Engaging with American Democracy » October 21st: Civil War Stuff

October 21st: Civil War Stuff

Harriet Beech Stowe’s excerpt (Ch. 9)
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Gettysburg Address

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Plan for the Day

This is hardly a typical quote on democracy, but I think it’s important to consider for today’s discussion. This quotation asks us (well, I guess I’m asking) to consider slavery as a motivation for the Civil War. Personally, as a non-historian, I think slavery was the main factor in the Civil War…but I’m not sure we should overlook other factors.

John Adams and Monarchal Aspirations

There is quite a bit of evidence that John Adams had aspirations for being a King; also, he had a different design on picking Senators than the Constitution: he thought they should be hereditary. Peter Shaw quotes a letter John Adams wrote to François Adriaan Van der Kemp (27 Feb. 1790) and explains Adams’s desires to protect the new Republic:

  • “…’elections of President and Senators cannot be long conducted in a populous, oppulent, and commercial Nation without corruption Sedition and civil war,’ and he outlined a plan by which state conventions would appoint hereditary senators while a national one appointed a president for life” (231-232)

Previously, Adams wrote to William Tudor (28 May 1789) and questioned the ability to find enough willing to serve in government unless title were given:

Has the national Government at this moment, Attractions enough to make a Seat in it, an Object of Desire, to the Men of greatest Fortune, Talents, Birth, or Virtue?….do the Senators consider their present Seats as their homes, or as Steps to promotion in their own States! if the national Government is to be but a ladder on which to mount into higher regions at home you will Say that this Government will soon die the death of the late righteous Congress; and the new Constitution expire like the old Confederation.(para. 2)
…
If the People would give Titles or Marks of distinction, this would go a great Way.— The Title of Right Honourable, would raise the Senate and make it an Object of Ambition.— Senators and even Governors, Judges and Chancellors, would be willing to leave their Places at home to obtain it.— But as it is, and as, I fear it is like to be, I expect, that one half will resign before two Years. (para. 3)

In the letter, Adams goes on to sarcastically discuss the “Nonsense” (his capitalization) of a world where servents are equal to their masters like children being equal to parents. He was an elitist. While we can easily say Adams is power hungry, we could also argue that he’s being realistic. After all, the experiment in democracy (or something like it) was untested. Think back to his quotation from our 8/26 class webpage. It appears that Adams supports a rigid hierarchy, but he appears to believe that hierarchy will maintain order. In another letter to William Tudor (28 June 1789), he hopes “I hope the People will assert their own Supremacy, and give the Title of Majesty to the President. This is the lowest that can comport with his constitutional Dignity, Authority, and Power” (para. 44)

Adams’s Use of the Sedition Act of 1798

In 1799, The Adams administration had the publisher Matthew Lyon (who was also a Vermont Congressman) jailed “for criticizing Adams in print and in front of crowds” (Bomboy). Using the The Sedition Act of 1798, which John Adams signed into law, the courts felt he made libelous statements in his newspaper. He claimed about the Adams’s administration the following:

  • “every consideration of public welfare swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, or selfish avarice” (Ragsdale 3)

Surprisingly, another publisher was jailed for his attacks against both George Washington and John Adams after passage of The Act: Benjamin Franklin Bache. In June 1798, Bache, who was publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora, was arrested and had to pay $4,000* for bail. He died of yellow fever before he could stand trial. Then, his successor, William Duane, was arrested in 1799 but wasn’t tried (Bell “Arrests and Other Shenanigans” para. 3).
*This CPI calculator claims $4,000 in 1798 is $105,358.05 in 2025 dollars.

William Duane eventually became a Colonel in the Army (both Jefferson and Madison promoted him). Duane doesn’t quite embody abolitionism, but he wasn’t comfortable with the institution. Matthew Mason claims,

…as Duane became increasingly disturbed at the expansion of America’s aggressive slave regime he castigated his country’s acquiescence to slavery in terms familiar to its British antagonists.
If some northern opponents of slavery were willing to talk of national guilt, others evinced a determination to sectionalize that guilt. While admitting that slavery was an ugly blemish on the national character, these sectionalists laid the blame at the feet of the South alone (691).

In my opinion (your favorite professor), he had chosen to embrace Jefferson’s party (Democratic-Republican Party) and had already been jailed by the Federalists. He, like so many others, had to compromise his morals and not pursue a path of abolition. However, the seeds of disunion are growing. Duane, who was of Irish descent, was fiercely anti-British and didn’t like the treatment of Great Britian on his fellow Irishmen. He had to walk a fine line when advocating having enslaved people be part of the military during the War of 1812. He saw that Britain was trying to exploit the North’s abolitionism against the South’s slave culture…what would eventually happen?

The Sedition Act was quite unpopular but had a “sunset” clause that ended it in 1800. It is considered one of the overreaches of John Adams and a factor in his losing re-election in 1800.

Causes of the American Civil War

I’m sure this is a review, but let’s consider the following in light of the other “revolutions”:

  • Slavery: considered immoral
    • Fight over new States: free or slave
    • States’ Rights
    • Slave ownership concentrated with wealthy Southerners
  • Northern Industrialization
    • Waves of European Immigrants to the Northeast and Midwest
    • High Birth Rate in these areas
    • Why is population important for a Republic?
  • Election of Abraham Lincoln
  • The North’s refusal to disband the Union

Calls for Secession

The (eventual) Confederate States of America seceeded one after another. Let’s consider the rhetoric of the South Carolina call for secession n 24 Dec. 1860:

  • para 1: Federal Government’s violation of the Constitution
    • These “encroachments” on South Carolina have happened for a while
    • Convention of 26 April 1852 brought this up
  • para. 2: Declaration to “remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world”
  • para. 3: Comparison to the Declaration of Independence
  • para 4: Nearly a direct quotation used from the Declaration of Independence:
    • “…that whenever any “form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.”
    • Dec. of Ind, para 2: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
  • para. 11: Mentions that the Tenth Amendment “declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”
  • para. 13: Asserts that the compact has been broken, and SC can legally separate: “in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other…”
  • para. 15: Specifically calls out Article XI (4) of the US Constitution that specifies that fugitive slaves must be returned.
    • That clause of the Article, unlike the 1st and 4th clauses of Article I, sec. 9, had no sunset date.
    • Look again at Article IV
    • Then at Article I, sec. 9
  • para. 21: Cites grievances of the Federal Government and other States
    • “…the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States”
    • “[these States] have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States.”
    • “They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.”
  • para. 22: They did not want Abraham Lincoln to be President:
    • “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.”
    • “He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that ‘Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,’* and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
  • para. 27: In the last paragraph, SC claims
    • “We, therefore, the People of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…”

*This is from Lincoln’s famous “House Divided Speech” (16 June 1858) when he was a candidate to be Senator of Illinois. Stephen A. Douglas won (was chosen by the State Legislature), and the debates between the two candidates are the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, which is a kind of Competitive Debate in high school and college. Here’s the most well known part of the speech:

A house divided against itself, cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new – North as well as South.

If there’s a lull in class engagement, we can look at the Confederate States of America – Constitution for the Provisional Government for more similarities. In particular, we should look at Article I, sec. 7.

  • Sec. 7. (1) The importation of [Africans] from any foreign country other than the slave-holding States of the United States, is hereby forbidden; and Congress are required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.
  • (2) The Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy.
  • (8) No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederacy…

You can find more CSA document at Yale’s Avalon Project.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Excerpt

Before we jump on over to the discussion of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s excerpt (10/14), let’s go back to last week’s Discussion Prompt, which might be enough to cover the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Let’s go back to last week’s Discussion Prompt to get us thinking about the Emancipation Proclamation.

This week’s readings are two “supports” for abolishing slavery. Stowe’s chapter (and her entire book) is a fictional narrative that shows the cruelty and dehumanization of slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, although it didn’t end slavery absolutely, made a grand gesture of freeing enslaved people in the rebellious States, but it was still allowed in the border states: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri (eventually West Virginia). Slavery wasn’t banned until the 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865. Here’s an important timeline:

  • September 22, 1862: Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (PEP) to get Southern States to come to the Union and keep slavery
  • January 1, 1863: Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation (FEP) that “frees” slaves in the Confederate States
  •  April 9, 1865: Lee surrenders at Appomattox, triggering other states to surrender
  • April 14, 1865: Lincoln is assassinated (dies officially on 4/15)
  • June 19, 1865: Major General Gordon Granger enforces the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas (Juneteenth)
  • December 6, 1865: Thirteenth (13th) Amendment is ratified; slaves in Delaware and Kentucky finally were freed
  • 1866-1867: Various Reconstruction Treaties were signed with Native American tribes that sided with the Confederacy; these treaties abolished slavery in Tribal nations

So “emancipation” wasn’t the result of a proclamation but a series of other factors, including the ending of the Civil War. There is much research devoted to the actual battles of the American Civil War. Additionally, many non-fictional and fictional films are about the conflict. Below are a couple examples (time permitting):

The Gettysburg Address (19 Nov. 1863)

One of the most important speeches in American history (and one of the shortest). Lincoln was a rheotircian, so his language is layered with meaning. Also, his technique uses many rhetorical devices that have kept rhetoric classes enthralled for 162 years (give or take a decade). Let’s consider the following:

Rhetorical TechniqueText/Selection
amplification“Four score and seven years ago…”
consonance (repetition of consonants)“FouR scoRe and seven yeaRs ago, ouR foRefatheRs bRought foRth…”
assonance (repetition of vowels)“Four score…”
alliteration“…poor power…”
chiasmus* (usuall not with letters but words)“on this Continent a New Nation, Conceived in liberty
Repetition – anaphora“We are engaged….We are met….We have come…”
Repetition – tricolon“we cannot dedicate
we cannot consecrate
we cannot hallow this ground”
“government of the people, by the people, for the people
depreciation (or zooming in)“a great civil war….great battlefield of that war….dedicate a portion of that field…”
contrast“living and dead”
“little note, nor long remember”
“what we say here…what they did here”

Although Lincoln couldn’t have known the irony of his statement, “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here,” it is important for the history of this speech. There are other rhetorical techniques, but I think that will do for today. Remember that Lincoln has had a lot of problems in the war, but the tide is turning. As his quotation above to Horace Greeley shows, he was consumed with preserving the Union, and this lofty speech represents his devotion to the cause.

*Chiasmus

This isn’t in the book, but it’s my favorite rhetorical strategy to discuss (I doubt I’ve ever used it in writing). Chiasmus is a type of repetition and antithesis that aims to create a pleasing sound, so it’s a bit too poetic for professional prose and would seem out of place. But it would be perfectly fine in reviews or advertisements. Here’s the famous one:

A = “your country”
B = “you can”

This is definitely for political speeches and not technical communication. Of course, you’ll never forget it because the structure of A, B, B, A reminds you of a pleasing sound…just like

Next Class

Let’s see if we got through covering Harriet Beecher Stowe’s excerpt from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Abraham Lincoln’s “The Emancipation Proclamation” (1863), and his “The Gettysburg Address” (19 Nov 1863). We’ll move onto William Jennings Bryan’s The Cross of Gold Speech on Thursday, 10/23. There’s an argument to be made that Bryan’s populist party is a response to the treatment of soldiers as well as laborers as expendable…we’ll discuss. Don’t forget to do Weekly Discussion Post #7 before Friday, 10/24, 11:07pm.

Works Cited

Adams, John. Letter to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 27 Feb. 1790, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-06-20-02-0156.

Adams, John. Letter to William Tudor, 28 May 1789, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0337.

Adams, John. Letter to William Tudor, 28 June 1789, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0032.

Bell, David Owen. Abuse of Power in the 1700s Ignited a War Between Washington and the Editor of the Philadelphia Aurora. Hidden City, 7 Aug. 2025, https://hiddencityphila.org/2025/08/abuse-of-power-in-the-1700s-ignited-a-war-between-washington-and-the-editor-of-the-philadelphia-aurora/.

Lincoln, Abraham. “Letter in Reply to Horace Greeley on Slavery and the Union—The Restoration of the Union the Paramount Object,” 22 Aug. 1862, The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/342162.

Mason, Matthew. “The Battle of the Slaveholding Liberators: Great Britain, the United States, and Slavery in the Early Nineteenth Century.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, 2002, pp. 665–96. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3491468.

Shaw, Peter. The Character of John Adams. The U of North Carolina P, 2014. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/40376.