America in the Middle of the 19th Century - Essay Example

            America was at a crossroads in the middle of the 19th century. The country had been founded with a cry of liberty and freedom for all. In fact, the country was remarkably free and democratic. And yet, the Constitution still permitted American citizens to hold other human beings in bondage as slaves. This was a truly strange state of affairs, as Harper’s, a liberal newspaper of the time was at pains to point out. There were some who saw this war as a catastrophe that would destroy the country. It is indisputable that millions died for their various causes. But as John Quincy Adams once famously said in 1820, forty years before the war began:

If slavery is the destined sword of the hand of the destroying angel which is to sever the ties of this Union, the same sword will cut in sunder the bonds of slavery itself. A dissolution of the Union for the cause of slavery would be followed by a servile war in the slave-holding States, combined with a war between the two severed portions of the Union. It seems to me that its result might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent; and, calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so glorious would be its final issue, that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired (Haysville).

This may not have been the majority view at the time, but it has a strange prescience to it.

            Throughout this issue of Harper’s, we can see that the Civil War is coming to an end. The Union is becoming triumphant and is at the gates of Petersburg, one of the last redoubts of the Confederate Army. General William Tecumseh Sherman is laying waste to Georgia in an effort to prevent the Confederate Army, which was led by Robert E. Lee from surviving off the land. The Union wanted to have the Confederates surrender and end the war. They did not want Confederate soldiers continuing to mount a guerilla war from the margins.

            What is fascinating about seeing this snapshot in time is not only what has happened since then, but what would happen in the months to come. President Lincoln would be reelected and also murdered in April of the following year. The War would also end, with the surrender at the Appomattox courthouse of General Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate South, to General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army. Both men studied at West Point and knew each other slightly. Grant’s fame was secured at this point, although he would also go on to serve two terms as President of the United States of America. All of this is beyond the purview of the newspaper in question; it is the mystery which is then unfolding.

            The Civil War was one of the most traumatic experiences in American history. Millions of Americans died for the causes they believed in. Brother fought against brother, sister against sister. States that bordered one another fought brutal battles. But in the end, even after the death of a president and the subjugation of the South, the American people stood tall. The slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and would go on to become full citizens of the United States. When we read primary historical sources like this newspaper we see vividly what life was like back then. We see history in its first draft. When I pick up today’s newspaper I think about how people in the future will look at it and think the same thing.