tv The Civil War CSPAN October 5, 2014 11:05am-12:01pm EDT
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imagine 60,000 casualties in about a 30 day span. that is a lot of families who will be disheartened. that was the sentiment in the summer of agency four. people did not see the war going well. it is not until the fall of atlanta and mobile bay and the shenandoah valley -- after that, lincoln became confident. in october of agency c4, there were state elections in indiana and pennsylvania and ohio. those elections went republican. bellwether elections. everyone knew that however those three would states went, that was how the election would go in november. the presidential election. by october, lincoln was confident he would win. it was only the summer that he thought he would lose. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> you are watching american history tv. g onours of programin
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american history on c-span3. follow us on twitter for information on a schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. coming up next on american history tv, meg thompson discusses the 1864 election between president abraham lincoln and general george mcclellan. he claims that lincoln was so unsure about his reflection chances that he had his cabinet member sign what is known as the blind memorandum. this pledge for cooperation was link one's -- lincoln's then unknown challenge if he lost. also spring how important a soldier vote was. president lincoln won by the 1864 election by 212-21. this 50 minute talk was part of a symposium hosted by the emerging civil war blog. >> all right, i am not going to adjust the microphone, because we spent some time getting it adjusted for meg.
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i apologize if i look like i am hunched over. [laughter] i hate to stereotype, but i am sure that meg looks like a mild-mannered middle school math teacher. ironically, that is exactly what she is. [laughter] as she has educated by day, by night she has been working on her degree in military history. she is just about to wrap up her masters degree. in one of the most courageous acts i have seen from anybody, basically she is reinventing herself. it has been a great adventure for her to discover the american civil war from the perspective of a serious scholar, but also from the perspective of somebody who is loved it dearly for years. it is my pleasure to bring all the way from california one of our contributors to emerging civil war. she will be releasing the next book in our emerging civil war
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book series later this fall, "the aftermath of battle," which answers that very important and poignant question, what did they do with all of the bodies? definitely looking forward to that. in the meantime she will pick our brains with what she considers the most pivotal event of 1864, the reelection of abraham lincoln. please welcome meg thompson. [applause] >> good morning. i am meg thompson and i am from california. sometimes people ask me what california has to do with the civil war? that is not the topic, but i have an answer. in 1861 it was a new state. there were not a lot of native sons and daughters. when the war broke out, people turned around and went back east to the states they originally came from and volunteered to fight. it is interesting how it fell
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out. northern californians usually fought for the union and southern californians usually fought for the confederacy. more is known about the union californian units. they became the 69th, 71st, and 72nd, 106th pennsylvania volunteers. all told, california provided more troops per capita than any other state in the civil war. california also sent monthly over $5 million in gold to purchase war bonds. more than any other state. and they gave more money than any other state, in gold, to the sanitary commission for the entire duration of the war. i would say that california gave both blood and treasure to the war. that had a great deal to do with it.
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one of the things that has come across really clearly from yesterday to today is how important it is to look at primary documents. primary documents for historians are looked at by a process known as a close reading. close reading is a careful, sustained examination of a brief text. it is interpretive in nature and focuses on the specifics. pay attention to individual words and phrases. historians do this regularly. you always try to put the passage you are reading into such context as possible. it is called a close reading. as a historian, you need to know a lot about the general to understand the specific. let's look at an example. here is a general point of view. robert e lee gives an order to jeb stuart in 1863. he wants to find out what the union army is up to.
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this does not sound like an strange order to stuart. he has done it before. he can do it again. he takes his troopers out for a ride around to gain information. nothing about this seems strange or out of character. the problem is that generally is ill, ill physiologically and he had actually had a heart attack at this period. he also suffered from debilitating bouts of dysentery. he was still grieving the death of his daughter anna. anna had been born with a large disfiguring birthmark on her face, and a childhood accident had left her blind in one eye. this added to her further disfigurement. those of you who are fathers and mothers know that if you have a child like that, they are
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special to you. lee knew that she would need him in a way that his other children did not. and then she died and he was not there. he was additionally still missing stonewall jackson. he was less than his usual self. to suggest that he might have been a tad grumpy is not a stretch. lieutenant george campbell brown overhears lee expressing that he is uneasy and irritated by stuart's conduct, that he is blaming him for the defeat at gettysburg. brown claims that he dressed steward down upon his return to the army of northern virginia. everybody pretty much knows that. you have seen "gettysburg," you know that. and knowing all of this, is a historian's job. it is necessary information to be able to perform a close reading. particularly if that close reading is lee's famous letter
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to stuart written after gettysburg. the sentence in the letter, the energy and promptness of yourself and your command elicits my high admiration. this takes on a new depth of meeaning when placed in the context of gettysburg. especially the words energy and promptness. this is exactly what lee had been exasperated by in july. it is this clarity of meaning that as picking detail historian looks for in a close reading. let's turn to the subject at hand. the first close reading is a lincoln's blind memorandum. i am a schoolteacher, and school teachers give out handouts, so i do have a handout. [laughter] included in this is a copy of the blind memorandum in lincoln's own hand. there are two copies, the front
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part with the text and the other is in the back where the cabinet members signed it. while i was doing research for this topic, i looked at the usual suspects. lincoln biographers. these guys do not give very much page time to an explanation of the letter that lincoln wrote on august 23, 1864. lincoln folded and sealed the letter without revealing the contents to the members of the cabinet. he asked them to sign their names on the back. because they signed their names without reading the document, it has become known as the blind memorandum. they signed it blind. it seems like a strange thing for a president to do. had they read it, however, there might have been startling reactions. the text of the blind memorandum is "this morning, as well as in some days past, it seems to me exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected. then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the president-elect as to save the
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union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured the election in such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards." so we asked, why would the president write this? why would the cabinet comply and sign it? no one has ever disclosed exactly what he told the cabinet before he offered the paper for their signatures, but by signing it, they were date stamping an offer to the next president-elect. lincoln was not only offering his cooperation, he was offering the cooperation of his cabinet. when we read the blind memorandum now, we have the benefit of hindsight. it is easy to insert the name george mcclellan into each place lincoln only wrote "he." it is hugely important to remember that on august 23, 1864, lincoln did not know who his opponent would be.
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mcclellan had not been nominated. the democratic convention was not held until august 29. lincoln made a guess, but nothing else. i feel lincoln's motive for having his cabinet date step this memorandum -- date stamp this memorandum, he was prepared to do what he thought was best for the country, even if he only had a few more weeks in office. maybe lincoln envisioned himself and the president-elect standing together in the field. doing all that could be done, trying to end the war before the inauguration in march. maybe he envisioned having to do it alone. it is a fairly dramatic gesture. it is probably not even constitutional. but is it what it seems on the surface? what were lincoln's real aims? we have to ask what else lincoln might have meant if he truly felt he was going to be defeated. the document is deeper. this morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this
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administration will not be reelected. then it will be my duty to -- to what? is it possible that lincoln is making an offer of cooperation to whoever the next president is, or might it be something less altruistic? is it something like it will be my duty to step aside as president? so the republican or the union party might nominate someone who has a better chance of winning? after all, that is what lyndon johnson said he was doing after the tet offensive in 1968. lincoln was a man who took his job seriously. considers the other possible choices for the republican party, it becomes clear that nobody, not john c fremont or salmon chase was better suited to lead the country than abraham lincoln. what are the other options? this morning, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be
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reelected, then it will be my duty to -- abandon the emancipation proclamation? lincoln was well aware of the contentiousness that was generated by the emancipation proclamation. 1864, advisersst were still trying to get the president to back away from that proclamation. he answered those well-meaning folks in this manner. "i will be damned for time and eternity if i return to slavery the black men who have fought for this country." so no, he is not going to change his mind about emancipation. how about, then it will be my duty to open up negotiations with the confederacy? lincoln was adamant that he would accept peace under two and only two circumstances, one, the restoration of the union, and two, the south had to agree to abandon slavery. isn't this what the war was about? the south is not going to say,
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oh, yeah, that's good advice. they will never accept these provisions. there had been peace talks already, but lincoln had always made his feelings as clear as the water in trout pools. it was union and emancipation and it would never be anything else. this morning, as in some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected. then it will be my duty to -- suspend elections? again, no. there is absolutely nothing to indicate that at any time of the -- that lincoln sought to postpone or cancel the election of 1864. rather just the opposite. he encouraged states to amend their constitutions to provide for absentee voting. he worked with the army and the navy to allow elections to occur. he ordered his commanders to order the free and unrestricted
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flow of mail, newspapers, and campaign materials into union camps and aboard ships. lincoln is quoted as saying after the fact "we cannot have a free government without elections. if the rebellion could force is -- us to forgo or abandon national elections, it can claim to have already ruined us." this was in keeping with his interpretation of the constitution. he felt that there was no greater principle in that document than the election in which the people, as in we the people, determine their representatives. so it really was about altruism. the ideas of union and emancipation. nothing else would work. none of these options guaranteed -- none of these other options would work. none of these options guaranteed that the states would once more be united and that slavery would be forever eradicated from the land. lincoln considered that he might
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lose the election, but he did not consider, even for a moment, the idea of giving up the two things that he started the war in the first place. union and slavery. i mentioned the mysteriousness of the blind memorandum. all instances of greatness seemed to have something a little bit mysterious about him. -- them. i think a close reading of the blind memorandum shows why he was such a great resident. his faith in the people, his sincerity to his dedication for emancipation, and abraham lincoln knows that the war has gone too long and has been too bloody. nevertheless, he believes in warelf, his reasons for the and the men who fought the war. , he refuses to allow the soldiers to feel that they would lose. his soldiers had not fought and died in vain.
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it was almost 150 years ago to this day when the blind memorandum was finally shared with the cabinet. that was after lincoln's re-election. they were stunned to see that he had offered their cooperation. these 60 simple words give the world an unfettered look into the soul of one of the greatest presidents. so, that is the blind memorandum. lets move from lincoln as president to lincoln the commander in chief. a second close reading is lincoln's address to their hundred and 66 regiment. to the 166 regiment. this is august 22, 1864. you have a copy of that as well. as important as it was to keep as many people in the field, it was still important to keep the capital, washington, well guarded. they were the volunteer militia units from ohio. their commander had volunteered to help in this endeavor.
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so the regulars that stay with them main army and hopefully bring an end to the war. ohio had, in the interim, reorganized its militia system and renamed its state troops. i feel this is really important. they renamed them the national guard. he had some extra men. lincoln took them up on the offer, and that resulted in more than 85,000 men being sent from ohio to guard the capital. each man had signed up for 100 days of duty. by august, most of them were returning home. the president spoke with three of the regiments in august of 64. he spoke to the ohio one 64th, 166, and 168. he had already had the nomination of the republican convention. but, again, nobody knew who would carry the banner for the democrats, only that it would be someone powerful enough to upset the incumbent. we know that it was mcclellan, but again, there had not been a democratic convention yet.
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the timing of the speeches is crucial to understanding the importance of the words that lincoln chose to address these soldiers. it is not an anti-mcclellan speech. ok? this particular speech was written on or about the same day as the blind memorandum. the future was looking dim for lincoln's reelection. there had been no significant battlefield successes since gettysburg. grant's plan had resulted in nothing but high union casualties. the republican bosses were concerned that the voting public, which at that point were white men, had not gotten behind the emancipation proclamation. even though there were now black soldiers now serving in the union army, for the first time in history. there would be some form of voting made available for soldiers serving in the field. as of 1862, only wisconsin was allowing men to vote somewhere other than their local district. the war was going to extend through the elections of 1864,
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and this was going to force states to come to grips with an impossible decision. should they deny their soldiers fighting in the war the right to suffrage because they were away from home? or should they pass laws and create systems to allow those soldiers to vote in absentia? at this point in time, candidates did very little personal campaigning. lincoln was no exception. he did take every chance to speak to the soldiers, however. this meeting with lincoln was offered as a a farewell gift. lincoln's short speeches -- there are three of them -- became more than just thank yous. their text much be considered to be as much about influencing vote as about conveying gratitude. he begins the speech to the 166 ohio with the general words of thanks that he gave to all the soldiers that month. he told the soldiers, i suppose you are going home to see your families and friends.
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for the service you have done in this great struggle in which we are engaged, i present my sincere thanks for myself and the country. perhaps the most important words here are "going home." lincoln knew the soldiers would be back in ohio in advance of the november election. they were voters, and they could be spokesman for the union voter cause. lincoln continues. "i always feel inclined when i say anything to soldiers to impress on them with a few brief remarks the importance of this contest. it is not merely for today but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children's children that great free government that we have enjoyed all of our lives. i beg you to remember this." in not merely for my sake, but for yours. reminds people that they are part of a larger whole. their work affected not merely themselves but future generations.
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who will, it is hoped, be able to enjoy the benefits of a unified country just like they have. he reminds the soldiers of his own humble beginnings. "i have temporarily lived in this big white house. i am living witness that any of your children can live here just as my father's child has. it is an order that each one of chance for your industry and enterprise and intelligence that people will have equal privileges and all of their desirable human aspirations." the soldiers were very likely to be family men. the eminence of their departure for home and the comforts of family conveniently created a point of emphasis for lincoln to press concerning the lasting importance of the war effort. he reminded them that he was only a temporary occupant of the office of the president. any child might have the chance one day to be president himself, through hard work and enterprise.
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this is a particularly telling part of the speech. it gives lincoln a chance to bring up the coming election in a veiled way. he artfully guides their thoughts through the process for the prospect for the party and the union. this free government, which we have enjoyed, is now in jeopardy. but it can be saved with the judicious cast of a ballot. lincoln finishes with a reminder. it is for this that the struggle should the maintained. we must not lose our birthright. "the nation is worth fighting for to secure such an inestimable jewel." as he does throughout this short speech, lincoln turns attention away from his own ambitions and pins the emphasis on the soldiers vote. the soldiers had honorably served the union cause in their 100-day defense of the capital. with that work being done, the
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president makes a campaign plea. by calling the attention to the needs of the nation and the nation's future, lincoln places significant weight behind the idea that their service for the cause of union and freedom entailed one additional task. go home and vote for the president in the november election. that vote will secure the jewel of liberty for generations to come. so, those are the two close readings that influenced my paper. so let's talk for a few minutes about the soldiers voting. that lincoln felt was so important. he did not know if he would be reelected for a second term. there had been no major military victories since july 1863. the emancipation was not universally popular, or he did not feel it was. it created a disturbing backlash in many areas. congressional democrats were looking for any chance to
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discredit the administration, and they had successfully raised the specter of racial equality in 1862 through state elections. and it gained some votes. they hoped to use the same issue again and add to it fears that lincoln would never consider an end to the war unless slavery were abolished. additionally, the nation in civil war, there are over a million men of voting age under arms. in 1862, only one state a lot of soldier to vote outside of his home state. but by 1964, 19 other northern states had created and passed legislation allowing their soldiers to vote in the field. america had never faced the dilemma of absentee voting. much was uncertain. they did not know how to manage soldier voting. they did not know what effect military voting might have on lincoln's reelection. and they were not sure about how the soldiers felt.
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the enthusiasm in the war was beginning to wane by late 1863. the peace democrats and the copperheads were campaigning vigorously in a manner described by historian david alan johnson as anti-lincoln. he said "another four years of lincoln in the white house would result in anarchy, tyranny, and negro equality." the effectiveness can be seen in the results or lack thereof of the october state elections in ohio, pennsylvania, and indiana. in ohio, the republicans won. when congress reconvened, ohio democrats now only held two seats. indiana added four republicans to their congressional total. both indiana and pennsylvania only added four. james gordon bennett wrote as
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the state elections go, so will the presidential elections. so it looked good. but lincoln was not nearly as confident as the results would indicate he should have been. after running the voting numbers himself, he predicted that he would win the election but only by six electoral votes. and it was, again, not the public mandate lincoln felt was necessary to carry the war to the end. he felt that the power to prosecute the war and to make peace would be greatly impaired by such a narrow victory. during this time, the winter of 1862 now, lincoln became very concerned with the army vote. he sent a telegram to grant in virginia asking him to report on state elections and expressing his anxiety. send what you may know of your army vote. it had been the soldier vote that had tipped october voting in towards the republicans, and president lincoln was not about to abandon what would prove to be his base. remember, this is the first time
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that american soldiers were serving in the field during a general election. historian james mcpherson points out, here was a bold experiment in democracy. the american experiment of holding an election during a civil war whose election would determine the nation's future is unique in history. no other society had tried the experiment of all allowing fighting men to vote in an election that might decide whether they were going to continue fighting. there was no plan in place to collect votes from the men in the field. prior to 1860, if a soldier was going to be home, he could vote, otherwise his field status effectively disenfranchised him. the situation appeared to be a serious matter in the eyes of many, especially the men who were going to be denied their right as citizens and soldiers to cast a ballot in the presidential election. lincoln himself was determined that the election would take place. some suggested the cancellation of the election using wartime
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emergency as a reason, but lincoln's belief in the constitution would not allow him to. he had already been accused of violating the constitution by suspending other constitutional provisions like habeas corpus. to prosecute a war to preserve the rule of law for a majority and then to suspend the right of that majority to choose its leaders, to lincoln, was an unthinkable action. and he thought it would justify the accusations that he was a dictator. the states elections of 1862 were the first electoral contest in the history of the united states to raise widespread questions about the voting rights of soldiers and sailors. before then, with a small regular army and an even smaller navy, few local officials were concerned about absentee voting. it was assumed that all citizens would simply vote in their local precincts or not at all. many state constitutions restricted voting to within
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their boundaries. such limitations effectively made voting by soldiers away from their home illegal. the desire of the men and the communities they represented at this point, however, had changed. it was felt the soldiers should vote. it was difficult to make this happen. there were a lot of logistics that made a hard. state constitutions were so legally tangled, sometimes an amendment was required to allow the legislature to legislate at all. there were variances from state to state. for instance, in vermont. i think this is a great one. the state supreme court finally declares it to be unconstitutional for there to be absentee voting in state elections, but entirely constitutional for soldiers to vote in congressional and presidential elections. by the election of 1864, steps had been taken in most states to ensure that the soldiers in the field could vote.
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however indiana, delaware, and new jersey failed to pass bills, so no provisions were made to help those groups. oregon never passed a bill. depending on the will of the states, there were two types of voting. one was a simple process of taking a ballot box to the field and allowing individual soldiers to vote. the other was a more complicated process, proxy voting. the soldier prepared the ballot in the field and then the ballot was sent to a designated proxy who cast the ballot. each of these methods had problems that needed to be worked out. the first method was true voting in the field. the effect of casting a ballot was exactly the same as if it had been cast in the soldier's legal polling place. state constitutions created problems regarding implementation procedures, but most states worked mightily to
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amend constitutions and allow their soldiers to exercise their right to vote. military officers could not take the ballot box to the field, as states felt there might be pressure put for one candidate or the other. voting was a civil matter, and some states felt that it should be under the control of civil officers who were not answerable to the military. this was an objection to the method of collecting and counting votes rather, then the act of voting itself. several states avoided the issue by passing soldier voting acts. they detail the appointment of elect to -- officers to operate. proxy voting was adopted in new york, illinois, and a few counties in other states. proxy voting avoided the problems of collecting votes in the field, but had other issues. the secrecy of the vote could be compromised before it was cast in the home precinct. the opportunity for fraud was
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great. this was a serious concern for new york soldiers. the state of new york was torn apart by jockeying for power. there is, in fact, ample evidence of fraud in new york's results. in new york and connecticut, the soldiers' vote affected the outcome of the state elections. that was in 1862. however, one historian wrote that, contrary to the popular vote and electoral vote of the north. even if they had not been chosen, the union party would have controlled the 39th congress. there are plenty of gray areas in soldier polling, most of them beginning with state constitutions. despite the provision by most states, and i think this is particularly telling -- efforts
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by the democratic party to -- in short widespread disenfranchisement of many union soldiers. every state that attempted to amend legislation to provide some method of soldier voting failed if voted on by a legislature with a democratic majority. the democrats persistently opposed any legislation having -- giving the soldier the right to vote in the field. the states that prohibited absentee voting were heavily democratic. guessing that the union armies were probably going to vote for lincoln, none of these states had any reason to encourage their soldiers to cast ballots. lincoln himself wrote to general sherman asking him to allow his men from indiana to return home to vote in that state's crucial election. the president asked the same of grant, meade, sheridan, and the navy secretary.
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only about 150,000 men were able to cast ballots in the field for the 1864 election, but many were able to return to home states to vote. no record was kept of the number of soldiers who voted in their home states. of those who cast an absentee ballot, 78% voted for lincoln. 22 percent voted for mcclellan. lincoln captured over 55% of the popular vote, and a staggering electoral count of 212 to 12. the military tally was even more disproportionate. lincoln takes 3/5 of the soldier vote. why? what caused the soldiers to vote for lincoln in such numbers? the central issue of the election is the war. the candidates offered two distinct choices to the fighting men. a vote for lincoln is a vote for the prosecution of the war.
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a vote for mcclellan meant to stop hostilities immediately. it offered the possibility of returning home. but you would have to admit the entire war effort had been a failure. the men who voted in 1864's army were fighting for a cause bequeathed to them by a revolutionary generation, and had been raised to love the ideology of union and liberty. secession -- private wilbur fisk wrote home, "when we reflect that we are standing on the outer verge of all that is left of the american union and nothing but rebellion is beyond and that we are guarding our own homes from treasons usurpations,
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we feel a thrill of pride that we are permitted to bear a part in maintaining our government." by 1864, the emancipation proclamation had been released for a year. democrats hoped it would shore up anti-lincoln sentiment. but soldier letters and diaries indicated that this was not the case. black soldiers serving had made many soldiers believe that things could be shared. a soldier wrote that a discussion took place over the campfire about the race question. they took a straw poll and indicated the battery approved old abe 75 to 0. after the election jones noted, "thank god that the sin of slavery will be no more. i can bear all the deprivations of a soldier's life." lincoln took nothing for granted. he was concerned about troop
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morale. it was at this point he wrote the blind memorandum. the blind memorandum, by the way, was not taken out of the desk until after the election. it turns out that he did not have to volunteer to do all of that after all. it certainly made it obvious that he was willing to do everything he could to shore up civilian and soldier votes. many democrats hoped that many in the field would remain loyal to their former commanding general, george mcclellan. it is one reason he was nominated. but they underestimated the ability of union soldiers to analyze for themselves just what a vote for the democratic peace platform would indicate. basically that everything he fought for was meaningless. most forces had been in a uniform since the first call in 1861. these men knew personally what this war meant and what would happen if it were not fought to its conclusion.
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they announced with their votes the ownership of the conflict and their belief that union and emancipation were worth the effort. remember, soldiers and a volunteer army are citizen soldiers. most of them thought of themselves as citizens first. a belief in the cause was essential to the union army's fighting prowess. historian joseph allen frank has suggested politics was central to a people's army, which was the armed manifestation of a political ideal. politics created the war. and whether a man was politically sophisticated or naïve, politics kept him fighting. by the time of the election, the soldiers favored freeing enslaved men and enlisting them. a soldier wrote "i have yet to meet a slave that does not prefer the imperfect freedom of the army to slavery." a second lieutenant in the
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calvary salt no objection to equality. if a black man has been endowed with the ability to elevate him to a position that would take an equal to the white race, i say let him come up. the union benefited by being able to get mail regularly. they received both local and national newspapers. communication with the home front is evidence of the social contract soldiers made with those they left behind. the men counted on those at home to support their efforts and share their sacrifices and they communicated those feelings to friends and family. the homefront was obligated to sustain army morale. the soldier expected home to support the war effort. for most soldiers, democrats and copperheads in general, and then george mcclellan's candidacy in particular, raised their ire. soldiers were politically influential over their families and community.
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a person who criticized lincoln by default criticized the war. and by criticizing the war, criticized the soldier. this sort of person became a traitor. "dad, i am in sober earnest when i say do not waver in your devotion. load your gun and strike the traitor so we can settle with them when we come home." another wrote "the longer i stay in the army, the worse i feel toward the copperheads. they deserve to be hung." george mcclellan fared poorly in the eyes of the fellow soldier. union general willard wilde send a letter to a friend claiming "mcclellan is the most treacherous traitor of them all." they said that the election of mcclellan would be the worst thing that was ever done to the country. the rebels said, that is the thing we are depending on most.
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yeah, the rebels. the election of 1864 excited the confederates, too. they would shout their enthusiasm for the mcclellan candidacy. this furthered the resolve of the union soldier to vote republican. [laughter] after casting his vote for lincoln, one man wrote in his diary, "the greatest war has been fought and i know that i have won today." another man wrote to his family "i want abraham to handle the reins until the rebellion is crushed and the old flag waves proudly over this land again. i cannot see little mac in the white house, wrote a cavalry man -- "i cannot see little mac in the white house while abraham is able to swing them all." this was published in 1867.
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he explains that the prison officials in andersonville were very pro-mcclellan and were anxious to see how the prisoners felt. he wrote, "on the day of the election, two bags were placed on the inside of the stockade. those in favor of lincoln were to place a black bean into a bag, and those voting mcclellan put in white beans. they were provided for this purpose. we were marched by our hundreds and deposited our ballots. it is understood that if a majority voted for little mac we would get extra rations. the result of the ballot was 1500 for mcclellan and 6000 for lincoln. that soldiers in a place like andersonville would really forgo rations to vote for lincoln in
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an election that even count. there is much to be said about the solitary the of purpose in the union soldiers. that is very humbling. ultimately, the soldier vote did not prove crucial in reelecting lincoln. the president of the union party won over 55% of the popular vote. nevertheless, the 12 states that allowed absentee ballots, separate tallies confirmed that 78% of them voted for lincoln. an impressive mandate. after the war, absentee voting was no longer a problem for the american military. allstate constitutions were amended quickly to ensure that american fighting men and women would not be disenfranchised. , robert ramsey, a democrat from west virginia, introduced a national voting rights bill, despite opposition from southern states concerning states rights and poll taxes. the soldier voting act of 42 passed both houses by a good
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margin. franklin roosevelt signed it into law. trying to see in the minds of americans 150 years ago is challenging task. the soldiers of the union and confederate armies underwent an asiane time of public as -- of politicization. politics was central to the development of soldier morale, unit organization, unit cohesion, officer quality, fighting style, and the nature of the evolving relationship between the military and the home front. politics began the war, and ultimately political decisions were responsible for the lives of america's citizen soldiers. after three years of slaughter, they demanded the right to vote. almost 80% voted for lincoln. the men who did the fighting voted by a far larger majority than the folks at home to finish the job they started.
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they had a good understanding of politics and knew that voting for lincoln meant continuing the war. they voted their loyalty to the causes of union and abolition with ballots, many of which were figuratively marked in blood. thank you. [applause] >> we have time for questions. >> thank you. >> [indiscernible] >> i will try. >> let's assume that somehow the confederates held on to atlanta and in november lincoln had lost the popular vote or more importantly in december, mcclellan would have won the electoral vote, which could have gone either way and that on
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march 4, 1865, mcclellan became president and put into force the piece parties platform. can you speculate as to what the peace conference might have been like that would have come later? i will just give you three specific issues, and there are many more. what would've happened to west virginia? what about the union naval base? and how would the union indemnify the confederate states for the confederate slaves that had escaped? imagine yourself being one of the negotiators on either side. in my own opinion, i do not think they ever would have agreed on anything. [laughter] >> they still can't. [laughter] >> i think if that had happened, that horrorshow, there would be
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some movement that they would be the southern united states and the union would be the northern united states, but they would be two separate countries. effectively, we would've had a third world country right at our doorstep, because the confederacy had very little infrastructure. they just were not able to take care of themselves. i don't know if they ever could have decided anything about slavery. there was still the west. maybe escaped slaves or people who were afraid of being put back into slavery could simply have gone west. the chances of a western union might have come along as well. west virginia, i'm pretty sure, would have stayed with the union. that was the whole point all along. but when you go further into -- beyond mcclellan, god forbid -- and you look at what happened in
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europe, at what point would a non-united states have helped out in world war i? at what point could we have helped out in world war ii? at what point would there have been the infrastructure to provide the technology to create the incredible things -- granted we got them through warfare -- that ended the war effectively in europe? there would have been no atomic bomb. i'm not saying -- we rented a car -- what kind of car is it? it is half electric and half gas. it does not have a key and you push a button. i do not think there would have been one of those. i'm pretty sure we would've taken a series left turn. i do not think america would have had a golden age. i think we pretty much would become a balkanized area, pretty much like europe.
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as for what would happen to the norfolk shipyards -- it is a crapshoot. >> [indiscernible] >> yeah. [laughter] >> [indiscernible] >> i am not a lincoln scholar, but i understood that lincoln's position, even up to the emancipation proclamation, was the preservation of the union. it was union, union, union. i will take the union with slavery, without slavery, or leave slavery where it is in the states. how can you dismiss -- dismiss is the wrong word -- but when you are interpreting the blind memorandum, you indicated that you did not think that was a possibility that that could have happened, in terms of him,
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lincoln, agreeing we would have a peace by accepting -- >> by rescinding the emancipation proclamation. one thing that i think that lincoln scholars in general always cuss and discuss his lincoln's reputation as a world thinker. for many years, lincoln was in favor of the back to africa movement. for the first year of his presidency he put incredible political capital into trying to reimburse states, having the federal government purchase slaves and send them back to africa rather than have a war. it just did not work. and it just didn't work. and it just didn't work. he was getting pressure from europe right from the beginning. the european emancipation, particularly in england, why do you not declare? you know this slavery thing is wrong. it is immoral.
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he was slow to come to the table. i think that -- nowadays, when a politician changes his mind, it is called flip-flopping and seen as a bad thing. but for most of my history here, it seems to me, how can it be a bad thing for somebody's thinking to evolve? for someone to finally have experience, done enough reading, thought long and hard about it to change her mind. at what point did that become a bad thing? when the emancipation proclamation was issued, that was lincoln's line in the sand. he was not going to go back on it. it was something he fought personally very hard to come to grips with, all of those things. there was a myriad of them. he was getting pressure on all sides to do all kinds of things.
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one thing you can look at in his first year is how incredibly politically naïve he was. suddenly this incredibly complicated problems are being placed right on his doorstep. and he was having to deal with things from that magnitude. and he was having to deal with someone who just slouches into his office and says, well, i would like to be postmaster. it was an interesting first year, and i think a formative first year for lincoln. i think that by that first year, he had realized that slavery simply had to go. how he was going to time things was a political decision, but the moral decision was already made. >> not too long ago, there was a bytastic interview published
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gary gallagher. it talks about how lincoln could not have delivered his second inaugural address even a year earlier, because of the social and political environment had evolved. allowed lincoln to make that address when he did. when we talk about the change of -- changing nature of warfare, we talk about tactics and technology and strategy. social and political thinking also evolves over the course of a war. lincoln was able to do things he was not able to do early on in the war. you point today -- we call it today flip-flopping. this evolution was certainly a part of lincoln's mode of operation. meg, thank you very much for your comments today. [applause] >> today at 6:00, we mark the 100th anniversary of the panel mall can now's opening. -- they show the
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construction between 1904 and 1914. that is on american artifacts, taking viewers into archives, museums, and historic sites around the country. next, central connecticut state robert wolfrofessor and his class examine how the memory of the civil war has changed for him its 50th and 100th anniversaries to the present. the class looks at how the memory of the civil war has largely focused on men's experience in battle leaving slaves and women out of the story. at the sesquicentennial anniversary, the war is more nuanced but still debated. this class is about one hour and 10 minutes. >> ok. so in getting ready for this, i wanted to do like a little background work on the so-called semi-centennial of the civil war, which was of course 1911 to 1915. so-called semi-centel
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