WEBVTT 00:13.720 --> 00:15.880 Professor David Blight: We're going to elect, 00:15.883 --> 00:17.583 that is re-elect, Lincoln in a moment, 00:17.580 --> 00:22.730 the election of 1864 being one of the, without a question, 00:22.734 --> 00:25.994 crucial turning points in the war, 00:25.990 --> 00:28.160 in a war that was so political. 00:28.160 --> 00:32.100 00:32.100 --> 00:34.250 But spare the poets. 00:34.250 --> 00:36.740 I want to begin by placing you somewhere. 00:36.740 --> 00:41.780 The ending of the Civil War, of course, was for thousands 00:41.780 --> 00:46.010 upon thousands, really millions of Americans, 00:46.010 --> 00:50.970 a confrontation with death on a scale they'd never known, 00:50.968 --> 00:54.938 never experienced, and frankly never have again. 00:54.940 --> 00:58.310 There's a marvelous new book on this, two new books on this, 00:58.308 --> 01:00.248 one in particular by Drew Faust, 01:00.250 --> 01:03.440 whom you've read already, a book called The Republic 01:03.435 --> 01:06.025 of Suffering, which I recommend to 01:06.031 --> 01:09.391 you--it just came out a couple of months ago--which is all 01:09.394 --> 01:12.584 about the death culture that the Civil War bred. 01:12.580 --> 01:16.100 01:16.099 --> 01:18.649 Our greatest death poet was Whitman. 01:18.650 --> 01:22.190 This is risky. I'm going to actually recite a 01:22.190 --> 01:23.850 little piece, little bits, 01:23.848 --> 01:26.498 of what could be Whitman's greatest poem, 01:26.502 --> 01:28.362 at least it in my view. 01:28.360 --> 01:29.120 But what do I know? 01:29.120 --> 01:30.390 I'm not a literary scholar. 01:30.390 --> 01:33.770 01:33.769 --> 01:37.359 But there are ways in Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the 01:37.363 --> 01:41.023 Dooryard Bloom'd" that he is actually anticipating what's 01:41.023 --> 01:44.983 going to happen, with time, to the problem of 01:44.979 --> 01:50.659 how Americans will remember this ghastly bloodletting they've 01:50.657 --> 01:52.547 just experienced. 01:52.550 --> 01:54.980 It's, of course, the poem about Lincoln's death. 01:54.980 --> 01:58.270 Whitman really had a thing about Lincoln, 01:58.269 --> 02:02.389 as you may know. He wrote possibly the only poem 02:02.385 --> 02:06.295 that ever rhymed in his magnificent collection, 02:06.295 --> 02:09.525 "O Captain! My Captain," in relation to 02:09.525 --> 02:14.415 Lincoln's death. But "Lilacs" is a masterpiece. 02:14.420 --> 02:18.290 02:18.289 --> 02:23.799 It's the poem he wrote to try to imagine the funeral train of 02:23.803 --> 02:28.123 Abraham Lincoln, the train that took some twenty 02:28.122 --> 02:29.862 days; three coffins, 02:29.858 --> 02:31.478 because two got damaged. 02:31.479 --> 02:33.579 It stopped in, I forget now, 02:33.580 --> 02:38.090 sixteen, seventeen different cities on this incredible tour 02:38.091 --> 02:42.521 all over New England and then all across the North and the 02:42.524 --> 02:46.264 Midwest and finally to his burial in Springfield, 02:46.257 --> 02:49.257 Illinois. And what Whitman really wrote 02:49.255 --> 02:52.195 here was a kind of a calming--it's written in a mood 02:52.201 --> 02:54.811 of a kind a calming, depoliticized, 02:54.813 --> 02:59.583 contemplation on what Whitman called "the fathomless, 02:59.580 --> 03:03.980 sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death." 03:03.979 --> 03:08.489 But it's very much directly about Lincoln's death. 03:08.490 --> 03:14.250 And Whitman imagines a songbird; calls it a warbling. 03:14.250 --> 03:17.440 03:17.439 --> 03:22.189 And he says he hears this warbling singing a solitary 03:22.191 --> 03:26.121 song, his words, "of the bleeding throat, 03:26.120 --> 03:30.370 Death's outlet song of life, (for well dear brother)"--he's 03:30.373 --> 03:34.703 speaking to the bird now--"(for well dear brother I know, 03:34.699 --> 03:39.759 If thou wast not granted to sing thou wouldst surely die.)" 03:39.763 --> 03:44.393 And he's trying to use the bird--go read this poem, 03:44.389 --> 03:46.719 read it three, four, and five times--he's 03:46.721 --> 03:49.461 trying to use the warbling, the song sparrow, 03:49.460 --> 03:54.090 as a metaphor for all of America. 03:54.090 --> 03:55.410 "How shall I warble?" 03:55.410 --> 03:57.690 Here he gives voice to the bird. 03:57.690 --> 04:01.140 He even writes lyrics for the bird. 04:01.139 --> 04:07.439 "How shall I warble myself for the dead one that I loved?" 04:07.440 --> 04:09.130 It's like an offering. 04:09.129 --> 04:13.589 Whitman picks a sprig of lilac, he says, and places Abraham 04:13.592 --> 04:18.212 Lincoln's funeral train in the setting of what he calls "ever 04:18.207 --> 04:22.667 returning spring across the vast landscape of America, 04:22.670 --> 04:25.390 from east to the prairie." 04:25.389 --> 04:29.089 It was April, like now, a little later; 04:29.089 --> 04:33.519 lilacs were in bloom by late in the month. 04:33.519 --> 04:36.949 And then comes this magnificent verse. 04:36.949 --> 04:40.459 "Over the breast of spring, the land, amidst cities, 04:40.460 --> 04:42.870 Amid lanes and through old woods, 04:42.870 --> 04:46.030 where lately the violets peep'd from the ground, 04:46.026 --> 04:49.586 spotting the grey debris, Amid the grass in the fields 04:49.586 --> 04:53.516 each side of the lanes, passing the endless grass, 04:53.524 --> 04:57.864 Passing the yellow-spear'd wheat, every grain from its 04:57.855 --> 05:01.365 shroud in the dark brown fields uprisen, 05:01.370 --> 05:05.870 Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, 05:05.872 --> 05:09.942 Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, 05:09.939 --> 05:13.329 Night and day journeys a coffin." 05:13.329 --> 05:18.679 And then he says the bird must sing its "carol of death." 05:18.680 --> 05:22.200 And the poet tries to give words to the music, 05:22.201 --> 05:24.941 yet one senses that even Whitman, 05:24.939 --> 05:29.589 with all his powers, could not match the little 05:29.591 --> 05:34.341 warbling's power, to deliver what he calls "that 05:34.343 --> 05:37.683 powerful psalm in the night." 05:37.680 --> 05:42.900 This is a poem of grief for the whole country. 05:42.899 --> 05:45.839 He's trying to capture the meaning of death, 05:45.843 --> 05:48.513 all that death, caused in the Civil War, 05:48.512 --> 05:49.952 if it's possible. 05:49.949 --> 05:54.659 But he gives the job to a tiny little bird. 05:54.660 --> 05:57.190 Whitman himself, he says, is left with 05:57.185 --> 06:00.525 "visions," his words, "of battle-corpses" and "the 06:00.528 --> 06:04.758 debris of all the slain soldiers of the war," in his head. 06:04.759 --> 06:10.409 The funeral train passes by all the images the poet can muster 06:10.405 --> 06:16.135 and then he's just left to say, his words: "The living remained 06:16.144 --> 06:17.814 and suffered." 06:17.810 --> 06:22.090 06:22.090 --> 06:28.970 Now I'll return to Whitman. 06:28.970 --> 06:33.900 It's one way to get a handle, if it is a handle, 06:33.904 --> 06:38.634 on what Americans were coping with in 1865, 06:38.629 --> 06:43.249 the level and scale of sacrifice that they had 06:43.252 --> 06:46.852 experienced. And of course Lincoln's 06:46.849 --> 06:51.449 assassination came two, three days after Robert E. 06:51.451 --> 06:54.551 Lee's surrender at Appomattox. 06:54.550 --> 06:56.950 More on that in a minute. 06:56.949 --> 07:00.299 But back up with me, back up with me into that last 07:00.302 --> 07:04.762 year of the war. It was still possible for the 07:04.759 --> 07:10.919 South to win its version of a victory as late as I'd say 07:10.922 --> 07:14.832 August of 1864; I suppose you could even say 07:14.829 --> 07:18.809 September, but after the fall of Atlanta it wasn't likely. 07:18.810 --> 07:21.710 But now quickly, that election of '64 was one of 07:21.709 --> 07:23.929 the most important in our history. 07:23.930 --> 07:26.540 We don't pay a lot of attention to it because we kind of speed 07:26.541 --> 07:29.111 by it or around it and we almost ignore it sometimes--oh it's 07:29.110 --> 07:31.190 another election, let's get on with the Civil War. 07:31.190 --> 07:34.390 07:34.389 --> 07:37.549 Across the North there was tremendous war weariness that 07:37.552 --> 07:40.072 summer. I mentioned already, 07:40.069 --> 07:45.769 65 -- 66,0000 casualties in Grant's Army alone in Virginia 07:45.769 --> 07:48.569 in two and a half months. 07:48.569 --> 07:53.179 There was great bitterness against the draft that summer. 07:53.180 --> 07:56.780 Now, in the end only about six, seven percent of all Union 07:56.776 --> 07:59.806 soldiers will actually be draftees, but there was 07:59.805 --> 08:02.135 tremendous resentment against it. 08:02.139 --> 08:06.729 In the North there were the Peace Democrats; 08:06.730 --> 08:08.720 or sometimes that's what they were called. 08:08.720 --> 08:11.340 Sometimes they were called Copperheads, named for the 08:11.337 --> 08:13.947 snake. Copperheads usually though were 08:13.953 --> 08:18.023 those people who somehow were deemed truly disloyal to the 08:18.022 --> 08:22.592 Union and actually were engaging in machinations and conspiracies 08:22.591 --> 08:24.591 to overthrow the Union. 08:24.589 --> 08:27.529 That's always been an open question. 08:27.529 --> 08:31.499 There was an effort within the Republican Party as early as May 08:31.501 --> 08:35.731 and June of '64 to dump Lincoln in place of either Salmon Chase, 08:35.730 --> 08:40.430 a member of Lincoln's cabinet, his Attorney General--and read 08:40.434 --> 08:44.984 Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals if you want to 08:44.982 --> 08:49.532 know just how much Chase was scheming to dump Lincoln, 08:49.530 --> 08:51.010 as his own Attorney General. 08:51.010 --> 08:54.310 08:54.309 --> 08:57.309 Chase may have had the most beautiful daughter in 08:57.307 --> 09:00.177 Washington, Kate Chase, but he had no style. 09:00.179 --> 09:03.509 And then there was an effort to dump Lincoln in favor of the 09:03.510 --> 09:04.470 candidate John C. 09:04.469 --> 09:07.349 Fremont, the same Fremont who had run in 1856 as the 09:07.348 --> 09:09.548 Republican presidential candidate. 09:09.549 --> 09:14.019 And Lincoln was himself all but convinced, by July and early 09:14.024 --> 09:17.294 August of '64, that he probably wouldn't win 09:17.286 --> 09:23.026 re-election; what to do in the meantime? 09:23.029 --> 09:25.389 The Democratic Party nominated George B. 09:25.386 --> 09:29.006 McClellan, the former general, commanding General of the Army 09:29.011 --> 09:32.311 of the Potomac. That Democratic Party in the 09:32.311 --> 09:35.541 midst of the Civil War was a confusing lot, 09:35.539 --> 09:38.689 and one might even say a confused lot. 09:38.690 --> 09:42.500 Some of them truly wanted to sue for a negotiated peace, 09:42.502 --> 09:46.802 but they would always say they wanted a negotiated peace of the 09:46.800 --> 09:49.920 South that would still restore the Union. 09:49.919 --> 09:52.589 And, of course, that was never acceptable to 09:52.588 --> 09:55.628 Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government. 09:55.629 --> 09:59.359 Many of them were quite explicitly for a negotiated 09:59.364 --> 10:02.804 peace that would not result in emancipation. 10:02.799 --> 10:05.149 They wanted to turn emancipation around. 10:05.149 --> 10:08.159 They wanted a Union without emancipation; 10:08.159 --> 10:10.659 that is exactly what McClellan wanted. 10:10.659 --> 10:15.249 There was a deeply white supremacist strain in much of 10:15.250 --> 10:20.190 the northern Democratic Party and they put up a formidable 10:20.188 --> 10:25.288 challenge to wartime president, in the midst of Civil War. 10:25.289 --> 10:29.009 They painted Lincoln and the Republicans as what they 10:29.011 --> 10:31.661 constantly called miscegenationist; 10:31.660 --> 10:32.890 they used the term all the time. 10:32.889 --> 10:35.799 The Republicans were going to make whites and blacks marry 10:35.797 --> 10:38.767 each other. They called Abraham Lincoln, 10:38.773 --> 10:42.163 in this campaign, "Abe the widow maker." 10:42.159 --> 10:45.889 They were already waving the bloody shirt that would become 10:45.886 --> 10:49.996 so ubiquitous in the wake of the war, blaming Lincoln for all the 10:49.997 --> 10:52.857 death. They also referred to him as 10:52.858 --> 10:54.758 "Abe the nigger lover." 10:54.759 --> 10:58.229 And the Democratic papers produced cartoons, 10:58.233 --> 11:03.163 famous cartoons--I wish I had an example of one today--of what 11:03.161 --> 11:08.321 they called miscegenation balls; these were dances and balls 11:08.319 --> 11:12.399 where whites and blacks all came together, kissed, 11:12.401 --> 11:15.151 made love and mixed the races. 11:15.149 --> 11:21.109 What Lincoln desperately needed was battlefield success to alter 11:21.109 --> 11:26.619 Northern war morale; and of course they got that. 11:26.620 --> 11:31.030 They got it with the fall of Mobile Harbor in the first and 11:31.030 --> 11:34.680 second week of August--Admiral David Farragut, 11:34.679 --> 11:38.149 in the largest naval engagement of the war, took Mobile, 11:38.146 --> 11:40.286 the last major southern seaport, 11:40.289 --> 11:46.629 to come into Union hands--and then especially with the fall of 11:46.626 --> 11:50.986 Atlanta, on the 3^(rd) of September '64. 11:50.990 --> 11:55.090 And then in the month of September further victories by 11:55.092 --> 11:59.122 Philip Sheridan's cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley, 11:59.120 --> 12:03.300 driving Confederate armies basically out of the Shenandoah 12:03.295 --> 12:07.905 Valley, made it now possible to say that the war was on a course 12:07.911 --> 12:11.811 of Union victory, that the Confederacy was in a 12:11.808 --> 12:13.758 state of near collapse. 12:13.759 --> 12:19.509 And when the election came the votes were there. 12:19.509 --> 12:23.769 Lincoln won fifty-five percent of the total popular vote. 12:23.769 --> 12:26.669 Forty-five percent of the electorate in the northern 12:26.667 --> 12:29.217 states did not vote for Lincoln and in effect, 12:29.223 --> 12:31.953 therefore, were not voting for emancipation. 12:31.950 --> 12:34.300 Keep that in mind when we start discussing Reconstruction. 12:34.300 --> 12:38.130 12:38.129 --> 12:42.489 Eighteen of the Free states made it possible for soldiers to 12:42.491 --> 12:45.501 vote at the front; only two did not, 12:45.497 --> 12:49.627 and even those let soldiers vote by absentee. 12:49.629 --> 12:53.719 It is the first time in world history, so far as we know, 12:53.721 --> 12:57.521 that a republic in the midst--there weren't that many 12:57.520 --> 13:01.550 republics to speak of, of course--but the first time 13:01.549 --> 13:05.809 in the course of a civil war that a republic held a general 13:05.807 --> 13:08.007 election and pulled it off. 13:08.009 --> 13:11.409 Most importantly, Lincoln won an extraordinary 13:11.412 --> 13:14.742 seventy-eight percent of the soldier vote, 13:14.740 --> 13:18.540 of all those hundreds of thousands in the Army and Navy, 13:18.543 --> 13:20.413 and they voted in droves. 13:20.410 --> 13:23.660 13:23.659 --> 13:27.459 It was, that election, a referendum on the war, 13:27.461 --> 13:31.681 and it was a referendum on its purpose, and it was a 13:31.676 --> 13:35.226 referendum, therefore, on emancipation. 13:35.230 --> 13:39.770 One of the most extraordinary events that happened in that 13:39.769 --> 13:44.309 election season was in the third week of August of '64, 13:44.309 --> 13:48.459 Lincoln invited--this time invited--Frederick Douglass to 13:48.455 --> 13:50.375 come to the White House. 13:50.379 --> 13:53.319 They had met the year before in August, in '63, 13:53.322 --> 13:56.012 but that was at Douglass's own prodding. 13:56.009 --> 13:59.689 In '63 Douglass had gone to the White House to complain about 13:59.686 --> 14:02.806 unequal pay and brutal discriminations against black 14:02.810 --> 14:05.870 troops in the Union armies, and he got an audience, 14:05.871 --> 14:08.291 at least for awhile, with Lincoln--the first time 14:08.294 --> 14:11.194 they met, the beginnings of a remarkable 14:11.190 --> 14:14.090 relationship. But in '64 Lincoln invites 14:14.087 --> 14:18.097 Douglass--and Douglass didn't know what he was going to be 14:18.095 --> 14:20.925 asked to do. And they sat down for about 14:20.934 --> 14:24.244 forty-five minutes, eye to eye, and Abraham Lincoln 14:24.238 --> 14:28.198 asked Frederick Douglass to lead a campaign to funnel as many 14:28.203 --> 14:32.043 slaves out of the upper south into some kind of security in 14:32.036 --> 14:34.596 the North, before election day in 14:34.604 --> 14:38.554 November, because he feared he would not be re-elected and he 14:38.545 --> 14:41.955 wanted as many slaves as possible to be secure within 14:41.960 --> 14:46.230 Union lines and somehow legally free under the proclamation, 14:46.230 --> 14:49.270 before McClellan won the election. 14:49.269 --> 14:53.159 Now frankly, Douglass was stunned. 14:53.159 --> 14:56.609 Here was Abe Lincoln asking him to be John Brown, 14:56.611 --> 14:59.811 sort of. He could hardly believe it, 14:59.812 --> 15:04.872 and he left there with a whole new kind of conception of 15:04.868 --> 15:07.328 Lincoln, frankly--not entirely new, 15:07.327 --> 15:09.107 he was already working on that. 15:09.110 --> 15:12.630 But he went back home to Rochester, New York and he 15:12.625 --> 15:15.715 organized about fifteen or sixteen agents, 15:15.720 --> 15:18.880 by letter and telegram, in late August and the first 15:18.880 --> 15:21.360 week of September, all over the North. 15:21.360 --> 15:23.750 He didn't have a clue how he was really going to do this, 15:23.745 --> 15:25.955 or how much the army was really going to help him, 15:25.960 --> 15:28.180 but he started calling all his old friends in the abolition 15:28.176 --> 15:30.236 movement, and a lot of the people who'd been recruiting 15:30.240 --> 15:32.100 black troops, and said, "Help me, 15:32.099 --> 15:34.899 we're gonna funnel slaves out of the South. 15:34.900 --> 15:37.630 I don't know how but help me." 15:37.629 --> 15:42.289 And then came the fall of Atlanta, a couple of Sheridan's 15:42.287 --> 15:47.187 victories in the Shenandoah, and the whole scheme was called 15:47.194 --> 15:51.124 off. But it's a measure of Lincoln's 15:51.118 --> 15:56.268 own sense of reality, that he was about to lose. 15:56.269 --> 16:00.929 All right, the war ended, of course, in great part with 16:00.930 --> 16:05.640 the surrender at Appomattox, and then with the surrender of 16:05.635 --> 16:09.645 Joseph Johnston to Sherman in a farmhouse in central North 16:09.653 --> 16:14.673 Carolina, about ten days later--what is 16:14.667 --> 16:18.257 it, April 21, I believe? 16:18.260 --> 16:21.350 Let me discuss that briefly. 16:21.350 --> 16:25.570 It's an extremely important moment and event, 16:25.568 --> 16:31.128 and the terms of that surrender are extremely important for 16:31.128 --> 16:35.008 what's to come. In a war that had become so 16:35.005 --> 16:39.645 political, so much about morale, so much about public opinion, 16:39.648 --> 16:44.138 so much about the will of two peoples to see it through. 16:44.140 --> 16:47.220 16:47.220 --> 16:50.180 The surrender terms were actually almost utterly 16:50.181 --> 16:51.001 apolitical. 16:51.000 --> 16:54.660 16:54.659 --> 16:56.619 I had a couple of photos up here. 16:56.620 --> 16:58.300 I don't know if you can see this very well. 16:58.300 --> 17:01.960 17:01.960 --> 17:09.600 This is one of many photographs that Mathew Brady and his troop 17:09.596 --> 17:14.026 of photographers took of Richmond, 17:14.029 --> 17:19.009 after it fell April 5,1865, as so many journalists now 17:19.014 --> 17:24.474 started saying the United States was finally an old country 17:24.468 --> 17:26.818 because it had ruins. 17:26.820 --> 17:30.410 17:30.410 --> 17:31.720 Isn't that great? 17:31.720 --> 17:36.160 You need some ruins to have a history. 17:36.160 --> 17:40.790 Well, Richmond fell 5^(th) of April of '65, 17:40.791 --> 17:43.881 and Lee's army did escape. 17:43.880 --> 17:47.220 He was experiencing tremendous desertion. 17:47.220 --> 17:50.220 He escaped westward. 17:50.220 --> 17:52.370 The goal he had, so far as we know, 17:52.365 --> 17:55.835 was to reach the Blue Ridge Mountains and maybe even get 17:55.836 --> 17:59.116 south into North Carolina, maybe hook up with Johnston's 17:59.123 --> 18:01.863 army that was retreating in front of Sherman up into North 18:01.863 --> 18:04.613 Carolina, maybe somehow connect the two 18:04.609 --> 18:08.499 remaining Confederate armies, and carry on the war, 18:08.500 --> 18:13.640 if they could. Lee really didn't ever, 18:13.642 --> 18:15.972 ever want to give up. 18:15.970 --> 18:20.370 But he had to. He was cut off. 18:20.369 --> 18:26.899 There was an emerging lethal mixture now, of no supplies, 18:26.901 --> 18:33.321 desertion, and the almost unfathomable oversupply of the 18:33.317 --> 18:37.907 Union forces. He was grossly outnumbered and 18:37.907 --> 18:43.027 finally he had to send a note, after this last little battle 18:43.034 --> 18:46.954 they actually fought, on the 11^(th) of April, 18:46.945 --> 18:49.375 where eighteen men were killed. 18:49.380 --> 18:52.150 And there's a little cemetery at Appomattox today where you 18:52.154 --> 18:54.454 can see the gravestones of those eighteen men. 18:54.450 --> 18:57.100 It's one of the most moving little cemeteries I've ever 18:57.096 --> 18:59.326 seen. They're the last to die in a 18:59.328 --> 19:00.878 totally futile battle. 19:00.880 --> 19:04.710 19:04.710 --> 19:11.100 The terms of the surrender were essentially this--and, 19:11.096 --> 19:16.876 by the way, they were Lincoln's direct orders. 19:16.880 --> 19:19.030 That's a parole slip. 19:19.029 --> 19:22.669 It's a photocopy of exactly what they looked like. 19:22.670 --> 19:26.080 The Union Army took printing presses out to Appomattox 19:26.075 --> 19:28.705 Courthouse, which was this little town, 19:28.710 --> 19:33.190 and they set it up in a tavern and they pumped out these parole 19:33.185 --> 19:37.295 slips, about 25 to 30,000 of them in forty-eight hours. 19:37.299 --> 19:41.439 The Confederate soldiers were given these paroles. 19:41.440 --> 19:46.780 They were allowed to keep their side arms, they had to surrender 19:46.778 --> 19:50.638 their rifles, they were allowed to keep 19:50.638 --> 19:56.328 horses if they had them, and in essence they were simply 19:56.333 --> 20:01.393 told go home. Nobody, except technically Lee 20:01.390 --> 20:05.130 himself, was taken into custody. 20:05.130 --> 20:09.660 But Lee's custody was simply the right to ride his horse back 20:09.661 --> 20:13.901 to Richmond, if he chose, or wherever he wanted to go, 20:13.897 --> 20:18.367 and he was technically put under house arrest--not allowed 20:18.370 --> 20:22.450 to leave his house for some period of time--but never 20:22.451 --> 20:24.571 charged with anything. 20:24.569 --> 20:28.039 Jefferson Davis will--more on that later. 20:28.039 --> 20:31.569 Alexander H. Stephens, the vice-president, 20:31.566 --> 20:36.036 will technically be charged, although never tried. 20:36.039 --> 20:40.389 Davis will be charged but never tried. 20:40.390 --> 20:46.400 No one, except the commandant of Andersonville Prison, 20:46.403 --> 20:51.283 one Captain Wirz, a Swiss born immigrant who 20:51.282 --> 20:56.602 commanded Andersonville, the worst of the South's 20:56.597 --> 21:01.667 prisons, he was the only person accused of treason and war 21:01.674 --> 21:05.864 crimes and executed as a result of this war. 21:05.859 --> 21:09.469 Now Lee and Grant, of course, met--and Ken Burns 21:09.471 --> 21:13.991 milks this for all it's worth, so I'm going to let you feel it 21:13.994 --> 21:17.594 from him--they met at the McLean House at Appomattox. 21:17.590 --> 21:18.400 Go there someday. 21:18.400 --> 21:21.240 It still looks almost exactly as it looked in 1865. 21:21.240 --> 21:24.970 21:24.970 --> 21:26.940 Grant and Lee barely remembered one another. 21:26.940 --> 21:29.890 They knew each other now--and altogether extraordinarily 21:29.887 --> 21:32.297 well--from fighting each other for so long. 21:32.299 --> 21:38.539 They sat down in the parlor of this house and Grant gave Lee 21:38.540 --> 21:41.570 the terms. Lee dressed up in his finest 21:41.571 --> 21:43.291 golden sash. He wore a sword. 21:43.289 --> 21:46.139 He fully expected this to be a traditional eighteenth or 21:46.135 --> 21:47.735 nineteenth century surrender. 21:47.740 --> 21:51.770 He was going to give his sword and all that nonsense, 21:51.767 --> 21:55.247 but Grant just said, "I don't want your sword, 21:55.253 --> 21:59.073 go home." Now it's also true that when 21:59.065 --> 22:05.175 they finally cut Lee's army off, and Lee had to send that note 22:05.177 --> 22:08.427 and say, "Please meet me to consider 22:08.429 --> 22:13.449 surrender terms," the news just zoomed around the Union army and 22:13.445 --> 22:16.785 Union soldiers just stated going crazy, 22:16.789 --> 22:19.349 celebrating, screaming, shooting off guns, 22:19.351 --> 22:22.101 riding on their horses all over the place, 22:22.099 --> 22:23.949 "The war's over, the war's over, 22:23.952 --> 22:26.042 the war's over, God damn rebels have 22:26.044 --> 22:28.804 surrendered." And Grant put out an order all 22:28.799 --> 22:31.929 through his army that there would be no celebrations. 22:31.930 --> 22:35.100 22:35.099 --> 22:39.949 It was Grant already understanding that the surrender 22:39.953 --> 22:45.053 had to be political too, and that there would be 22:45.053 --> 22:52.033 tremendous untold bitterness to deal with in the wake of this 22:52.026 --> 22:53.956 war. Grant, as a general, 22:53.961 --> 22:56.261 had no idea what politically would come. 22:56.259 --> 23:01.589 He wasn't involved yet in reconstruction plans at all. 23:01.589 --> 23:05.879 But it also was a kind of statement, of course, 23:05.876 --> 23:08.296 of honor among soldiers. 23:08.299 --> 23:10.229 To the South, you can rest assured, 23:10.230 --> 23:13.240 the day they heard about Appomattox was the way it was 23:13.238 --> 23:16.468 for most Northerners about the day they heard of Lincoln's 23:16.474 --> 23:19.564 assassination. It is all over diaries, 23:19.559 --> 23:21.339 all over literature. 23:21.339 --> 23:26.269 It sometimes is just called "the surrender," "the day we 23:26.272 --> 23:28.762 heard." There's so many statements of 23:28.757 --> 23:32.167 it, throughout Southern letters and diaries, as I've said. 23:32.170 --> 23:34.880 I'll just read a couple, just briefly, 23:34.878 --> 23:39.198 and then one from a Northerner, to show you what this moment 23:39.197 --> 23:43.147 means on both sides and how difficult reconstruction is 23:43.149 --> 23:46.589 going to be-- just look at their diaries. 23:46.590 --> 23:48.290 Remember Kate Stone? 23:48.289 --> 23:51.899 I read from her diary before, a Louisiana planter woman who 23:51.900 --> 23:54.950 fled over to Texas and lost most of her slaves. 23:54.950 --> 23:57.460 She writes into her diary. 23:57.460 --> 24:03.560 "April 28, '65: All are fearfully depressed," 24:03.559 --> 24:07.699 she reports. "I cannot bear to hear them 24:07.696 --> 24:10.486 talk of defeat." She still hoped that 24:10.490 --> 24:14.440 Confederate armies might rally and fight, as she puts it, 24:14.438 --> 24:16.058 "to be free or die." 24:16.060 --> 24:18.380 Easy for her to say. 24:18.380 --> 24:23.160 On May 15 she opened a journal entry with this definition, 24:23.156 --> 24:28.046 that I may have read before, where the first words are 24:28.054 --> 24:32.444 "conquered, submission, subjugation," she says, 24:32.442 --> 24:35.402 "are the words in my heart." 24:35.400 --> 24:39.330 And then when she hears that John Wilkes Booth has shot 24:39.328 --> 24:43.328 Lincoln, she rejoiced in Lincoln's death and honored, 24:43.329 --> 24:45.989 at least in her diary, John Wilkes Booth for, 24:45.990 --> 24:48.410 quote, "ridding the world of a tyrant. 24:48.410 --> 24:53.210 We are glad he is not alive to rejoice in our humiliation and 24:53.210 --> 24:55.450 insult us with his jokes." 24:55.450 --> 25:00.160 There are thousands of those expressions in Southern letters 25:00.161 --> 25:03.451 and diaries. That spring and summer an 25:03.445 --> 25:06.645 estimated 8 to 10,000 ex-Confederates, 25:06.649 --> 25:11.499 many of them former officers, would flee the country. 25:11.500 --> 25:18.010 They ended up going to Brazil, England, other parts of Europe, 25:18.014 --> 25:23.074 Mexico, Canada, and a few even went as far away 25:23.067 --> 25:27.137 as Japan, for fear--I mean, Jubal Early, 25:27.140 --> 25:33.720 that conniving old rat--more on him later--he ran to Mexico. 25:33.720 --> 25:37.000 He was certain they were all going to be executed, 25:36.995 --> 25:41.135 at least the officer corps of Lee's army--none of them were. 25:41.140 --> 25:45.510 And let me read you a diary entry from a Northern woman, 25:45.509 --> 25:48.829 a great diarist. Her diary's hardly known, 25:48.827 --> 25:52.827 but man, her diary is almost equal to Mary Chestnut. 25:52.829 --> 25:56.339 I first encountered it in a manuscript at the American 25:56.343 --> 25:58.733 Antiquarian Society in Worchester. 25:58.730 --> 26:01.500 Her name was Caroline Barrett White. 26:01.500 --> 26:05.050 She kept a diary for years, decades, and her war-years 26:05.046 --> 26:06.716 diary is extraordinary. 26:06.720 --> 26:11.020 This is her April 10,1865 entry. 26:11.019 --> 26:13.539 "Hurrah, hurrah, sound the loud timbale over 26:13.544 --> 26:14.664 Egypt's dark sea. 26:14.660 --> 26:18.380 Early this morning our ears were greeted with the sound of 26:18.381 --> 26:20.341 bells ringing a joyous peal. 26:20.339 --> 26:24.299 General Lee had surrendered with his whole army to General 26:24.295 --> 26:26.085 Grant!" She's got exclamation marks all 26:26.094 --> 26:30.134 over the place. "Surely this is the Lord's 26:30.130 --> 26:35.540 doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." 26:35.539 --> 26:39.029 And she goes on and on and on, all kinds of biblical cadences 26:39.031 --> 26:42.061 to talk about the sense of jubilation she sees in the 26:42.058 --> 26:44.268 streets of her Massachusetts town. 26:44.269 --> 26:48.019 And then five days later, April 15, comes this entry, 26:48.020 --> 26:51.050 and it's the longest entry in her diary, 26:51.049 --> 26:53.949 several pages, and all around the outside of 26:53.945 --> 26:56.365 the pages she blackened the edges. 26:56.369 --> 27:01.339 She writes, "The darkest day I ever remember. 27:01.339 --> 27:05.669 This morning the sun rose upon a nation jubilant with victory, 27:05.669 --> 27:09.359 but it sets upon one plunged into deepest sorrow." 27:09.359 --> 27:13.599 Her longest of all diary entries she talked about the 27:13.597 --> 27:16.937 shocking intelligence of Lincoln's murder, 27:16.938 --> 27:20.848 and then says, "Where will treason ever end? 27:20.849 --> 27:25.749 The rapidity with which events crowd upon one another now is 27:25.745 --> 27:27.815 perfectly bewildering." 27:27.820 --> 27:30.230 Indeed it was. 27:30.230 --> 27:33.750 27:33.750 --> 27:37.770 Now, as was so often the case in this war though, 27:37.769 --> 27:42.789 Abraham Lincoln left one of the best descriptions of what the 27:42.793 --> 27:44.723 war had been about. 27:44.720 --> 27:47.140 In the greatest speech ever delivered by an American 27:47.144 --> 27:50.154 president--I would venture that; we could get up a debate on 27:50.154 --> 27:52.724 that I'm sure. But what are you going to put 27:52.723 --> 27:56.623 up against the Second Inaugural for an economy of language and a 27:56.619 --> 27:59.339 music of words and an honesty of meaning? 27:59.340 --> 28:02.010 Read the Second Inaugural; it only takes about three 28:02.005 --> 28:02.445 minutes. 28:02.450 --> 28:06.250 28:06.250 --> 28:08.150 He's been re-elected. 28:08.150 --> 28:09.920 This is March '65. 28:09.920 --> 28:13.260 The war is almost over; not there yet. 28:13.260 --> 28:15.110 What does he say in that speech? 28:15.110 --> 28:17.300 What had it been about? 28:17.299 --> 28:20.109 How does he explain all the death? 28:20.110 --> 28:23.500 He doesn't find that easy. 28:23.500 --> 28:27.520 But in the second paragraph, and the third paragraph, 28:27.524 --> 28:32.014 came a few phrases that we've been trying to answer through 28:32.013 --> 28:36.433 interpretation in our 65 to 70,000 books on the Civil War, 28:36.425 --> 28:40.755 more than one a day that we've written ever since. 28:40.759 --> 28:44.749 He's thinking back to his First Inaugural and he says, 28:44.753 --> 28:50.073 "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war 28:50.068 --> 28:55.428 rather than let the nation survive, and the other would 28:55.429 --> 28:59.499 accept war rather than let it perish." 28:59.500 --> 29:03.030 That's his interpretation; of course, he's going to get 29:03.032 --> 29:05.112 vast disagreement on that from Southerners. 29:05.109 --> 29:10.819 And then the famous phrase, "And the war came." 29:10.819 --> 29:13.929 There are more titles of books on the Civil War taken from this 29:13.926 --> 29:15.826 speech than anything else ever done. 29:15.829 --> 29:17.599 When in doubt, people just go to Lincoln's 29:17.595 --> 29:19.615 Second Inaugural and find some little phrase, 29:19.619 --> 29:21.879 if they can find three words somebody else hasn't used 29:21.875 --> 29:23.955 before, and it becomes the title of their book. 29:23.960 --> 29:27.350 Kenneth Stamp used And the War Came, 29:27.352 --> 29:29.132 a book on secession. 29:29.130 --> 29:32.020 Jim McPherson has a new book of essays out, it's called 29:32.024 --> 29:35.244 Mighty Scourge of War; it comes out of here. 29:35.240 --> 29:37.950 Stephen Oates' biography of Abraham Lincoln, 29:37.947 --> 29:39.897 Malice Toward None. 29:39.900 --> 29:41.910 I mean, it's just endless. 29:41.910 --> 29:46.440 But then in that next paragraph, "One-eighth of the 29:46.437 --> 29:50.057 whole population were colored slaves." 29:50.059 --> 29:53.879 Three weeks ago when Barack Obama used the word "slave," 29:53.875 --> 29:58.215 "slavery," or "slaves," seven times in that remarkable 29:58.219 --> 30:03.519 speech, it's remarkable because it's been altogether rare that 30:03.524 --> 30:08.574 presidents or presidential candidates have ever mouthed the 30:08.568 --> 30:12.828 word "slave" in American political rhetoric. 30:12.830 --> 30:18.030 But Lincoln did. "One-eighth of the whole 30:18.027 --> 30:21.907 population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over 30:21.908 --> 30:25.088 the Union, but localized in the southern part." 30:25.090 --> 30:28.950 No kidding. And here it is. 30:28.950 --> 30:35.260 "These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest." 30:35.260 --> 30:39.490 Whoa. "All knew," says Lincoln, 30:39.490 --> 30:45.540 "that this interest was somehow the cause of the war." 30:45.539 --> 30:51.359 Somehow; that's the greatest somehow in American letters. 30:51.359 --> 30:56.329 We've been trying to explain the somehow ever since, 30:56.326 --> 30:59.926 and we never can quite pin it down. 30:59.930 --> 31:03.330 And before that paragraph's over you'd been treated to some 31:03.334 --> 31:05.864 of the most beautiful rhetoric ever written, 31:05.859 --> 31:08.089 at least by an American president. 31:08.089 --> 31:11.789 He says that everybody wished for a result less fundamental 31:11.794 --> 31:15.504 and astounding. We don't want all this 31:15.497 --> 31:19.777 revolution, but that's what we got. 31:19.779 --> 31:25.509 And then comes that line, "for every drop of blood shed 31:25.509 --> 31:30.389 by the lash, it shall be paid by the sword." 31:30.390 --> 31:34.090 You can't hear it or read it and not know what the war had 31:34.086 --> 31:34.926 been about. 31:34.930 --> 31:39.800 31:39.799 --> 31:44.799 Now, we're going to deal in the next several lectures about the 31:44.798 --> 31:49.468 extended question of results of this war, the consequences, 31:49.474 --> 31:51.414 short and long-term. 31:51.410 --> 31:54.960 And there are many things we can put on that list, 31:54.955 --> 31:56.325 to say the least. 31:56.329 --> 31:58.539 And let me just give you a short list to begin with, 31:58.536 --> 32:00.696 and we're going to come back to so much of this. 32:00.700 --> 32:05.510 32:05.510 --> 32:08.520 A quick list. Just keep it handy. 32:08.519 --> 32:12.189 And some of them are actually signaled in that Second 32:12.192 --> 32:16.742 Inaugural. I mean, one is that secession 32:16.743 --> 32:20.323 was killed, almost forever. 32:20.319 --> 32:23.319 Now and then you hear about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 32:23.315 --> 32:27.235 wanting to secede or something; Texas once in awhile gets back 32:27.242 --> 32:31.172 on its heels and says "don't mess with Texas" and says 32:31.169 --> 32:34.949 they're going to secede, and some parts of the country 32:34.948 --> 32:35.928 say "go ahead." 32:35.930 --> 32:40.570 32:40.569 --> 32:43.869 There's a fundamental change in the nature of American 32:43.867 --> 32:46.787 nationalism and the centralization of government 32:46.792 --> 32:48.972 that will come out of this war. 32:48.970 --> 32:55.390 32:55.390 --> 32:59.030 Eleven of the first twelve amendments to the U.S. 32:59.026 --> 33:03.266 Constitution had been written to limit national power. 33:03.270 --> 33:05.380 This is just fundamental. 33:05.380 --> 33:08.840 It's one of Lincoln's less fundamental and astounding 33:08.843 --> 33:10.973 results. Six of the next seven 33:10.973 --> 33:15.223 constitutional amendments will be directly to increase federal 33:15.222 --> 33:18.412 power; more on that as we do 33:18.409 --> 33:22.759 Reconstruction. Power itself will shift from 33:22.760 --> 33:25.760 south to north, at least for awhile, 33:25.760 --> 33:28.590 in American political culture. 33:28.589 --> 33:34.439 Nativism will be put on the run, at least for awhile, 33:34.441 --> 33:38.311 quite awhile. The old Nativist Party and all 33:38.313 --> 33:42.463 that nativism of antebellum America, what are you going to 33:42.463 --> 33:46.543 do with all that xenophobic nativism in the wake of a war 33:46.539 --> 33:50.979 where one of every four Union soldiers was foreign born? 33:50.980 --> 33:51.960 And now they're U.S. 33:51.956 --> 33:53.756 citizens claiming pensions on the U.S. 33:53.761 --> 33:55.471 Government for saving the Union; 33:55.470 --> 33:57.040 thank you very much. 33:57.039 --> 34:01.509 What Nativist party is going to get any traction with Union 34:01.510 --> 34:03.360 veterans in the 1870s? 34:03.360 --> 34:07.060 None. The Labor Movement and the 34:07.056 --> 34:11.046 Women's Rights Movements, on the other hand, 34:11.052 --> 34:14.772 are going to be crippled--not ruined, 34:14.769 --> 34:19.829 but crippled--by the Civil War, by the authoritarianism of war, 34:19.829 --> 34:21.869 all its centralization. 34:21.870 --> 34:25.110 34:25.110 --> 34:28.710 And emancipation, of course, ushered into 34:28.705 --> 34:32.655 national life all sorts of new challenges, 34:32.659 --> 34:38.319 new ideas, new meanings, and this most difficult 34:38.321 --> 34:43.141 American idea of all, racial equality. 34:43.139 --> 34:45.189 God, what are you going to do with that now? 34:45.190 --> 34:49.040 It's been taken out of its--it's been unshucked from 34:49.040 --> 34:50.550 its shell, by war. 34:50.550 --> 34:55.010 34:55.010 --> 34:58.370 Oh, there'll be a thousand meanings, and we'll come back to 34:58.368 --> 34:59.698 six or seven of them. 34:59.699 --> 35:07.419 Now, I want to introduce Reconstruction plans here in 35:07.418 --> 35:14.098 just one moment, but at this particular moment 35:14.098 --> 35:17.408 in time, of all the possible meanings 35:17.406 --> 35:20.506 people had taken from this war--and of course they're very 35:20.514 --> 35:24.004 different meanings if you're one of those white Georgians who had 35:24.003 --> 35:27.803 to face Sherman's Army, of if you're Kate Stone out in 35:27.795 --> 35:32.245 Texas, or if you're a widow of your husband and four of your 35:32.249 --> 35:34.589 sons who've died in the war. 35:34.590 --> 35:39.420 I mean, there are many, many, many different individual 35:39.424 --> 35:41.944 stories. But think back to what Lincoln 35:41.936 --> 35:45.116 had just said in the Second Inaugural about what the war had 35:45.115 --> 35:48.815 been about, and this chastening that it had 35:48.815 --> 35:50.805 brought the country. 35:50.809 --> 35:55.979 One of the most remarkable documents left from this massive 35:55.982 --> 36:00.092 documentation of this war, and of emancipation, 36:00.085 --> 36:03.945 is this letter. Perhaps you've seen it before, 36:03.947 --> 36:06.617 it's getting reprinted now and then. 36:06.619 --> 36:11.989 It's a letter written by a former slave whose name was 36:11.994 --> 36:15.274 Jordan Anderson. How many of you've read Jordan 36:15.271 --> 36:16.531 Anderson's letter before? 36:16.530 --> 36:20.140 Good, the grad students have, better have, 36:20.141 --> 36:22.921 yes. Well, this is in the summer of 36:22.915 --> 36:27.055 '65. What had the war meant? 36:27.059 --> 36:31.639 Jordan Anderson had been a slave in Tennessee. 36:31.640 --> 36:34.110 He's living in Ohio now. 36:34.110 --> 36:37.890 The war's over. He gets a letter from his old 36:37.888 --> 36:41.218 master, whose name was Colonel P.H. 36:41.215 --> 36:43.865 Anderson. And Jordan's living in Dayton, 36:43.873 --> 36:45.603 Ohio. And he writes back, 36:45.599 --> 36:47.179 to Colonel Anderson. 36:47.179 --> 36:48.879 He says, "Thank you very much for your letter." 36:48.880 --> 36:52.710 Anderson wants him to come back. 36:52.710 --> 36:57.860 "Dear Sir, I got your letter, and was glad to find you had 36:57.860 --> 37:02.200 not forgotten old Jordan, and that you wanted me to come 37:02.203 --> 37:05.883 back and live with you again, promising to do better for me 37:05.883 --> 37:07.473 than anybody else can. 37:07.469 --> 37:11.379 I have often felt uneasy about you. 37:11.380 --> 37:15.210 I thought the Yankees would've hung you long before this for 37:15.212 --> 37:17.942 harboring Rebs they found at your house. 37:17.940 --> 37:21.020 I suppose they never heard about you going to Colonel 37:21.017 --> 37:24.207 Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his 37:24.212 --> 37:25.872 company in their stable. 37:25.869 --> 37:29.049 Although you shot at me twice before I left you, 37:29.047 --> 37:33.167 I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are 37:33.170 --> 37:34.320 still living. 37:34.320 --> 37:40.560 37:40.559 --> 37:43.999 It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, 37:43.997 --> 37:47.557 see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allan and Esther and Green 37:47.556 --> 37:50.066 and Lee. Give my love to them all, 37:50.069 --> 37:53.719 and tell them I hope we will meet in a better world, 37:53.721 --> 37:56.941 if not in this. I would've gone back to see you 37:56.942 --> 38:00.062 all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, 38:00.059 --> 38:04.899 but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me, 38:04.898 --> 38:07.028 if he ever got a chance. 38:07.030 --> 38:10.420 I want to know particularly what the good chance is you 38:10.419 --> 38:11.799 proposed to give me. 38:11.800 --> 38:14.270 I'm doing tolerably well here. 38:14.269 --> 38:17.179 I get $25.00 a month with victuals and clothing, 38:17.178 --> 38:20.518 have a comfortable home for Mandy"--that's his wife. 38:20.519 --> 38:22.809 "The folks here call her Mrs. 38:22.814 --> 38:26.774 Anderson, and the children, Millie Jane and Grundy, 38:26.769 --> 38:29.379 go to school and are learning. 38:29.380 --> 38:33.930 The teacher says Grundy has a head to be a preacher. 38:33.929 --> 38:37.769 They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church 38:37.771 --> 38:40.651 regularly. We are kindly treated. 38:40.650 --> 38:44.600 Sometimes we overhear others saying, 'Them colored people 38:44.595 --> 38:46.915 were slaves down in Tennessee.' 38:46.920 --> 38:50.480 The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, 38:50.475 --> 38:54.805 but I will tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong 38:54.813 --> 38:56.523 to Colonel Anderson. 38:56.519 --> 39:01.049 Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, 39:01.054 --> 39:03.064 to call you 'Master.' 39:03.059 --> 39:07.609 Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me, 39:07.613 --> 39:12.013 I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my 39:12.009 --> 39:14.599 advantage to move back again. 39:14.599 --> 39:17.509 As to my freedom, which you say I can have, 39:17.510 --> 39:21.530 there's nothing to be gained on that score as I got my Free 39:21.528 --> 39:25.198 Papers in 1864 from the Provost Marshal General of the 39:25.201 --> 39:27.281 Department of Nashville. 39:27.280 --> 39:31.040 Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof 39:31.041 --> 39:34.421 that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly, 39:34.420 --> 39:41.160 and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to 39:41.160 --> 39:46.440 send us our wages for the time we served you. 39:46.440 --> 39:50.890 This will make us forget, and forgive old scores, 39:50.891 --> 39:54.601 and rely on your justice, and friendship, 39:54.600 --> 39:58.640 in the future. I served you faithfully for 39:58.641 --> 40:02.331 thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. 40:02.329 --> 40:08.079 At $25.00 a month for me, and $2.00 a week for Mandy, 40:08.077 --> 40:12.717 our earnings would amount to $11,680.00. 40:12.719 --> 40:17.469 Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept 40:17.467 --> 40:21.897 back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three 40:21.899 --> 40:26.409 doctors' visits for me and pulling a tooth for Mandy, 40:26.409 --> 40:31.529 and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. 40:31.530 --> 40:34.800 Please send the money, by Adam's Express, 40:34.796 --> 40:36.916 care of V. Winters Esquire, 40:36.920 --> 40:40.860 Dayton, Ohio." He goes on another paragraph, 40:40.860 --> 40:42.820 and then there's a P.S. 40:42.819 --> 40:47.589 "Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the 40:47.590 --> 40:51.850 pistol from you when you were shooting at me." 40:51.850 --> 40:53.190 What did freedom mean? 40:53.190 --> 40:54.740 What had the war meant? 40:54.739 --> 41:00.839 Wages, with interest, according to Jordan Anderson. 41:00.840 --> 41:09.120 Well, we'll see whether the United States would help out old 41:09.117 --> 41:13.417 Jordan. All right, now Reconstruction 41:13.415 --> 41:18.015 is, of course, that ten or eleven year period 41:18.021 --> 41:22.001 of American history that sometimes, 41:22.000 --> 41:26.710 too often--I don't know how it was taught to you-- but 41:26.707 --> 41:30.257 sometimes, too often we skirt through. 41:30.260 --> 41:33.430 It's complicated, not as much glory to go around 41:33.432 --> 41:35.392 as there is during the war. 41:35.389 --> 41:38.889 It's fraught with some skullduggery and corruption on 41:38.894 --> 41:42.134 an unprecedented scale, on all kinds of sides. 41:42.130 --> 41:47.670 It's a time of enormous imagination and experimentation, 41:47.672 --> 41:49.892 in politics and law. 41:49.889 --> 41:55.059 It's also the time in American history when we have by far our 41:55.061 --> 41:59.721 largest level of domestic terrorism and violence--a good 41:59.724 --> 42:03.374 deal more on that in the weeks to come. 42:03.369 --> 42:07.779 But Reconstruction policy, of course, began during the 42:07.780 --> 42:10.380 war. The debates over Reconstruction 42:10.377 --> 42:12.337 policy began during the war. 42:12.340 --> 42:41.570 42:41.570 --> 42:44.850 Well sorry, I had Herman Melville's poem here but what 42:44.849 --> 42:46.829 did I do with Herman Melville? 42:46.830 --> 42:48.950 Forgive me. "Check that," as the old sports 42:48.952 --> 42:49.742 announcer used to say. 42:49.740 --> 42:53.010 42:53.010 --> 42:56.570 The policies on Reconstruction took two paths, 42:56.565 --> 43:00.195 and those paths begin as early as late 1863, 43:00.199 --> 43:05.259 and they are especially being debated in the federal 43:05.257 --> 43:10.217 government in 1864, and they are ripe by the end of 43:10.216 --> 43:14.276 the war in 1865. Lincoln's basic approach to 43:14.277 --> 43:17.737 Reconstruction, when and if they could end the 43:17.741 --> 43:20.461 war, win the war and stop it, 43:20.457 --> 43:24.627 was to make Reconstruction as fast as possible, 43:24.630 --> 43:28.530 as lenient as possible--remember these three 43:28.531 --> 43:30.991 things, you're going to hear it 43:30.990 --> 43:34.090 again--as fast as possible, as lenient as possible, 43:34.090 --> 43:39.430 and as much as possible under presidential authority, 43:39.429 --> 43:42.999 not Congress. He's going to fashion this 43:43.000 --> 43:47.530 so-called Ten Percent Plan, which I'll explain next time, 43:47.530 --> 43:51.910 but it in essence meant that he wanted ten percent of the white 43:51.907 --> 43:55.857 voting population of a former Confederate state to take a 43:55.861 --> 44:00.011 loyalty oath to the Union, to redraw a new constitution, 44:00.012 --> 44:02.742 denounce secession, accept emancipation, 44:02.744 --> 44:06.884 and they would be readmitted to the Union under presidential 44:06.878 --> 44:09.618 authority. And he wanted to do as much of 44:09.616 --> 44:12.816 it as possible during the war because when the war ends he 44:12.819 --> 44:15.179 could lose his presidential war powers. 44:15.180 --> 44:18.470 44:18.469 --> 44:20.289 In Congress, in his own party, 44:20.291 --> 44:24.121 led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner in the 44:24.121 --> 44:28.021 Senate--and you'll learn a good deal more about that in the two 44:28.015 --> 44:31.155 weeks to come--there's a very different approach to 44:31.155 --> 44:35.445 Reconstruction. The Congressional Radicals, 44:35.451 --> 44:39.361 as they become known, Republicans all, 44:39.359 --> 44:44.109 want a Reconstruction that is longer, harsher, 44:44.112 --> 44:48.022 and under Congressional control. 44:48.019 --> 44:53.209 Now Lincoln won't be around, of course, to engage in this 44:53.214 --> 44:57.974 battle after the war is over, but he was there during the 44:57.969 --> 45:01.449 war, and they had quite a tussle over imagining how 45:01.451 --> 45:03.611 Reconstruction would happen. 45:03.610 --> 45:06.990 45:06.989 --> 45:10.159 Now if you want to get a sense of Lincoln's approach to 45:10.160 --> 45:12.510 Reconstruction, now you can read the last 45:12.508 --> 45:15.558 paragraph of the Second Inaugural about malice toward 45:15.561 --> 45:18.971 none and charity for all and binding up the nation's wound, 45:18.967 --> 45:22.067 and so forth. But there's also the statement 45:22.072 --> 45:25.762 he made in his last cabinet meeting, the last meeting he had 45:25.756 --> 45:28.046 of his cabinet, before he went to Ford's 45:28.045 --> 45:29.545 Theater, literally that night. 45:29.550 --> 45:32.970 He said to his cabinet, and I'm quoting: 45:32.970 --> 45:36.650 "I hope that there will be no persecutions, 45:36.654 --> 45:40.254 no bloody work after the war is over. 45:40.250 --> 45:44.870 No one need expect me to take any part in hanging or killing 45:44.870 --> 45:47.690 these men, even the worst of them. 45:47.690 --> 45:51.100 Frighten them out of the country, open the gates, 45:51.104 --> 45:53.454 let down the bars, scare them off, 45:53.451 --> 45:56.511 but enough lives have been sacrificed." 45:56.510 --> 46:00.900 That's one approach, but that is not the approach of 46:00.897 --> 46:04.937 the leaders of the Congressional Republicans, 46:04.940 --> 46:08.780 some of whom would've wished for there to be some treason 46:08.782 --> 46:12.672 trials and executions, but short of that they want a 46:12.668 --> 46:17.298 Reconstruction that's going to reshape the American polity, 46:17.300 --> 46:21.770 rewrite the U.S. Constitution, 46:21.767 --> 46:26.387 and remake Southern society. 46:26.389 --> 46:29.659 Anyone I ever run into who says "Reconstruction's too 46:29.659 --> 46:31.859 complicated and not interesting," 46:31.860 --> 46:35.470 I don't understand it, because how can you have that 46:35.469 --> 46:39.149 kind of thing happening and it not be interesting? 46:39.150 --> 46:43.080 But I found Melville, sorry. 46:43.080 --> 46:46.210 Let me leave you with this. 46:46.210 --> 46:51.400 Spare the poets. Melville wrote this little 46:51.402 --> 46:54.102 poem, after Lincoln was murdered. 46:54.100 --> 46:55.250 Listen to what he says. 46:55.250 --> 47:00.100 47:00.099 --> 47:03.939 "Good Friday was the day Of the prodigy and crime, 47:03.938 --> 47:06.678 When they killed him in his pity, 47:06.679 --> 47:12.169 When they killed him in his prime Of clemency and calm--When 47:12.174 --> 47:17.394 with yearning he was filled To redeem the evil-willed, 47:17.390 --> 47:23.280 And, though conqueror, be kind; But they killed him in his 47:23.275 --> 47:26.435 kindness, In their madness and their blindness, 47:26.435 --> 47:28.835 And they killed him from behind. 47:28.840 --> 47:33.930 There is sobbing of the strong, And a pall upon the land; 47:33.929 --> 47:38.659 But the People in their weeping Bare an iron hand; 47:38.659 --> 47:43.289 Beware the People weeping When they bare the iron hand. 47:43.289 --> 47:46.839 He lieth in his blood--the father in his face; 47:46.840 --> 47:50.890 They have killed him, the Forgiver--The Avenger now 47:50.887 --> 47:54.447 takes his place, The Avenger wisely stern, 47:54.449 --> 47:58.329 Who in righteousness shall do What the heavens call him to, 47:58.334 --> 48:02.054 And the parricides remand; For they killed him in his 48:02.047 --> 48:05.297 kindness, In their madness and their blindness, 48:05.297 --> 48:07.697 And his blood is on their hand. 48:07.699 --> 48:13.299 There is sobbing of the strong, And a pall upon the land; 48:13.300 --> 48:17.760 But the People in their weeping Bare the iron hand; 48:17.760 --> 48:22.740 Beware the People weeping When they bare an iron hand." 48:22.739 --> 48:27.309 The whole history of Reconstruction has always been a 48:27.312 --> 48:32.062 debate really over how iron the hand should've been. 48:32.060 --> 48:35.000 Thank you, see you next week.