History 263 Second Position Paper
Fall 1999
Write a 4-5 page analytic essay (double-spaced) on the following topic. Use the questions as a starting point for your essay, but state your thesis in your own words. Be sure to explain and document your position by making reference to specific evidence from the assigned materials, including primary as well as secondary sources where appropriate. For scholarly apparatus, you may use either brief parenthetical notations (such as Linderman, Embattled Courage, p. 10) or more formal footnotes or endnotes. You are encouraged to use direct quotations but to keep them short. Acknowledge, where appropriate, evidence that tends to undermine your interpretation, and explain why you nonetheless stand by your position. Write clearly and concisely. End with a succinct concluding paragraph. The paper is due in class on Monday, November 15 (revised due date).
Topic
In his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln grappled with the causes, purposes, and significance of the Civil War. Reflecting on the reasons for the outbreak of hostilities in 1861, he observed, "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war." He then tried to make sense of the enormity of the carnage that had resulted. Noting that both sides "read the same Bible, and pray to the same God," Lincoln offered a supernatural explanation for the length and horror of the conflict:
If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences 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 offence 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 bond-man'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."
Lincoln was a participant. You have the benefit of hindsight and of modern historical scholarship. Why did the Civil War break out? Why did soldiers on both sides fight so hard and so long? Was the war just? In short, do you agree or disagree with Lincoln's analysis?
Note: The complete text of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address can be found in Don E. Fehrenbacher, ed., Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait, 277-279 (recommended purchase) and online at the Douglass website, among other places.