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To What Extent Was Lincoln's Rationale For The Civil War

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. What was Lincoln’s rationale for the defense of the Union? Lincoln put his personal beliefs aside and focused on the Union and balancing the cabinet. He wanted a variety of opinions as opposed to only his party. He made it very clear that secession was illegal and was a rejection of democracy. He much rather preferred the South to be reentered into the Union and reassured the Southerners that the slavery institution was safe. In the beginning, he wanted to take conservative steps and opted to send supplies to Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. Unfortunately, this caused panic for the Southerners and they attacked. Lincoln was not too focused on the war, but after Bull Run he devised a stronger plan to win the war. He focused making sure the United States would remain a democratic country. He expressed his goal of keeping an organized Union and his belief that he did not want to abolish slavery, just keep it from expanding. 2. What was the northern strategy at the beginning of …show more content…

They were confident and felt that it was just a political maneuver. It was sure to be an easy win. People even came to watch the battle because they did not think it was a big deal. However, after the battle at Potomac, Bull Run, northerners realized what they were up against. After the Southerners counterattacked, General Irvin McDowell ordered for a retreat and abandoned their weapons. From then on, Northerners were more strategic. The first part of Lincoln’s plan was the Anaconda Plan. A blockade would form around all Southern ports and hopefully gain control of the Mississippi river. A new army led by General George B. McCellan would be formed at Washington to invade Virginia. Northerners were eager to win the war but General McCellan considered it a “gentlemanly contest”. He wanted to go at a leisurely pace and limited stakes. McCellan had a change to end the war with a final attack but instead choose not

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The position also gave the Union the advantage of having interior lines. If he had chosen to withdraw the soldiers, the Confederates would have been allowed to continue pushing into the North, just what they wanted in order to get foreign assistance and expand the peace movement (“Battle of Gettysburg Ends”). Additionally, the Pipe Creek plan would have been demoralizing to the Union army, as it meant retreating quite some distance (Jordan 80). Gettysburg was “the most decisive battle of the American Civil War”, as well as the “turning point” for the Union. (“Battle of Gettysburg Ends”).

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130 Words | 1 Pages

Lincoln wanted to help the South rejoin the Union. His primary concern was what was best for the Union. The South needed to rejoin the Union on his terms. Johnson had once talked tough against southern farmers, he allied himself with ex-Confederate leaders, and he forgave them when they appealed for pardons. This delighted southerners, of course,

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The day had flipped to favor the Federal side who had now switched to an offensive mode. Beauregard moved to attack for what he thought would deliver the Confederacy the final victory. But instead, Grant had also initiated a fresh attack that continuously pushed forward without stopping. Like the events of yesterday, the Confederate forces were steadily beaten backwards. The Union had the advantage of energetic reinforcements and naval support near the Tennessee River that continually blasted into the ranks of the Confederates.

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467 Words | 2 Pages

First off, the terms of the plans were easy for Southerners to accept. He made the Ten-Percent plan. For this plan, it stated that a state could be reestablished into the Union if 10% from the vote take the oath of allegiance to the U.S. Most Radical Republicans thought that Lincoln wasn’t harsh enough, and way to easy towards the South. Every former-confederate most likely loved this plan because every other plan wanted punishment upon them. Slavery was always a big issue.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

Lincoln thought that the beginning of reconstruction would help speed the war effort and bring it to a close sooner. Wade and Davis would have preferred to delay and wait for the war to end and for the South to be completely beaten with pre-secession institutions gone and needing to be rebuilt. There were a number of concepts that both Lincoln’s 10 percent plan and the Wade-Davis bill had in common. In 1863, with Union victory apparently on the horizon Lincoln “announces a policy for the reconstruction of recanting Confederates”, “Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their

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804 Words | 4 Pages

A man that goes by the name J.B Elliot drew up a map with a huge anaconda surrounding the southern states calling it “Scott’s Great Snake”. Though people continued to laugh about the plan, it became one of the reasons that the Union won the war. The Union decided to use the Anaconda Plan and try to cut off and steal the Mississippi River from the south. This battle would later be known as the battle of Vicksburg. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the Union Army’s most successful endeavors in the Civil

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192 Words | 1 Pages

The goals of each side were varied. The Confederacy’s goal was to secure themselves as an independent country where slavery would be free of suppression. The Union’s goal started as the hope to reconcile the Union, but grew into the goal of reuniting the Union as a country free of slavery. Thus, their strategies varied. The Union’s strategies were first, to keep the border states, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky, from seceding.

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Once the Civil War began, President Lincoln's ultimate goal was the restoration of the Union. However, the Union was keeping escaped slaves instead of returning them (which caused Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation). This measure opened the problem of what to do with slaves that had been captured by the Union. Eventually, the War ended, and the northern states won. Without President Lincoln's Proclamation, the outcome may have looked different You've probably guessed it by now - Lincoln proposed the 13th amendment himself!

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During the Civil War, different groups thought different things about why the war was being fought. The North mostly fought for reunification while the South fought to save slavery. Lincoln, who was President at the time, began the war with one set of beliefs and eventually won the war with another. Lincoln’s focus for the war changed from reunification to the abolition of slavery.

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However he was faced with thousands of radical republicans pressuring him so he finally pursued this goal. He drafted a general proclamation in July 1862 in an attempt to save the Union. He said “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it.” The whole point of the proclamation was to get the rebellious states to to renounce secession so

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Abraham Lincoln requested a blockade on the southern coasts so the Union will have an advantage over the South on water. This is the very first Union blockade of the civil war. Abraham Lincoln’s plan was to cut off all trade going in and out of the South. The Union hope to cut off the Confederacy's major crop, cotton. The task was hard for the Union because the Southern coast measured over 2,500 miles and the Union navy numbered less than 40 ships.

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The Union had to attack the South, vanquish the Confederate forces, and take over the region to bring about freedom. At the onset of the Civil War, unity was the primary objective of the North. The Battle of Fort Sumter put an end to any possibility of agreement, and the North then launched an assault

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Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States during the war, stated that the state is the most important entity and that states have the authority to ignore laws that are unconstitutional. He believed that the state had a supremacy over the federal government. Also, Davis thought that the North could do what they wanted and the South could do what they wanted, including secede. With the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was wanting to keep the Union together, but at the cost of states’ rights. He gave the South the option of either rejoining the Union so they could keep their slaves or if they did not, the slaves would be set free.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

While the north was becoming increasingly industrial, with factories and mills popping up all over, the southern states stayed with family farming, and plantations. With the conquest of the north came their ideologies, including factories. Rhett once again realized this when he told Scarlett about the decline of the Old South. Abolishing slavery was not Abraham Lincoln 's main goal of the Civil War, but in a way he did on the down low.

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686 Words | 3 Pages

The North new that it was going to be a long war, but it would benefit them in the long run. The South didn’t have to win; they just didn’t have to lose. The Union knew that they had to conquer the South or the founders of the nation would have failed. The Union was in high favor to win the war.

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