January 15, 2025

Saving the Union

How would Abraham Lincoln move to hold the Union together while at the same time waging war against its own citizens? Deftly.

Saving the Union was paramount in Abraham Lincoln’s list of presidential objectives. In reality, with the secession of seven Southern states following his election and additional secessions after his decision to resupply Fort Sumter and the firing on the fort by Southern forces, it became the overarching goal of his life. But he realized very quickly that the solution was not as simple as sending men into battle to defend the principles of liberty and union.

Indeed, even the process for expanding military forces, supplying the needs of an army, caring for the wounded and sick, housing prisoners of war, and so many other factors depended on Lincoln’s ability to deal with the economy, varied responses to the secession in both government and public arenas, and finding the correct allies to create the plan.

Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, originally a critic of Lincoln for his unwillingness to firmly denounce slavery and unleash all the forces of the Union to abolish the “wickedness,” proved to be a strong ally in harnessing the nation’s financial commitment to the war. It was Chase who created the “greenbacks” program, codified in the Legal Tender Act of 1862, that replaced the gold standard and asked investors to “trust” in the Union’s plan. At the same time, he launched a program of government bonds, loans, and new taxes to raise funds and then oversaw a unique “income tax” of 3% on incomes exceeding $800 per year. Next came a rechartering of the national banks as a conduit for the government bonds and the “flat” legal tender greenbacks. The secretary became a master of the “patriotic rhetoric” as he pushed investors to choose government bonds.

Was he successful? By the war’s conclusion, the secretary, aided by agents and banks across the Northern states, had raised or “borrowed” more than $2.6 billion. Applause!

In a move that some equated with John Adams’s Alien and Sedition Acts, the president moved to counter the increasing number of “peace advocates” in Congress and the general public’s criticism of the war, its goals, and its increasing casualties. The Copperheads’ campaign asked men to refuse the draft call, oppose the new banking system, and allow the practice of slavery to correct itself through economic changes. Lincoln chose by executive order to deal with those who discouraged enlistment or other “disloyal” practices by instigating martial law. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, a tradition grounded in English common law since the late middle ages, resulted in more than 15,000-20,000 arrests. It was a decision that still haunts constitutionalists who otherwise admire the president.

How would the president move to hold the Union together while at the same time waging war against its own citizens? Deftly.

First, he refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. But at the same time, he chose to consider all enemy combatants captured as prisoners of war, not traitors immediately sent to the gallows. While that seems like an interesting play on words, it was a major strategy to avoid losing the support of Union sympathizers, especially in the border states of the Confederacy.

Long before the war’s end, Lincoln began to formulate his policy for the return of Southern states to the Union — after all, they had never really left, right? — and how former Confederate soldiers would be treated regarding rights of citizenship, ownership of personal and real property, etc. By 1863, Lincoln offered his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction that offered a presidential pardon to most Confederates — excluding government leadership and the highest-ranking officers — willing to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States and to accept the abolition of slavery. In a most generous olive branch, the president authorized any state in the Confederacy a plan whereby it could establish a new government and take its place in the Union. The requirement: If white males swearing allegiance to the Union reached the 10% mark — using the 1860 voter roles as the baseline — that state was restored.

It was a plan so abhorrent to the Radical Republicans in Congress that they attempted immediately to override his authority by drafting and approving the Wade-Davis Bill requiring a “majority” of white males to take the oath of loyalty and guarantee black equality. Lincoln pocket vetoed the legislation and then, in an interesting move, offered Southern states the option to return to the Union using either plan. He knew his plan would be viewed more favorably.

As the fall of the South seemed eminent by early April 1865, Lincoln considered revising his offer to include voting rights for some blacks and some military presence in the states to guarantee civil rights.

But he never got the chance.

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