Due to the complicated nature of the Civil War, this summary is a bit longer than normal. If you don't want to read it, or just want to get to the part where you vote in the poll, I have included a shorter summary at the end of this post.
The Civil War, Part I
I: The Secession Crisis
The news caught Henry Clay in his bathrobe. The Kentucky Senator and elder statesman, to many Americans the very face of the national government, had only just risen from bed when the messenger came riding up the road to his Ashland estate. He bore a telegram from Clay’s supporters in Lexington: John Parker Hale, candidate of the abolitionist Liberty Party, had been elected President of the United States. Clay is said to have clasped his head and sunk into a chair. “Oh God,” he reportedly exclaimed, “there will be war now!”
Clay’s remarks proved correct. Within two weeks of Hale’s election, South Carolina called a statewide convention and promptly pulled out of the Union. Alabama followed before the year’s end; Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida would go out before the end of January. By the time Hale had been inaugurated—in Philadelphia, not in Washington D.C., for the nation’s capital lay smack dab in Southern territory—eleven states had already left the Union, with Maryland and Delaware threatening to follow. Slave states all, they declared the formation of a Southern Confederacy in February of 1845, drafted a Constitution, and elected John C. Calhoun their first president.
Fig. 1: The Southern Confederacy, 1845. The Republic of Texas, in orange, was claimed by both sides.
The situation only got worse. In late March, representatives from four western states (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois) held their own convention to discuss forming a Western Confederacy that would ally itself with the South to oppose the abolitionists. They might have gone through with the plan had not Henry Clay, in what many would term his finest hour, made an impassioned appeal for the Union before the convention. Stirring the delegates to “fight for the preservation of the Union of your fathers,” Clay managed to keep the Western states—including his own Kentucky—in the Union, an act for which President Hale would be eternally grateful.
II: The Hale Administration
Himself a newcomer to national politics, Hale would rely on the advice of elder statesmen for much of his early administration. In particular, John Q. Adams—who agreed to serve as Hale’s Secretary of State at the start of the war—would be invaluable to the new president. In was Adams who, in coordination with Minister to Great Britain William H. Seward, prevented that nation from recognizing the independence of the Confederacy, an achievement as important (or more) than any battlefield victory. Hale caught another diplomatic break when revolutions in several European countries, including France, prevented the Old World from interfering in the affairs of the New.
Yet the principle question of Hale’s slavery was domestic, not foreign, in nature. Elected on an abolitionist platform by a North tired of pacifying the slave power, Hale was expected to attack the “peculiar institution”. Early in the war, Hale issued a Special Order commanding the Union Army to liberate all slaves that came into its power; however, political conditions would not allow any larger action to secure long-term emancipation. With the allegiance of the Western states in question, Hale did not feel he could do any more on the matter. By 1848, however, four years of war had begun to erase the reservations of many who had previously opposed emancipation, and Hale began to push for a Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery as a ‘war measure’.
III: Early Campaigns
Having stacked the raft of Union with explosives, the South proceeded to light the match when, on April 1, 1845, Confederate forces in Mobile fired upon the Union garrison at Fort Morgan. The resulting surge of patriotic feeling in the North yielded Hale upwards 80,000 volunteers, allowing him to supplement the depleted regular army.
On April 10, the Maryland State Legislature voted their state out of the Union, and Confederate forces marched into Baltimore on the 12th. When Hale sent an army commanded by General John Fremont to reclaim the city, the Confederate commander routed the much larger force, then chased the Unionist militia into the mountains. It was the first of many defeats and a major setback for Hale and for the Union.
Meanwhile, in Texas, a brutal civil war-within-a-civil war was playing out. Pro-Union settlers, led by President Samuel Houston, had declared themselves to be part of the United States and were admitted as the 28th state in February, 1845. Many in Texas, however, were reluctant to align themselves with an abolitionist government. These individuals, led by former President Mirabeau Lamar, declared themselves part of the Confederacy two days after Hale’s inauguration, and went about setting up the new, “legitimate” government of Confederate Texas. When hostilities broke out between the North and South, Texas was plunged into a bitter guerilla war, with each side claiming to represent the true will of the Texan people.
Early in his presidency, Hale ignored the advice of his cabinet and appointed untried General Zachary Taylor to command of the Union forces in the West. It was a decision that he would not regret. That summer, Taylor turned back a Confederate In the East, General Winfield Scott (who had replaced the bumbling Fremont) fought valiantly against the Confederate Army of the Potomac, retaking Baltimore before pushing into Northern Virginia.
Fig. 2: Federal forces under Winfield Scott clash with Confederates in the Battle of Sharpsburg, August 12, 1846.
But despite the brilliance of these two generals, the Union was in dire straights. Following the secession of Delaware in May of 1845, the Confederacy claimed 13 states and covered more ground than any European country other than Russia. In addition, many Northerners, especially in the West, were suspicious of Hale’s abolitionist policies, weakening the Union war effort. Hale would spend the duration of the war reassuring Western citizens that he had no radical tricks up his sleeve—a move that left many of his most fervent supporters dissatisfied.
1847 would prove to be a black year for the Union. That summer, Confederate forces led by General James K. Polk turned back a Union assault on Kansas City and promptly launched an invasion of Illinois. Their advance was eventually halted by Federal forces under Abraham Lincoln in the Battle of Springfield, but the Union would be on the defensive for the remainder of the year.
(SUMMARY: Following Hale’s victory in the Election of 1844, every slave state but Kentucky passed ordinances of secession and formed a Southern Confederacy dedicated to states’ rights and slavery, with John C. Calhoun as their president. The war that followed has been long and bloody, with neither side possessing a firm advantage as the 1848 U.S. elections approach. In the North, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott have won fame for their expert generalship, while the Confederates have placed their bets on their ability to outlast the war-weary North.)
IV: The Election of 1848
The Union’s fortunes began to revive in the Spring of 1848. On March 13, Commodore Matthew Perry seized New Orleans, the second largest city in the Confederacy; his victory was followed by a renewed offensive into the South, with Scott pushing towards Richmond while Taylor swept through Tennessee. Though the Union had early success when Abraham Lincoln captured Kansas City on June 8, both offensives have since bogged down, with Taylor besieging the city of Corinth while Scott battles Confederates outside of Richmond.
President Hale faces an electorate increasingly dissatisfied with his handling of the war as he prepares to seek reelection in 1848. Even within the Liberty Party, dissident candidates have emerged to challenge the president that they feel has taken insufficient action to combat slavery. The strongest of these candidates is New York Governor Gerrit Smith, a noted reformer and cousin of Vice President Birney. General Zachary Taylor has also received favorable mention, largely due to his status as a war hero. Though a slave owner, Taylor has expressed his support for crushing the “peculiar institution” as retribution for the crime of secession, and many in the party feel he is just the candidate they need to avoid a thrashing in November.
In the Democratic camp, a multitude of candidates have presented themselves, all fervently opposed to what they view as an unjust war prosecuted by a tyrannical president. Among those contesting the nomination are Congressman Franklin Pierce, who has been among the most vocal critics of the Hale administration; Senator and nominee for president in 1844 Levi Woodbury, who is calling for direct negotiations with the South; Senator James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, noted for his position that the North cannot lawfully maintain the Union by force; and former Secretary of State Lewis Cass, leader of the “pro-war” faction that, while opposed to emancipation, wants to see the Union preserved.
Meanwhile, the Whigs are in a difficult position, torn between their desire to preserve the Union and their opposition to Hale’s radicalism. While their was talk of nominating Secretary of State John Q. Adams, such efforts ended when Adams passed away a few weeks before the convention. Ultimately, the convention has found itself deliberating between two generals: Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, both of whom (in varying degrees) support some form of emancipation.
God Save the Union!
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