Cyrus W. Field.

447. The Sections on the Eve of the Civil War.—If the South had been in a condition to reason calmly, the laying of the Atlantic cable, through the efforts of Cyrus W. Field,[[199]] might have convinced its leaders that it was useless to uphold past ideals of government and a belated institution like slavery in the face of advancing civilization. The same lesson might have been taught them by the immense growth of the North and West since 1830. The increase in area, due to the settlement of the Oregon dispute and to the territory acquired from Mexico by war and purchase, had helped freedom rather than slavery. Of the 31,443,321 inhabitants of the whole country in 1860, only a little over 12,250,000 resided in the slaveholding states, including Missouri and Delaware, and of these twelve millions slightly over a third were negroes, who were in the main slaves. Over 3,500,000 persons lived in border states which did not join the Confederacy; so that when the crisis came, only about 8,700,000 whites in the South were to be matched against the 19,000,000 whites of the North and West. The advantage on the side of freedom was not really so great as these figures would make it; for the Southerners could leave their slaves at work and could flock to the front, while the Northern people had to keep their farms and factories going as well as fight. But when all allowances are made, the balance in favor of freedom was very great. The contrast between the sections is rendered all the more striking when we observe the great urban growth in the North and West. New York City in 1860 had about eight hundred thousand inhabitants; the South contained only two fairly large cities,—New Orleans and Baltimore. The foreign immigrants, nearly five million of whom had entered the country since 1830, when immigration practically began, saw even more clearly than many Americans the differences between the sections, and settled mainly in the North and West.

448. Wealth of the Country.—We have seen that in Jackson’s day the character of the average American became more energetic, and that the country entered upon an era of commercial expansion which even the panic of 1837 could not permanently check. The growth of manufacturing and of railroads had been enormous, chiefly in the North and West. In 1860 one billion dollars were invested in manufacturing, six billion five hundred million in farming. In the latter form of wealth the South, of course, had its share, since its cotton crops were very valuable. But the cotton was shipped in northern vessels and was exchanged for products not manufactured in the South. In the matter of railroads, a great gain had been made since 1850, twenty of the thirty thousand miles operated in 1860 having been laid within the decade.

449. Inventions.—It is almost needless to say that American inventiveness kept pace with the country’s growth in population and wealth. Between 1830 and 1860, Cyrus H. McCormick (1809–1884) invented his reaper, which revolutionized farming; S. F. B. Morse (1791–1872) made the telegraph an effective means of communication; Charles Goodyear (1800–1860) succeeded in vulcanizing india rubber; and Elias Howe (1819–1867) patented his sewing machine. The same epoch was marked by the growth of express companies, the first use of postage stamps, the perfection of the daguerreotyping process, the use of anæsthetics, and the employment of steam fire engines. When we remember further that this was the era of such great scientists as Asa Gray (1810–1888) the botanist, J. D. Dana (1813–1895) the mineralogist, Joseph Henry (1797–1878) the physicist, and Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) the naturalist, as well as of the great historians, William H. Prescott (1796–1859), George Bancroft (1800–1891), and John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877), and of Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and other writers already mentioned, we can perceive that the intellectual growth of the nation had kept pace with its material development. Yet, with the exception of Commodore Matthew F. Maury (18061—1873),—who won fame for his work in physical geography, especially of the sea,—and of Edgar Allan Poe, nearly every one of these scientists and authors was a Northern man. From all points of view, therefore, the odds were against the South at the beginning of the great struggle.

References.—Rhodes’s History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 is the most thorough, impartial, and authoritative of all general works on the subject; the first two volumes are devoted to the years from 1850 to 1860, and by means of the full table of contents and the index, the student may obtain a fair presentation of the causes of the War, without reading the whole. Schouler’s United States, Vol. V., is also full and valuable. Wilson, Division and Reunion, 204-216; Johnson, American Politics, 188-196; Goldwin Smith, United States; Morse, Abraham Lincoln (2 vols. “American Statesmen”); Tarbell’s Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., 1-150, contains much interesting material not before published; Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Brown; Stephens, War between the States, Vol. I., probably presents the ablest Southern view; Pollard, Lost Cause; Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. I.; Greeley, American Conflict, Vol. I.; Grant, Personal Memoirs, Vol. I.; Sherman, Memoirs; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln (10 vols.); Johnston, American Orations; Garrison, Life of William Lloyd Garrison, Vols. I. and II.; Buchanan, Buchanan’s Administration; Dabney, Defence of Virginia; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox; F. Bancroft, Life of William H. Seward (2 vols.); Lothrop, William H. Seward (“American Statesmen”); Storey, Charles Sumner (“American Statesmen”); T. N. Page, The Old South; H. A. Wise, Seven Decades; Trent, W. G. Simms (“American Men of Letters”); Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Régime; Channing and Hart, Guide to American History.

[188] Born in Maryland, 1777; died, 1864. Graduated from Dickinson College; studied law and settled in Baltimore; was a Federalist and later a Jackson Democrat; was Attorney-General of the United States, 1831–1833; appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Jackson, he removed the government deposits from the bank, but was not confirmed by the Senate; Chief Justice of the United States from 1836 until his death.
[189] Born, 1811; died, 1896. Was daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecher, and sister of Henry Ward Beecher; married Professor Calvin E. Stowe in 1836; resided in Cincinnati, where she had opportunities of acquiring considerable knowledge of Southern life; was stirred by the Fugitive Slave Law to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin; wrote many other novels and was until her death an important literary figure.