his decisions. Frémont refuses
to comply, and is ordered by the President to nullify his orders. Frémont is then reassigned.[178]
September 2, 1861
President Lincoln requests that General Frémont
“modify” his emancipation proclamation of August 30, 1861. Lincoln declares it “will alarm our Southern
Union friends, and turn them against us—perhaps ruin our rather fair prospects
for Kentucky.”[179] Lincoln is fearful of losing Kentucky to the
Confederacy.
September 3, 1861
Confederate military units invade
Kentucky. The action ends the
“neutrality” of the states.[180]
September 10, 1861
Mrs. John C. Frémont meets with President
Lincoln in order to persuade him to support General Frémont’s emancipation and
confiscation proclamation of August 30.[181]
September 17, 1861
An old friend of Lincoln, Orville H. Browning,
writes to the President regarding his approval of General John C. Frémont’s
proclamation freeing enslaved individuals in his jurisdiction in Missouri. He writes that the proclamation had “the
unqualified approval of every true friend of the Government … I do not know of
an exception.”[182]
September 22, 1861
President Lincoln replies to Orville H.
Browning letter of September 17, 1861.
Lincoln explains his lack of support for General Frémont’s action
regarding freeing of enslaved individuals in his department. Lincoln writes, “Yours of the 17th is just
received; and coming from you, I confess it astonishes me. That you should
object to my adhering to a law, which you had assisted in making, and
presenting to me, less than a month before, is odd enough. But this is a very
small part. Genl. Fremont's proclamation, as to confiscation of property, and
the liberation of slaves, is purely political, and
not within the range of military law, or necessity.”[183] Lincoln further explains that to support
Frémont’s order would jeopardize Kentucky and Missouri loyalty to the
Union. He states: “I think to lose
Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we can
not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job
on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at
once, including the surrender of this capitol.”[184]
September 23, 1861
John L. Scripps, a Lincoln biographer, writes
the President, “‘This nation cannot endure part slave and part free.’ … To you
sir has been accorded a higher privilege than was ever before vouchsafed to
man. The success of free institutions
rests with you. The destiny not alone of
four millions of enslaved men and women, but of the great American people … is
committed to your keeping. You must either make yourself the great
central figure of our American history for all time to come, or your name
will go down to posterity as one who … proved himself unequal to the grand
trust.”[185]
September 25, 1861
Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells, authorizes
the enlistment of Black slaves into the U.S. Navy.
October 1, 1861
Senator Charles Sumner declares his support for
emancipation of enslaved individuals at a state Republican convention.[186]
October 14, 1861
To prevent subversion of the Union cause,
President Lincoln authorizes General Winfield Scott to suspend the right of
writ of habeas corpus between Bangor, Maine, and Washington, DC.[187]
October 21, 1861
Battle of Ball’s Bluff on Leesburg,
Virginia. It is a Union defeat. Union casualties are 921, Confederate are
155.[188]
October 24, 1861
In Wheeling, citizens of western Virginia vote
in favor of forming a new state.[189]
November 1861
President Lincoln proposes plan for gradual,
compensated emancipation of slaves in Delaware, which would be supported by the
federal government. Lincoln drafts two
bills to be entered into the state legislature.
$719,200 would be provided to slaveholders in Federal bonds. The bills, however, are not introduced. Slavery remains in Delaware until the
ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.[190]
November 2, 1861
Major General John C. Frémont is removed from
his command of the Western Department.
Major General Hunter is placed in temporary command.[191]
November 6, 1861
Jefferson Davis is elected without opposition
as President of the Confederate States.
Members of the Confederate Congress are also selected.[192]
November 7, 1861
Battle of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina.[193]
November 15, 1861
Historian George Bancroft writes President
Lincoln that “Divine Providence” caused the war to “root out social
slavery.” Lincoln writes back that it
“does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in all due caution, and
with the best judgment I can bring to it.”[194]
November 28, 1861
Federal authorities order the confiscation of
all crops in Port Royal Sound area.
Formerly enslaved individuals are to be utilized in harvesting them and
to work on Union Army installations and defensive works.[195]
The North celebrates a Day of Thanksgiving.[196]
December 1861
Petitions, resolutions and bills to abolish
slavery in states “in rebellion” are introduced into the United States
Congress. Thomas Eliot, of
Massachusetts, submits a resolution asking Lincoln, under the War Powers
provision of the Constitution, to free enslaved individuals in the rebellious
states. Congressman Owen Lovejoy calls
for allowing Blacks to serve in the Union Army.
Additionally, there are resolutions to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act.[197]
December 3, 1861
President Lincoln sends annual message to
Congress. He writes, “…A disloyal
portion of the American people have, during the whole year, been engaged in an
attempt to divide and destroy the Union. … Under and by virtue of the act of Congress
entitled ‘An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,’
approved August, 6, 1861, the legal claims of certain persons to the labor and
service of certain other persons have become forfeited; and numbers of the
latter, thus liberated, are already dependent on the United States, and must be
provided for in some way. Besides this, it is not impossible that some of the
States will pass similar enactments for their own benefit respectively, and by
operation of which persons of the same class will be thrown upon them for
disposal. In such case I recommend that Congress provide for accepting such
persons from such States, according to some mode of valuation, in lieu, pro tanto, of direct taxes, or upon some other plan to be
agreed on with such States respectively; that such persons, on such acceptance
by the general government, be at once deemed free; and that, in any event,
steps be taken for colonizing both classes, (or the one first mentioned, if the
other shall not be brought into existence,) at some place, or places, in a
climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too,---whether the
free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as
individuals may desire, be included in such colonization…. The
Union must be preserved, and hence, all indispensable means must be
employed. We should not be in haste to
determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well
as the disloyal, are indispensable… It
continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively, a
war upon the first principle of popular government---the rights of the people.
… The struggle of today, is not altogether for today---it is for a vast future
also.”[198] About the Confiscation Act, Lincoln writes, “Lincoln
recommends official program of compensated emancipation and colonization of
individuals freed from slavery.[199]
1862
Treaty signed between United States and Great
Britain for the suppression of the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty
Act).
January 1862
The United States Congress continues the debate
on emancipating enslaved individuals, colonization, and compensation of
slaveholders. Radical Republicans
continue to submit petitions and bills to this effect.[200]
January 12, 1862
Union Secretary of War Simon Cameron
resigns. Lincoln accepts his
resignation.[201]
January 13, 1862
President Lincoln announces his nomination of
Edwin M. Stanton as the new Secretary of War.
Stanton is an opponent of slavery.[202]
January 15, 1862
The United States Senate confirms the
appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War.[203]
February 6, 1862
Confederate forces surrender Fort Henry,
Tennessee. It is a major Union victory.[204]
February 8, 1862
Union victory in the Battle of Roanoke Island,
North Carolina.[205]
February 13-16, 1862
A Union victory in the Battle of Fort Donelson,
in Tennessee.[206]
February 25, 1862
The Union Army enters and occupies Nashville,
Tennessee, the state capitol. It is a
vital base of operations for the Union for the rest of the war.[207]
March 6, 1862
Abraham Lincoln sends message to the U.S.
Congress proposing a plan of gradual, compensated emancipation in the loyal
slave states. It states, “I recommend
the adoption of a Joint Resolution by your honorable bodies which shall be
substantially as follows: ‘Resolved that the United States ought to co-operate
with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such
state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in it's discretion, to compensate
for the inconveniences public and private, produced by such change of
system.’” [208] The proposal is very quickly approved by
Congress. Many of the New York papers
endorse the proposal. Lincoln makes the
goal of ending slavery in the United States an official policy. The abolitionist community also
enthusiastically supports the proposal.[209]
March 9, 1862
President Lincoln discusses possible conference
on gradual compensated emancipation with Congressman Blair.[210]
President Lincoln comments to Congressman Henry
Raymond on the subject of the cost of compensated emancipation: “My dear Sir: I am grateful to the New-York
Journals, and not less so to the Times than to others, for their kind notices
of the late special Message to Congress. Your paper, however, intimates that
the proposition, though well-intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. I
do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the facts that less than one
half-day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware, at four
hundred dollars per head?---that eighty-seven days cost of this war would pay
for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at
the same price? Were those states to take the step, do you doubt that it would
shorten the war more than eighty seven days, and thus be an actual saving of
expense. Please look at these things, and consider whether there should not be
another article in the Times?”[211]
March 13, 1862
President Lincoln approves an act of the
Congress that prohibits Union Army commanders from returning captured or
fugitive slaves to their owners (except for loyal slave states). It supersedes the Fugitive Slave Act.[212]
March 14, 1862
Union Army, under Major General Ambrose Burnside,
captures New Berne, North Carolina.
March 24, 1862
President Lincoln
writes to editor of the New York Tribune
and abolitionist Horace Greeley regarding his support of gradual, compensated
emancipation: “I am grateful for the generous sentiments and purposes expressed
towards the administration. Of course I am anxious to see the policy proposed
in the late special message, go forward; but you have advocated it from the
first, so that I need to say little to you on the subject. If I were to suggest
anything it would be that as the North are already for the measure, we should
urge it persuasively, and not menacingly,
upon the South. I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this
District, not but I would be glad to see it abolished, but as to the time and
manner of doing it. If some one or more of the border-states would move fast, I
should greatly prefer it; but if this can not be in a reasonable time, I would
like the bill to have the three main features---gradual---compensation---and
vote of the people---I do not talk to members of congress on the subject,
except when they ask me. I am not prepared to make any suggestion about
confiscation. I may drop you a line hereafter.”[213]
Horace Greeley,
publisher of the New York Tribune,
agrees to endorse gradual compensated emancipation of slaves.[214]
United States Congress debates issue of
compensated emancipation.[215]
Late March 1862
Lincoln discusses his proposal for gradual
compensated emancipation with abolitionist leader Wendell Phillips. Lincoln tells Phillips, “the negro who has
once touched the hem of the government’s garment shall never again be a slave.”[216]
April 2, 1862
On Lincoln’s recommendation, U.S. Senate passes
a House resolution calling for gradual compensated abolition of slavery.[217] No Northern states take up this proposal.
April 3, 1862
Union General David Dard Hunter requests permission
from the Army to recruit Black men from the South Carolina Sea Islands for
service in the military. The War
Department does not respond, and he begins recruiting Black soldiers on his own
authority.
April 5, 1862
The Union Army, under General McClellan, begins
setting up siege lines in front of Yorktown, Virginia.[218]
Lincoln supports bill abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia.[219]
April 6-7, 1862
Battle of Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh), Tennessee. It is a limited Union victory, with 13,047
Union casualties, 10,694 Confederate.[220]
April 7, 1862
United States House of Representatives appoints
a Committee on Emancipation and Colonization of Blacks.[221]
Lincoln signs treaty with England for the
Suppression of the International African Slave Trade. He transmits the treaty to the Senate for
ratification on April 10, 1862.[222] The treaty is ratified unanimously by the
upper house on April 24, 1862.[223]
April 10, 1862
President Lincoln approves United States
Congress Joint Resolution plan to cooperate with any state in the gradual
emancipation of its slaves (House Resolution 48).[224]
Lincoln proclaims a Day of Thanksgiving by
Union forces.
April 11, 1862
Union Major General David D. Hunter, commander
of the Department of the South, issues order freeing slaves who come into his
lines.[225]
After much debate, United States Congress
passes bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.[226]
Fall of Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River near
the Port of Savannah, Georgia. This is a
significant Union success.[227]
April 13, 1862
Representatives from the Freedman’s Association
call on Lincoln to give Blacks abandoned plantations at Port Royal, South
Carolina.[228]
April 16, 1862
Lincoln signs law, “An Act for the Release of
Certain Persons Held to Service, or Labor in the District of Columbia,” passed
by United States Congress, providing for immediate, compensated emancipation of
slaves in the District of Columbia. (See full text in appendix.) It is the first Federal law giving enslaved
individuals immediate emancipation. It
ends slavery as an institution; it is not a measure to enforce the Confiscation
Act. More than 3,000 enslaved
individuals are freed. Approximately
$900,000 is paid to the former slaveholders by the Federal government. Congress soon repeals the Black Codes of the
District. Many enslaved individuals in
the areas surrounding Washington will soon escape to freedom there. [229]
April 25, 1862
Union Navy under Admiral Farragut arrives at
New Orleans, capturing the city. New
Orleans’ waterfront is burned by city population. The Mississippi River is opened.[230]
Union victory with capture of the coastal fort
of Fort Macon, North Carolina.[231]
May 3, 1862
After a month-long siege, Confederate forces
evacuate Yorktown, Virginia. The Union
Army enters the city.[232]
May 5, 1862
Union victory at the Battle of Williamsburg,
Virginia. The Union Army occupies the
city on May 6.[233]
May 9, 1862
Major General David D. Hunter, an abolitionist,
issues General Order No. 11, freeing slaves in his Department in South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He does
it without presidential authority. It
affects more than 900,000 African Americans.
He also authorizes his officers to enlist Black volunteers.[234]
Confederates evacuate Norfolk, Virginia, a
strategic naval base and supply depot.
The Union Army occupies the city.[235]
May 19, 1862
President Lincoln revokes the General Orders of
Union Major General Hunter that freed enslaved individuals in the states of
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.[236] He writes “that neither General Hunter, nor
any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the
United States to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free.”[237]
The U.S. House of Representatives approves
resolution that will prohibit slavery from all Federal territories, without
compensation to slaveholders.[238]
May 20, 1862
Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, enacted by
Congress. Included in it is an important
anti-slavery program. It makes 160 acres
of public land available to citizens who have not carried arms against the United
States.[239]
May 25, 1862
Confederate victory in the Battle of
Winchester, Virginia.[240]
May 30, 1862
Union victory, Confederate forces leave
Corinth, Mississippi. Union Army begins
occupation of city, which is a vital rail center, under General Halleck.[241]
May 31 – June 1, 1862
Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, Virginia.[242]
June 5, 1862
President Lincoln approves congressional bill
to appoint commissioners and establish relations with Haiti and Liberia. These are the first Black-led governments to
be recognized by the United States Congress.[243]
June 6, 1862
Union naval victory in the Battle of Memphis,
Tennessee. The mayor surrenders the city
to Union forces.[244]
June 9, 1862
The U.S. Senate approves of a resolution that
will prohibit slavery from all federal territories. This is without compensation to former slave
holders.[245]
Lincoln signs bill prohibiting slavery from all
federal territories into law.
June 20, 1862
Delegation of Progressive Friends (Quakers)
visits with Lincoln at the White House.
They present him a memorial opposing slavery. Their petition expresses their “desire that
he might… free the slaves and thus save the nation from destruction.” Lincoln replies that he believes that slavery
is wrong, and that he “had sometime thought that perhaps he
might be an instrument in God's hands of accomplishing a great work and he
certainly was not unwilling to be.”[246] (See appendix for full text of article.)
June 25, 1862
The Seven Days Campaign, near Richmond,
Virginia, begins.[247]
July 1, 1862
General McClellan withdraws his army to
Harrison’s Landing, ending the Peninsular Campaign.[248]
Battle of Malvern Hill, north of the James
River. General McClellan’s strategy to
take Richmond fails.[249]
July 7, 1862
Lincoln meets with Major General McClellan at
Army of the Potomac headquarters at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia. McClellan attempts to advise the president on
military and political policy. He
recommends against “forcible abolition of slavery.”[250]
July 11-12, 1862
After much debate, the United States Congress
approves the Second Confiscation Act. It
signals a major shift in Union policy toward the freeing of enslaved
individuals who enter Union lines or are in occupied Union territory.[251]
July 12, 1862
President Lincoln asks senators and congressmen
from the four Union border states to support gradual, compensated
emancipation. On July 14, the political
leaders from these states reject Lincoln’s plan.[252]
President Lincoln appoints a United States
Consul General for Haiti.[253]
July 13, 1862
Lincoln discusses plans for general
emancipation of slaves with cabinet members William H. Seward and Gideon Welles. [254] Welles recalls Lincoln saying that “It was a
military necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union,” and
“that emancipation in Rebel areas must precede that in the border, not the
other way around.”
July 14, 1862
Lincoln sends Congress draft of a bill to give
Federal compensation to states who emancipate their slaves. Congress does not act on this proposal.[255]
July 17, 1862
Lincoln signs the Second
Confiscation Act. It is called “An Act
to Suppress Insurrection, and to Punish Treason and Rebellion, to Seize and
Confiscate Property of Rebels and for Other Purposes.” This act grants freedom to slaves whose
masters participated in the secession.[256]
Congress passes the Militia Act. This act allows the U.S. Armed Forces to give
employment to Blacks “in any military or naval service for which they may be
found competent.” Slaves who worked for
the U.S. military are to be declared free.[257]
July 22, 1862
Abraham Lincoln submits a draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, to be effective July 1, 1863. It declares that on January 1, 1863, “All
persons held as slaves within any state or states [in Confederate control]
shall then, thenceforward, and forever, be free.” Abolition was to be immediate and with no
compensation to the slaveholders. The
Secretary of War calls for it to be issued immediately. Secretary of State Seward advises Lincoln not
to issue it until after a major victory in the war.[258]
Lincoln issues executive order authorizing, “1.
Military commanders may seize and use real property in rebel States for
military purposes. 2. Military and naval commanders may employ as laborers
persons of African descent, giving them reasonable wages for their labors. 3.
Accounts of property of all kinds taken from owners shall be kept as basis for
proper compensation.”[259]
July 25, 1862
President Lincoln promulgates the Confiscation
Act of Congress.[260]
July 28, 1862
President Lincoln writes to prominent New
Orleans citizen Cuthbert Bullitt, who protested Union General John W. Phelps’
aid to enslaved individuals who came to Union lines. “Mr. Durant complains that in various ways
the relation of master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our Army; and
he considers it particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover
of an act of Congress, while constitutional guaranties are suspended on the
plea of military necessity. The truth is, that what is done, and omitted, about
slaves, is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military
necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither, in sufficient numbers,
or amounts, if we keep from, or drive from, our lines, slaves coming to them.
Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this direction; nor of my
efforts to hold it within bounds till he, and such as he shall have time to
help themselves.”[261]
July 31, 1862
President Lincoln writes to August Belmont
regarding ending of slavery and its effects.
“Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but
to take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs. The
sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which will be past
mending. This government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all,
and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot
experiment for ten years trying to destroy the government, and if they fail
still come back into the Union unhurt. If they expect in any contingency to
ever have the Union as it was, I join with the writer in saying, ‘Now is the
time.’”[262]
August 2, 1862
President Lincoln discusses emancipation with
cabinet members.[263]
August 3, 1862
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, in
cabinet meeting, called for: “1. Assuring freedom to Negroes in seceded states
on condition of loyalty; 2. Organizing best of them into military companies; 3.
Providing for cultivation of plantations by remaining ones.”[264]
August 4, 1862
President Lincoln is offered two African
American regiments from Indiana for the Union Army. He agrees only to use them as laborers, not
as soldiers.[265]
President Lincoln calls for 300,000 volunteers
for service in the military for a term of nine months.[266]
August 9, 1862
Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia.[267]
August 14, 1862
Lincoln meets with
African leaders at the White House. This
is the first time that an American president meets with Black community leaders
in a public meeting. He recommends that
they support colonization of African Americans in Central America or in
Africa. They reject this proposed
plan. He tells them, “Your race are
suffering in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people… But for
your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either
side do not care for you one way or the other.
Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of Slavery and the
colored race as a basis, the war could not have an existence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be
separated.”[268] (See appendix for full document.)
August 19, 1862
Horace Greeley’s anti-slavery New York Tribune editorial, “A Prayer of
the Twenty Millions,” is read by President Lincoln. It calls into question Lincoln’s policy on
slavery and the war: “We complain that the Union cause has suffered…from
mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery.” [269]
August 21, 1862
Confederate President Jefferson Davis declares
that Union Major General David D. Hunter and Brigadier General John W. Phelps
are acting as criminals because they are enlisting slaves for the Federal
Army. He directs that if taken, they
should be held as felons. General Phelps
resigns from the Army the same day.[270]
August 22, 1862
President Lincoln
responds to Horace Greeley’s editorial, “A Prayer of Twenty Millions,” which
had called for immediate emancipation of slaves. Lincoln writes, “My paramount object in this
struggle is to save the Union, and it
is not either to save or to destroy
slavery. If I could save the Union
without freeing any slave I would do
it, and if I could save it by freeing all
the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving
others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because
I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I
do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less
whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more
whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct
errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they
shall appear to be true views. / I have here stated my purpose according to my
view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal
wish that all men every where could be free.” (See Appendix for full text.)[271]
August 25, 1862
Major General Rufus Saxton, Union Commander of
the Southern Department, is authorized by the War Department to arm and train
5,000 former slaves for use as guards of captured plantations and settlements in
the South Carolina Sea Islands.[272]
August 26, 1862
Second Bull Run, or Manassas Campaign,
commences. The battle lasts until August
30, 1862. It is a Union defeat. The Union casualties are 16,054, the
Confederate casualties are 9,197.[273]
Lincoln states his plans to enforce the
Confiscation Acts recently passed by Congress.[274]
September 2, 1862
Lincoln writes “Meditation on the Devine
Will.” He ponders: “In great contests
each party claims the act in accordance with the will of God. Both may
be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for and against the same
thing at the same time.”[275]
September 13, 1862
President Lincoln replies to delegation from
Chicago advocating for national emancipation of slaves. He states, “It is my earnest desire to know
the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it! ...
I view the matter as a practical war measure, to be decided upon according to
the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the
rebellion.” (See full text of letter in
Appendix.)[276]
September 14, 1862
Battle of South Mountain/Crampton’s Cap,
Maryland. Federal casualties are 2,325;
Confederate casualties are 2,685.[277]
September 15, 1862
President Lincoln rejects offer of service of
three African American regiments from Massachusetts and Rhode Island.[278]
September 17, 1862
Union victory at Antietam, in Maryland. Lee’s Maryland Campaign is ended. The Union suffers the largest number of
casualties in a single day of fighting in the Civil War, with 2,010 killed, 9,416
wounded and 1,043 missing, totaling 12,469 out of 75,000 soldiers.[279]
President Lincoln completes second draft of
preliminary emancipation proclamation at the Soldier’s Home.[280]
September 20, 1862
Lincoln continues to work on his text of the
preliminary emancipation proclamation.[281]
September 22, 1862
United States President Abraham Lincoln announces
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
It declares that “on the first day of January in the year of our Lord,
one thousand eight hundred sixty-three, all persons held as slaves, within any
state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The Proclamation further states (as
summarized by Miers): “President will designate states in rebellion on Jan.
1. Army and navy personnel are
prohibited by Act of March 13, 1862, from returning fugitive slaves. The act to suppress insurrection, approved
July 17, 1862, provides that: 1. Escaped slaves and those in territory occupied
by forces of U.S. shall be free. 2.
Run-away slaves will not be delivered up except for crime or claim of lawful
owner under oath that he has not borne arms against government. Executive will recommend that loyal citizens
be compensated for all losses by acts of U.S., including loss of slaves.”[282] Lincoln calls on Congress to approve
legislation for compensated emancipation of slaves.[283]
(See Appendix for full text.)
September 24, 1862
Crowd gathers at the presidential executive
mansion in honor of the issuing of the preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation. Lincoln declares, “What I
did, I did after full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of
responsibility. I can only trust in God
I have made no mistake.”[284]
Fourteen Northern governors meeting in Altoona,
Pennsylvania, approve of the Emancipation Proclamation.[285]
Lincoln issues proclamation suspending the writ
of habeas corpus. “Now, therefore, be it ordered, first, that during the
existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all
Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and
all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or
guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to Rebels against
the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law and liable
to trial and punishment by Courts Martial or Military Commission; Second. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus is
suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter
during the rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military
prison, or other place of confinement by any military authority or by the
sentence of any Court Martial or Military Commission.”
[286]
September 25, 1862
President Lincoln meets with Henry Ward Beecher
and General Association of Congregational Churches of New York City to present
resolutions regarding his Emancipation Proclamation.[287]
September 28, 1862
Lincoln discusses public opinion of preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation with Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. It is “not very satisfactory.” “The North responds to the proclamation
sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.”[288]
October 1, 1862
The Richmond Whig reported its opinion on Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation:
“It is a dash of the pen to destroy four thousand millions of our property, and
is as much a bid for the slaves to rise in insurrection, with the assurance of
aid from the whole military and naval power of the United States.”[289]
October 3-4, 1862
Battle of Corinth, Mississippi. The Confederate Army is repulsed. There are 2,520 Union casualties, 4,233
Confederate casualties.[290]
October 8, 1862
Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, is a partial
Union victory.[291]
October 11, 1862
Confederate Congress amends the draft exemption
law. It exempts Southern owners or
overseers of more than 20 slaves from military service.[292]
October 14, 1862
Democrats gain seats in Congressional elections
in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Republicans gain in Iowa.[293]
October 26, 1862
Of the war, Lincoln writes, “If I had had my
way, this war would never have been commenced; … but we find it still
continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of his
own, mysterious and unknown to us.”[294] On his opinion of divine will, Lincoln
writes, “The will of God prevails. In
great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God.
Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against the same
thing at the same time. … By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now
contestants, He could have either saved
or destroyed the Union without a
human contest. Yet the contest
began. And having begun He could give
the final victory to either side any day.
Yet the contest proceeds.”[295]
(For full text of letter, see Appendix.)
November 4, 1862
Midterm elections are held. Democrats gain Congressional seats in New
York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Republicans, however, hold majority in Congress with wins in New
England, Michigan and California.[296]
November 7, 1862
President Lincoln relieves Major General George
McClellan of the command of the Army of the Potomac. He is replaced by General Ambrose Burnside.[297]
November 13, 1862
Lincoln tasks U.S. Attorney General Edward
Bates with the enforcement of the Provision of Federal Confiscation (“An Act to
Suppress Insurrection, to Punish Treason and Rebellion”).[298]
November 21, 1862
Lincoln meets with unconditional Union
Kentuckians to discuss issue of emancipation.
The New York Times reports,
“He said that he would rather die than take back a word of the Proclamation of
Freedom…”[299]
November 29, 1862
U.S. Attorney General issues ruling that
freedmen born in the U.S. are legally American citizens.[300]
December 1, 1862
Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress.
Abraham Lincoln sends annual message to
Congress continuing to support compensated emancipation. Lincoln states, “Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted,
would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood?
Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national
prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? … The dogmas of the quiet past,
are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with
difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must
think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall
save our country. / Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of
this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of
ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or
another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in
honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the
Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the
Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We---even we here---hold
the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave,
we assure freedom to the free---honorable alike in what we give,
and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope
of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain,
peaceful, generous, just---a way which, if followed, the world will forever
applaud, and God must forever bless. / December 1, 1862. ABRAHAM LINCOLN”[301]
December 13, 1862
Union Army is defeated in major battle at Fredericksburg,
Virginia. There are 12,655 Union and
5,390 Confederate casualties. This
causes a political crisis in Lincoln’s cabinet.[302]
December 23, 1862
Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs
order that Black troops captured will be treated as slaves in insurrection and
not as prisoners of war.[303]
December 29, 1862
President Lincoln reads Emancipation
Proclamation to his cabinet.[304]
December 30, 1862
President Lincoln presents copy of Emancipation
Proclamation to members of his cabinet.
He asks for comments from them.[305]
December 31, 1862 –
January 2, 1863
Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone’s River), in
Tennessee.
December 31, 1862
Lincoln’s cabinet meets to finalize draft of
the Emancipation Proclamation.[306]
Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia into
the Union as a state.[307]
1863
The American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission is
created by the U.S. War Department.
Women’s National Loyal League is founded by
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
It lobbies for the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to
grant African Americans the right to vote.
It collects 400,000 signatures in a petition presented to the Congress.
January 1, 1863
On New Year’s Day at noon, in the cabinet room,
United States President Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation. It goes into effect, freeing slaves in states
that have seceded and are part of the Confederacy. Most slaves in “border states” are freed by
state action. It states: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within
any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and
the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and
will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom.”[308] (See appendix for
full text.)
January 7, 1863
The Richmond Enquirer states that the Emancipation Proclamation is “The most
startling political crime, the most stupid political blunder, yet known in
American history. … Southern people have now only to choose between victory and
death.”[309]
January 8, 1863
President Lincoln writes to Major General McClernand,
defending the Emancipation Proclamation, “…it must stand. As to the states not included in it, of
course they can have their rights in the Union as of old.”[310]
January 12, 1863
Congressman Thaddeus Stevens introduces bill
calling for the enlistment of 150,000 African American soldiers in the Union
Army.[311]
January 19, 1863
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
is debated in the Confederate Congress.[312]
February 1863
Anti-slavery and abolitionist congressman
Thaddeus Stevens gets a bill through Congress authorizing the enlistment of
150,000 United States colored soldiers.[313]
March 3, 1863
President Lincoln calls for an act by Congress,
which will be the first federal draft.
It is called “An Act for enrolling and calling out the National Forces,
and for other purposes.” Male citizens
between 20 and 40 are eligible. 162,535
men are drafted during the war, about six percent of the total number of men
who serve in the Union forces.[314]
March 4, 1863
The United States Congress adjourns.
March 16, 1863
The American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission (AFIC)
is created within the War Department by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. It is tasked with helping freed slaves.[315]
March 17, 1863
The Battle of Kelly’s Ford, Virginia.
March 18, 1863
Lincoln writes to Congressman Davis, “Let the
friends of the government first save the government, and then administer it to
their own liking.”[316]
March 23, 1863
President Lincoln writes Governor Horatio
Seymour of New York, who has been critical of the administration: “Private
& Confidential… you and I are substantially strangers; and I write this
chiefly that we may become better acquainted. … As to maintaining the nation’s
life, and integrity, I assume, and believe, there can not be a difference of purpose between you and me. … In the
performance of my duty, the co-operation of your State, as that of others, is
needed—in fact, is indispensable. … Please write me at least as long a letter
as this—of course, saying in it, just what you think ft.”[317]
Treaty between Liberia and the United States is
enacted.[318]
March 26, 1863
West Virginia approves gradual emancipation for
slaves.[319]
Lincoln writes the military governor of
Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, “I am told you have at least thought of
raising a negro military force. In my opinion the country now needs no specific
thing so much as some man of your ability, and position, to go to this work.
When I speak of your position, I mean that of an eminent citizen of a
slave-state, and himself a slave-holder. The colored population is the great available
and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of
fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the
Mississippi, would end the rebellion at once. And who doubts that we can
present that sight, if we but take hold in earnest? If you have been
thinking of it please do not dismiss the thought.”[320]
March 31, 1863
President Lincoln writes General David D.
Hunter: “I am glad I am glad to see the accounts of your colored force at
Jacksonville, Florida. I see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is to
be expected. It is important to the enemy that such a force shall not take shape, and grow, and thrive, in the South; and in
precisely the same proportion, it is important to us that it shall. Hence the utmost caution and vigilance is necessary
on our part. The enemy will make extra efforts to destroy them; and we should
do the same to preserve and increase them.”[321]
April 2, 1863
President Lincoln meets noted abolitionist
journalist Jane Grey Swisshelm at the White House.[322]
April 7, 1863
Union naval attack on Confederate-held forts in
Charleston Harbor. The assault is
unsuccessful.[323]
April 15, 1863
Lincoln meets with Senator Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts on the subject of influencing policy regarding slavery, which
would positively influence England toward the Union. Lincoln drafts this resolution: “Whereas,
while heretofore, States, and Nations, have tolerated slavery, recently,
for the first in the world, an attempt has been made to construct a new Nation,
upon the basis of, and with the primary, and fundamental object to maintain,
enlarge, and perpetuate human slavery, therefore, Resolved, That no such embryo
State should ever be recognized by, or admitted into, the family of christian
and civilized nations; and that all ch[r]istian and civilized men everywhere
should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost, such recognition or
admission.”[324]
President Lincoln meets U.S. Senator Charles
Sumner in the White House regarding slavery and British attitudes toward the
Union.[325]
April 16, 1863
On the Mississippi, Union naval flotilla,
commanded by Admiral David Porter, successfully passes under Confederate
artillery past Vicksburg.
April 20, 1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring
the State of West Virginia will be admitted to the Union.[326]
May 1-4, 1863
Battle of Chancellorsville (Second Fredericksburg;
Salem Church), Virginia. Confederate
victory. The Union sustains 17,287
casualties between April 27 and May 11; Confederates, 12,764.[327]
May 18, 1863
General Ulysses S. Grant begins siege of
Vicksburg, Mississippi.[328]
May 21, 1863
Union siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins.[329]
May 22, 1863
The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
meets in London. It supports the U.S.
government and the Union.[330]
May 27, 1863
First Union assault of Port Hudson, Mississippi
begins. It is led by General Nathaniel
Banks, with a Federal force of 13,000 soldiers.
It includes U.S. Colored infantrymen.
Federal casualties are 1,995; Confederate, about 235.[331]
May 28, 1863
The U.S. Black regiment, the Fifty-Fourth
Massachusetts Volunteers, departs Boston for Hilton Head, South Carolina.[332]
June 9, 1863
Battle of Brandy Station/Fleetwood Hill/Beverly
Ford, Virginia. It is the largest
cavalry battle of the war. There are 866
Union and 523 Confederate casualties.[333]
June 14-15, 1863
Union defeat in the Battle of Second
Winchester, Virginia.[334]
June 15, 1863
President Lincoln calls for 100,000 volunteer
militia from Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.[335]
June 16, 1863
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crosses the
Potomac River into Maryland. The news of
this causes panic in Harrisburg.[336]
June 20, 1863
West Virginia officially becomes the 35th
state of the Union.[337]
June 23, 1863
Tullahoma, or Middle Tennessee Campaign, begins
under Union Major General William S. Rosecrans.
It is a Union victory, ending in early July with no major fighting.[338]
President Lincoln relieves Major General Joseph
Hooker from command of the Army of the Potomac.
Major General George Gordon Meade is name commander.[339]
July 1-3, 1863
Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. General Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeats
General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
In three days of fighting, more than ten thousand are killed and forty thousand
wounded on both sides.[340]
July 4,
1863
General Lee and his army retreat from
Gettysburg. He is not pursued by Union
forces.[341]
Vicksburg, Mississippi, formally surrenders to
Union forces, commanded by General U. S. Grant.[342]
July 7, 1863
Lincoln addresses a large crowd at the White
House. “I do most sincerely thank Almighty God
for the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it?---eighty odd
years---since on the Fourth of July for the first time in the history of the
world a nation by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self-evident
truth that ‘all men are created equal.’ … Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme,
and the occasion for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy of the
occasion.”[343]
July 8, 1863
After a six-week siege, Confederate forces
unconditionally surrender Port Hudson, Louisiana. It is the last Confederate stronghold on the
Mississippi.[344]
July 10, 1863
Beginning of the Union siege of Fort Wagner, on
Morris Island, in Charleston Harbor. It
is a key fortification of the harbor.
The siege will continue until September.[345]
July 12, 1863
Lincoln gets request for help in quelling the New
York anti-draft riots.[346]
July 13-17,
1863
New York City draft riots. Fires break out throughout the city. A Black church and orphanage are burned. Blacks are the primary targets of mobs. It is estimated that a thousand people are
killed or wounded. Property losses are
estimated at $1.5 million.[347]
July 18, 1863
The 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry
leads a major assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. It takes very heavy casualties, including the
death of its commanding officer, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.[348]
July 20, 1863
Lincoln discusses issues of slavery in the border
states with Congressmen Lovejoy and Arnold.[349]
July 21, 1863
Lincoln confers with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
“to raise colored forces along the shores of the Mississippi.” Recommends Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas
for the task.[350]
July 30, 1863
After the Confederate government threatens to kill
captured U.S. Colored Troops, President Lincoln announces that the U.S.
government would “give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the
enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because of his color, the offense shall be
punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession.”[351] It is General Order No. 252. It states “that for every soldier of the
United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldiers shall be
executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel
soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works.”[352]
August 5, 1863
Lincoln writes Union General Nathaniel Banks. He declares he is “an anti-slavery man… For my part I think I shall not, in any
event, retract the Emancipation Proclamation; nor, as executive, even return to
slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of
the acts of Congress.”[353]
August 6, 1863
The north observes Day of Thanksgiving for its
victories in the war.[354]
August 9, 1863
Lincoln writes General Grant that colored troops
are “a resource which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest.”[355]
August 10, 1863
African American abolitionist leader Frederick
Douglass meets with President Lincoln in the White House to discuss recruiting
of African American troops.[356]
August 19, 1863
Federal draft begins again in New York City.[357]
August 21, 1863
Confederate guerrillas attack Lawrence, Kansas;
150 civilians are killed, with one and a half million dollars in damage to
property.[358]
August 26, 1863
Lincoln sends letter to J. C. Conkling
discussing peace and the emancipation of slaves. “There are those who are dissatisfied with
me. To such I would say: You desire
peace; and you blame me that we do not have it.
But how can we attain it? … If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution,
there only remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any compromise, embracing
the maintenance of the Union, is now possible.
All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion, is its
military—its army.”[359]
September 2, 1863
Lincoln meets with Secretary of Treasury Salmon
P. Chase regarding enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation in the areas of
Louisiana and Virginia.[360]
Union troops, commanded by General Ambrose E.
Burnside, occupy Knoxville, Tennessee.
It serves vital rail links throughout the South.[361]
Alabama State legislature authorizes the use of
enslaved individuals in the Confederate Army.[362]
Septemer 6-7, 1863
Confederate forces leave Fort Wagner and Morris
Island, South Carolina. Fort Sumter holds
out under Union siege and bombardment.[363]
September 9, 1863
Federal troops under General William S.
Rosecrans enter and occupy Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is a vital river and rail transportation
center.[364]
September 10, 1863
Union forces capture and occupy Little Rock,
Arkansas, the state capitol.[365]
September 11, 1863
President Lincoln asks governor of Tennessee
Andrew Johnson to establish loyal state government.[366]
September 15, 1863
President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas
corpus for persons held by Union military and civil authorities.[367]
September 19-20, 1863
Battle of Chickamauga, southeast of Chattanooga,
Tennessee. General George H. Thomas
commands the Federal Army of the Cumberland opposing General Braxton Bragg’s
Confederate Army of Tennessee. It is a
tactical victory for the South. The
North sustains 16,170 casualties, the South, 18,454.[368]
October 3, 1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring
last Thursday in November as Day of Thanksgiving.[369]
Lincoln discusses enlistment of slaves and Blacks
from Maryland with Governor Bradford.[370]
October 17,
1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation calling for
enlistment of 300,000 volunteers.[371]
November 2, 1863
President Lincoln is invited to make a “few
appropriate remarks” at a dedication ceremony on November 19 in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, for a new national military cemetery.[372]
November 19, 1863
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address at the
dedication of a newly established military cemetery. In it, he defines the war’s transcendent
meaning. “Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. But, in a
larger sense, we can not dedicate---we can not consecrate---we can not
hallow---this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us---that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion---that
we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain---that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom---and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”[373]
November 23-25, 1863
Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee.[374]
November 24, 1863
Battle of Lookout Mountain, Union victory.[375]
Battle of Missionary Ridge, Union victory.[376]
December 6, 1863
General William T. Sherman enters Knoxville,
Tennessee.[377]
December 8, 1863
President Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty
and Reconstruction. It would pardon individuals
who “directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion.”[378]
Lincoln issues annual message to Congress. He states that emancipation is having a
favorable effect. The message states, in
part: “The preliminary emancipation
proclamation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to the
beginning of the new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including
the announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received into
the war service. The policy of emancipation, and of employing black soldiers,
gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope, and fear, and doubt
contended in uncertain conflict. According to our political system, as a matter
of civil administration, the general government had no lawful power to effect
emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the
rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It
was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and
that if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be presented. It came,
and as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and doubtful days. Eleven
months having now passed, we are permitted to take another review.”[379] (See
appendix for full text.)
December 17,
1863
President Lincoln sends plan to Congress to create
a Federal Bureau of Emancipation, as proposed by the Freedmen’s Aid Society.[380]
December 20, 1863
President Lincoln tells Henry C. Wright, an
abolitionist official of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, “I shall not
attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation nor shall I return
to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any
acts of Congress.”[381]
1864
400,000 enslaved individuals have escaped into Union
Army lines and areas.[382]
January 11, 1864
Senator John B. Hewson, of Missouri, proposes a
thirteenth amendment to the constitution to abolish slavery.[383]
January 23, 1864
President Lincoln proposes plan to have plantation
owners honor the freedom of their former slaves and hire them back with fair
wages. He states, “I should regard such
cases with great favor, and should, as the principle, treat them precisely as I
would treat the same number of free white people in the same relation and
condition.”[384]
February 1, 1864
President Lincoln orders that 500,000 men be
drafted on March 10. They are to serve
three years, or the duration of the war.[385]
February 3,
1864
Major General William T. Sherman begins Meridian,
Mississippi, Campaign.[386]
February 11, 1864
Lincoln meets with committee of religious leaders
who call for constitutional amendment extending freedom.[387]
February 14, 1864
General Sherman’s troops capture Meridian,
Mississippi. Much of its military
material is destroyed.[388]
February 22, 1864
President Lincoln is endorsed for re-election by
the Republican National Convention.[389]
February 24, 1864
President Lincoln approves an act of Congress to
compensate Union (border state) slave owners whose slaves enlist in the U.S.
Army. The slaves would become free. Blacks would also be subject to the draft.[390]
February 28, 1864
President Lincoln sends Union Adjutant General
Lorenzo Thomas to aid Blacks (“contrabands”) along Union-held territory on the
Mississippi.[391]
March 4, 1864
The United States Senate confirms Andrew Johnson as
Union military governor of Tennessee.[392]
March 7, 1864
Lincoln writes to U.S. Congressman John A. J.
Creswell, Representative from Maryland, regarding gradual emancipation of
slaves from the state. He states, “My
wish is that all who are for emancipation in any form, shall co-operate,
all treating all respectfully, and all adopting and acting upon the major
opinion, when fairly ascertained.”[393]
March 8, 1864
President Lincoln meets General U. S. Grant in the
White House for the first time.[394]
March 9, 1864
General Grant is officially commissioned as
Lieutenant General in the Regular Army.
Lincoln remarks, “The nation’s appreciation of what you have done, and
it’s reliance upon you for what remains to do, in the existing great struggle,
are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant General in
the Army of the United States.”[395]
March 10, 1864
Lieutenant General Grant is given command of the
Armies of the United States.[396]
March 12, 1864
Major General Henry Halleck is appointed Chief of
Staff of the Union Army.[397]
Major General William T. Sherman is assigned to
command the Military Division of the Mississippi. He will command the Departments of the
Arkansas, Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee.[398]
March 13, 1864
President Lincoln writes Governor Michael Hahn
of Louisiana, “I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the
first-free-state Governor of Louisiana.
Now you are about to have a Convention which, among other things, will
probably define the elective franchise.
I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some of the
colored people may not be let in—as, for instance, the very intelligent, and
especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time
to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom.”[399]
March 14, 1864
President Lincoln calls for draft of 200,000
soldiers for Federal service.[400]
March 16, 1864
Pro-Union voters in Arkansas ratify state
constitution that formally abolishes slavery.[401]
March 17, 1864
Lincoln writes to Maryland Congressman John A. J.
Creswell, “It needs not to be a secret, that I wish success to emancipation in
Maryland. It would aid much to end the
rebellion.”[402]
March 22, 1864
Lincoln writes, “I never knew a man who wished to
be himself a slave. Consider if you know
any good thing, that no man desires for himself.”[403]
March 25, 1864
Abolitionist and political leader Owen Lovejoy
dies. He supported the abolition of
slavery as a United States Congressman.
April 4, 1864
President Lincoln writes to Albert G. Hodges, a
Kentucky newspaper editor, “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think,
and feel. And yet I have never
understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act
officially upon this judgment and feeling. … And I aver that, to this day, I
have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling
on slavery. … I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the
constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving,
by every indispensable means, that government—that nation—of which that
constitution was the organic law. … When, in March, and May, and July 1862 I
made earnest, and successive appeals to the border states to favor compensated
emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation,
and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition; and I was, in
my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union,
and with it, the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored
element. I chose the latter.” (For full text of letter, see Appendix.)[404]
April 5,
1864
Lincoln acknowledges petition of “the children of
the United States; that the President will free all slave children.” The petition was given to Lincoln by Mrs.
Horace Mann. Lincoln writes, “The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would
free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears you
wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these
little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and
generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask,
I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do
it. Yours truly A. LINCOLN”[405]
April 6,
1864
Louisiana State Constitutional Convention adopts
new state constitution, abolishing slavery.[406]
Lincoln goes to U.S. House of Representatives to
hear speech by English anti-slavery orator George Thompson.[407]
April 7, 1864
Lincoln meets with anti-slavery lecturer George
Thompson at White House. Discusses
emancipation.[408]
April 8,
1864
U.S. Senate passes a joint resolution approving the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, calling for the immediate,
uncompensated abolition of slavery. The vote is 38 to 6, in favor.[409]
April 11, 1864
Union state government in Arkansas is
established. Dr. Isaac Murphy is its
governor.[410]
April 12, 1864
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest
massacres U.S. Colored Troops at the Battle of Fort Pillow, Tennessee. 262 Black soldiers are murdered after they
surrender.[411]
April 18, 1864
Lincoln speaks at the Sanitary Fair in
Baltimore. “We all declare for liberty;
but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”[412]
April 19, 1864
By an Act of Congress, Nebraska Territory is
admitted to the Union.[413]
May 3, 1864
Lincoln discusses Fort Pillow massacre in Tennessee
with members of his cabinet.[414]
May 4, 1864
Army of Potomac, led by General Grant, moves across
the Rapidan River into Virginia. Grant
has 122,000 soldiers.[415]
May 5, 1864
Battle of the Wilderness commences. It is the first major battle of 1864.[416]
May 7, 1864
General William T. Sherman begins march to Atlanta,
Georgia. He has 100,000 soldiers.[417]
May 8-21, 1864
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.[418]
May 11,
1864
Newly adopted Louisiana state constitution has
provisions for emancipation of slaves without compensation.[419]
May 14-15, 1864
Battle of Resaca, in Northern Georgia.
May 15,
1864
Battle of New Market, Virginia.[420]
May 16, 1864
Battle of Drewry’s Bluff/Fort Darling, Virginia.[421]
May 23-26, 1864
Battle of North Ana, Virginia.[422]
May 24, 1864
Abolitionist leader, attorney, and congressman,
Joshua Reed Giddings, dies. He opposed
the Gag Rule in Congress, and the extension of slavery to the western
territories.
May 25 –
June 4, 1864
Campaign of New Hope Church, Georgia.[423]
June 1-3, 1864
Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia.[424]
June 5, 1864
United States Congress votes 95-66 for a joint
resolution abolishing slavery. The
resolution fails, as a two-thirds majority is needed.[425]
June 7-8, 1864
Delegates to the National Union Convention Meeting
in Baltimore nominate Abraham Lincoln for a second term as president. Andrew Johnson, military governor of
Tennessee, is nominated for vice president.
The party platform calls for a constitutional amendment abolishing
slavery.[426]
June 9, 1864
Party leaders notify Lincoln of his nomination for
president. He approves one of the party
platforms of a constitutional amendment to end slavery. Lincoln declares, “Such
[an] amendment of the Constitution as is] now proposed became a fitting, and
necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause.[427]
June 11-12, 1864
Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia.[428]
June 12, 1864
General Grant begins to move the Army of the
Potomac across the James River, withdrawing from his position at Cold Harbor.[429]
June 15, 1864
President Lincoln signs bill giving partial
retroactive equal pay for U.S. Colored Troops.
He gives full equal pay in March 1865.[430]
June 16, 1864
Army of the Potomac assaults Petersburg,
Virginia.[431]
June 17,
1864
President Lincoln delivers a speech at the Great
Central Fair in Philadelphia. He says,
“War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in
its duration, is one of the most terrible… We accepted this war for an object,
a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained.”[432]
June 18,
1864
General Grant’s attempt to take Petersburg is
unsuccessful. He begins siege against
the city.[433]
June 22,
1864
Union Army engages Confederates against the Weldon
Rail Road at Petersburg. The Federal
assault is halted.[434]
June 24, 1864
In a State Constitutional Convention, Maryland
votes to abolish slavery.[435]
June 27, 1864
President Abraham Lincoln formally accepts the
Republican Party’s nomination for president.[436]
Union defeat at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain,
near Marietta, Georgia. There are 2,000
Union and approximately 500 Confederate casualties.[437]
June 28, 1864
President Lincoln signs acts repealing Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850 and all laws for returning fugitive slaves to their owners.[438]
June 30, 1864
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase resigns
from office. Lincoln accepts his
resignation, stating, “You and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment
in our official relation which it seems can not be overcome, or longer
sustained, consistently with the public service.”[439]
July 1,
1864
Long-time Senator from Maine and prominent
abolitionist, William Pitt Fessenden, is appointed by Lincoln as the new
Secretary of the Treasury. He replaces
Salmon P. Chace, who resigned. His
appointment is immediately confirmed by Congress.[440]
The United States Senate votes to approve the
Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill. Lincoln
refuses to sign the bill.[441]
July 4, 1864
The first session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress
adjourns. President Lincoln
pocket-vetoes the Wade Davis Bill, which in part would have given freedom to
all slaves in the Confederate South through Congressional laws. The Bill also specified that Congress would
control reconstruction, not the President.[442]
July 5, 1864
President Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus and declares martial law in Kentucky.[443]
July 8, 1864
President Lincoln announces his support for a
constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.
Further, he states that he does not believe that Congress has the
authority to end slavery.[444]
President Lincoln issues presidential proclamation
regarding reconstruction in the South.[445]
July 9, 1864
Union and Confederate forces clash in Battle of
Monocacy, Maryland. Southern forces
under General Jubal Early are temporarily halted in their invasion toward
Washington. Union forces endure 2,000
casualties, Confederates, 700.[446]
July 11, 1864
Confederate forces under General Early invade
outskirts of Washington, DC. Skirmishing
takes place in Frederick, Maryland, and at Fort Stevens. President Lincoln, witnessing the attack,
comes under fire.[447]
July 12, 1864
Confederate attack in Washington suburbs is
repulsed. General Early’s forces
retreat. Lincoln again sees fighting.[448]
July 18, 1864
Lincoln writes memorandum regarding his policy for
peace. It is delivered to Horace Greely
and John Hay for transmission to persons in Canada. It states, “Any proposition which embraces the
restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of
slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies
now at war against the United States will be received and considered by the
Executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on
other substantial and collateral points; and the bearer, or bearers thereof
shall have safe-conduct both ways..”[449]
Lincoln calls for 500,000 additional volunteers for
the Union Army.[450]
July 20, 1864
Union forces in the Army of the Cumberland, under
Major General George H. Thomas, engage Confederates in Battle of Peachtree
Creek, Georgia. It is a Union victory.[451]
July 22,
1864
General William T. Sherman defeats General John
Bell Hood’s Confederate forces in the Battle for Atlanta, Georgia. Union casualties are 3,722; Confederate are
at least 7,000.[452]
July 23, 1864
The Louisiana State Constitutional Convention
adopts measure that will abolish slavery in the state.[453]
July 28, 1864
Union victory in the Battle of Ezra Church,
Georgia.[454]
August 5, 1864
Victory for Admiral David Farragut and the Union
Navy in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The
Confederate bay is captured and closed.[455]
August 18-20, 1864
Union forces, under General G. K. Warren of the
U.S. Fifth Corps, assault and capture the strategic Weldon Rail Road in
Virginia.[456]
August 19, 1864
Lincoln meets with Frederick Douglass in the
White House. They discuss announcing the
Emancipation Proclamation to slaves.[457]
August 23,
1864
Lincoln asks his cabinet secretaries to sign
without reading a statement written by the President in event he lost the
election: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable
that this Administration will not be reëlected.
Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to
save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have
secured the election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it
afterward.”[458]
President Lincoln addressed the 166th
Ohio Regiment at the White House. He
says, “It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should
perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we
have enjoyed all our lives. … I happen temporarily to occupy this big White
House. I am a living witness that any
one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has. It is in order that each of you may have
through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair
chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; … The nation is worth
fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.”[459]
August 31, 1864
In Chicago, General George B. McClellan is
nominated for President by the Democratic Party.[460]
Battle of Jonesborough, Georgia.[461]
September 1, 1864
Confederate Army, under General John Bell Hood,
evacuates Atlanta.[462]
September
2, 1864
General Sherman and his combined armies capture and
occupy Atlanta, Georgia. General Slocum’s
corps occupies the city. Sherman wires
Abraham Lincoln, “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” This is a decisive Union victory and marks
another major turning point in the war.[463]
September
5, 1864
President Lincoln proclaims day of victory for
the capture of Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama.
Louisiana voters ratify a new state constitution,
which provides for the abolition of slavery.[464]
September 6, 1864
Maryland’s State convention adopts new
constitution, ending slavery.[465]
September 19, 1864
Federal victory in the Third Battle of Winchester,
Virginia. Major General Phillip H. Sheridan
commands Union forces.[466]
October 1864
Sherman’s capture of Atlanta boosts Lincoln’s
chances of re-election. This victory balances
the Union Army’s stalemate at Petersburg, Virginia. Confederate General Hood continues his
efforts to cut off Sherman’s supply line from Chattanooga to Atlanta. He hopes to force Sherman to pull his army
back to Tennessee.
October 5, 1864
Union victory for Sherman’s forces at Allatoona,
Georgia, the site of a major railroad junction.
October 10, 1864
President Lincoln writes to Henry W. Hoffman,
referring to the adoption of a new Maryland state constitution, which would
prohibit slavery: “I wish all men to be free.
I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the
extinction of slavery would bring. I
wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring
this nation to civil war.”[467]
October 12,
1864
Sherman’s and Hood’s forces skirmish at Resaca and
La Fayette, near Rome, Georgia.
October 13, 1864
Maryland adopts new state constitution, which
includes a provision for the abolition of slavery. The vote was 30,174 for and 29,799 opposed, a
margin of only 375 votes.[468]
October 19,
1864
Union victory for Major General Phillip H. Sheridan
in Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia.[469]
October 29,
1864
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring the
last Thursday in November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty
God….”
President Lincoln meets African American
Sojourner Truth.[470]
October 31,
1864
President Lincoln admits the Territory of Nevada to
the Union as the 36th state.[471]
November
1864
The campaigns and the election of President Lincoln
is the most important news story in the north.
It is the first time in modern history that fighting soldiers would vote
during a war. Most Union soldiers vote
for Abraham Lincoln. General Sherman’s
capture of Atlanta and General Sheridan’s campaigns in the Shenandoah have a
decisive effect on Lincoln’s ultimate victory.
November 7, 1864
Confederate President Davis recommends that his
government purchase slaves to work in the army and then emancipate them at the
end of service. Further, he states that
the Confederacy would favor a negotiated peace, but only with an independent
Confederacy, not “our unconditional submission or degradation.”[472]
November 8,
1864
Abraham Lincoln is re-elected as President of the
United States, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, as Vice President. Lincoln states that the victory “will be to
the lasting advantage, if not the very salvation, of the country.”[473]
November
10, 1864
In a speech, Lincoln states, “It has long been a
grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties
of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence, in
great emergencies.” In further remarks,
Lincoln calls for unity: “May not all, having a common interest, be reunited in
an effort to save our common country?”
Lincoln commented that “the election was a necessity. We cannot have free government without
elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national
election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us… [The election] had demonstrated that a
people’s government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great
civil war.”[474]
November
14-15, 1864
General W. T. Sherman begins March from Atlanta to
the Sea.[475] He has 62,000 Federals in two Armies.
November
19, 1864
Editorializing on Lincoln’s election, Harper’s
Weekly writes: “This result is the proclamation of the American people that
they are not conquered; that the rebellion is not successful; and that, deeply
as they deplore war and its inevitable suffering and loss, yet they have no
choice between war and national ruin, and must therefore fight on… Thank God and the people, we are a nation
which comprehends its priceless importance to human progress and civilization,
and which recognizes that law is the indispensable condition of Liberty.”[476]
November
21, 1864
The Confederate Georgia state government at
Milledgeville evacuates the capital.
November 22-23,
1864
General Slocum's Army of Georgia
occupies Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia. His troops camp outside
the city. The residents of the city are
treated respectfully. Sherman sets up
headquarters in Governor Brown’s mansion.
There is virtually no damage to the city.
November 30, 1864
Union victory in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.[477]
December 1,
1864
General Sherman’s army is beyond
the halfway point from Atlanta to Savannah.
December 5, 1864
U. S. Congress convenes for the second session of
the 38th Congress.[478]
December 6, 1864
Lincoln delivers annual message to Congress. The Union, he declares, has “more men now
than when the war began… We are gaining
strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely.” The Union has one million men in uniform,
with the world’s largest navy, comprised of 671 ships. He states that Sherman’s March to the Sea is
“the most remarkable feature of military operations.” Lincoln urges the House of Representatives to
pass the “proposed amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery throughout
the United States,” which had passed the Senate, “and as it is to so go, may we
not agree that the sooner the better.”[479]
Salmon P. Chace, former Secretary of the Treasury,
is named Chief Justice of the United States.[480]
December 10, 1864
The March to the Sea ends when the
Army of Georgia reaches the Confederate defensive works around Savannah,
Georgia. Sherman’s army has traveled 285 miles in 25 days of marching,
averaging 12-15 miles a day. [481]Slocum
takes up a position along the Savannah River with his right connecting to the
Seventeenth Corps of Howard’s Army of the Tennessee.
December
15-16, 1864
Decisive Union victory for Union General George H.
Thoas in the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee.[482]
December
21, 1864
Savannah is captured and occupied
by Sherman’s Army. 17,000-25,000
enslaved individuals are freed during Sherman’s March to the Sea. Thousands of freemen volunteer as laborers,
cooks, teamsters and pontoon and road builders.
8,000 individuals who had been freed from slavery enter Savannah with
Sherman’s March. In addition, the 7,587
enslaved individuals living in and around Savannah are also freed.[483]
Union losses in the 36 days of the March
to the Sea campaign are 103 killed, 428 wounded and 809 missing in action.[484] Confederate casualties are 2,300 killed,
wounded and missing: 800 in the siege of Savannah, 550 at Griswoldville, 200 at
Ft. McAllister, 100 in miscellaneous actions, and 596 in General Wheeler’s
campaign.[485] General Sherman put the total economic loss
to the South during the campaign at $100,000,000.[486]
December 22, 1864
Sherman telegraphs President Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the
city of Savannah…”[487]
December 24, 1864
Union Naval forces, under Admiral David D. Porter,
begin shelling of Confederate Fort Fisher in North Carolina.[488]
December 26, 1864
President Lincoln telegraphs General Sherman: “MY DEAR GENERAL
SHERMAN: Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift – the capture of
Savannah.”
1865
Victory for the Union is virtually
assured, with Grant at Petersburg, Thomas in Tennessee, and Sherman at Savannah. The Union Navy controls the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts.
The Confederate Congress expresses
increasing unhappiness with President Davis and his administration. Confederates consider using enslaved
individuals as soldiers. The U.S. Congress
takes up the constitutional issue of enacting a constitutional amendment
abolishing slavery.
The Union Army stands at more than
600,000 soldiers ready for active duty.
More than 300,000 are in reserve, for a total of nearly 960,000
soldiers. The Confederate forces total
approximately 160,000 soldiers ready for active duty and a total force of
358,000.[489]
January 6, 1865
Congressman J. M. Ashley (R-Ohio) attempts to
revive interest in the proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution,
abolishing slavery. He states, “Mr. Speaker,
if slavery is wrong and criminal, as the great body of enlightened Christian
men admit, it is certainly our duty to abolish it, if we have the power.” The amendment had previously passed the
Senate, but failed in the House. The
House spends much of its time debating the issue.[490]
January 9,
1865
Tennessee Constitutional Convention adopts
amendment abolishing slavery. It is
ratified by votes on February 22.[491]
January 10, 1865
The debate over a constitutional amendment for the
abolition of slavery continues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaking in favor of the amendment,
Congressman John A. Kasson, of Iowa, states that “you will never, never have
reliable peace in this country while that institution exists…”[492]
January 11, 1865
Missouri’s Constitutional Convention adopts
ordinance abolishing slavery.[493]
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, along with U.S.
Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and other officials, arrives in
Savannah, Georgia, to meet with General Sherman.
January 12, 1865
Congress continues to debate the Thirteenth
Amendment and the abolition of slavery.
Future president and Republican member of the House James A. Garfield
states, “Mr. Speaker, we shall never know why slavery dies so hard in this
Republic and in this Hall, till we know why sin outlives disaster, and Satan is
immortal…” Radical Republican
congressman Thaddeus Stevens regards slavery as “the worst institution upon
earth, one which is a disgrace to man and would be an annoyance to the infernal
spirits.”[494]
General Sherman and Secretary of War Stanton, along
with Acting Adjutant General of the Army Brevet Brigadier General E. D.
Townsend, meet with a group of 20 prominent African American clergymen and
community leaders. Reverend Garrison
Frazier, a 67-year old former pastor of the Third African Baptist Church, is
asked to be the spokesman for the group.
Sherman is asked to leave the room and is greatly offended by this. Stanton inquires about Sherman’s treatment of
the African American community: “State what is the feeling of the colored
people toward General Sherman, and how far do you regard his sentiments and
actions as friendly to their rights and interests, or otherwise?” Frazier replies: “We looked upon General Sherman,
prior to his arrival, as a man, in the providence of God, specially set aside
to accomplish this work, and we unanimously felt inexpressible gratitude to
him, looking upon him as a man who should be honored for the faithful
performance of his duty. Some of us
called upon him immediately upon his arrival, and it is probable he did not
meet the secretary with more courtesy than he did us. His conduct and deportment toward us
characterized him as a friend and gentleman.
We have confidence in General Sherman, and think what concerns us could
not be in better hands. This is our
opinion now, for the short acquaintance and intercourse we have had.”[495]
January 13-15, 1865
Renewed massive Union Naval bombardment on Fort
Fisher. The Fort falls on January 15,
1865.[496]
January 16, 1865
General Sherman issues Special Field Order No.
15. It provides for the confiscation of
400,000 acres of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia and
Florida. The order was issued to deal
with the thousands of African American refugees who had joined Sherman’s march
and were recently freed from slavery in the Savannah area. The order reads, in part: “I. The islands from
Charleston south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles
back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s River, Florida, are
reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the
acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States. / II.
At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville
the blacks may remain in their chosen or
accustomed vocations; but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to
be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers
detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside, and the sole and exclusive
management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only
to the United States military authority, and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war and orders of the President
of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such.”
The Field Order and
its provisions were revoked by President Johnson’s administration.
January 19,
1865
General William T. Sherman orders his armies to
begin to prepare for a march north through the Carolinas. His forces number approximately 60,000
officers and men. General John G. Foster’s
Department of the South has approximately 23,000 Union troops.[497]
The total opposing Confederate forces in the
Carolinas number more than 30,000 Confederates.
Sherman is opposed by the following Confederate generals: General P. G.
Beauregard, General William J. Hardee, General Daniel H. Hill, General Gustavus
W. Smith, and others.
January 31, 1865
The United States
Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing
slavery in the U.S. By December 18, it
becomes law.[498]
The U.S. House of
Representatives achieves two-thirds vote majority on the Thirteenth Amendment,
forbidding slavery in the U.S. It reads,
“Article XIII, Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” It sends the Amendment to the states for
ratification. It is the first to be
added since the Twelfth Amendment, of 1803, ratified in 1804.[499]
February 1, 1865
Lincoln approves the resolution to submit the
Thirteenth Amendment to the states for ratification.[500]
Crowd serenades Lincoln at the White House in
celebration of passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. He addresses crowd.[501]
Illinois ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment,
abolishing slavery. It is the first
state to do so.[502]
General Sherman’s two Federal Armies begin their
March into South Carolina.[503]
February 3,
1865
President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton meet
aboard the steamboat “River Queen” with Confederate leaders to discuss ending
the war. It is called the Hampton Roads
Peace Conference. Lincoln calls for
unconditional restoration of the Union.
Nothing comes of the meeting and the war continues.[504]
Maryland, New York and West Virginia ratify the
Thirteenth Amendment.[505]
February
5-7, 1865
Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.[506]
February 5, 1865
Lincoln proposes to his cabinet a joint
resolution of Congress to pay 16 Southern states $100 million pro rata for
their slaves to end the war. The cabinet
unanimously disapproves of the proposal.[507]
February 7, 1865
Maine and Kansas ratify thirteenth Amendment. Delaware fails to do so.[508]
February 12, 1865
Electoral vote in Presidential race is
tallied. Lincoln wins by vote of 212 to
21.[509]
February 17, 1865
Sherman’s Army captures state capitol in Columbia, South
Carolina. The city s heavily damaged in
a major fire. The cause is disputed.[510]
Charleston, South Carolina, is evacuated by the
Confederate Army.[511]
February 20, 1865
The Confederate House of Representatives authorizes
the utilization of slaves as soldiers.
Sherman’s army departs Columbia, South Carolina. His two wings follow a path thirty miles wide.
February
22, 1865
Tennessee approves new state constitution
abolishing slavery. Kentucky state
legislature rejects Thirteenth Amendment.[512]
Confederate port city of Wilmington, North Carolina,
is captured and occupied by the Union Army.[513]
February 23, 1864
Minnesota state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth
Amendment.[514]
March 1,
1865
Wisconsin ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment; New
Jersey rejects it.[515]
March 2, 1865
Confederate forces at Waynesborough, Virginia, are
routed by General Sheridan’s forces.[516]
March 3,
1865
Congress passes a bill establishing the Bureau
of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, under the auspices of the War
Department. The Bureau will supervise
abandoned lands in the South and will have “control of all subjects relating to
refugees and freedmen from the rebel states.”
General Howard would be appointed its head.[517]
President Lincoln signs bill that will emancipate
wives and children of African American soldiers.[518]
March 4, 1865
President Lincoln is inaugurated in Washington, DC,
for his second term. Andrew Johnson is
sworn in as the new Vice President. In
his speech, Lincoln declares about slavery: “One-eighth of the whole population
were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in
the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union even by war…”
He further states, “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…” He concludes his speech by saying: “With
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to
bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle
and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”[519]
For the first time, thousands of African Americans
attend the inauguration. They cheer the
president. Frederick Douglass attends
the program.[520]
That evening, Frederick Douglass goes to the White
House reception and meets with Abraham Lincoln to thank him for his words. He calls the speech a “sacred effort, more
like a sermon than a state paper.”
Abraham Lincoln thanks him, saying: “My dear Sir, I am glad to see you.”
March 11, 1865
General Sherman’s two Armies capture and occupy
Fayetteville, North Carolina. They
remain in the city until March 14.[521]
March 13, 1865
The Confederate States Senate authorizes the
enlistment of Blacks as soldiers in the Confederate army. The vote passes narrowly, 9 to 8. Blacks are never actually enlisted in the
Confederate army.[522]
Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs
authorization for recruiting Blacks in the Southern forces. It asks Southerners to “volunteer” their
slaves.[523]
March 16, 1865
Major General Henry W. Slocum defeats Confederate
forces under General Hardee in the Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina.[524]
March 17, 1865
In a speech to a Union Army regiment, Lincoln
remarks: “I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should
be slaves it should be first for those who desire it for themselves… Whenever
[I] hear any one, arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried
on him personally.”[525]
Lincoln also commented on the use of Black troops by the Confederacy. (For full version of speech, see Appendix.)
March 19-21, 1865
Union victory of General Sherman’s troops in the
Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina.
This is the last major engagement in the western Carolinas campaign. Casualties on the Union side are 1,500, and
for the Confederates, 2,600.[526]
March 27-28, 1865
President Lincoln meets with his military and naval
commanders on the riverboat, River Queen, off City Point, Virginia. They include General Grant, General Sherman,
and Admiral Porter. They plan the
overall strategy for the last campaigns of the war.[527]
March 29,
1865
Lincoln is at Union Army headquarters at City
Point, Virginia.
The final Union campaign begins. The Northern Armies of the Potomac and James
begin campaign against Confederate General Lee at Petersburg and Richmond. The total Union strength is 125,000 soldiers.[528]
April 1, 1865
Lincoln remains at Army of the Potomac headquarters.
Union victory for General Sheridan in the Battle of
Five Forks, Virginia.[529]
Confederate President Davis writes to Confederate
commander General Lee that he had “been laboring without much progress to
advance the raising of negro troops,” and that “the distrust is increasing and
embarrasses in many ways.”[530]
April 2, 1865
Lincoln is still with Army headquarters.
Union Army breaks through Confederate defenses in
Petersburg, Virginia. Confederate
President Jefferson Davis abandons the capital, Richmond. Rebel army burns Richmond.[531] Lincoln telegraphs Grant, “Allow me to tender
to you, and all with you, the nation’s grateful thanks for this additional and
magnificent success.[532]
Southern mobs loot and burn the Confederate
capital. Noted historian James McPherson
writes, “Southerners burned more of their own capital than the enemy had burned
of Atlanta or Columbia.”[533]
Selma, Alabama, is captured by Federa forces.[534]
April 3,
1865
Lincoln meets with General Grant in
Petersburg.
Union Army enters and occupies Richmond and
Petersburg, Virginia.[535] Lincoln telegraphs Secretary of War Stanton,
“It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go there
tomorrow. I will take care of myself.[536]
April 4,
1865
President Lincoln tours Richmond. Crowd of recently freed African Americans
enthusiastically hails him as “the Great Messiah” and “Father Abraham.” One formerly enslaved individual knelt at
Lincoln’s feet and blessed him. A
humbled Lincoln said, “Don’t kneel to me.
You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will enjoy
hereafter.”[537] Another Black woman kisses Lincoln’s hand and
exclaims, “I know that I am free for I have seen Father Abraham and felt him.”[538]
April 5-8, 1865
Lincoln remains at Union Army headquarters at
City Point, Virginia.[539]
April 9, 1865
At 1 p.m., Lee surrenders his Army of Northern
Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia.[540]
April 11, 1865
At the White House, Lincoln delivers his last
speech before his assassination. He
declares support for limited African suffrage in the Southern states.[541]
Lincoln meets with General Benjamin Butler
regarding freed slaves.[542]
April 12, 1865
Union Army occupies Mobile, Alabama.[543]
April 13, 1865
General Sherman captures Raleigh,
North Carolina.
April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater
in Washington, DC.[544]
General Johnston begins surrender negotiations with
General Sherman. The negotiations drag on for two weeks. Except for
small engagements, the Civil War is over.
April 15,
1865
At 7:22 a.m., President Lincoln dies. Secretary of War Stanton is present and
declares: “Now he belongs to the ages.”[545]
Andrew Johnson is sworn in as President.[546]
April 17-18, 1865
The Confederate Army, under General Joseph E.
Johnston, surrenders at Bennett’s Place, outside of Durham, North
Carolina. Sherman presents very liberal
surrender terms for Johnston’s army.
These include recognition of state governments, political rights and a
general amnesty for Confederate soldiers.
In addition, Confederates are not required to surrender their
weapons. These surrender terms are
rejected and amended by President Andrew Johnson.[547]
April 19, 1865
Funeral services for President Lincoln are held in
the East Room of the Executive Mansion.
Lincoln’s body is escorted to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Lincoln lies in state until the evening of
April 20.[548]
April 20, 1865
Arkansas state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth
Amendment.[549]
April 21, 1865
President Lincoln’s body leaves Washington for
Springfield, Illinois.[550]
April 22, 1865
Lincoln’s funeral train goes through Philadelphia.[551]
April 26, 1865
At Bennett’s Place, near Durham Station, North
Carolina, General Johnston signs the revised and less liberal terms of surrender
to General Sherman. The terms are
approved by General Grant. Johnston’s
army of 30,000 solders is surrendered.[552]
May 1865
General Oliver O. Howard is appointed
Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau (the U.S. Army’s Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands). He serves
in this post until July 1874. The
Freedmen’s Bureau was tasked by Congress to help formerly enslaved individuals
integrate into American society. The
Bureau’s programs included education, the courts and healthcare.
May 4, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois.[553]
May 5, 1865
The Connecticut state legislature ratifies the
Thirteenth Amendment.[554]
May 24, 1865
General Sherman’s army passes in review. Many newly-freed individuals were accorded
the honor of participating in the Union victory parade. They accompanied Sherman’s army to the very
end of the March.[555]
May 25, 1865
Most of the Union Army is disbanded and soldiers
return to their homes.[556]
May 29,
1865
President Andrew Johnson grants amnesty and pardons
to all persons (with exceptions) who took part in “the existing
rebellion.” Property rights for
Southerners were restored, except for slaves.
An oath of loyalty is required.[557]
June 6, 1865
Missouri ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment,
abolishing slavery.[558]
June 19, 1865
Slaves in Galveston Bay, Texas, receive the news of
the Emancipation Proclamation. There
were 200,000 slaves living in the area.
They later celebrated the day as “Juneteenth.”
July 1, 1865
New Hampshire ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing
slavery.[559]
July 23, 1865
Abolitionist leader, organizer, activist Arthur
Tappan dies. He supported the publication
of numerous anti-slavery newspapers, including the Emancipator, the National Era, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter.[560]
November 13, 1865
South Carolina ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[561]
December 2, 1865
Alabama ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[562]
December 4, 1865
North Carolina ratifies the Thirteenth
Amendment. Mississippi rejects it.[563]
December 5, 1865
Georgia ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[564]
December 11, 1865
Oregon ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[565]
December 18, 1865
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, abolishing slavery, is in effect after being approved by 27
states.[566]
Bibliography: Abraham Lincoln Chronology on
Slavery and Emancipation
Basler,
Roy P., ed., The Collected Works of
Abraham Lincoln (8 vols.), New Brunswick, NJ: 1953-1955.
Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860; Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864.
Dumond,
Dwight Lowell. Antislavery: The Crusade
for Freedom in America. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1961.
Foner,
E. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and
American Slavery, New York: Norton, 2010
Long,
E. B., with Barbara Long. The Civil War
Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971.
Miers,
Earl Schenck, editor-in-chief, C. Percy Powell, vol. ed., Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology (Vol. III), Washington: Lincoln
Sesquicentennial Commission, 1960.
Miller,
Randall M., and John D. Smith, Eds., Dictionary
of Afro-American Slavery, New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Oakes,
James, The Radical and the Politician:
Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics,
New York: 2007.
Rodriguez,
Junius P., ed. Slavery in the United
States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara,
CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007.
U.S.
War Department, The War of the Rebellion:
A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
(70 vols.), Washington, DC: 1880-1901.
Return to Top of Page
[1]
Dumond, pp. 27-28, 29.
[2]
Dumond.
[3]
Foner, p. 17.
[4]
Johnson and Smith, p.201.
[5]
Foner, p. 17.
[6] Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860; Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864, p. ix.
[7]
Dumond, p. 61.
[8]
Dumond, pp. 58-59.
[9]
Dumond, pp. 64-65.
[10]
Dumond, pp. 58, 77.
[11]
Dumond, pp. 81, 381FN23.
[12]
Dumond.
[13]
Dumond.
[14]
Dumond, pp. 66, 73.
[15]
Miers, Earl Schenck, ed., C. Percy Powell, vol. ed., Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology, Vol. III: 1861-1865, Washington:
Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, 1960, p. 3.
[16]
Dumond, p. 331.
[17]
Dumond, p. 73.
[18]
Dumond, p. 129.
[19]
Dumond, pp. 75, 380FN13.
[20]
Dumond.
[21]
Dumond, pp. 75, 380FN13.
[22]
Dumond, p. 129.
[23]
Foner, p. 7.
[24]
Dumond, pp. 168, 172.
[25]
Dumond, p. 68.
[26]
Foner, p. 18.
[27]
Miers.
[28]
Foner, p. 19.
[29]
Dumond, pp. 333, 409FN1.
[30]
Dumond, pp. 175-180.
[31]
Miers, p. 39.
[32]
Dumond.
[33]
Dumond.
[34]
Dumond, pp. 238, 243-244.
[35]
Dumond.
[36]
Foner, p. 22.
[37]
Miers, p. 65.
[38]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. I;
Foner, p. 28.
[39]
Miers, p. 69; Basler, Collected Works,
Vol. I, pp. 74-75.
[40]
Dumond, p. 189.
[41]
Dumond, pp. 225-226.
[42]
Dumond, p. 189.
[43]
Dumond, p. 331.
[44]
Dumond, pp. 242-245.
[45] Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860, p. ix.
[46]
Miers.
[47]
Dumond, pp. 286-289.
[48]
Foner, p. 21.
[49]
Dumond.
[50]
Miers, p. 163.
[51]
Foner, p. 11; Miers, p. 167.
[52]
Foner, pp. 11-12.
[53]
Foner, p. 20.
[54]
Foner, p. 46.
[55]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. I, p.
279.
[56]
Dumond.
[57]
Dumond, pp. 238, 243-244.
[58]
Dumond, p. 333.
[59]
Miers, p. 275.
[60]
Dumond, pp. 359-360.
[61]
Foner, pp. 55-56.
[62]
Miers, p. 294.
[63]
Miers, p. 298.
[64]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. I, pp.
433-441.
[65]
Dumond, pp. 303-304.
[66]
Bassler, Vol. II, pp. 20-22.
[67]
Miers, p. 4.
[68] Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860, p. ix.
[69]
Dumond, pp. 360-363.
[70]
Dumond, pp. 308, 362.
[71]
Rodriguez, Vol. 1, p. 54.
[72]
Foner, pp. 60-62.
[73]
Dumond, pp. 303-304.
[74]
Dumond, p. 363.
[75]
Foner, pp. 8, 340.
[76]
Dumond, pp. 75, 362, 380FN13; Foner.
[77]
Dumond, pp. 75, 362, 380FN13; Foner.
[78]
Dumond, p. 363.
[79]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp.
230-233.
[80]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, p.
239.
[81]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, p.
245.
[82]
Foner, pp. 73-74.
[83]
Foner; Miers, p. 129.
[84]
Basler, Collected Works, pp. 255-276;
Foner, pp. 66-69.
[85]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp.
322-323; Foner, p. 77.
[86]
Foner, pp. 79-80.
[87]
Foner, p. 81.
[88]
Foner.
[89]
Bassler, Vol. II, pp. 398-410; Foner, pp. 96-97.
[90]
Basler, Collected Works; Foner, pp.
96-97.
[91]
Bassler, Vol. II.
[92]
Foner, pp. 99-103; Miers, p. 218.
[93]
Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln: His Book,
New York, 1903.
[94]
Foner.
[95]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp.
225-226; Foner, p. 109.
[96]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp.
254-255; Foner, p. 109.
[97] Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860, p. ix.
[98] Bureau
of the Census. Population of the United
States in 1860, p. ix; Dumond, p. 70.
[99]
Dumond, p. 336.
[100]
Foner, pp. 96, 102, 136-138, 153; Miers, p. 274; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. III, pp. 522-550; New York Tribune, Feb. 28, 1860.
[101]
Miers.
[102]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
3.
[103]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
5.
[104]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
8.
[105]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
9.
[106]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
13.
[107]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
16-17.
[108]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
22.
[109]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
24-25.
[110]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
26.
[111]
Miers, p. 275; Chicago Tribune.
[112]
Foner; Miers, p. 280; Basler, Collected
Works, Vol. IV, pp. 50-51.
[113]
Miers, p. 281; Basler, Collected Works,
Vol. IV, p. 51; New York Tribune.
[114]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
51; Miers, p. 281.
[115]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
52-53; Miers, p. 281.
[116]
Long, E. B., with Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865, Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1971, pp. 2-3; Foner.
[117]
Long, pp. 8-9.
[118]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
149-150; Long, p. 10.
[119]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
150.
[120] New York Herald, Dec. 15, 1860.
[121]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
151.
[122]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
152; Long, p. 11.
[123]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
154.
[124] Long, p. 12.
[125]
Long, pp. 12-13.
[126]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
160.
[127]
Long, p. 23.
[128]
Long, p. 23.
[129]
Long, p. 24.
[130]
Long, p. 24; Miers, Vol. III, p. 4.
[131]
Long, p. 25.
[132]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
172; Foner, p. 154; Long, p. 25.
[133]
Long, p. 26.
[134]
Long, p. 26.
[135]
Long, p. 27.
[136]
Long, p. 27.
[137]
Long, p. 29.
[138]
Long, p. 30.
[139]
Long, p. 31.
[140]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
183; Foner, p. 154.
[141]
Long, pp. 31-34.
[142]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
215-216.
[143]
Long, p. 38.
[144]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
235-236; Miers, Vol. III, p. 19.
[145]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
237; Miers, Vol. III, p. 19.
[146]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
240-241.
[147]
Long, p. 41.
[148]
Long, p. 44; Foner, E. The Fiery Trial:
Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, New York: Norton, 2010.
[149]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
262-271; Long, p. 46; Foner; Miers, pp. 24-25.
[150]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 34.
[151]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
331-333; Long, p. 59; Miers, p. 35.
[152]
Long, p. 109.
[153]
Long, p. 74.
[154]
Long, p. 76.
[155] Official Records; Long, p. 77.
[156]
Long, p. 78.
[157]
Long, p. 77.
[158] Dumond,
p. 370.
[159]
Long, p. 77.
[160]
Foner, p. 170.
[161]
Long, p. 82.
[162]
Long, p. 82.
[163]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
426-438.
[164]
Long, pp. 98-100.
[165]
Long, p. 100.
[166]
Foner, pp. 173-174; Congressional Globe,
37th Congress, 1st Session, 24, 32; Long, pp. 100-101.
[167]
Long, pp. 101-102; Miers, Vol. III, p. 57.
[168]
Long, p. 102.
[169]
Foner, p. 171; Long, pp. 102-103.
[170]
Dumond, p. 370; Long, pp. 102-103.
[171]
Foner, p. 183; autobiography.
[172] Congressional Globe.
[173] Congressional Globe; Long, p. 104.
[174]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner, pp. 175-179, 183, 186, 187, 191, 202, 204, 287; Miers,
Vol. III, p. 59; Congressional Globe,
37th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 217-219; NY Times, Aug. 7, 1861; Statute L., XII,
p. 319.
[175]
Foner, p. 175; Long, p. 106.
[176]
Long, p. 107.
[177]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
487-488; Long, p. 109.
[178]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
515, 517-518; Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, pp. 112-113; Miers, p. 66.
[179]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp.
506-507; Long, p. 114.
[180]
Long, p. 114.
[181]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
515; Long, p. 117; Miers, Vol. III, p. 66.
[182]
Foner, p. 179.
[183]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
531.
[184]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 532.
[185]
Foner, pp. 178-179.
[186]
Foner, pp. 180-181.
[187]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p.
554.
[188]
Long, p. 129.
[189]
Long, p. 131.
[190]
Foner, pp. 182-184, 342; Long, p. 143.
[191]
Long, p. 134.
[192]
Long, p. 135.
[193]
Long, pp. 135-136.
[194]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
25-26.
[195]
Long, p. 144.
[196]
Long, p. 144.
[197]
Foner, p. 191; Long, p. 146.
[198]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
35-53; Miers, p. 80.
[199]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
51-53; Foner, p. 342; Miers, Vol. III, p. 80.
[200]
Long, p. 158.
[201]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
95.
[202]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
96; Long, p. 160.
[203]
Long, p. 160; National Intelligencer,
Jan. 16, 1863.
[204]
Long, p. 167.
[205]
Long, pp. 168-169.
[206]
Long, pp. 170-172.
[207]
Long, p. 175.
[208]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, p. 179; Miers, p. 98.
[209]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
144-146; Foner, pp. 195-196.
[210]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 99; H. Nicolay, pp. 134-135.
[211]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
152-153.
[212]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 195; Miers, p. 98; Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd
Session, 944, 955, 958-959, 1143.
[213]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
169.
[214]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 103.
[215]
Long, p. 188.
[216]
Foner, p. 197.
[217]
Long, p. 192.
[218]
Long, p. 193.
[219]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 105; Philadelphia News,
April 7, 1862.
[220]
Long.
[221]
Long, p. 196.
[222]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
265; Miers, Vol. III, p. 105.
[223]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
186.
[224]
Miers, p. 106; Congressional Globe,
p. 1650.
[225]
Dumond, p. 372.
[226] Congressional Globe, 37th
Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 1191, 1300, 1523, 1526.
[227]
Long, p. 198.
[228] New York Tribune, April 14, 1862.
[229]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
192; Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 201; Miers, p. 107.
[230]
Long, pp. 203-204.
[231]
Long, p. 204.
[232]
Long, p. 206.
[233]
Long, pp. 207-208.
[234]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
222-223; Dumond,
p. 372.
[235]
Long, p. 209.
[236] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 222-223;
Foner, pp. 206-207, 342.
[237]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
224-225.
[238]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 203; Statute L, xii, 432.
[239]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Statute L, xii, 392-394, 403.
[240]
Long, p. 216.
[241]
Long, p. 218.
[242]
Long, pp. 219-220.
[243]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 119; Monaghan, p.
227.
[244]
Long, pp. 222-223.
[245]
Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 203; Statute L, xii, 432; Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd
Session, pp. 1137, 2917-2920, 2929, 2999.
[246] New York Tribune, June 21, 1862; Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 278-279.
[247]
Long, p. 230.
[248]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 123.
[249]
Long, p. 235.
[250]
Long, p. 237; Sears (1989), pp. 344-345.
[251]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
329-331; Foner, pp. 215-216; Congressional
Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 3006, 3267-68,
3383, 3400.
[252]
Dumond, p. 372; Basler, Roy P., ed., The
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols.), New Brunswick, NJ: 1953-1955,
Vol. V, pp. 317-319.
[253]
Foner, p. 222.
[254]
Miers, p. 128; Gideon Welles’ diary.
[255]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
324; Foner, p. 213.
[256]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
328-331; Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, p. 241; Miers, p. 128; Statute L, xii,
589.
[257]
Long, p. 241.
[258]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp.
336-337; Dumond, p. 372; Foner, pp. 218-219; Long, pp. 242-243; Samuel Chase
diary.
[259]
Miers, p. 129.
[260]
Long, p. 244.
[261] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 344-346.
[262] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 350-351.
[263]
Miers, p. 131; Rice, pp. 521-522.
[264]
Donald, 1954, pp. 105-106; Miers, p. 131.
[265] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 356-357; New York Tribune, August 5, 1862.
[266]
Long, p. 247; Miers, Vol. III, p. 131.
[267]
Long, pp. 249-250.
[268]
Long, p. 251; Foner; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 370-375.
[269]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 134.
[270]
Long, pp. 253-254.
[271]
Long, p. 254; Foner; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 388-389.
[272]
Foner; Long, p. 255.
[273]
Long, pp. 255-258.
[274]
Miers, p. 136.
[275]
Long, p. 261.
[276] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 419-425; Miers, p. 139.
[277]
Long, p. 266.
[278] New York Tribune, September 16, 1862;
Miers, p. 139.
[279]
Long, pp. 267-268.
[280]
Miers, p. 140.
[281]
Hay diary, cited in Miers, p. 139.
[282]
Miers, p. 141.
[283]
Foner; Long, p. 270; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 433-436.
[284] Washington Star, September 24, 1862; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 438-439.
[285]
Long, p. 271.
[286] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 436-437; Long, p. 270.
[287]
Miers, p. 141.
[288] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 444.
[289]
Long, p. 273.
[290]
Long, pp. 274-275.
[291]
Long, p. 276.
[292]
Long, p. 278.
[293]
Long, p. 278.
[294]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
478; Miers, p. 147.
[295]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V;
Miers, p. 147.
[296]
Long, p. 284.
[297]
Long, p. 265.
[298]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
496.
[299] New York Times, Nov. 24, 1862; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 503-504.
[300]
Foner, p. 343.
[301]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p.
537; Long, p. 292.
[302]
Foner, p. 238; Long.
[303]
Long, p. 300.
[304]
Miers, p. 159; Welles’ diary.
[305]
Miers, p. 159.
[306]
Welles’ diary.
[307] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 17.
[308] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 28-31; Foner; Long, p. 306; Miers, p.
160.
[309]
Long, p. 309.
[310]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
48-49.
[311]
Foner, p. 249.
[312]
Long, p. 312.
[313]
Long.
[314]
Long, p. 325.
[315]
Foner, pp. 284, 285, 294.
[316]
Long, p. 329; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 140-141.
[317]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 175.
[318]
Long, p. 331.
[319]
Long, p. 332.
[320]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
149-150; Miers, Vol. III, p. 175.
[321]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p.
151; Miers, Vol. III, p. 177.
[322]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 177.
[323]
Long, pp. 335-336.
[324]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p.
176.
[325]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
176-177; Miers, Vol. III, p. 179.
[326]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p.
181.
[327]
Long, p. 348.
[328]
Long, p. 354.
[329]
Long, p. 356.
[330]
Long, p. 357.
[331]
Long, p. 359.
[332]
Long, p. 359.
[333]
Long, pp. 363-364.
[334]
Long, p. 365.
[335]
Long, p. 367.
[336]
Long, p. 367.
[337]
Long, p. 369.
[338]
Long, p. 370.
[339]
Long, p. 372.
[340]
Long, p. 378.
[341]
Long, pp. 378-379.
[342]
Long, pp. 378-379.
[343]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
319-320; Miers, Vol. III, p. 195; Washington Chronicle, July 8, 1863.
[344]
Long, p. 381.
[345]
Long, pp. 382-383.
[346]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 196.
[347]
Long, p. 384.
[348]
Long, p. 387.
[349]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 198.
[350]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p.
342.
[351]
Long, p. 392.
[352] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 357; Miers,
p. 199.
[353]
Long, pp. 394-395.
[354]
Long, p. 395; Miers, p. 200.
[355] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
374-375; Long, p. 396.
[356]
Foner, p. 343.
[357]
Long, p. 399.
[358]
Long, p. 399.
[359] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
406-410; Miers, p. 204.
[360]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
428-429.
[361]
Long, p. 403.
[362]
Long, p. 404.
[363]
Long, p. 405.
[364]
Long, p. 407.
[365]
Long, pp. 407-408.
[366]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
440-441.
[367] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
444-449; Long, p. 409.
[368]
Long, pp. 411-412.
[369]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
496-497.
[370]
Long, p. 211.
[371]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp.
523-524.
[372]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 217.
[373]
Long, p. 435; Miers, pp. 221-222.
[374]
Long, p. 436.
[375]
Long, p. 437.
[376]
Long, pp. 437-438.
[377]
Long, p. 443.
[378]
Long, p. 444.
[379] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 36-56; Long,
p. 444.
[380] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 76-77; Long,
p. 447.
[381] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 81; Long,
p. 448.
[382]
Foner, p. 167.
[383]
Long, p. 454.
[384] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp.
145-146; Long, p. 457.
[385]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p.
164.
[386]
Long, p. 460.
[387]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 239.
[388]
Long, p. 464.
[389]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 241.
[390]
Long, p. 468.
[391]
Long, p. 470.
[392]
Long, p. 472.
[393]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 226-227; Long, p. 473; Miers, Vol. III, pp. 244-245.
[394]
Nicolay, pp. 195-196; Grant, personal memoirs, Vol. II, p. 121.
[395]
Long, p. 473; Miers, Vol. III, p. 245.
[396]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p.
236; Long, p. 473.
[397]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 239-240.
[398]
Long, p. 474.
[399] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 243; Miers,
p. 246.
[400]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 243-244.
[401]
Long, p. 476.
[402] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 251; Long,
p. 467.
[403]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 260-261; Long, p. 467.
[404]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 281-282; Foner, pp. 297-298; Long, p. 481; Miers, Vol. III, p. 251.
[405]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p.
287; Miers, Vol. III, p. 251.
[406]
Long, p. 481.
[407]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 252; Washington Star,
April 7, 1864.
[408]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 252.
[409]
Foner, pp. 294-295; Long, p. 482.
[410]
Long, p. 464.
[411]
Long, p. 484.
[412]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 301-303; Long, p. 487.
[413]
Long, p. 487.
[414]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 328-329.
[415]
Long, p. 492.
[416]
Long, pp. 492-493.
[417]
Long, p. 495.
[418]
Long, p. 496.
[419]
Long, p. 499.
[420]
Long, pp. 501-502.
[421]
Long, p. 503.
[422]
Long, p. 507.
[423]
Long, p. 508.
[424]
Long, p. 512.
[425]
Foner.
[426]
Long, p. 518.
[427]
Long, p. 518.
[428]
Long, pp. 519-520.
[429]
Long, p. 520.
[430]
Foner.
[431]
Long, p. 523.
[432]
Long, p. 524.
[433]
Long, pp. 524-525.
[434]
Long, p. 527.
[435]
Long, p. 528.
[436]
Long, p. 529.
[437]
Long, p. 529.
[438]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 268; Statue L., XII, 200.
[439]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p.
419; Long, p. 530.
[440]
Long, p. 531; Miers, Vol. III, p. 269.
[441]
Long, pp. 531-532.
[442]
Foner, p. 301-302.
[443]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 425-427; Long, p. 534.
[444]
Long, p. 535.
[445]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 433-434.
[446]
Long, pp. 535-536.
[447]
Long, p. 537; Miers, Vol. III, p. 271; Hay Diary.
[448]
Long, pp. 537-538; Miers, Vol. III, p. 271; Washington
Chronicle, July 13, 1864.
[449]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p.
451.
[450]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII,
pp. 448-449.
[451]
Long, pp. 542-543.
[452]
Long, pp. 543-544.
[453]
Long, p. 545.
[454]
Long, p. 574.
[455]
Long, pp. 551-552.
[456]
Long, pp. 556-557.
[457]
Foner, p. 344; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 503-504.
[458] Lincoln,
in Basler, Collected Works, Vol.
VII, p. 514.
[459]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 279.
[460]
Long, p. 563.
[461]
Long, pp. 563-564.
[462]
Long, p. 564.
[463]
Long, p. 565.
[464]
Long, p. 567.
[465]
Long, p. 567.
[466]
Long, p. 571.
[467] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, pp.
41-42; Long, p. 582.
[468]
Long, p. 583.
[469]
Long, p. 585.
[470]
Miers, Vol. III, p. 292.
[471]
Long, p. 591.
[472]
Long, p. 164.
[473]
Long, p. 594; Miers, Vol. III, p. 294.
[474]
Lincoln, in Basler, Collected Works, Vol.
VIII, p. 100-102; Nevins, 1971; Washington
Chronicle, Nov. 11, Hay Diary.
[475]
Long, pp. 596-597.
[476] Harper’s Weekly.
[477]
Long, p. 603.
[478]
Long, p. 606.
[479]
Lincoln, in Basler, Collected Works, Vol.
VII, cited in Nevins, p. 208.
[480]
Long, p. 606.
[481] Official Records, I, xliv.
[482]
Long, pp. 610-612.
[483]
Bureau of the Census, Population of the
United States in 1860, p. 599; Drago; Official
Records, I, xliv.
[484] Official Records, I, xliv, p. 13.
[485] Official Records, I, xliv; Trudeau, p.
542.
[486] Official Records, I, xliv.
[487]
Long, p. 614.
[488]
Long, pp. 614-615.
[489]
Nevins, p. 254.
[490]
Long, p. 620.
[491]
Long, p. 621.
[492]
Long, p. 621.
[493]
Long, p. 621.
[494]
Long, p. 623.
[495] Official Records.
[496]
Long, pp. 623-625.
[497] Official Records, I, xlvii, pt. 1, p.
17-18.
[498]
Foner.
[499]
Nevins, p. 213.
[500] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, p. 249.
[501] New York Tribune, February 3, 1865.
[502]
Long, p. 632.
[503] Long,
pp. 631-632.
[504]
Long, p. 632; Grant Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 422.
[505]
Long, p. 632.
[506] Long,
p. 634.
[507] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, pp.
260-261; Miers, p. 311.
[508]
Long, p. 635.
[509]
Long, p. 637.
[510] Long,
pp. 639-640.
[511] Long,
pp. 639-640.
[512]
Long, p. 643.
[513] Long,
p. 642.
[514]
Long, p. 643.
[515]
Long, p. 645.
[516] Long,
p. 645.
[517]
Long, p. 646.
[518]
Foner.
[519] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, pp.
332-333.
[520]
Miers, pp. 317-318.
[521] Long,
p. 650.
[522]
Long, p. 649.
[523]
Long, p. 651.
[524] Long,
pp. 652-653.
[525]
Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VIII,
pp. 360-362; Long, p. 653.
[526]
Long, pp. 654-656.
[527]
Long, pp. 658-659; Sherman’s Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 325-327.
[528]
Long, p. 659.
[529] Long,
pp. 661-662.
[530]
Long, p. 662.
[531]
Long, p. 663.
[532] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, pp. 384-385.
[533]
Long, p. 664.
[534] Long,
p. 663.
[535]
Long, p. 665; Official Records, Vol.
XLVI, pt. 3, p. 508.
[536] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, p. 385.
[537]
Long, p. 666.
[538]
Foner.
[539]
Miers, pp. 325-326.
[540]
Long, p. 670.
[541] Washington Star, April 11-12, 1865;
Foner, p. 345.
[542] Basler,
Collected Works, Vol. VIII, p. 588.
[543] Long,
p. 673.
[544]
Long, pp. 675-676; Miers, pp. 329-330.
[545]
Long, p. 677; Miers, p. 330; Nicoly and Hay, X, p. 302.
[546]
Long, p. 677.
[547]
Long, p. 678.
[548]
Long, p. 679.
[549]
Long, p. 680.
[550]
Long, p. 680.
[551]
Long, p. 680.
[552]
Long, p. 680.
[553]
Long, p. 685.
[554]
Long, . 686.
[555]
Long, pp. 689-690.
[556]
Long, p. 690.
[557]
Long, pp. 690-691.
[558]
Long, p. 692.
[559]
Long, p. 694.
[560]
Dumond.
[561]
Long, p. 696.
[562]
Long, p. 696.
[563]
Long, p. 696.
[564]
Long, p. 696.
[565]
Long, p. 696.
[566]
Long.
