Walter Coffey's Blog, page 179

Gagging the First Amendment

In the 1830s, Congress imposed a “gag rule” forbidding people from exercising their freedom by petitioning for the abolition of slavery.

The right to petition the federal government is guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Americans had been requesting that Congress abolish slavery ever since Benjamin Franklin submitted the first petition shortly after the nation’s founding. Individual petitions had usually been voted upon and rejected. But when the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1833, the number of petitions rapidly increased, and voting upon each one was no longer practical.

In March 1836, the Senate effectively violated the right to petition by invoking a rule under which senators would vote not on the petition itself, but whether to accept the petitions at all. The Senate then consistently voted to reject them. In the House of Representatives, Henry L. Pinckney of South Carolina proposed three resolutions regarding slavery:

Congress had no constitutional right to interfere with slavery in the states;
Congress “ought not” to interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia; and
Any petitions concerning the abolition of slavery would be “laid on the table” (i.e., rejected) by a subcommittee before being presented to the full House

The Pinckney Resolutions passed by a vote of 117 to 68, and they appeased slavery supporters for the time being. The third resolution became known as the “gag rule” because it sought to automatically gag or suppress any consideration of abolishing slavery. Gag rule supporters were mostly southern Democrats who argued that the founders did not intend for Congress to debate slavery. The gag rule was invoked at the beginning of every House session for nearly a decade.

U.S. Congressman John Quincy Adams

The greatest opponents of the gag rule were northern Whigs, among them former president and current Congressman John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Adams argued that the gag rule directly violated the First Amendment right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Adams’s passionate objections encouraged more people to join the antislavery crusade.

In 1840, the House passed the Twenty-First Rule, which expanded the gag rule by barring any petition regarding slavery from even being considered. Adams and his fellow Whigs stringently opposed this rule, and even some Democrats questioned the rule’s constitutionality. Two years later, abolitionist Congressman Joshua Giddings of Ohio was censured for violating the “gag rule” on the House floor. Giddings resigned his seat but was overwhelmingly reelected in the next House election.

Like most government actions, the result was the opposite of what was intended: rather than silencing petitioners, it motivated antislavery forces to lobby harder for abolition. The number of petitions was estimated at 34,000 before the gag rule, but it rose to 300,000 a year after the gag rule was first imposed, and then it rose to “uncountable” by the time the Twenty-First Rule was invoked. Adams finally managed to build a coalition of Whigs and Democrats that rescinded the gag rule in December 1844.

Not only was the gag rule unconstitutional, but it sharpened the differences between those supporting and opposing slavery.

Sources:

It’s Dangerous To Be Right When the Government is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom by Andrew P. Napolitano (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2011)
The People’s Almanac edited by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1975)
http://www.answers.com/topic/gag-rule-antislavery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_rule
http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/gag_rule

The Civil War This Week: Jan 13-19, 1864

Wednesday, January 13

President Jefferson Davis told General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army of Tennessee at Dalton, Georgia, that a withdrawal from Dalton would demoralize the army and have harmful political implications, thus “I trust you will not deem it necessary to adopt such a measure.”

President Abraham Lincoln instructed General Nathaniel Banks, commanding the Federal Army of the Gulf, to “proceed with all possible despatch” to create a new state government for Louisiana, and Union supporters assembled to consider reconstruction. Lincoln also directed General Quincy A. Gillmore to cooperate with civil officials to create a new state government for Florida.

A Federal expedition began from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Thursday, January 14

President Davis suggested that, if necessary, General Johnston should send troops to Mobile or northern Mississippi. However, the Confederate forces were already spread dangerously thin. A Federal expedition began from Collierville, Tennessee. Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Missouri.

Friday, January 15

A Federal expedition began from Jackson County, Missouri. Skirmishing occurred in West Virginia.

Saturday, January 16

Major General Samuel R. Curtis was given command of the reestablished Federal Department of Kansas. Heavy skirmishing occurred between cavalry units at Dandridge, Tennessee, prompting a Federal withdrawal. Other skirmishing occurred in Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

Sunday, January 17

A fire killed two Federal officers and destroyed supplies at Camp Butler in Springfield, Illinois. A Federal expedition began from Brownsville, Arkansas. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and Arkansas.

Monday, January 18

Western North Carolina farmers began holding protest meetings in resistance to the Confederate draft laws. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and Mississippi.

Tuesday, January 19

A pro-Union constitutional convention at Little Rock approved the abolition of slavery in Arkansas. A Federal expedition began from Williamsburg, Virginia. Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee and Arkansas.

Primary Source: The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)

The Failed Crittenden Compromise

As the southern states considered secession in late 1860, a U.S. senator proposed a complex scheme to keep the Union from dividing.

U.S. Senator John J. Crittenden

Senator John J. Crittenden belonged to the Constitutional Union Party, a group that was formed during the 1860 election campaign to urge preserving the Union at all costs. When South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Crittenden offered a plan to return that state to the Union and prevent any future secession.

The plan focused mainly on slavery, which was one of the primary causes of southern grievances with the North. To southerners’ dismay, most northerners refused to allow slavery in the newly acquired western territories and refused to enforce fugitive slave laws. Crittenden’s proposal contained six constitutional amendments and four congressional resolutions. The six amendments:

The original Missouri Compromise line (36 degrees, 30 minutes) would be extended to the Pacific Ocean and slavery would be prohibited in any U.S. territory “now held, or hereafter acquired” north of the line. South of the line, slavery would be “protected by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance.”
Congress could not prohibit slavery on federal property within a state that allowed slavery, such as a southern military post.
Congress could not prohibit slavery in the District of Columbia without consent of the District’s residents; if the residents approved abolishing slavery, the District’s slaveholders would be compensated for their loss.
Congress could not interfere with slave trading between two or more states that allowed slavery.
Congress would compensate slaveholders who lost fugitive slaves by suing counties that obstructed federal fugitive slave laws; the counties in turn could sue the individuals obstructing the laws.
These amendments could never be changed, and Congress could never interfere with slavery where it already existed.

The four congressional resolutions:

Laws banning the African slave trade should be consistently enforced.
Fugitive slave laws should be consistently enforced.
“Personal liberty laws” in northern states that nullified the fugitive slave laws should be repealed.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 should be amended to equalize the fee for returning or releasing suspected fugitives (the original law offered a higher fee for returning than releasing, thus incentivizing slavery), and to limit the power of federal marshals to force citizens into helping capture fugitives.

In January 1861, President James Buchanan submitted a message to Congress urging fast approval of the Crittenden Compromise to reconcile North and South. Southerners generally supported the measure, but northern Republicans opposed the provision allowing the expansion of slavery south of the Missouri Compromise line. Influential President-elect Abraham Lincoln sided with the opposition.

A Senate committee approved the Crittenden Compromise bill, but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives defeated the measure, 113 to 80. A later Senate vote also defeated the measure, 20 to 19, and senators adopted a resolution declaring that the Constitution “needs to be obeyed rather than amended.”

The compromise failed largely because too many politicians in both North and South believed that it offered too little, too late. Six more states seceded from the Union, and a February 1861 editorial in the Charleston (Missouri) Courier lamented, “Men at Washington think there is no chance for peace, and indeed we can see but little, everything looks gloomy… Let our citizens be prepared for the worst, it may come.”

Sources

The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)
Battle Cry for Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson (Oxford University Press)

The Civil War This Week: Jan 6-12, 1864

Wednesday, January 6

Federal troops under Christopher “Kit” Carson opposed Navajo Indians in the New Mexico Territory from Fort Canby to the Canon de Chelly area.

Confederate guerrillas attacked the steamer Delta on the Mississippi River. President Jefferson Davis suspended the execution of a Confederate private. Skirmishing occurred near the camps of the major armies in Virginia and Georgia.

Thursday, January 7

President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentence of deserters “because I am trying to evade the butchering business lately.” Federal Judge Caleb B. Smith died in Indianapolis; he had been secretary of the interior under Lincoln until December 1862.

William Preston was appointed Confederate envoy to Mexico. A lieutenant and private of the 21st Georgia Cavalry captured 25 Federals on Waccamaw Neck near Charleston, South Carolina. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and Arkansas.

Friday, January 8

President Davis responded to North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance’s suggestion that the Confederacy try negotiating a peace with the North: “I cannot see how the mere material obstacles are to be surmounted to bring about a cessation of hostilities.” Davis reiterated his goal of acquiring peace through independence, stating that “this struggle must continue until the enemy is beaten out of his vain confidence in our subjugation. Then and not until then will it be possible to treat of peace.”

Pro-Union delegates assembled in New Orleans to reconstruct the Louisiana state government. David O. Dodd was executed by Federal officials in Little Rock, Arkansas after being convicted as a Confederate spy; this case had garnered major attention.

A reception was held in Richmond, Virginia to honor Confederate John Hunt Morgan for his western raids. Federals bombarded Confederate works at the mouth of Caney Bayou, Texas. Skirmishing occurred in West Virginia.

Saturday, January 9

President Davis warned Confederate commanders in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi that Federal Admiral David G. Farragut may be planning to attack the port city of Mobile, Alabama and bypass the city’s defenses just as he had done at New Orleans in 1862. Skirmishing occurred in Kentucky.

Sunday, January 10

The Federal blockader U.S.S. Iron Age was lost off Lockwood’s Folly Inlet, North Carolina after it went aground and was bombarded by Confederate land batteries.

Federal cavalry operated from Memphis, Tennessee. Other Federal expeditions began from Sperrysville, Virginia and Dandridge, Tennessee. Skirmishing occurred in West Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Monday, January 11

U.S. Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri proposed a joint resolution introducing a constitutional amendment permanently abolishing slavery in the United States. Two Confederate blockade-runners were captured off Florida, and two others were forced ashore and burned off Lockwood’s Folly Inlet. Federal expeditions began from Lexington and Maryville, Tennessee.

Tuesday, January 12

Federal troops were sent to Matamoros, Mexico to protect U.S. Consul L. Pierce from two warring Mexican factions. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Primary source: The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)

The Palmer Raids

After World War I, the U.S. Justice Department violated civil liberties by seizing “dangerous subversives” as part of what became known as the “Red Scare.”

Tension pervaded America after the war ended in 1918. The transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy caused rampant unemployment, with veterans returning from Europe finding that they no longer had jobs. The economic distress sparked a rise in political radicalism, particularly among immigrants and foreigners. The growing number of anarchists, socialists, and Communists in America inevitably led to increased violence.

U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer

In the spring of 1919, radicals terrorized prominent Americans such as J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer by sending them bombs through the mail. None of the intended targets was injured, but one explosion killed a deliveryman and another blew the hands off a senator’s maid. All but two of the saboteurs were apprehended. Violence also erupted on May Day (May 1, the international workers’ holiday) when radicals clashed with citizens and police in Cleveland, killing two and injuring 40.

During the war, President Woodrow Wilson had tried turning public opinion against foreigners and radicals who refused to conform to American ideals by declaring that they “poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life… Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out.” To the Wilson administration, the rise of postwar violence indicated a growing radical conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government.

Attorney General Palmer requested appropriations to investigate suspected subversives, warning Congress that radicals would “on a certain day… rise up and destroy the government at one fell swoop.” Congress approved $100,000. Palmer then created a new General Intelligence Division within the Bureau of Investigation, forerunner to the FBI. The Division was headed by 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover, who was tasked with investigating radical groups and identifying their members.

Hoover collected 45,000 files on so-called radicals on index cards. According to Ronald Kessler in The Bureau:

“Hoover made no distinction between criminal conduct and beliefs… Hoover recommended that a German who had engaged in a conversation with a Negro in which he indulged in pro-German utterances and in derogatory remarks regarding the United States government be jailed. The man, who had been in the United States for thirty years, was imprisoned.”

On the 2nd anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution (November 7), federal agents teamed with local police to raid chapters of the “Russian Workers.” Over 2,000 people were arrested in 12 cities. Many were held for deportation without regard for due process of law. Several suspects testified that they had been threatened or beaten, and it was reported that some were “badly beaten.” Of the 650 people arrested in New York City, only 43 were deported.

In January 1920, Palmer authorized warrantless raids on private homes and organization headquarters in 33 cities. Over 4,000 people were arrested this time, including hundreds in New England without probable cause and 300 in Detroit held for a week.

Eventually, 556 “dangerous subversives” were deported, including prominent radicals “Red” Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. However, most arrests led to no charges or trials, and Hoover admitted to “clear cases of brutality.” U.S. attorney Francis Fisher Kane resigned in protest, writing to Palmer and President Wilson:

“It seems to me that the policy of raids against large numbers of individuals is generally unwise and very apt to result in injustice. People not really guilty are likely to be arrested and railroaded through their hearings… We appear to be attempting to repress a political party… By such methods we drive underground and make dangerous what was not dangerous before.”

When May Day 1920 came and went without the violence that Palmer had predicted, his raids seemed even more unnecessary. The ACLU published a report documenting numerous violations of constitutional rights by agents and police during the raids. A federal judge ordered the release of detained aliens and declared that “a mob is a mob, whether made up of Government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or of criminals and loafers and the vicious classes.”

The raids initially seemed to diffuse the ”Red Scare” in the U.S., but they really just drove the Communist movement underground, where it would resurface a decade later. The raids also helped turn the public against any person or group considered “anti-American,” which enabled the growing attitude of intolerance that pervaded the 1920s.

Sources:

An Almanac of American History edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Greenwich, CT: Barnes & Noble Books, Inc., 1993)
Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2003)
A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2004)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids

The Civil War This Week: Dec 30, 1863 – Jan 5, 1864

Wednesday, December 30

North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance wrote President Jefferson Davis, “I have concluded that it will be perhaps impossible to remove it (dissatisfaction with the Confederate government), except by making some effort at negotiation with the enemy.”

Skirmishing occurred in North Carolina and Florida.

Thursday, December 31

The Richmond Examiner opined, “To-day closes the gloomiest year of our struggle.” Many southerners agreed with this assessment. The Confederates had achieved military success earlier this year, but major defeats at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga had demoralized the South.

President Davis appointed Senator George Davis of North Carolina as attorney general, replacing interim Attorney General Wade Keyes. Skirmishing occurred in Arkansas.

Friday, January 1

In Washington, the traditional New Year’s Day reception began at 10 a.m. in the White House. The first two hours were reserved for government officials, and the gates were opened to the public at 12 p.m. About 8,000 people visited the White House.

The Federal Department of Kansas was reestablished as separate from that of Missouri.

Extreme cold made soldiers miserable as far south as Memphis, Tennessee. Federal cavalry operated in West Virginia, and Federal troops operated against Indians in the Humboldt District of California. A Federal expedition began from Bealeton, Virginia. Skirmishing occurred in West Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Saturday, January 2

The Confederate Senate confirmed George Davis as attorney general; Davis had been a pro-Union Whig before eventually supporting secession.

The price of gold rose steadily on the New York market. Federal troops drove squatters and smugglers out of the Santa Catalina Islands off Los Angeles, California. Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee.

Sunday, January 3

Major General Francis J. Herron assumed command of Federal forces on the Rio Grande. Federal cavalry drove Confederates out of Jonesville, Virginia. Federal expeditions began from Charles Town, West Virginia and Memphis, Tennessee.

Monday, January 4

General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on the Rapidan River faced shortages in food and clothing. Lee wrote to President Davis that “this emergency justifies impressment…” Skirmishing occurred in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Tuesday, January 5

Confederates defeated the Federals at Jonesville in southwestern Virginia and captured over 200 troops. The Federals had driven the Confederates out of the town two days ago.

President Lincoln asked Congress to reconsider a resolution that stopped the $300 bounty payment to volunteers. Lincoln stated that the bounty system should be continued for at least one more month as a necessary recruitment incentive.

Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee and the New Mexico Territory.

Primary Source: The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)

The Elections of 1868

Republicans won substantial victories, largely due to new federal laws allowing blacks the right to vote while removing that same right from former Confederates.

The Republican Party dominated national politics during this era, and a faction within the party called the Radicals had wielded enormous influence ever since the Civil War ended in 1865. In restoring the Union after the war, the Radicals had replaced President Andrew Johnson’s moderate Reconstruction policy with a more punitive program against the defeated southern states.

The Radical program included placing the region under U.S. military occupation and removing state and local officials who had aided the Confederacy during the war. Most importantly, the Radicals disqualified former Confederates from voting while granting that right to newly freed slaves. This virtually assured the South of being controlled by the Republican Party, whose political principles were what had compelled southerners to secede from the Union in the first place.

Republican Campaign Poster

When the Republicans gathered to nominate a candidate for president, they selected Ulysses S. Grant, the general who had won the war. Ironically, Grant’s only political experience had been as a Democrat. This prompted Republican leaders to publish articles explaining that Grant’s views had shifted to their party by supporting slave emancipation and the recruitment of black troops during the war.

The Republican Party platform called for continued military occupation of the conquered southern states. But it was becoming increasingly clear that most Republicans favored this program to expand and perpetuate their power, not to protect blacks’ rights. This was exemplified in Republicans’ call for forcing black suffrage in the conquered states while “the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States.” The New York Tribune mocked the Republicans’ hypocrisy in a poem: “To every Southern river shall Negro Suffrage come / But not to fair New England, for that’s too close to hum.”

The Democrats nominated New York Governor Horatio Seymour for president. Seymour had denounced Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant for suppressing civil liberties during the war. Seymour had also figured prominently in the New York City draft riots of 1863, when he referred to Irish rioters as “my friends.”

The party platform denounced Radical Reconstruction as ”unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void,” and accused Republicans of increasing their power by forcing “negro supremacy.” Democrats called for ending the southern military occupation, granting amnesty for all former Confederates, and leaving the question of voting rights to the individual states.

Seymour used his skills as a politician and orator to campaign for himself. Grant, having never held elected office, followed tradition by letting others campaign for him. Although Grant was no match for Seymour in the political realm, voters remembered that Seymour had opposed the Civil War while Grant won it. And Grant’s appeal to “let us have peace” resonated among war-weary Americans.

Moreover, voters were skeptical of Seymour. He had close ties to eastern business interests, making westerners suspicious. He had attacked President Lincoln’s suppression of civil liberties during the war, making northerners suspicious. And his campaign slogan, “This is a White Man’s Country, Let White Men Rule” alarmed blacks, many of whom would be voting for the first time.

Seymour’s campaign was further hampered by his running mate, Francis P. Blair, Jr. Blair tried getting support from southern whites by arguing that racial integration would stop the “accumulated improvement of the centuries.” He condemned Republicans for placing the South under control of “a semi-barbarous race of blacks who are worshippers of fetishes and poligamists… (seeking to) subject the white women to their unbridled lust.”

Republican campaigners connected Seymour and his anti-war past to the party of secession, rebellion, and treason. Democrats were charged with murdering southern blacks and Unionists while revering former Confederate leaders. As the elections approached, the Republican press published sensational atrocity stories to sway public opinion. Conversely, Republicans asserted that since Grant had ended the war, he was the logical choice to restore peace.

Grant easily won the election, becoming the youngest man to win a presidential election up to that time at age 46. Only two southern states (Georgia and Louisiana) went to Seymour. Three others (Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas) were not allowed to cast votes because they had not fulfilled the Republicans’ requirements for readmission to the Union. Only eight northern states allowed blacks to vote, while black suffrage was required in the South.

Republicans also won majorities in both chambers of Congress, but they lost several seats in the House of Representatives. This reflected a growing dissatisfaction with Republicans granting special benefits such as suffrage to blacks and subsidies to corporations. Democrats warned that Republican policies encouraged blacks and business leaders to focus their energies on pushing for more aid rather than doing for themselves like everybody else.

Democrats would have swept the conquered states had blacks not been granted suffrage and former Confederates not been disqualified. This prompted Republicans, especially the Radicals, to favor more intervention in the South to ensure that blacks remained active in the political process and former Confederates remained excluded. White resentment toward added federal intervention led to a gradual increase in terrorism against blacks and their white allies.

Primary Sources:

The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln by Claude G. Bowers (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1929)
Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1988)
Grant by William S. McFeely (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1981)
West from Appomattox by Heather Cox Richardson (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2004)

The Civil War This Week: Dec 23-29, 1863

Wednesday, December 23

President Jefferson Davis wrote to General Joseph E. Johnston, new commander of the Confederate Department of Tennessee, that he hoped Johnston would “soon be able to commence active operations against the enemy.” Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Thursday, December 24

President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Major General Nathaniel Banks, commander of the Federal Department of the Gulf, about restoring Louisiana to the Union: “I have all the while intended you to be master, as well in regard to re-organizing a State government for Louisiana, as in regard to the military matters of the Department…”

Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

Friday, December 25

Federal gunboats operated on the Stono River in South Carolina, and Confederate artillery severely damaged U.S.S. Marblehead. Confederate land artillery fired on U.S.S. Pawnee off Charleston, South Carolina. Federal cavalry under William Averell reached Beverly, West Virginia, and a Federal expedition began from Vienna, Virginia. Federals skirmished with Indians near Fort Gaston, California, and other skirmishing occurred in Florida.

Saturday, December 26

Federal expeditions began from Salem and Forsyth, Missouri. C.S.S. Alabama seized two prizes near the Straits of Malacca. Skirmishing occurred in Alabama, Mississippi, the Indian Territory, and California.

Sunday, December 27

President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton visited Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, Maryland. General Joseph E. Johnston assumed formal command of the Confederate Department of Tennessee at Dalton, Georgia. A Federal expedition began from Newport Barracks, North Carolina. Skirmishing occurred at various points in Tennessee.

Monday, December 28

Confederate laws were enacted that abolished substitution for military service and authorized changes to the tax in kind. A Federal expedition began from Nashville, Tennessee to suppress guerrilla activities. Skirmishing occurred in West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Mississippi.

Tuesday, December 29

Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

Primary Source: The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)

Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal

President Andrew Jackson signed a bill into a law that ultimately led to the forced relocation of Native Americans from the eastern U.S.

By the time that Jackson became president in 1829, white settlers were rapidly encroaching upon traditional Indian land in the southeastern states of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. This region was home to over 50,000 Indians belonging to various tribes, with the five most prominent being the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole. These were called the Five Civilized Tribes because they had tried assimilating into U.S. culture. No longer satisfied with assimilation, white settlers now wanted the Indians gone.

Meanwhile, state officials began responding to white pressure by imposing tighter restrictions on Indian activities. Indian leaders countered that their tribes were independent nations and thus were not bound by state or even federal laws. In his first message to Congress in December 1829, President Jackson argued that Indian tribes within states could not be independent nations because the Constitution “declares that ‘no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State’ without the consent of its legislature.”

7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson

Jackson recommended that Congress create “an ample district west of the Mississippi (River), and without the limits of any State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it… This emigration should be voluntary… But they should be distinctly informed that if they remain within the limits of the States they must be subject to their laws.”

This proposal disregarded the fact that Indians had resided in the southeastern U.S. long before white settlement, and thus had the right to their own sovereignty. Moreover, the Constitution was designed to protect that sovereignty through its basis in natural law, which guarantees the right to life, liberty, and property for all people, including Indians.

The Supreme Court ruled that Georgia did not have the right to exercise authority over Indian tribes within the state. This decision was consistent with U.S. policy toward Indians since the presidency of George Washington, which had called for treating Indian tribes the same as all other sovereign nations. Jackson and Georgia state officials ignored the ruling and changed the policy by siding with white settlers pushing for Indian relocation.

Congress answered Jackson’s request for legislation by passing the Indian Removal Act in the spring of 1830. This authorized the president to buy land from Indians in the southeastern states in exchange for offering them new land west of the Mississippi, outside U.S. jurisdiction. It also transferred oversight of Indian affairs to the federal government, which overrode states’ authority to handle their own affairs within their own borders. States usually resisted such federal infringements on their prerogatives, but not so much when it came to Indian removal.

Opponents of this bill included Congressmen Davy Crockett of Tennessee and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. Frelinghuysen declared, “We have crowded the tribes upon a few miserable acres on our southern frontier; it is all that is left to them of their once boundless forest; and still, like the horse-leech, our insatiated cupidity cries, give! give!… Sir… Do the obligations of justice change with the color of the skin?”

Supporters insisted that any removal would be “free and voluntary.” To Jackson, the Indians were children who needed guidance if they were to remain living among the more civilized whites. This justified tighter state restrictions on Indians than whites. And if the Indians refused to submit, then they would be compelled to leave. For Jackson, this was the only way to ensure peace between Indians and whites.

The bill passed largely along regional lines, with northerners generally opposing Indian removal and southerners (who lived where most Indians resided) supporting. The House of Representatives approved the bill by just four votes before Jackson signed it into law.

Although the law did not authorize forcible removal, Indians were strongly pressured by government officials to sell their land and leave. As such, Jackson signed over 90 relocation agreements with various tribes. Many Indian signatories were unaware of what they were signing, and most treaty provisions greatly favored white interests.

Even Indians remaining on their land and obeying state and federal law were often cheated out of their property, and government offered them little protection. Tribes such as the Choctaw in Mississippi eventually moved after tiring of white harassment and injustice. Jackson’s reelection in 1832 convinced many other tribes to leave.

The Indian Removal Act led to a mass relocation that was often tragic and violent, as in the case of the Trail of Tears (1837-38) and the Seminole Wars in the 1840s and ’50s. The notion that Indians were not eligible for constitutional rights or protections led to an inhumane U.S. policy that later established the reservation system and relegated most Indians to poverty ever since.

Sources

Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini (New York: HarperCollins, 1966) p. 146-149
A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen (New York: Penguin Books, 2004) , p. 208
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), p. 137-38, 140-41
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Removal_Act

The Civil War This Week: Dec 16-22, 1863

Wednesday, December 16

General Joseph E. Johnston was given command of the Confederate Department and Army of Tennessee. Johnston succeeded William Hardee, who had temporarily taken command from Braxton Bragg earlier this month. President Jefferson Davis disliked Johnston and was reluctant to give him command, but Johnston was generally respected by the troops and it was hoped that his presence would improve army morale. Johnston soon left his post at Brandon, Mississippi to Army of Tennessee headquarters at Dalton, Georgia.

Federal Brigadier General John Buford was promoted to major general just before dying of typhoid. Buford had gained prominence as an effective cavalry commander, particularly at the Battle of Gettysburg.

A fire destroyed a regimental hospital, arsenal, and bakery at Yorktown, Virginia, causing $1 million in damage. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory.

Thursday, December 17

President Abraham Lincoln submitted a Freedman’s Aid Society proposal to Congress requesting creation of a Federal “Bureau of Emancipation” to provide assistance to freed slaves. A Federal expedition began from Washington, North Carolina. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and Mississippi.

Friday, December 18

President Lincoln urged Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to remove Major General John Schofield as commander of the Department of Missouri. Radical Republicans in Missouri opposed Schofield’s conservative policies, and this was causing conflict between the state government and the military. Lincoln suggested replacing Schofield with Major General William S. Rosecrans, who had been relieved as command of the Army of the Cumberland in October.

The Richmond Dispatch urged southerners to postpone criticizing the Confederate government due to “this decisive crisis in the national affairs.” Chaplains serving the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia reported a ”high sense of religious feeling throughout the army.” Skirmishing occurred in Virginia, North Carolina, eastern and western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and the Indian Territory.

Saturday, December 19

President Davis assured new Confederate Army of Tennessee commander Joseph E. Johnston, “The difficulties of your new position are realized and the Government will make every possible effort to aid you…”

The Lincolns hosted a reception for government officials and officers of Russian warships visiting the U.S. Federal naval forces continued bombarding St. Andrew’s Bay, Florida, which included the destruction of 290 salt works and 268 buildings in 10 days. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and West Virginia as part of the continuing Federal railroad raids. Skirmishing also occurred in eastern Tennessee.

Sunday, December 20

President Lincoln assured a member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that he would “not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation…”

Monday, December 21

Federal expeditions began from Bealeton, Virginia; Rocky Run, North Carolina; and Roseville, Georgia. Skirmishing occurred in Virginia and Tennessee.

Tuesday, December 22

Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk assumed command of the Confederate Army of Mississippi, replacing Joseph E. Johnston who was taking command of the Army of Tennessee. Skirmishing occurred in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Primary Source: The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long and Barbara Long (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)