Transcript Document

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys,
We'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
We will rally from the hillside,
We'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
The Union forever,
Hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitors, Up with the stars;
While we rally round the flag, boys,
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
We are springing to the call
Of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And we'll fill our vacant ranks with
A million free men more,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it
has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might
cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an
easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the
same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but
let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
answered—that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of
offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by
whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one
of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but
which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove,
and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to
those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure
from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe
to him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid
by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so
still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether."
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under
the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be
restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If
there be those who would not save the Union, unless they
could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they
could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with
them.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and
is not either to save or to destroy slavery. 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; and if I could save
it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do
that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do
because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I
forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to
save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I
am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall
believe doing more will help the cause.
I am not, nor have ever been, in favor
of bringing about in any way the social
and political equality of the white and
black races—that I am not nor ever
have been in favor of making voters or
jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying
them to hold office, nor to intermarry
with white people.
After four years of arduous service, marked by
unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army
of Northern Virginia has been compelled to
yield to overwhelming numbers and
resources.
I need not tell the survivors of so many hardfought battles who have remained steadfast
to the last that I have consented to this result
from no distrust of them; but feeling that valor
and devotion could accomplish nothing that
could compensate for the loss that would
have attended the continuance of the contest,
I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of
those whose past services have endeared
them to their countrymen. By the terms of the
agreement, officers and men can return to
their homes and remain until exchanged.
You may take with you the satisfaction that
proceeds from the consciousness of duty
faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that
a merciful God will extend to you his blessing
and protection. With an unceasing admiration
of your constancy and devotion to your
country, and a grateful remembrance of your
kind and generous consideration of myself, I
bid you all an affectionate farewell.
On the afternoon of July 2, 1863 Sickles' Third Corps, having
advanced from this line to the Emmitsburg Road, eight
companies of the First Minnesota Regiment, numbering 262
men were sent to this place to support a battery upon Sickles
repulse. As his men were passing here in confused retreat, two
Confederate brigades in pursuit were crossing the swale. To
gain time to bring up the reserves & save this position, Gen
Hancock in person ordered the eight companies to charge the
rapidly advancing enemy.
The order was instantly repeated by Col Wm Colvill. And the
charge as instantly made down the slope at full speed through
the concentrated fire of the two brigades breaking with the
bayonet the enemy's front line as it was crossing the small
brook in the low ground there the remnant of the eight
companies, nearly surrounded by the enemy held its entire
force at bay for a considerable time & till it retired on the
approach of the reserve the charge successfully accomplished
its object. It saved this position & probably the battlefield. The
loss of the eight companies in the charge was 215 killed &
wounded. More than 83% percent. 47 men were still in line &
no man missing. In self sacrificing desperate valor this charge
has no parallel in any war.
Among the severely wounded were Col Wm Colvill, Lt Col Chas
P Adams & Maj Mark W. Downie. Among the killed Capt
Joseph Periam, Capt Louis Muller & Lt Waldo Farrar.
The next day the regiment participated in repelling Pickett's
charge losing 17 more men killed & wounded
I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.
When I felt the bullet enter my heart
I wished I had staid at home and gone to jail
For stealing the hogs of Curl Trenary,
Instead of running away and joining the army.
Rather a thousand times the county jail
Than to lie under this marble figure with wings,
And this granite pedestal bearing the words, "Pro Patria."
What do they mean, anyway?
--Edgar Lee Master, Spoon River Anthology
U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3:
"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which may
be included within this Union, according to their
respective Numbers, which shall be determined by
adding to the whole Number of free Persons,
including those bound to Service for a Term of
Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths
of all other Persons."
Representative Thaddeus Stevens
Senator Charles Sumner
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 4, Clause 1:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a Republican Form of Government...”
1865 Harper’s Weekly illustration shows freed slaves lining up at Freedmen’s
Bureau
Civil Rights Bill passes, April 9, 1866
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the
members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens
of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in
rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall
bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in
such State.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military,
under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken
an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or
as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer
of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or
comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds
of each House, remove such disability.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such
debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
ANDY: “Why, how large you are, Uncle! I thought I was taller’n you till got up!”
“Things cannot drift along in this way forever.
Those States must be admitted some time.
There must be an end of the confusion, the
anarchy now prevailing. We must have civil
law and civil order.
We cannot always control those states by the
bayonet.”
--House Republican, 1868
1868 Presidential Candidate Ulysses S. Grant
“I cannot conceive how any thinking man, who does not wish the rebels returned to
power, the nation’s faith violated . . . its name dishonored, its prosperity destroyed, its
patriots insulted, and the Lost Cause restored . . . I do not see how any such man can
vote against Grant. “
--New York Democrat Edward Pierrepont
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
“The Fifteenth Amendment Illustrated”
A Reconstruction-era cartoon depicting white southerners conspiring to keep
African-Americans in a state “worse than slavery”
James Kemper, Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia
“We must make the issue white versus black… We must make the position so odious that no
decent white man can support the radical ticket and look a gentleman in the face.”
Rutherford B. Hayes
President, 1877-1881
1876 cartoon depicts corruption in the presidential election