US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  The Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in the slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Not until the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1865 (after Lincoln’s death) were slaves freed and slavery abolished in all of the United States. In Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, the parts of Virginia that would become West Virginia, and portions of Louisiana, slavery continued to exist. Instead of freeing the slaves in these areas outright, which would drive the states into Confederate hands, Lincoln encouraged a voluntary end to slavery by offering monetary compensation to slave owners.

  Lincoln believed that he had constitutional power only to issue a military decree to free the slaves in the rebellious Southern states. The only way to end slavery in the other parts of the United States was to pass a constitutional amendment, which he urged Congress and the states to do.

  Motivating the Confederacy

  The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t have the hoped-for effect on the Confederate states. Instead of laying their arms down, the Confederacy strengthened its resolve. Now every Confederate state knew that if they lost the war, slavery would come to an end, and their way of life would change forever. The Confederacy was ready to fight to the end.

  On the bright side, the four loyal slave-owning states felt reassured that the institution of slavery would continue in their states, so they remained loyal for the rest of the Civil War. In addition, the radical wing of the Republican Party, which pushed for the abolition of slavery, applauded the proclamation and started to fall in line behind Lincoln and his policies for a short period of time.

  The most important effect of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred not in the United States, but in Europe. For quite some time, the Confederacy courted Great Britain and France, hoping to gain their support for the Southern cause. With the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln preempted any support from the European countries, which were opposed to slavery.

  After Lincoln decided that a war was necessary to preserve the Union, a group of radical Republicans known as Jacobins — named after a group of French revolutionaries — believed that Lincoln wasn’t aggressive enough in dealing with the South.

  The Jacobins wanted quicker military action. They also wanted the slaves to be freed immediately. By 1863, the Jacobins were calling for the punishment of the South and its leaders. In July 1864, the Jacobins managed to push a bill through Congress that limited the right to vote on new state constitutions in the post-war South to those who had not supported the Confederacy, effectively disenfranchising most Southerners. The bill also permanently barred every major Confederate leader from voting. Lincoln opposed the bill and vetoed it. Incensed, the Jacobins withdrew their support for their own president.

  Lincoln and his generals

  The major problem the Union armies faced in the beginning was a lack of skilled leaders. Most officers, such as Robert E. Lee, sided with the South, leaving the Union troops poorly led.

  When the Civil War broke out, Lincoln put General Winfield Scott in charge of the Northern armies. Scott, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War, was by now not only old, but also so fat that he couldn’t ride on a horse anymore. After initial defeats, Lincoln decided that he needed to change his military leaders. He sacked General Winfield Scott in November 1861 and put General George McClellan in charge. McClellan spent most of his time restoring the army’s morale and creating a well-trained fighting force. McClellan’s work took time and Lincoln grew impatient. The following comment from Lincoln sheds some light on how he felt about McClellan: “My dear McClellan: if you don’t want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while.” By March 1862, Lincoln was fed up with McClellan. Lincoln hated McClellan’s inactivity and wanted to see more rapid action against the Confederate forces. So he replaced McClellan.

  It wasn’t until 1864 that Lincoln was happy with one of his choices. He finally settled on General Ulysses S. Grant to head the Northern forces. Lincoln said the following about Grant: “I wish some of you would tell the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

  Drafting soldiers: North and South

  In 1863, the North instituted a draft as a direct response to the Confederacy’s establishment of a draft. All men between the ages of 20 and 45 had to serve in the military.

  However, anyone who could find a substitute or pay the government $300 didn’t have to serve in the military under the terms of the Conscription Act. Many citizens saw the policy as being a way for rich people to get out of serving their country. Riots in New York City were quelled by federal troops.

  It was mostly volunteers who fought the Civil War. Only 6 percent of the Union forces were draftees. The numbers for the Confederacy were a bit higher — about 20 percent of the military came from draftees.

  Beginning in 1863, blacks were allowed to join the Union army — although they received only one-third of the pay of a white volunteer and had to serve under white officers. The all-black regiments fought well and bravely even though they suffered higher casualty rates than their white counterparts.

  Addressing the crowds at Gettysburg

  On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered the most memorable speech of his career — the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln gave the address four months after the decisive battle at Gettysburg, which turned the war to the North’s favor.

  Lincoln spoke at a ceremony for the dedication of a cemetery to 6,000 Northern soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg. (The soldiers were buried so hastily and in such shallow graves after the battle that their bodies became exposed again by the fall of 1863.) Senator Edward Everett, one of the great orators of his time, was scheduled to give the actual address, and Lincoln was invited at the last minute to say a few words. Senator Everett spoke for two hours to a crowd of 15,000 people, and then it was Lincoln’s turn. Lincoln spoke for only two minutes, but his words went down in history.

  In the address, Lincoln stressed the ideas of liberty and equality. He tried to provide a justification for why slavery was illegal. Because the Constitution didn’t mention slavery, he relied upon the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence stated that all men were created equal. If this is true, then how could anyone justify slavery? He further proclaimed that only a Northern victory could assure the continuation of democracy and guarantee equality in the United States. The great sacrifices of the men to be buried were not in vain because their sacrifices guaranteed the future of democracy and equality in the United States.

  One of the great mysteries in U.S. presidential lore is whether Lincoln really wrote the Gettysburg address on the back of an envelope on the way to Gettysburg. Although the validity of this tale is still uncertain, we do know today that there were five copies of the address. Lincoln wrote three copies for charitable purposes after the original address was delivered. One of the other two copies may be the original address, but many believe that the original has been lost.

  Today the Gettysburg Address is widely considered to be one of the finest speeches ever given. This was not the case back in 1863. People forgot the speech rather quickly. It didn’t even receive prominent newspaper coverage. Everett’s speech, on the other hand, was widely acclaimed by the media. One of the few people who noticed the genius in Lincoln’s speech was Everett himself. The day after Lincoln gave the speech, Everett told him, “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”

  Lincoln’s Short Second Term

  Lincoln was not a shoo-in to win reelection in 1864. First, the radical wing of the Republican Party, the Jacobins, was unhappy with what it considered Lincoln’s lenient policies toward the South. They especially opposed his ideas on Reconstruction. When Lincoln was up for renomination at the Republican convention, the Jacobins split from the Republican Party and nominated their own candidate, John C. Fremont. Now the Republican Party was split, undermin
ing Lincoln’s chances against the Democrats.

  The Democratic Party, which consisted of the Northern Democrats, decided to run on a platform that called for an immediate end to the Civil War. Their choice for president was war hero and Lincoln nemesis, General George B. McClellan. Interestingly, McClellan favored the continuation of the war but disagreed with Lincoln on how the war should be conducted. The Democrats believed that McClellan was the only man capable of defeating Lincoln, so they nominated him even though he disagreed with the party on the major issues of the day.

  In the early fall of 1864, it looked like Lincoln might lose the election. His party was split, and his Democratic opponent was well known and well respected.

  Lincoln’s luck changed when General Sherman conquered Atlanta. The victory provided a major boost for Lincoln. It was the Northern victories in the Civil War and a possible end to the conflict that got Lincoln reelected — no one wanted to vote against the possible victor.

  Just to ensure that the Democrats wouldn’t win, the Republican Party leaders put heavy pressure on the Jacobins and their candidate, John C. Fremont. Fremont was forced to withdraw from the race in September 1864.

  With his party united again and a Northern victory looking certain, Lincoln cruised to reelection. In November 1864, Lincoln beat McClellan easily, winning 212 electoral votes to McClellan’s 21. Now it was time to focus on ending the war and beginning the process of Reconstruction.

  Offering terms of surrender

  Abraham Lincoln started the process of Reconstruction before the Civil War was over. As early as late 1863, he outlined his ideas on reintegrating the South into the Union.

  On December 8, 1863, Lincoln issued the Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction, which offered full pardons and amnesty to every Southerner, with the exception of major Confederate leaders. All the Confederate states had to do was to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. They would then receive the right to vote and the right to run their own state governments. However, they were bound by the Emancipation Proclamation and had to outlaw slavery in their states. The Confederacy rejected Lincoln’s terms.

  Lincoln was disappointed with the South, but he continued to believe in generous terms of surrender. He knew that, in order to preserve the Union, he couldn’t punish the South too strongly.

  In his second inaugural address, delivered in March 1865, Lincoln outlined his ideas on Reconstruction. He advocated overcoming sectional differences, which, when dealing with the Confederacy, was only possible with generosity. He closed his address with some of the most eloquent remarks ever spoken: “With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” For Lincoln, it was more important to reestablish the Union than to punish the South for seceding.

  Lincoln’s conciliatory tone was further reflected in an address that he gave after General Lee surrendered to the Union in April 1865. Again, Lincoln reiterated his view that a national healing must come first, and that the South should be treated leniently. Lincoln, however, would not live to put his policies into place.

  Serving briefly

  President Lincoln had premonitions about his death. In dreams, he saw himself as a corpse and heard people say, “Lincoln is dead.” On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife attended a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. A pro-Southern actor, John Wilkes Booth, shot Lincoln in the head. Lincoln died the following morning. Secretary of War Stanton put it best: “Now he belongs to the ages.”

  Chapter 11

  Reconstructing the Country: Johnson, Grant, and Hayes

  In This Chapter

  Facing the first impeachment proceedings: Johnson

  Gaining fame for military exploits and corruption: Grant

  Stealing an election and fighting corruption: Hayes

  T he first president I cover in this chapter — Andrew Johnson — was a stubborn, uncompromising president, who constantly fought with Congress. This led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives, giving him the distinction of becoming the first U.S. president to be impeached.

  Next, I consider a true American hero, General Ulysses Grant. He was a great military leader, but he was a mediocre president whose administration was dominated by corruption and scandals.

  Finally, Rutherford Hayes was an honest man who became president when the Republicans stole the election from the Democrats in 1876. This put a dark shadow on his presidency from the beginning. Despite this, he turned out to be a fairly capable president.

  From Poverty to the Presidency: Andrew Johnson

  Andrew Johnson, shown in Figure 11-1, holds the dubious distinction of being the first president impeached by the House of Representatives. He is also considered one of the least successful presidents in the history of the United States. While escaping impeachment by one vote in the Senate, Johnson, an ardent advocate of states rights and a blatant racist, managed to single-handedly prolong the plight of ex-slaves in the American South.

  Figure 11-1: Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Getting into politics: Johnson’s early career

  Johnson entered politics in 1829. Running on a working-class platform, championing poor whites, he won the office of alderman in Greenville, Tennessee in 1829 and became the city’s mayor five years later. By this point, Johnson was a committed Democrat and a great admirer of Andrew Jackson. Only one year after his successful mayoral race, Johnson was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1835.

  In 1843, he became one of the Democratic congressmen from Tennessee, a position he would hold until 1853, when he was elected to the governorship of Tennessee. Finally, in 1857, the state legislature elected him to be one of the senators for the state. Johnson proudly proclaimed, “I have reached the summit of my ambition.”

  As a member of Congress, Johnson was an advocate for poor whites, having been one himself. He owned five slaves and held a staunch pro-slavery view. Despite these views, he continued to be an ardent supporter of the Union, aggressively campaigning to keep the Union intact. When the Southern states seceded from the Union in 1861, Johnson was the only Southern senator to stay in Washington, D.C.; he didn’t recognize the legitimacy of the Confederacy.

  Johnson’s courageous act turned him into a symbol for Southerners loyal to the Union. President Lincoln rewarded him by appointing him the military governor of Tennessee.

  Poorer than poor

  Andrew Johnson’s background foreshadowed a presidency filled with controversy. The poorest and least educated president in U.S. history was born into dire poverty on December 29, 1808. His father, who died when Johnson was only three, was a landless laborer in Raleigh, North Carolina; his mother was a seamstress. Because his family was too poor to send him to school, Johnson had to learn a trade at the tender age of 10.

  While working as an apprentice to a tailor, Johnson listened to political debates and taught himself how to read and write. In 1827, he opened his own tailor shop in Greenville, Tennessee. With lots of hard work, he turned his business into a success. However, his background would always have an impact on his life, giving him a hatred for the slave-owning elites in the South and contempt for the slaves themselves. Johnson became a champion of the white lower class.

  Acting on his prejudices

  Johnson used his position to act upon his deep-seated hatred for white plantation owners, who dominated Tennessee politics. He replaced public officials, arrested opponents, shut down newspapers that were critical of him, and confiscated the bank of Tennessee.

  In 1864, Lincoln and the Republican Party rewarded Johnson’s loyalty to the Union by picking him to be Lincoln’s vice-presidential cand
idate. Johnson appealed to Democrats in the North, and Lincoln and the Republicans believed that Johnson could establish the Republican Party in the South after the Civil War. Suddenly, Johnson, a life-long Democrat who despised the Republican Party, found himself on the Republican ticket.

  President Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)

  President Lincoln was assassinated six weeks after his second inauguration. Johnson found himself president of the United States on April 15, 1865; only six days after the Civil War had ended.

  Reintegrating the South

  The question of reintegrating the Confederate states into the Union, or Reconstruction, was left up to the former senator from Tennessee, a slave-owning Union advocate who hated plantation owners.

  The Republican Party, which controlled Congress, pushed for punishment of the Confederate states and immediate voting rights for blacks. The Republicans mistakenly believed that the new president shared their beliefs.

  Johnson, however, had different ideas. Johnson believed that only plantation owners and major Confederate leaders were to blame for the Civil War. He was interested in empowering the poor whites and punishing the Southern elite he so despised. He didn’t concern himself with the large slave population.