Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Santa Ana was, at the time, a captive of Sam Houston.

He had secretly asked the United States to send American troops back to Cuba to help keep law and order as the Cubans could not nor could they govern the polarized society that had been festering under incompetent Spanish rule. President Roosevelt was furious that the Cubans could not govern the country. See {640520}.

President Lincoln and Several of the Commanding Union Generals had declared that black slaves were free during the midst of the Civil War under the legal theory that if the slaves were property of the rebels, then they cold be seized as “contraband” and removed from the control of those who had committed treason. The question was, what would happen to those now free Negroes after the war? Many Negro leaders were anxious that if there were surrender, then the status quo ante might prevail and the Negroes—many have who had fought for the Union might be returned to slavery. This speech by the Secretary of State alarmed them further. This is why the Emancipation Proclamation was so important and even that might have been overturned by a subsequent President. This is why Lincoln, the white radical Republicans and the Black leadership placed so much emphasis on passing the 13th Amendment.

Lee was trying to negotiate a peace treaty as a part of his his potential surrender. However, Grant would not be drawn into that, Lee was NOT the government of the Confederacy, and Grant had served with him earlier in the Mexican War and knew he was not a fanatic on teh subject of slavery and race as most of the Southern leaders were. They werenthe ones who would have to be captured or driven to surrender. Grant could have gotten authoirioty as he was in almost real time contact with President Lincoln by telegraph. However, neither wanted to negotiate peace with Lee. Instead, Grant gave Lee and his men incredibly gracious termsof surrender which he and Lincoln hoped would casue the avarage Southern soldiers to feel better about surrender for although Lee's was the largest Confederate Army, there were still others out there that had to be dealt with,

The South had attacked Fort Sumter

It would be almost 30 years until Jackson would have been proved correct and the Civil War had begun.

The Kaiser, facing a revolution, instructed Groener to use the army to put down the revolution. The Kaiser had to abdicate and the German Republic was born, soon to fall to the Nazis.

1st Earl of Beaconsfield. Contrast this statement with that of Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich in 1941. Disraeli had threatened war and forced the Russians to accept all the British demands by diplomatically isolating them first and moving armed troops into position just before the peace conference.

Ironically, the Japanese Government and military were so polarized that it took several days for the authorities to get together and agree on a course of surrender action. The second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki speeded things up.

Chivington led troops to attack hostile Indians. When they arrived at Sand Creek, the most militant young Indian men had left. The others did not want to fight, displayed white flags and wanted to negotiate. Chivington made his famous statement, attacked the Indians and massacred most of them including the ones who were trying to surrender with white flags. See {597566}.

Committee of the Congress. This was the prevailing Congressional and public view except for the South which had coalesced around an intellectual rationalization. See {618013}.

General Grant had the fort surrounded and the confederate general hoped to surrender the fort and allow him and his men to leave to fight again some other day. This was often agreed to so the military objective would be gained without the casualties of a battle. However, Grant and Lincoln did not simply want to gain forts and territory. They wanted to end the war. Those Confederates who survived the battle were taken prisoner and were out of the fight.

The Governor was a staunch Confederate supporter but his state legislature majority favored the Union. He was forced out of the governorship when the 1861 election gave the legislature a veto-proof pro Union majority.

Although Great Britain had abolished slavery, British economic interests during the Civil War suffered because of the northern blockade of the South. Much political opinion in England was hostile to the blockade policies of the Union. Bright, a great admirer and supporter of the United Sates and the Union cause was concerned that the United States might drift into War with Great Britain. His letter to Senator Sumner was written with the understanding that it would be in shared with President Lincoln, and it was actually read at a cabinet meeting.

The Southern states were illegal rebels. A confederacy had always meant a voluntary association of otherwise independent entities. However technically the Southern states were not independent but in a state of illegal rebellion against the United States. Lincoln, a lawyer, could not being himself to refer to the South by their preferred name—the Confederacy. So this was how he and many in his administration referred to the South.