The Confederate soldiers had done all they could for their cause, and in their final defeat, as in their many well-earned victories, their courage and devotion commanded the respect and honor of their countrymen and of all the world. The North was full of rejoicing at Lee's surrender. Bonfires, illuminations, and jubilees were held in every city and town. The people were heartily tired of bloodshed and war, and they had a deep and abiding joy now that peace had come. 514. Assassination of President Lincoln. - From this joy the nation was thrown into the deepest gloom and sorrow by the assassination of President Lincoln. On the evening of April 14, 1865, the President went to Ford's Theater for rest and recreation. John Wilkes Booth, a sentimental actor, who sympathized with the South, and who wished notoriety, gained access to the President's box in the theater and shot him in the head. President Lincoln died the next morning, Saturday, April 15. At the same time an attempt was made on the life of Secretary Seward, and he was severely wounded. This seemed like a conspiracy, and the people of the North felt that it was but the last act of a wicked rebellion. The people were intensely angry and many of them felt revengeful. Booth was pursued and shot. Four other conspirators were hanged and four imprisoned. 515. Cost of the War. The war was over, but no man can estimate its cost. By the middle of 1863 it was costing the national government $3,000,000 a day. It left a national debt of $2,850,000,000. Taxation produced $800,000,000 more for war expenses. the Confederacy, and of the Northern states; of private losses and contributions; of the millions paid in pensions; of the loss of property at sea from the Confederate privateers; of the destruction and waste that came from the desolating raids of the armies; of the great loss in possible production while men were engaged in destruction, one sees how impossible it is to calculate the cost of such a war. It is safe to say it would have fed and clothed every family in the nation for a generation to come. But its greatest cost was not in dollars and cents. It cost also When one thinks of the debts and expenses of five hundred thousand lives, and untold suffering from imprison ment, wounds, and disease. 516. Suffering of the South. miseries of war like the South. The North had not felt the on as in time of peace, in field and shop, in city and town. But the South was like a vast military camp. There almost all the able-bodied white men were drafted for the war. Only the slaves were left to work the fields and take care of the homes. From Mississippi to Virginia the country had suffered the devastation that comes from siege and battle and the tramp of armies. Plantations and farms and all industries were laid in ruins, and when the Southern soldiers returned to their homes it was to face poverty at their firesides, with a father, brother, or son dead in every home. When Sherman ordered the evacuation of Atlanta, exiling from their homes the sick, the old, the feeble, the women and the children, he said to the people who protested, "War is cruelty; you cannot refine it." The people, especially in the South, had tasted war's cruel dregs, and they prayed that the nation might forever after be spared the desolating curse of war. 517. Results of the War. - Were the results of the war worth all this suffering and sacrifice? While the war brought out brutality and greed, it also brought out a spirit of courage, selfsacrifice, and devotion. Its great results may be summed up as follows: 1. The Union of the states was preserved. It was decided that under the Constitution, the states were united preserved. into one nation, not into a mere league of states. 1. Union 2. Secession dead. 2. The right of secession may no longer be claimed. This right, if it ever existed, died in the war. Of course, war can never settle which side is right and which side is wrong, but only which side shall prevail. The Civil War settled that the national view of secession, not the state rights view, shall prevail. 3. Slavery was forever abolished and the subject of so many years of dispute was now removed. The thirteenth amend teenth ment came out of the war. This was passed by Congress in January, 1865. It was submitted to the states, ratified by three fourths of them, and on December 18, 1865, Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, proclaimed it a part 3. Thirof the Constitution. It provided that slavery should amendment adopted. no longer exist in the United States. It was deemed Slavery wise to write this great result of the war into the ished. fundamental law. Its passage was hailed as an “im mortal and sublime event." abol 4. Citizenship for the negro also came out of the war. Before the war a descendant of an African slave could not be a citizen (Supreme Court decision, Dred Scott case). ship granted negro. Now as a direct result of the war, and before the 4. CitizenUnion was restored, American citizenship was ex- to the tended to every one born or naturalized in the United States, regardless of race, color, or religion; and this was written in the fundamental law of the land. arms. lican insti assured. - 5. The war also showed the strength of republican 5. Strength institutions. The war showed the capacity of the of Repubpeople for self-government, that they could save them- tutions selves from dissolution and destruction. 518. The Grand Parade at Washington, May, 1865. At the close of the war, the United States had about one million men in On the 23d and 24th of May a grand parade was held in Washington of the veteran armies under Meade and Sherman. Here was the military strength of the nation made manifest. It was a grand sight. "Nearly all day, for two successive days," says General Grant, "from the Capitol to the Treasury Building, could be seen a mass of soldiers marching in columns. The national flag was flying from almost every house and store; the windows were filled with spectators; the doorsteps and sidewalks were crowded with people for a view of the grand armies." Confidence was inspired in the government that could command such an army. The South was exhausted, yet it seemed that the nation was now but just ready to put forth its strength. The volunteer army re The fact was, the North was much stronger at the close of the war than at its beginning. Yet within less than a year these vast armies of the nation were disbanded turns to the and the volunteer soldiers were engaged in the ordipatriotism nary affairs of life. The patriotism of war had given place to the patriotism of peace. of citizen ship. FACTS AND DATES 1861. Fort Sumter fired upon (April 13), Lincoln called for Volunteers (April 15), First Bloodshed of the War (April 19). 1861. Secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. 1861. The Trent Affair. 1862. Monitor defeats the Merrimac, Battle of Shiloh, Peninsular Campaign, Battle of Antietam. 1863. Emancipation Proclamation (January 1). 1863. First Draft for the Union Army (March 3). 1863. Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3), Fall of Vicksburg (July 4). 1864. Battles of the Wilderness, Farragut's Victory at Mobile Bay, Thomas defeats Hood at Nashville, Sherman's March from Atlanta to the Sea (November and December). 1864. Capture of Savannah (December 21). 1865. Sherman marches from Savannah to North Carolina, Richmond captured (April 3), Lee surrendered (April 9), Johnston surrendered (April 26), Jefferson Davis captured (May 11), Union Armies disbanded, Thirteenth Amendment ratified. CHAPTER XXXVI THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 519. What the Problem of Reconstruction involved. - The Period of Reconstruction includes the years from 1865 to 1876, - from the end of the Civil War to the election of President Hayes. The Union had been broken for a time by secession and war, and it had to be restored. Fixing the conditions on which the Southern states were again to govern themselves and be represented in Congress is called Reconstruction. Two classes of people were to be considered: (a) those who had borne arms against the Union, and (b) the slaves who had been made free by the war. ANDREW JOHNSON. Born in North Carolina in 1808. He was a tailor by trade and his early education was very limited. It is said that he learned to read and write after reaching manhood. He was gov ernor of Tennessee when elected Vice President. After Lincoln's death he became President, and was later United States Senator. He died in 1875. 520. Andrew Johnson President. On the death of President Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became President of the United States. Johnson had been senator from Tennessee before the war and military governor of Tennessee during the war. He had stood up stoutly for the Union in the South, and it was for this reason that he was put on the "National Union" ticket with Lincoln in 1864. But he was a Southern man and a Democrat, and many Northern men distrusted him and feared that he would attempt to restore the |