That year is memorable for the great march [643] of Sherman to the east from Chattanooga to the sea, for the victories of Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, for the Wilderness Campaign of Grant, the shutting up of Lee in Richmond, and by the re-election of Lincoln. His competitor was General McClellan, whom the northern Democrats put forward on the platform that the war was a failure, and that peace should be made with the South. In the spring of 1865 came the retreat of Lee from Richmond, and, on April 9, his surrender at Appomattox Court House.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
| Causes of the War | Influencing Events | Results of the War |
|---|---|---|
| Real, but remote: | The invention of the cotton gin, 1793. | |
| (1) The doctrine of popular sovereignty. Differentcon- structionsof the Constitution. | Fugitive slave laws, 1793 and 1850. | The Union was preserved. |
| Protective tariff laws. | ||
| Missouri compromise, 1820. | Slavery was abolished. | |
| Nullification act in South Carolina, 1832. | ||
| (2) Slavery. Different systems of labor in the North andthe South. | Annexation of Texas, 1845. | Secession as a working program was shown to be impracticable. |
| Omnibus bill, 1850. | ||
| Kansas-Nebraska bill, 1854 | ||
| Dred Scott decision, 1857. | ||
| (3) Lack of intercourse between the North and the South. | Personal liberty bills, 1857. | The war cost the lives of nearly one million able- bodiedmen. |
| John Brown raid, 1859. | ||
| Anti-slavery papers, books, and speeches. | ||
| (4) The increase of territory. | New England Anti-Slavery Society was organized, 1832. | The national debt was in- creased to $2,750,000,000. |
| Anti-slavery parties: | ||
| Immediate: | Liberty party, 1840-1848. | An incalculable amount of property was destroyed. |
| The secession of the states. | Free-Soil party, 1848-1856. | |
| Republican party, 1854. |
CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES
Naval engagements are printed in italics; names of victorious commanders in bold-face type.
LAND AND SEA ENGAGEMENTS
Lincoln Assassinated, and Beginning of Reconstruction.—On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson became president. With the succession of Johnson the era of reconstruction, political and social, begins. The outcome of political reconstruction was the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and a long list of acts to protect and assist the freedmen of the South. The outcome of social reconstruction was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the passage and use of the Force Act, and the dreadful condition of affairs which ruined the South for a decade.
In the North the effect of such measures was to split the Republican party and put seven presidential candidates in the field in 1872. One represented the Temperance party; another the Labor party, denouncing Chinese labor and the non-taxation of Government land; a third was the Liberal Republican, demanding union, amnesty, and civil rights, accusing Grant of packing the Supreme Court in the interests of corporations, and calling for a repeal of the Ku Klux laws. The Liberal [645] Republicans having chosen Horace Greeley as their candidate, the Democrats accepted and indorsed him. But he pleased neither party, and the discontented Liberals and the discontented Democrats each chose a candidate of their own. The Republicans nominated Grant and elected him.
Election of Hayes Decided by an Electoral Commission.—His second term (1873-1877) was the nadir of our politics, both state and national, and ended with the disputed election and the rise of the Independent or “Greenback party,” demanding the repeal of the act for the resumption of specie payments and the issue of the United States “greenback” notes, convertible into bonds, as the currency of the country. Double returns and doubtful returns from the Southern states put the votes of thirteen electors in dispute. As the House was Democratic and the Senate Republican, the joint rule under which the electoral votes had been counted since 1865 could not be adopted. A compromise was necessary, and on January 29, 1877, the Electoral Commission of five Senators, five Representatives, and five judges of the Supreme Court was created to decide on the doubtful returns. Of the fifteen, eight were Republicans and seven Democrats, and by a strict party vote the thirteen electoral votes were given to the Republicans and Rutherford B. Hayes declared elected.
Resumption of Specie Payments by the Government.—The memorable events of his term (1877-1881) were the resumption of specie payments on January 1, 1879; the passage of the Bland Silver Bill, restoring the silver dollar to the list of coins, making it legal tender, and providing for the coinage of not less than two million nor more than four million each month; and the rapid growth of the National or Greenback Labor party. Hayes was followed in 1881 by James A. Garfield, whose contest with the Senators from New York over the distribution of patronage led to his assassination by the hand of a crazy applicant for office. Chester A. Arthur then became President, was followed in 1885 by Grover Cleveland, who was succeeded in 1889 by Benjamin Harrison, who was in turn succeeded in 1893 by Grover Cleveland.