American History

Abraham Lincoln rose to his reputable position in the 1850s. Lincoln reshaped the Republican Party in 1854. The president was not concerned with interfering with slavery where it existed. Worth observing is McPhersons assertion that the president opposed the spread of slavery across the union. This assumption is retrieved from Lincolns preferment for all territories to be free soil. Lincolns moderate anti-slavery standing doubled with his own moderate stature increased the prominence of anti-slavery among Americas political priorities as it wrecked havoc in the dual party system in the country despite the fact that, for a very long time, the system had sustained balance. By the beginning of the 1860, Lincoln managed to convince 40 percent of the American electorate with no support from the southern States as most of the presidents support came from the north. As such, his principle of free soil drove Republicans to power. McPhersons use of the 1860 election as the primary source shapes his thoughts in his text. He draws the concept of free soil from Eric Fowners text (Fowner 1995).

Americans in the South, referred to Lincoln and his staunch supporter, Davis, as the black Republicans. This was less as a result of the two supporting anti-slavery and more because their model of republicanism was a shadow and an anti-thesis to the founding fathers spirit. A distinct and separate sense of Nationalism emerged by the beginning of 1860 among southern states. This was claimed to be the true reflection of the American spirit with regard to the countrys Nationalism. Consequently, the southerners contended that the northerners had foregone the underpinning of Americas long held nationalistic ideologies. James McPherson in his introductory remarks in his text the Ordeal by Fire contends that slavery was central to the Southern perception with regard to American liberty as well as constitutionalism (McPherson 2009). Development of pro-slavery in the south was more than a mere peculiar institution. This argument in the south claimed to provide an alternative nationality to America which ideally was more in tandem with the spirit of the founding fathers when compared to the postulation in the north, at least to the southerners. The perfection of the union was thus perverted by the northerners embracing of reformist agendas as well as easement on immigrants and industry. The secession that characterized the south was endeared towards retaining what the south feared to lose in case the northerners prevailed with their nationalism. In February 1861, when the states convened in Montgomery, Alabama, they adopted the constitution without revision in a bid to form the more perfect union.

History of the years of war as narrated by McPherson is similar for both the Lincolns north as well as the south. The period of the war was filled with overtones of national self definition. Lincoln and his opponents in the south were faced with critical questions of recruitment as well as outfitting of soldiers simultaneously moving towards a national draft. Rivaling secretaries of treasury that were faced with huge problems with regard to Americas financial status resorted to deficit spending whereupon they opted for paper money and taxes. The commanders on the battle field realized that their West Point tactics were faced with significant challenges from advanced weaponry as well as the move to trench warfare together with total war. In the same spirit, business men in the face of increased demand for given commodities, needed to consolidate and at the same time centralize their corporate operations. Diplomats as well sought foreign support noting the significance of this domestic quarrel.

     William T. Sherman, an American general, marched through Georgia, an event that McPherson exploits to bring this reality home. McPherson opts to give first hand accounts. He writes of the officer from Indiana that witnessed the evacuation of Atlanta. McPherson notes the babies that tumbled down on the ground from the backs of mules while others dangled precariously on the animals. General Sherman observes i hev conkluded that the dam fulishness uv tryin to lick shurmin Had better be stoped we hav bin gettin nuthin but hell  lost uv it. (McPherson 2009).. McPherson opts to use this primary source of real elements in the course of history to tell the story as it was as opposed to as it was thought to be. This invokes an element of realism in his text as history unfolds in its true spirit.

It is not a surprise that in such a conflict the aims of the war for the Lincoln shifted from simple reinstatement of the union to the complete abolishment of slavery. A simple stroke of the pen by President Lincoln was the onset of the heftiest confiscation of private property by the government in the history of America. The Emancipation proclamation was a radical surgery of America that would result into its reformulation. Lincoln was hardly a radical liberal, yet he responded by invoking his own conviction by which he contended that all individuals are created equal and as such they shared certain inalienable rights. At the beginning of 1865, leaders like Jepherson Davis, granted liberty to colored races, primarily black people, whereupon the said blacks enrolled in the confederate army. At the end of the war, improvisation that characterized earlier period was replaced by organization and with this the northern and as such, Lincolns understanding of American nationhood prevailed.

Ultimately, nationhood was a concept of every tongue in America.
Lincolns ideologies continued to shape American thought, at least to some extent, even after his assassination. Like it is custom of all wars, the civil war in America derived unintended consequences. Not in the least of these consequences, was the central government strengthened the more when weighed against previous national governments. In 1865, Americans, in the face of the urgent issues of reconstruction, depended on the derived strong and central government to remake America. Quoted by McPherson, John Hope Franklin, in his book Reconstruction After the Civil War assessed these issues in great detail. Franklin examined how the seceded states were to be admitted back into the union. Additionally Franklin also examined the issue of how men that took arms to support the south were to be treated. The war also granted three million slaves liberty. Franklin examined what the future held for these freed slaves. Additionally, Franklin also assessed whether the economic policies that characterized the war period were still viable and practical in the post war period. In the same spirit, Franklin also examines whether the GOP which claimed to have won the war would follow to be a minority.  All in all, what Franklin sought to understand is whether the various processes that were assumed by Lincolns party resulted into a stronger national government with a clarified sense of a national self definition that had been Lincolns dream (Franklin 1995).
These issues, as McPherson observes, would have given a politician as astute as Lincoln greater difficulty.  Lincolns influence followed his Successor, Andrew Johnson. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln the reconstruction burden was bequeathed on Andrew Johnson who was tasked to contend with a congress dominated by Republicans. There is a whole array of evidence that implies that the south as McPherson observes, in the spring of 1865, was more than willing to allow the consequent effects of a military defeat. What prevented this was President Johnsons generosity with his lenient terms which acted to elevate hopes and at the same time diminish expectations. By December of the same year, when congress reconvened the president declared that the reconstruction was done with. Additionally, Johnson urged for a faster readmission of the southern states into the union who were ideally satisfied with his plan and as such, elected a significant number of ex-confederates into office. Congress was outraged as a result, and it went forward to develop a comprehensive cluster of needs. Caught in a dilemma whether to follow congress or the presidents lead, the south waited in a dilemma. It was not until March of 1867 that, a whole 2 years after a freshly elected congress that had been insulated from veto through the Appomattox asserted its authority breaking the stalemate and consequently imposed what is still regarded as the radical reconstruction of the south.

How radical this was through weighting losers alongside winners in civil wars elsewhere in terms of place and time denotes that this reconstruction failed to meet the standards of radical reconstruction. The states in the south ,that were constituted into 5 districts, purely military,  simply required ratification of both the 13th as well as the 14th amendment to qualify for the said radical reconstruction. Only one confederate who was in charge of Andersonville prison was executed. There was no redrawing of boundaries moreover no property and land as Lincoln signed, was confiscated for redistribution. One aspect that came out of Lincolns efforts was the ending of Guerilla war. By 1870, all states in the south that had seceded from the union were admitted back. By 1877, as opposed to Lincoln wishes, the last factions of Americas federal troops withdrew from the southern states restoring home-rule that implied white supremacy. In these sense Lincolns reconstruction was defined as a test of the extent to which America would move toward a more consolidated and solidified contemporary state, that would emerge from the war. This ideal state was judged against its ability to sustain beliefs that were central in the American grain that had to do with localized control, a free market economy, Americas racial diversity as well as its strict constitutionalism. To Lincoln, the subject-verb agreement had to shift from prewar United States are to the ideal postwar United States is. When a view of rationality has been done away with by the force of argument as opposed to the force of an argument, such a view according to McPherson never ceases to exist. By the beginning of 1880s, a fresh equilibrium was established which disregarded Lincolns dream as the new equilibrium fostered exclusion of black people from a whole array of elements that constituted American life like education and work moreover the new equilibrium established more narrowed definitions that permitted boundaries for the activity of a national government. McPherson quotes Uncle Toms Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe to defend this notion.

One book that addresses Americas rebirth and ideally the concept of nationalism as well as civil war as addressed by Lincoln is Dawley Alans Changing the World 2003. This beautifully authored text, traces Lincolns story. The text vividly describes 19th century America. The author captured the story of Americans that were in pursuit of the future which threatened as it beckoned simultaneously.
Beyond armed forces strategy, President Abraham Lincoln also espoused a sturdily European-influenced disagreement against slavery in the cause of the Union. This is opposed to McPhersons contention that the president invoked his own personal beliefs. Politicians from Britain in the 18th as well as near the beginning of 19th centuries endeared their efforts towards universal abolition of slavery so as to empower free market economies (Dawley 2003). This position was acknowledged through reinforcement from Frances Declaration of the Rights of Man during its revolution. Eliminating slavery or at least ending any international support for slavery as a vibrant institution became a broadly followed political duty outside the circle of America on the verge of the Civil War. Lincoln also embraced many anti-slavery sentiments, although he strayed away from taking a definitive stand on anti-slavery for a long time. When slavery grew to be clear in the course of the Civil War whereupon Lincoln could not find a compromise politically between both the south and the North in preserving the Union, he brought into play French and British anti-slavery stands in justifying the use of aggressive and brute force against the slaveholding Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln signed on first of January, 1863, granted the slaves freedom in the Confederate states. Additionally, it passed the pledge that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons. He also used this document to attract anti-slavery opinion in Europe to the Union side. The British government in particular, had strong economic interests connected to the cotton trade from the Confederate states. It also had geo-political interests in North America that would be served by a weak and divided American nation. Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, feared that British recognition and support for the Confederacy would undermine, and perhaps defeat, Unions aims and ultimately nationalism (Dawley 2003).