Document 2:John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate, and Cabinet: An Autobiography 1895.
CongressmanJohn Shermanwrote in regards to Morrill Tariff Act of 1861:
The Morrill tariff bill came nearer than any other to meeting the double requirement of providing ample revenue for the support of the government and of rendering the proper protection to home industries. No national taxes, except duties on imported goods, were imposed at the time of its passage. The Civil War changed all this, reducing importations and adding tenfold to the revenue required. The government was justified in increasing existing rates of duty, and in adding to the dutiable list all articles imported, thus including articles of prime necessity and of universal use. In addition to these duties, it was compelled to add taxes on all articles of home production, on incomes not required for the supply of actual wants, and, especially, on articles of doubtful necessity, such as spirits, tobacco and beer. These taxes were absolutely required to meet expenditures for the army and navy, for the interest on the war debts and just pensions to those who were disabled by the war, and to their widows and orphans.
Document 3: Bills and Resolutions, House of Representatives, 36th Congress, 1st Session, 1860
Committee: Committee on Public Lands
February 15, 1860 ~ March 7, 1860
Read twice, and referred to the Committee on Public Lands. Reported back with a recommendation that it do not pass; and its further consideration postponed to the third Tuesday in April next, and ordered to be printed. Mr. Morrill, on leave, introduced the following bill: A Bill Donating public lands to the several States which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
Document 4:
The National Bank Acts were two United States federal laws that established a system of national charters for banks, the United States national banks. They encouraged development of a national currency based on bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, the so-called National Bank Notes ("greenbacks") and established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as part of the Department of the Treasury and authorized the Comptroller to examine and regulate nationally-chartered banks. This was to establish a national security holding body for the existence of the monetary policy of the state.
The original Act (ch. 58, 12 Stat. 665, February 25, 1863) passed in the Senate by a narrow 23-21 vote. The Act, along with Abraham Lincoln's issuance of "greenbacks", was used to raise money for the federal government during the American Civil War in order to finance the war against the Confederacy. The original Act aimed to entice banks to buy federal bonds and taxing state bank-issued currency out of existence, but it proved defective and was replaced by the National Bank Act of 1864 just one year later.
The first bank to receive a national charter as a result of the act was the First National Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (Charter #1). The first national bank to open its door was The First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa (Charter #15)
A later act, passed on March 3, 1865, imposed a tax of 10 percent on the notes of State banks to take effect on July 1, 1866.
Document 5: Letters written by a frontier woman in Iowa to relatives, 1861.
John has haired a man to work for him this summer, hope I shall not have to do quite as much out doors…the hired man left just as corn planting commenced so I shouldered my hoe and have worked out ever since and I guess my services are just as acceptable as his or will be in time…I wore a dress with my sunbonnet wrung out in water every few minutes and my dress wet also this wall the clothing…I wore.
Document 6: Abraham Lincoln Issues Call, April 15, 1861
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed.
The details of this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.
I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.
I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union, and in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.