One of my former students and I were chatting on Facebook about the Civil War. Our exchange is interesting and worth your read. As my regular readers know, my last book (referenced below) is all about the coming crisis headed our way. In particular is the point that through this crisis, the government will change (or historically that has always happened). Our exchange ends up on that point. My student’s comments are in italics, followed by my thoughts:
As I’ve stated before I’m reading Shelby Foote’s Civil War Narrative and a thought cam across my mind. Jefferson Davis says he chose secession because of “my allegiance to that State of which I am a citizen, have been bound by her action.”
I know during the Revolution Adams had made that reference of “13 clocks striking at the same time” because of how the colonies viewed themselves are individual states rather than “United States.” Obviously banding together and winning the war against GB changed that and perhaps winning again in 1812…however, do you still think there were still lingering feelings of “I belong to x-state first, and America secondly” ? I know the fear of a tyrannical government was in the minds of the South and that was one of their reasons for seceding, but did the allegiance to your home state weigh just as heavy?
I ask because, perhaps had North and South see themselves as America as a whole maybe the Civil War doesn’t happen or isn’t as severe. I may be looking with 21st century eyes, but I just wanted to know your thoughts.
That is the entire crux of the issue. Most people in 1860, north and south, still saw themselves as citizens of X state first, USA second. Remember I taught you that up till the 1870s, the term USA was considered a plural noun. Not till after the War did it slowly become singular like it is now (“The USA is winning the Olympic medal race”).
But, many still valued the idea of union OF THE STATES. One key issue is that at that time, and up until the 1960s (maybe even 1970s), most people never traveled more than 20-40 miles from their home…EVER. So, all they knew was their society, their civilization, their rules, their values. Hence, Southerners were ANGRY that someone OUTSIDE of their locale would dare to come in and impose “foreign” rules.
Remember, even during the war, the southern states were largely at odds with each other. Lee would not take his army of Virginians to fight in Mississippi. The governor of Georgia forebode a call to a national day of prayer because it came from the President, and thus, “who does he think he is that he can order us to pray.” The governor of NC kept hundreds of perfect CSA uniforms locked up because they were only for citizens of his “nation”—North Carolina.
And, in the north, once Lincoln moved the war to a war about slavery, a war about morality, many states and soldiers bailed. He had entire companies, typically boys from the same region, leave to head home because they were not going to fight in order to impose some morality on another region of the country.
As I tried to demonstrate in my book about the patterns of US history, the point about these major Great Crisis is that there is a definite change in how governance happens. What most did not know, probably could not know, was that the Civil War would kill the attitude of “state first” by allowing an imposing Central Government to have unlimited power. Later, as you should know, the Populists would show up a decade later (1880s) claiming the same power for government. By then, they WANTED the government to have more power. And it was the Populists who then create the philosophical foundation for the Progressive mindset to dominate the country.
From the Founders point of view, the South was right about the philosophy. But of course, the Founders would have disagreed with them about dissolution, obviously since the Founders had worked so hard to create compromise that could hold. That compromise was easy to do in the “High” period that comes immediately after the Great Crisis, but nigh impossible in the third phase, the “Unraveling” before the Great Crisis.