Preserving the Union: The Civil War
US History Pratt Name: __________________
Do Now:
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and 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 do it by freeing some and
leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
~ Abraham Lincoln, letter to Horace Greeley (August 22, 1862)
Question:
1- What does this quotation reveal about Abraham Lincoln’s primary concern during
the Civil War?
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2- Do you agree or disagree with President Lincoln? Explain your answer.
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3- Do you think Harriet Beecher Stowe agree with President Lincoln? Explain your
answer.
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Analyze the following chart:
A Nation Divided
I. Formation of the Confederacy:
A. South Carolina led the way for the formation of the Confederacy when it
adopted, through the use of a popularly elected convention, an “Ordinance of
Secession” in December 1860.
1- Ten additional states eventually followed South Carolina’s example
[Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas].
2- The Confederate States of America was formed in February 1861, with
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as President.
3- In seceding from the Union, the Southern states affirmed the compact
theory of the Constitution and claimed that it was the Northern states
that had broken the compact by obstructing the constitutionally
mandated return of fugitive slaves.
II. Lincoln and the Constitutional Issues of the War:
A. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare
war, raise and support armies, maintain a navy, and to provide for the
regulation of the land and naval forces, including militia.
B. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides that the President is
Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy.
C. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states that the President is vested
with full executive power of the government.
1- Lincoln believed that the oath he had taken to “preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution” obligated him to resort to practically any action
necessary to maintain the Union.
III.Emancipation:
A. At the outset of the Civil War, the federal government had been careful to
insist that it was fighting to preserve the Union and not to free the slaves.
1- In this way, proslavery forces, primarily in the border states, who were
sympathetic to the Union cause were kept with the North.
2- Yet as the war progressed, Congress moved in the direction of
emancipation.
3- On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation declaring that “all slaves in those regions still in rebellion
on that date would be free.”
a) Not applying to border states or the regions under Union control, but
only to those under Confederate control, the Emancipation
Proclamation did not immediately free any slaves.
b) The actual end of slavery did not come until the passage of the
Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
IV. Constitutional Significance of the Civil War:
A. With the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 1,
1865, the Civil War came to an end.
B. Perhaps the most important constitutional result of the Civil War was the
repudiation of state sovereignty and the compact theory of union.
C. The concepts of states’ rights of secession and the United States as a “league”
of states were ended and the nation emerged as a true sovereign entity.
~ U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- What state led the way for the formation of the Confederacy?
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2- What eleven states made up the Confederacy?
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3- What did Lincoln believe during the Civil War regarding Executive Power and the
Constitution?
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4- What was the Federal Government stance on slavery at the outset of the Civil War?
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5- Why was this the Federal Government’s stance at the outset of the Civil War?
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6- How did the Emancipation Proclamation reveal a change in the Federal
Government’s stance on slavery during the Civil War?
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7- When did the Civil War come to an end?
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8- What was the most important constitutional result of the Civil War?
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9- What changes occurred as a result of the Civil War?
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Multiple-Choice Questions:
1. “A house divided against itself
cannot stand. I believe this
government cannot endure
permanently half slave and half
free.” -Abraham Lincoln, 1858
2. According to this quotation,
Abraham Lincoln believed that
(1) slavery was immoral and should
be abolished immediately
(2) sectional differences threatened
to destroy the Union
(3) the Southern states should be
allowed to secede
(4) to save the nation, the North
should compromise with the
South on slavery
3. The North’s rapid economic growth
during the Civil War was stimulated
by
(1) the elimination of taxes on
defense industries
(2) a reduction in the number of
immigrants
(3) increased government demand
for many products
(4) enslaved persons filling industrial
jobs
4. In the 1850s, why did many runaway
slaves go to Canada?
(1) They feared being drafted into
the Northern army.
(2) The Fugitive Slave Act kept them
at risk in the United States.
(3) More factory jobs were available
in Canada.
(4) Northern abolitionists refused to
help fugitive slaves.
5. When did differences regarding
slavery begin between the North and
the South?
(1) 1776 – American Constitution
(2) 1820 – Missouri Compromise
(3) 1850 – Compromise of 1850
(4) 1857 – John Brown’s raids
6. Though the Civil War was going to
be a fight about slavery, what was
the South’s main reason to secede?
(1) Wanted to protect rural way of
life
(2) Believed State’s rights superseded
Federal rights.
(3) Felt they were losing power in the
Senate because of population
shifts, prompting them to secede.
(4) Believed that the Industrial
Revolution was a threat to lives.
7. What state was the first to secede the
Union?
(1) Alabama
(2) South Carolina
(3) Virginia
(4) Texas
8. Southern states threatened this if
Lincoln was elected.
(1) compromise
(2) division
(3) filibustering
(4) secession
9. Which of the following statements is
true?
(1) The South was becoming
urbanized
(2) The South was becoming
industrialized
(3) Only 1/3 of Southerners owned
slaves
(4) Southern factories depended on
slaves
Why the North Won:
“The North possessed immense long-term advantages: a larger population, more money,
more railroad lines, greater manufacturing facilities, and superior naval power. The South
depended on exporting cotton and other cash crops in order to import manufactured
goods. Lincoln imposed a naval blockade on the south. Despite its advantages, the North
took four years to defeat the South.”
~ The Key to Understanding U.S. History and Government
Question:
1- Identify five reasons for the North’s victory in the Civil War:
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Primary Source:
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863
[On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented on what is now considered the
most famous speech by President Abraham Lincoln. In his eulogy on the slain president, he
called it a “monumental act.” He said Lincoln was mistaken that “the world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here.” Rather, the Bostonian remarked, “The world noted
at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less
important than the speech.” ~ nps.gov]
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.
Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler. The text above is
from the so-called “Bliss Copy,” one of several versions which Lincoln wrote, and believed
to be the final version.
Questions:
1- What does President Abraham Lincoln believe is being tested during the Civil War?
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2- What has Lincoln come to dedicate?
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3- According to Lincoln, who really has consecrated the field?
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4- According to Lincoln, what is the task remaining for the American people?
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