Government policies in the Civil War

Creating mass armies

Once the initial bravado wore off, both Union and Confederate military and political leadership soon realized that the war would likely last far longer, require much larger armies and navies, and cost far more than either the United States or the Confederate States of America originally anticipated. The establishment of the first mass armies, sometimes reliant upon conscription, or forced military service, in United States history provided both sides with hundreds of thousands of soldiers but also generated significant resentment in both the Union and the Confederacy, particularly given that people could hire substitutes to replace them in the war. Anger over conscription coincided with racial resentment in the draft riots in July 1863 in which over 100 people were killed in New York City, with the victims being primarily African American.

Financing the war

The costs of managing large armies and navies, including the purchasing of food, weapons, and supplies, along with paying the wages of the soldiers and sailors, prompted both the Union and Confederate governments to impose new and heavier taxes. As is common in American military history, the imposition of new taxes, including income taxes, was framed by the governments as both necessary and patriotic while the reactions to these new taxes were not nearly as sanguine; these measures would prove to be temporary but also set important precedents that ultimately culminated in the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913 authorizing federal income taxes. As in the Revolutionary War and later in World Wars I & II, the US government issued war bonds. The US government also issued greenbacks, paper currency not directly backed by gold or silver deposits; the Confederate government issued its own paper money, as well. Both the Union and Confederacy experienced significant inflation during the war, with some estimates of inflation in the Confederacy reaching nearly 9,000 percent over the course of the war, meaning that an item that cost $1 Confederate dollar in 1861 cost over $90 Confederate dollars in 1865.

Ending slavery - Union

While many Americans cite ending slavery as one of President Lincoln’s signature accomplishments, and he emphasized the Emancipation Proclamation as one of the key milestones of the Civil War and the campaign to expand liberty, Lincoln began his presidency emphasizing that he personally objected to slavery but could not end it by dictate or fiat. Abolitionists frequently criticized Lincoln, particularly in the early years of the Civil War, for permitting slavery in the border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, and for originally allowing for that Union military commanders to return runaway enslaved persons, then called contraband; even after **Congress **banned the return of these escaped enslaved persons to their former enslavers in March 1862, Lincoln did not issue broader statements indicating that he would end slavery until after the bloody battle at Antietam/Sharpsburg in September 1862. Indeed, in August 1862, Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, stating that his primary purpose was not specifically to end slavery but rather to save the Union.

Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

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 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 this Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

Once Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, however, it became clear to all, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis, that Union military victory would mean the end of slavery, a development that was predictably lambasted by Confederate politicians, newspapers, and citizens.

Preserving slavery - Confederacy

While abolitionists often criticized the US Constitution as a horrific pro-slavery pact, the Confederate Constitution explicitly enshrined slavery and enjoined the **Confederate Congress **from ever outlawing slavery in the Confederate States of America. The Confederate Congress also enacted laws requiring at least one adult white male be present to supervise groups of 20 or more slaves and Confederate armies provoked fear that they intended to capture and enslave African Americans in Union states such as Maryland and Pennsylvania. As Union military advances depleted Confederate military manpower, the Confederate Congress passed a law allowing for the arming of 50-100 enslaved people to fight, on an experimental basis, for the Confederacy in exchange for freedom after the war, but this measure was widely criticized by white southerners because it bolstered the idea that slavery would be ended whether the Confederacy won or lost the war.

Constitution of the Confederate States of America, March 11, 1861

Article IV

Sec. 2. (I) The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.

Sec. 3. (3) The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

Foreign policy

Both the United States and the Confederacy sought to influence foreign governments throughout the Civil War; the United States advocated for foreign governments to remain neutral and not to recognize the Confederacy while the Confederate government sought diplomatic and military support, particularly from the United Kingdom (UK) and France. Both governments maintained diplomatic outposts in London and Paris but the United States enjoyed a considerable advantage as it was an established country with over 80 years of diplomatic recognition by the UK and France; in contrast, the Confederacy was a newly declared independent country with no established diplomatic relations. Confederate leaders underestimated the depth of anti-slavery sentiments in both the UK and France as well as the difficult positions for these countries if their governments recognized the Confederacy and the United States eventually prevailed in the war. An important foreign policy development that could have generated more pressure for the UK to recognize the Confederacy was the Trent affair that occurred when US naval personnel forcibly boarded the RMS Trent, a British mail steamer, with the Confederate commissioners, including **John Slidell **from the pre-Mexican-American War negotiations, on board; after tense negotiations between the American and British governments, the US released the Confederate commissioners and paid damages but avoided British recognition of, and increased aid to, the Confederacy.

Managing dissent

Historically, President Lincoln has often been criticized for his suspension of habeas corpus in the early months of the Civil War, particularly because Congress had not authorized the suspension in April 1861; at the Supreme Court in the summer of 1861, Chief Justice Taney, most well-known for authoring the majority opinion in the Dred Scott decision in 1857, ruled that Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was illegal. Congress authorized the suspension of habeas corpus in 1863, granting Lincoln the ability to suspend habeas corpus as long as the war lasted. Unsurprisingly, Lincoln primarily suspended habeas corpus in Union border states like Maryland and Kentucky where pro-secessionist, Copperhead sentiment, was highest. The Confederate Congress also suspended habeas corpus for much of the Civil War, highlighting the fact that both governments sought to suppress dissent.

Electoral politics

A potentially underappreciated development in the Civil War is that both the Union and Confederacy successfully held elections for political office, with elections in the Union featuring competitive local, state and federal elections throughout the war, including Lincoln’s successful reelection campaign against General McClellan in 1864 and critical legislative and gubernatorial elections that shifted political power in the Union between Democrats and Republicans. In the Confederacy, then provisional President Davis and Vice President Stephens were elected to full terms in November 1861 and there were important state and federal elections for Confederate legislatures and the Confederate Congress in 1863.

Reconstruction

As the Civil War neared its end, Union political leaders began articulating prospective plans for the aftermath of the war, a process that came to be called Reconstruction. Before any concrete measures could be approved and implemented, however, the Union and the remnants of the Confederacy were shocked, and for some Confederates elated, by news of the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. less than a week after Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse. Booth’s plot involved a ring of conspirators who aimed to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward, and ultimately to plunge the Union into chaos and allow the Confederacy to continue fighting for its independence. Booth would eventually be tracked down and shot by Union soldiers in late April 1865 and several of Booth’s conspirators were subsequently tried, convicted and hanged for treason. As you will read in greater detail in the next 2 sections, Reconstruction quickly became, and still remains, a contentious debate and reckoning with the fate of the country and American identity.