History of the Confederate States of America
As we are presently observing the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States, I wanted to provide some insight into how and why there existed a Confederate States of America. I call it the War Between the States because technically it was not a “Civil War” as it has become known. Many believe the Confederacy existed just to preserve slavery and the war was fought to free the slaves. But as the modern cliché states, “it’s complicated,” and there were more issues than slavery that caused 13 states to secede and fight the bloodiest war in American history.
Evolution of the Confederacy
The differences between the Northern and Southern states began during the infancy of the new nation. In those early days, the Southern states played a major role in securing independence from England and shaping the United States of America. Some contend the Southern States even won the Revolutionary War. After all, it was the victories at such places as Kings Mountain and Cowpens in S.C., Cowans Ford and Guilford Courthouse in N.C., and the ultimate victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. that secured our liberty.
Following the treaty with England in 1783 (there were actually 13 treaties, one with each colony), the colonies, now states, came together to form a new nation. There was much heated discussion over the type of government it should have. Alexander Hamilton from New York wanted a king instead of a president and felt the common man didn’t have sense enough to self-govern. It was individuals such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison from Virginia that prevailed and insisted on a democratic form of government. These two individuals also authored the first governing document for the United States of America – the Articles of Confederation. Thomas Jefferson was also the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1787, the states assembled again to “form a more perfect union.” It was a Virginian, James Madison, who drafted the Constitution. Here is where the bickering between North and South really started. One issue was the apportionment of members for the House of Representatives, with the larger slave population in the South being the issue. In 1776, slavery existed in all 13 colonies. By the time the Constitution was drafted, Massachusetts had abolished slavery and other New England states were considering it. Where slavery existed in the North, the numbers were relatively small compared to the large Southern plantations, which gave the Southern states an advantage in counting population. They compromised on counting slaves as three-fifths of a person.
The other big issues were individual rights, state sovereignty, and restricting the power of the Federal government. The Southern states would not accept the new Constitution without guarantees of those principles. Those guarantees came in the form of the Bill of Rights, ten amendments which were added to the document. All thirteen states then ratified the Constitution, with three states, Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island, adopting accompanying resolutions upholding the right to secede from the union if the Federal government did not abide by the Constitution.
The Southern states maintained a large degree of influence over the nation during the first several decades of this country’s existence. Seven of the first eleven presidents were from the South. Four of the first five were from Virginia, and each one served two terms. This dominance in those early days caused New England to threaten secession four times. In 1815 during the Hartford (Connecticut) Convention, their secession failed by only two votes. They were driven by concerns over the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and the annexation of Texas, all of which they considered an erosion of their political power.
One of the main dividing issues between the Northern and Southern states leading up to the war was tariffs. During the infancy of the country, the U.S. Congress passed tariff legislation as a means of raising revenue to run the country and this provided the main source of revenue, up to 95% at one point. There was no income tax in those days.
It was initially fairly low – in the 5-10% range. By the end of the War of 1812, the cotton gin had boosted the production and exportation of cotton exponentially. Cotton became the primary export product. Since cotton was exported from Southern ports to European markets, those ships returned to these ports with goods produced in Europe. The tariffs were collected at these ports and drove up the cost of the merchandise brought in. So, the South was providing most of the revenue needed to run the country.
Starting in 1816, tariffs were also used to protect the young manufacturing industries in the Northeast. Through a series of tariff acts from 1816 through 1828, the rate was raised to 50%. After S.C. nullified the 1828 “Tariff of Abominations” and threatened secession, a compromise worked out by Henry Clay reduced the rates to around 20%. This is where they stayed until 1860 when the Morrill Tariff passed the U.S. House of Representatives, calling for a 67% increase in the tariff rates. This would have boosted the South’s share of the total U.S. tax base to around 80%. What was this revenue to be used for – to fund a transcontinental railroad that would not pass through a single Southern state.
Cultural differences between the two regions of the country were another root cause for the War betweenthe States. These differences were recognized as early as 1775 during the Second Continental Congress when a number of attendees discussed forming “two grand Republics.” New England was settled by Puritans from England and remained mostly “pure English” until after the Civil War. New Englanders were the original “Yankees” and tended to look at the rest of America west and south of the Hudson River as inferior. You might say they had a “holier than thou” attitude.
That attitude is best displayed by Noah Webster, the Massachusetts author of the Webster Dictionary, when he wrote in his diary, “O New England! How superior are thy inhabitants in morals, literature, civility, and industry.” Another example is the first American geography book written in 1790 by Jedediah Morse, a Connecticut Puritan preacher. He depicted America outside of New England as inhabited by “lazy and ignorant Germans and Scotch-Irish in the Middle States and weak morally-depraved Southerners in the South.”
In the early part of the 19th century, the “Age of Enlightenment” swept across the Atlantic from Europe and landed on the Northern shores. Puritanism soon gave way to Transcendentalism, Unitarianism, and Abolitionism. Northerners of these persuasions constantly railed against the Southern people as barbaric, uncivilized, and uneducated.
The Southern states were composed of immigrants from not only England, but also France, Ireland, Germany, Spain, and other European countries. Their religion was mostly orthodox Protestant – Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. There were also Catholic and Jewish citizens. Although the demographic makeup of the two regions has changed considerably over the last 150 years, particularly in the Northeast, in 1860 the South was a much more diverse culture.
The Northern states were fast becoming industrialized and heavily populated, with the population concentrating in cities. In 1860, the Northern population was around 20 million. The South remained an agrarian society, relying mainly on agriculture as its economic base. In 1860, their population was around 9 million, including 4 million slaves. It is a fact of nature that people who live in close proximity look to the government for more protection, oversight, and control while people living in more sparsely-populated areas prefer to be left to their own devices and resist government controls. Thus was the situation in 1860 with the Northern states pushing for a stronger, more centralized Federal government, while the South held on to their beliefs of the less government the better, and what government was necessary should be controlled by the people at the lowest levels. This principle is commonly referred to as states’ rights.
Another major catalyst to the 7 Deep South states seceding was the election of Abraham Lincoln in November, 1860. He ran on a Republican platform (of which he was the principal architect) which would expand the role of the Federal government into a strongly centralized unit with complete autonomy over the states. The Southern states had always believed in the sovereignty of the states. Another plank in this platform called for the federal government to subsidize companies in order to complete massive public works projects such as railroads and canals, with the vast majority of these projects in Northern states. Naturally, this would take a lot of money, and that money would come from tariff revenue paid by the Southern states. The Republicans also called for a national bank that could print money whenever it saw the need. The nation had tried a national bank before, but it was abolished during Andrew Jackson’s administration due to miss-management and corruption.
Most Americans today think Abraham Lincoln was a popular President elected by a majority of the people. Actually, he received less than 40% of the popular vote in a 4-way race for the office. He didn’t win a single Southern state, but managed to pull a majority of the electoral vote by winning the heavier-populated Northern states. So, Lincoln was strictly a sectional President, representing the Northern states. The North had already gained control of both houses of Congress, and now they controlled the Executive Branch.
The South saw Lincoln’s election as not only financial doom, but also an end to principles they had stood for since the birth of the nation as spelled out in the founding documents. They had fought the continual encroachments on their constitutional liberties for decades, but now they saw their political power slipping away. By 1860 the Northern States controlled both houses of Congress. With Lincoln being a Northern sectional president, they feared he would succumb to pressure from the Northern Abolitionists to abolish slavery. With the Northern Republicans now controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches of government, they saw their only avenue to preserving their principles and their way of life was to dissolve their contract with the United States and form a new union. Starting with South Carolina on December 20, 1860, seven Deep South states seceded to form the Confederate States of America.
Secession of the Southern States
Immediately following Abraham Lincoln’s election on November 6, 1860, tensions between North and South immediately rose to a feverish level. The two South Carolina senators tendered their resignations. The remaining Southern senators, in order to avert disunion, offered several resolutions which would soften the dominance of the ruling Republicans and appease the war-mongers in the South. One by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky would restore the line between slave and non-slave territories to that established in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but pushed south by the Compromise of 1850. These measures were rejected by the Republicans.
One resolution was finally agreed to on December 18 calling for a Committee of 13 to work out the differences between the two regions with the supposition that the whole senate would abide by their conclusions. This committee consisted of five Southern Democrats, three Northern Democrats, and five Northern Republicans. The five Southerners recommended several resolutions to end the tensions that were accepted by the three Northern Democrats but rejected by the five Republicans. The end result was no recommendations came out of the committee.
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. They immediately communicated with President James Buchanan, assuring him they would not try to take over the U.S. forts in S.C. as long as the U.S. government did not try to reinforce them or otherwise change their status.
On December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson, commander of the U.S. garrison at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island moved his men to Ft. Sumter, immediately in front of Charleston harbor. This move was not authorized by Washington, but nether-the-less shocked the South Carolinians.
On the same day, a delegation from South Carolina arrived in Washington to seek removal of Major Anderson’s garrison, negotiate a settlement of federal property within the state, and make an offer to pay South Carolina’s portion of the federal debt. News of Anderson’s move terminated the negotiations, as this was interpreted as a hostile threat on the part of the U.S. A few days later U.S. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, resigned his position when President Buchanan did not order Anderson back to Fort Moultrie and restore the former status.
In early January, 1861, the US government attempted to reinforce and provision Ft. Sumter utilizing the civilian merchant ship Star of the West. South Carolina fired on it when it entered the harbor and the ship reversed course and left. On January 31, Governor Francis Pickens sent S.C. Attorney General Isaac W. Hayne to Washington to negotiate a peaceful transfer of Ft. Sumter to S.C. and settle all questions related to property. Even after an offer to buy the fort, he received no satisfactory response from President Buchanan. From January through mid-April, Major Anderson and his men received food, mail, and other provisions from Charleston.
On February 1, Texas becomes the 7th state to secede. All Deep South states have now seceded and convene on February 4 to adopt a constitution and form a national government. Jefferson Davis is elected president on February 9 and inaugurated on February 18.
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as President of the U.S. By now the Confederate States of America are fully functional with a constitution, an elected Congress, President, Vice-President, and Cabinet. During March, US Secretary of State Seward, communicating through US Supreme Court Justice John Campbell, repeatedly assured the Davis Administration that Ft. Sumter will be evacuated. General of the US Army Winfield Scott advised Lincoln to evacuate all forts in the seceded states.
That same month CSA President Davis sent three commissioners to Washington to seek recognition of the Confederate States as a sovereign nation, establish friendly relations between the two countries, and to negotiate the transfer of Southern forts and other property to the CSA. Lincoln refused to meet with them. Lincoln also refused to meet with Napoleon III of France, who offered to act as an independent negotiator between the two parties.
On April 8, Lincoln notified Governor Pickens of SC that a naval expedition would arrive at Ft. Sumter to supply the fort, by force if necessary. On the 11th, CSA General Beauregard gave Major Anderson one last chance to surrender the fort. Early on the morning of April 12, the US fleet of 8 warships with 26 guns and 1400 soldiers were sighted entering Charleston Bay. General Beauregard gave the order to fire on Ft. Sumter and the bombardment began. The Federal fleet remained safety out in the harbor. War had begun.
On April 15, President Lincoln called upon the governors of the remaining states to send 75,000 troops to invade the seceded states and restore the Union. Over the course of the preceding four months, seven border slave-holding states had held conventions to determine whether they would secede and join the seven deep South states. All seven had rejected secession and decided to stay in the Union. Now that they were asked to send troops to invade their sister Southern states, they immediately rejected Lincoln’s call for troops and resumed secession discussion.
Virginia seceded on April 17, Arkansas on May 6, Tennessee on May 7, and N.C. on May 20. Maryland scheduled a secession vote on September 13. The night before Lincoln sent troops who arrested all Confederate sympathizers in the legislature and imprisoned them in Ft. McHenry. The secession vote never happened. Missouri aligned with the Confederacy on October 31. On November 17, a convention of pro-Southerners in Kentucky adopted an ordinance of secession. Thus, thirteen states joined the Confederate States of America, although Lincoln never recognized Missouri and Kentucky as leaving the Union.
It should be noted Lincoln didn’t ask Congress to declare war on the South until July, after he had massed troops inside Virginia for the first major battle at Manassas. The U.S. Constitution clearly stipulates only Congress can declare war, and the President can only call up the militia in an emergency and then has to gain approval of Congress within thirty days. Other steps taken by Lincoln in April to gain executive powers included calling for a blockade of Southern ports, ordering five additional warships, and suspending the act of habeas corpus, which guarantees the civil liberties of citizens. Soon afterward he started shutting down newspapers that disagreed with his war on the South.