Transcripts For CSPAN3 Abraham Lincolns Governors 20170429

, his Outstanding New book, gathering dissemination, we come to know a new team of lincoln allies. We are likely familiar with names like gates, andrews and some others. But steve brings another analysis of the nearly five dozen individuals who served as chief executive during lincolns presidency. This nearly 500 page volume is supplemented with 122 pages of footnotes and nearly a 70 page bibliography. For those of you who can read in the program a little bit about steve but for those watching, let me say that Stephen Engle is the professor of history and director of alan b. Larkins symposium on the american presidency at Florida Atlantic university. He is a past fulbright scholar to germany. He is currently a distinguished lecture for the organization of american historians. In 2016, he was awarded a Andrew Mellon fellowship to the massachusetts historical society. The incoming president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute Associate Professor john white whose opinion carries a lot more , weight than mine has written a review of stephens work for the journal of American History. Let me quote from johns review that will be published later this year. Gathering to save the nation will stand for years as the book on lincolns relationship with the union governors. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the north mobilized to win to win the civil war. It is my pleasure to present professor Stephen Engle. [applause] Stephen Engle thank you. What a wonderful introduction. Thanks for the preview of a review that i hope to receive in a few months. I want to thank everyone here who is make my stay an absolute delight. It is my first time on the state so if i appear a little nervous, i really am. This is a real stage. It is not any stage. In any case, i want to thank the staff here. I want to thank michelle and the board for inviting me. I am delighted to be here. I can tell you im probably the least lincoln scholar here given the illustrious crew that you always assemble and the people who are part of your institute. I will say this, i am not half of professor harris age but i am certainly envious of his productivity. I confess i thought bob would hold up the book but he confessed he would drop it which is a testament to the fact that a Company Michael burlingham school of writing history. A shout out to michael here who , i have read for many years and many of the scholars here, i have read all your works. A great fan and tremendous pleasure to be here. [indiscernible] [laughter] dr. Engle thank you. Thank you, michael. Its interesting. This project had its origins in germany in 1996. I had a conversation with a professor visiting as a scholar and we became great friends over the couple weeks he was there and he and i talked a lot about the civil war and reconstruction. He was there doing a paper on a book for the road to total war. He was with a number of scholars to assess the American Civil War reconstruction and the german wars and reunification. Hans likes to talk about what he called federal history. Oldfashioned federal history. No one was doing oldfashioned federal history, and now i know why. I began this project in 1996 and it has taken me almost 20 years to bring to the light of day what has been a labor of love for more than two decades. One of the things that i thought i needed to do to acquaint myself with federal history was not only visit all of the statehouses and read all of the governors letter books of the legislative proceedings of the governors of 23 north states, but one of the things i did during this time was i came to recognize that statehouses and state governors were the conduits between the national and the local. So, i decided to read three newspapers for every one of those 23 Northern States for every day of the war. Through that i am asked several amassed several hundred pages of testimony about how central the statehouse became during the American Civil War. As i began to reflect on putting pen to paper, i kept coming up with the same theme, the same opening scenes for what is a continuing work in progress, our democratic ideal and our selfgovernment. So, imagine this scene in april of 1861. Its april 17. It is wednesday. William vanderveer is an iowa state congressman who receives a telegram in davenport, iowa from Abraham Lincoln, asking for men to be put into federal service. The governor of the state is sam kirkwood. He is a republican. He is on his farm in iowa city. Because there is no telegraph service between these towns, vanderveer decides to ride on horseback to tell the governor of the news. When he finally reaches the farm in iowa city, he finds governor kurt would in his overalls, his stoga boots, rake in hand, tending his stocks. Kirkwood reads the dispatch, look at vanderveer and responded, you mean the president was a whole regiment of men . Do you suppose i can raise that many . How many men are there in iowa . [laughter] dr. Engle first, the governor had no idea how big his population was and he had no idea the size of a regiment. After all, more than 70,000 iowans would serve in the civil war. Although the very means of how kirkwood received the call is not typical of most governors it , revealed the realities of the nations unpreparedness and gave , me the title for the book. Gathering to save a nation. The American Civil War was as much a story of operation as it was conflict. For all we know about why the southerners left United States historians grapple over how and , why the north restored the union. Secession provided unionists with and why many example of how fragile the federal system was in the mid 19th century. Withdraw of your destructive, almost madness. It inspired loyal political leaders to demonstrate that states had more rights in the union than outside of the union. This revelation motivated loyal state leaders to unite in the hopes of vindicating democracy. And preserve the union. The ensuing war ironically forged a powerful nationstate alliance that produced a Northern State Army Powerful enough to defeat the confederates. Scholars seeking to uncover unions formula for victory have expanded investigations to include the character of governors, northern and southerners, as contributors to the factors of this victory. Northerners witnessed the surge of governmental activist at the state level and National Level that sustained mobilization throughout the war. The unions defense of 1861 revealed intense nationalist feelings but marshaling the , resources required extraordinary coordination between nation and state. Yet before delivering sorted soldiers organized in march to work, the mena material necessary to fight the war rested on the partnership between Abraham Lincoln and his loyal state governors. It was this alliance that established and shaped the waste the union applied its military power against the confederacy and pursuit of union. Only by examining this Crucial Partnership can we begin to understand how it contributed to the new nation lincoln referred to at gettysburg. For all that has appeared in print on lincoln and the civil war in the 150 years since the conflict, only the classic lincoln and the war governors has served as the sum of work on this relationship. Characteristic of its time and contributed to the lincoln idolatry, he portrays lincoln and the masterman and later of Public Opinion and political opinion and conflicts with governors over mobilization. He argued that the president was a key figure who brought northern governors and to tell into tow, doing what was needed despite the governors. The victory of nationalism over localism, over states rights was, in the last analysis, the victory of keener intellect over men of lesser minds. Consequently the history of the civil war merges into the biography of the man in the white house. That much is true. Yet as much as scholars credit lincoln with Engineering Union victory, he also benefited from governors selective efforts. Hardly did he regard his chief executives as men of lesser minds or dismiss them as insignificant spectators watching the war unfold from state capitals. Quite the contrary. Loyal governors demonstrated considerable influence by collaborating with the president , partnering with him to mobilize for war, and at times pushing him toward Greater National efforts. Governors experience the same expansive powers that lincoln enjoyed during the war. Governorslum Held Extraordinary power in wartime. The partnership between lincoln and governors can muster medically in mobilization. Lincoln understood their importance far better than the he allowed. Yes, they had disagreements, but lincoln was not trying to overpower them politically, ruin their prestige, or dominate their state affairs. Rather, he included them as essential in representative parts of the whole, meaning the unions preservation. Thus reinforcing the federal unions nationstate partnership that was necessary to maintain democracy. And selfgovernance. Without the willingness of local governors who agreed independently to uphold the union, marshall state resources and cooperate in establishing and national army, lincoln would have been hardpressed to preserve the union. William c. Harris takes this up in his volume, lincoln and the republican governors. It provides appointed to spark your a point of departure. He respects their Constitutional Authority and worked with them to maintain a unified war effort. He emphasized their contributions and stresses that lincoln relied on them to win the war as well as preserve the union. Northerners who remain in the union clung to the notion that the bond between nationstate would have to succeed in order to achieve military victory. On a practical level, this took shape as unionists mobilized for war. By their cooperative effort, loyal governors exercised important powers. Citizens looked to them for leadership. Their partnerships with lincoln opera present examples of federal, state and federal cooperation that normally not only resulted in Union Victory , but also registered a triumph for the federal union. Antebellum governance had been centered and regionally driven, the consequence of a decentralized political system. Both lincoln and federal jim is thought the civil war by summoning the dates to save themselves within, at first, vastly decentralized federal systems. As much as governors northerners accepted states rights, they rejected the presumption of state sovereignty over national sovereignty. The work presented an opportunity to emphasize the Mutual Respect and kinship among states that obliged its citizens to preserve the union first, even ones that contain slavery. In raising northern armies governors functioned as agents , of a National Coalition that stressed governmental activism, and emphasize the United States as a single nation. As such, preserving the union gave the appearance of nationalism. The required governors to play a crucial role in the war effort. By answering lincolns call, northerners chose to emphasize april, 1861, the same rights that southerners did in leaving the union. Only they used it to cooperate with lincoln. In doing so, they placed nation above state and relied on the union strengths to support a national authority. That strength spring from the alliance between lincoln and the governors and it reinforced the , federal unions resiliency. Yet fighting for the union did not been a lesson in their commitment to local governance. On the contrary. The struggle between easter conservative and western liberalism cap popular sovereignty alive and pitted agrarian and industrial interests against each other. Supporting the National Government, many believed, would support state and local autonomy. Lincoln understood the fusion of state politics and nationalist ideology and state governors regiments organized by governors compromised his plans. Union government derived from the regionally dependent relationship between national and state leaders who navigated the political shoals of mobilization, emancipation, and conscription. One lincoln expanded his war aims and his National Power to assist governors and maintaining support for the war, a test of popular sovereigntys limits. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles predicted this much early on in the war. The government will doubtless be stronger after the conflict is over then it has ever been, he confided to his wife. And it will be less liberty, perhaps of greater security. Even so, state executives clung to a wide range of powers and displayed skill in bringing together political worlds that prior to the war had existed independently of one another. Mobilizing and sustaining a volunteer spirit forced them to despite jealousies and competing ambitions to reach across state lines as well as cooperate with the National Government. Governors were as worried about the expansion of National Powers as they did about the conduct during the war. Statesng seven seven southern states. Unity was important for northerners to achieve victory. Yet they debated the nature of the union they were preserving. Governors were party spokesman, policy formulators. Yet, in times of peace, they served as figureheads. Legislatures held nearly all in ministry of authority and delegated to governors limited powers suited for the times. They had two primary functions assigned by the state constitutions executive and , administrative. Theye chief executives ervise, appointed typically, state constitutions relegated them to be commanders in chief of the state militias, granting them power to convene the legislature, create and submit budgets fill vacancies in , state offices, and granted them some appointed powers. Administratively however constitutions limited their , powers, often qualifying the governors veto power and restricting their oversight of elected officers. Before the war, the governors cabinets are small and included typically a lieutenant governor, a secretary of state, a treasurer auditor of public , accounts, a superintendent of approvals, and attorney general. Many states they were elected rather than appointed, thus minimizing control over these opposite by the governor. With the assistance of executive secretary and one or two clerks, governors supervised correspondence that attended the legal matters associated with the government including deaftitutions for the and insane, prisons, public schools, public works, and the office of the adjutant general. Chief executives given annual address and recommended changes to improve their citizens economic and social conditions. But the exigencies of war turned governors and a powerful closelyans and voters monitored their ascendancy, also in maintaining a balance between local and national priorities. Relied on financiers and merchants to advise and mobilize resources to raise and maintain the armys and worked with legislatures to accommodate the changes brought by the war. They made use of advances in weaponry, refrigeration, medicine and relied on agents to procure items essential to soldiering. And assuming such vast power so quickly citizens kept them , accountable for their decisions. Most human editorial terms are made short made were governors all the more answerable to the electorate. Lenders went to the polls annually to elect governors while california, illinois, iowa, kansas, new york, ohio, michigan, minnesota West Virginia and wisconsin went to the polls biannually. Delaware indiana, kentucky, missouri, and oregon allow their governors foryour terms. Four year terms. Most importantly, with their authority as commanders in chief, they were allowed to take emergency actions. Still their formal powers did , not equip them with the powers for leadership and they relied on local political and Financial Advisors better suited to offer assistance. Many chief executives came at office having won popularity and credibility because of the practical business experience, their legal acumen or previous political service. They have been farmers, merchants, journalists, lawyers, doctors and bankers. Some were lifelong democrats. Some had been whigs. Rodes road the tide of the tide of the Political Movement over kansas statehood that helped engineer the established a sectional identity comprising a vastly political assemblage dedicated to preserving the union. With the wars outbreak, they forged a stronger relationship by infusing a patriotic spirit among locals that tied into a national cause. Along the way governors politicized the regiments that one of the war, mobilize voters and maintain alliances at home. Thus most women states remain strongly republican throughout the war. The most prominent republican governors throughout the war included john andrew, William Buckingham of connecticut, injured curtain of pennsylvania Samuel Kirkwood of iowa, edwin only two years in new , yorks, Oliver Morton israel , washburn, and richard gates of illinois. Preserving the union also fell on loyal democratic governors who well chanting the partys causes including states rights in slavery supported the union war effort. Notable democrats, as well as those who joined the ticket in 1964 included Thomas Bramlett of kentucky, john downey of california, Jewell Parker of new jersey, david todd of ohio, John Whitaker of oregon. The choice remained loyal to director states of resources to support lincoln at first revealed the complex interplay of loyalty and locality. The workforce these political leaders to choose between their States Economic ties the vast northern reachbased markets and their conservativism that associated them with small government and hostility toward fugitive slaves. Those states that elected democratic governors and legislatures in 1862 did so because of Union Military defeat and increasing radicalization of Lincoln Administration employed confiscation and emancipation and conscription to win the war. And 1864, the unions favor and republicans gained much of the political ground they lost the year before. Governors severed state legislators to fight them over appropriations, military arrests and expense of National Government. Such hostility let the tensions as governors struggled an International Obligations to win the war on maintaining Popular Support at home. Despite party affiliations, Senior Citizens counted on them to expand the structure to reserve the union and implement policies beneficial to the state. In short, they served as the union main springs of represented they vast and diverse constituencies about them my protected by washington bureaucracy. Lincoln understood this accountability. He began the struggle aiming only to bring the old union back together, fully aware of state integrity. As the conflict war on, he far surpassed his opposite Jefferson Davis, making the federal system work. Cajoling, relying on governors, encouraging best efforts and threw them securing most of the support necessary even from the state legislators who passed very enabling bills. Yet the president brought unique strengths to the war. Unusual humility, study and purposeful. Any quality that Harriet Beecher stowe once described as peculiar. It is not aggressive so much as passive, she described, and among passive things is like the strength not so much of a stone buttress, but of a wire cable. It is swaying to every influence, yielding on the side and on that the popular needs, yet tenaciously ineffectively bound to carry its great end. lincoln needed the governors and people believed the president needed them as well. There was no better example of this belief than in the weeks following the unions defeat at second goal ron bull run. When northern people called on the governors to exercise their power to influence the president , whether he needed it or not, to make war in earnest. Governors the people believed could help him with a hand in expanding war aims, what ever form it may take. Lincoln waited for the opportunity to act publicly to minimize political fallout. He knew many citizens were conservative when it came to racial matters, but they might be willing to accept that emancipation could weaken the confederacy. In the coming weeks the confederate invasion the maryland and kentucky wait on him as a dead on the minds of northern hoping for a glimmer of military success to bolster northern confidence and move away from his limited war aims. Governors stood behind lincoln and the emancipation venture, but it was time to go public, he thought, and confuse a voter stance against confederates, especially those in the border states. And then in the conciliatory approach. Massachusetts governor andrew mapped out a new promise land for the approach. Perhaps we are doing as well as other states, he lashed out to lincoln, but it nearly drives me mad when i see the American Army running before generation of scoundrels and american liberty almost prostrate before a power which challenges government itself, outrageous humanity and defies god. God only knows if the president will ever burst his bonds of mcclellan,eism in but the people are somehow blessed with an instinct of faith, before whom, i believe, mountains will move. Andrew wanted to move mountains, but he yielded to rhode island governor william sprague, who had suggested that new england governors meet to discuss war. Work policies. If the government serves the enemy half as much as they do in people or exhaust them the proposition, he wrote andrew, i will find no fault. I am sick and tired of any double policies, he declared to a war meeting assembled in newport. No white glove handling will do this, he proclaimed. We must strike the enemy and his vital parts, wherever those were. [laughter] dr. Engle sprague wanted to stir the governors. Hero to his new england colleagues at a meeting to discuss influencing the administration. Maines Israel Washburn needed little priming. It is time for the states to stir the federal government, he wrote andrew. We will have nothing but victories, remove incompetent and unfaithful generals, and emancipate and employ the slaves. Does any man suppose we can live with the south in slavery after all that has happened . The president should be awoke at last, he argued. To awaken the administration, he the Chicago Tribune published the proceedings of a Union Meeting in that city, recommending the loyal governors to press the president to devise a plan that they may be effective in rescuing the union from its current peril. The governors of the loyal states, wrote the editor, know the sentiments of the People Better than the president. They reside among and mingle with them. They are a body of wise and patriotic men and might be able to point out the radical defects in the present mode of conducting the war and propose some plan giving at reasonable promise of success. If lincoln trusts the people, as he made clear on many occasions, then it was wise to offer them a start again to offer their opinions. Governors serve this purpose as they would be a body of counselors seeking for the people of the respective states, and whose advice they believed lincoln was bound to take. We think it is the duty of the state executives to hold such convocation immediately. The sentiment for governors meeting was gaining momentum. That is september. Even in illinois abolitionist and womens right activist sent a letter to all the governors entitled an appeal to the governors of the free states. Her intention was to reinforce the sentiment of Horace Greeleys new york tribune article that appeared on august 20, entitled the prayer of 20 million, which are urged the president to liberate slaves. As much as lincoln decided to depart from his limited war approach, many northerners had seen few signs of the new war aims. Gage appealed to the governors to take action to end slavery. You as governors of sovereign states have a right in we beseech you to enforce it, to demand of the president when he calls for men to tell you what he wants with them. We feel it is your duty to demand of him to tell and in plain words which he intends shall live, slavery or freedom . The arch governors to restore the union without slavery. To be sure, governors were conscious of their powers. The northern populace had come to lean on them as instruments of power. During the political talk of war, Union Leadership found and justified a way for the union to preserve the union while accepting emancipation as a necessary part of the war. Consequently, the union ultimately prevailed because loyal governors stood by lincolns war aims and encouraged him to undertake measures necessary to win. Even at the risk of state authority and alienation of many of its. Citizens. In the end, the United States that southerners had succumbed to an 1865 had changed fundamentally from the one they left four years earlier. The National Government lay claim to new powers and responsibilities. The sectionalism and slavery they characterized the old republic gateway to governmental powers, expansive nature and the fear of it. In the postwar, the struggle that characterized the new political environment. Localism, party politics, diversity, and a widespread believe in laissezfaire shrank state governments and diffused powers back to the local municipalities. Industrializations accelerated pace, the government active intervention in the economy, and the explosion of charitable and Service Organizations associated with the working under legislators watchful eyes. State government shrank in the ace, asollowing pe did the roles of governors, and the depression of the 1870s, combined with growing democratic majorities further added to state development with a hostility to government and a desire for locals and to challenge state activism. Although many legislatures continued to pass legislation, it assisted northerners returned fees, they soon gave way to local control. After 1865, each passing year distance the war from the cause distance governor from the wars that once defined them. Todayt soldiers reunion gone the respect they held the 2061 any although a few went on 65. To some distinguished political careers in congress, most return to obscurity, many to poverty, and faded into historical memory. Nearly 30 years after the war on the death of austin blair, michigans governor, the New York Times wrote that his departure removed the last about two of the famous for governors of our time. What a distinguished list, wrote the editor. Soon they would be nothing more than a memory. Hopefully with this book they now have a history that is worthy of their efforts. Thank you very much. [applause] yes, i will take questions, but i can hardly see. I understand. When union troops arrested the legislators of maryland, how did the Maryland Governor respond to that . Which side was he on . Dr. Engle that is a great question. Which side was the Maryland Governor on when they arrested the legislators in maryland . Thomas hicks is a fascinating case. Is agedslave owner who at this time and thinking about eliminated getting rid of his own slaves. He would get rid of his own slaves. But he is conflicted because he is torn in a state that has a fairly large free black ovulation, and about the same number of slave populations. 83,000 free blacks and slaves. On the governor was walking a very narrow road in trying to decipher the best path for him, and staying loyal to the efforts of lincolns administration and what he believed were the people thats the best interests of the people of maryland and maintaining some degree of state to koran and the rights. Decorum and states rights. One of the reasons he holds off on keeping the legislature into session is that very reason. He feared that they would probably secede. So he waits until the military comes to occupy annapolis and then the legislature would convene in frederick a few weeks later. Great question. Over here. I wanted the Company Money great talk. I think this is a very important subject. I am from connecticut. Maybe you can make a few comments on our work governor William Buckingham . , dr. Engle William Buckingham of connecticut is an absolute stalwart example of a tremendously gifted chief executive. From a small state, minimal resources. Early on in the war, he sends agents to europe to procure everything that the soldiers might need. One of the things i found that is unique about early on in the war is every state either sent agents to new york, boston or london. Connecticut was way ahead in preparing for this war because new england felt as of the wanted to take the lead. Buckingham as well wanted to be one of those movers and shakers of Public Policy early on in the war. And of course, he maintains a great record in conscription and volunteer and replenishing the ranks and keeping the state budget and tax. Actually he is one of the few governors who would not make it to be field as much as the other new england governors and i think part of that was Health Reasons and other commitments in new england. Yet . As a followon to this gentlemans question. Can you describe a comment on the disloyal governors in the border states . Dr. Engle the disloyal governors of the border states. Thats an interesting term. Disloyal governors. I am careful to say that. Who iariah macguffin, recommend is number of letters about whether he was or was not loyal. Regardless of what kentuckians believed, and regardless of what his colleagues believed in the south, most of his northwestern administered colleagues believed him to be secretly working with the confederacy and Jefferson Davis and they believed in a conservative approach to find a way to contain his power and use other operatives in kentucky for what they needed to do in that state. [indiscernible] dr. Engle im sorry . Claver and fox jackson in the same sort of situation. Takes broader and more defined steps early on in the war to take the state arsenal away from the state and begins to employee southern missourians for the confederate war effort. He is a more definite disloyal governor. And again, lincoln has to find missourians and other state operatives to work with him. To build a unionist and loyal support in that state. And he does. Hes very effective in doing that. Hi. Professor engle, would you entertain the outing is by telling them about two grand compliments of the spectacular oliver. Morton of indiana and how he managed to raise money for putting the legislature in session. In fact he was a dictator and how he enabled Jefferson Davis to get away with murder . Dr. Engle [laughs] two great questions. Oliver perry morton is an interesting figure. He is devoted as a republican. But in 1862 he loses his legislature to the democrats. He would not regain them for most of the war. What that means is its very hard to run a war effort from or your legislature that is absolutely opposed to you. He has to lean on the federal government. He has to lean on stanton and federal resources to help him undertake what he is really hardpressed to do in indiana. What is surprising is indiana presents to me one of the most interesting facets of the war. How this loyal opposition operated at the 30,000 feet highest levels. Because morton is unable to pay the interest notes on the bank loans indiana has taken and has no way of raising money because he has no means of raising money, other than using his own worth, as many governors would. During the war it is apparent that there is a fairly hostile population to the emancipation proclamation, to confiscation, to conscription. On stanton who would come to washington unbeknownst anyone to seek a loan for 250,000. He does get this loan but its only to pay the interest of the note the state note that is due to a bank in new york. Abouther question was jefferson c. Davis. Well, i happen to do a biographer of biography of don carlos buell, who was the commander of the army at the jefferson cthe time. Davis shoots william bull nelson in the hotel lobby actually in the stairway. That is an interesting case, how he gets off for murder. I dont want to go into all of the details. Lets just say there was enough evidence to suggest that nelson deserved what was coming to him. [laughter] the governor believed as much as well. So, sorry. No. Some practical things. How did states finance their part in the war, and when soldiers were called up by the governors, did they spare it to the state or the federal government . They appointed their own officers. So is the war went on and the officers were incompetent, what did lincoln do with the governors to replace them with federal generals . Dr. Engle governors negotiated bank loans. Did they raise taxes . Dr. Engle there was an income tax, but they did not raise very much money. They chiefly relied on the resources of bankers to finance a lot of the early mobilization knowing the federal government would pay them back. Most governors raised funds privately through their , legislature, not to raise taxes, but to appropriate funds through negotiation of loans. How they most governors, you have to recognize most governors are so uninformed about how to function during war, one of the first things they do is to be if they rely on whoever has military service in their states to come to the state house and advise them on military matters and who should be appointed. Yes, governors early on appointed a lot of officers up to the rank of colonel who were republican. Governorsists feared for playing politics with the officer appointments. Some were, some werent. After bull run it was taken more seriously by a board of examiners who would decide to try to take politics out of the appointment of officers who would be in combat leading civilians. So, there would be boards to examine through the best candidates for the officer ranks. To whom did the soldiers swear an oath of allegiance . Dr. Engle you would swear enough oath to the federal government, but you were with mustard and with the state militia called in the service to it was federalized . Dr. Engle yes, everything was federalized. Correct. Yes correctio . Easter had occupied some tennessee counties because they were so unionist. There is a regiment from almost every state in the union army. What about on the reverse side of governors having to keep rebel sentiment down in counties and their states . The copperhead indiana or something . Dr. Engle this increasingly becomes a problem after the election of 1862 and the state conscription and emancipation proclamation. One of the things in particular midwestern governors have to do is keep at home a certain contingent of regiments to keep the peace. Especially in county bordering on rivers or important railway junctions. Governors were very attuned to dashboard to give an example, the sioux indian uprising in a 62. Governors have problems at home with a number of use issues that could not conform to providing lincoln all of the troops he needs. Wouldases stanton he become secretary of war things sort of change for the governors in a good way, but they recognized the pressing need for local control over dissidents, oppositionists, whatever situations. And a hold on a certain strategic places that were vital for the union armys the soldiers living through to replenish the union army. What states were most problematic in this regard . Dr. Engle indiana, illinois pennsylvania, iowa, missouri [laughter] kansas, kansas. One of the fascinating things about the subject as i kept reading and doing research, the thing that impressed me the most is how did the union manage to pull this off . I mean that sincerely. How in the world they managed to pull this off . And make this look like a foregone conclusion . Absolutely not. Absolutely not. They were very dark days for governors, for members and leadership who believed that around the next turn the next group is going to come in and take office. You have to understand they were actually legislatures that raised money to pay for the bounty for democrats to be exacted from the draft. So you have serious opposition opposition to this war it home and lincoln is very much aware of that. And governors are very much aware they will be reelected every year in the new admin states. They dont have four years. It will be out of office quickly if they do not manage this local war at home, whether there are guerrillas coming through or indians or what is going to happen to fugitive slaves moving into ohio or illinois or indiana or even into iowa . Governors have an incredible responsibility during this time. Yeah. When did the federal government stop relying on the governors to raise troops and switch over to National Conscription . And in order to switch over, were there constitutional issues regarding states rights that had to be resolved . Dr. Engle sure. Great question. Number one to give you a little context. The emancipation proclamation lincoln signs beginning june 1, 1863, volunteerism is at an alltime low. A trickle of soldiers are coming into the ranks. You have to imagine the battle of fredericksburg, stones river, these major apocalyptic battles. , most governors are printing the list of casualties. If you are reading the newspaper, this is not a time for you to be patriotic. This is a time for you to say, this is as good as it is going to get. What governors had a problem with was the state militias and the militia act of 1862. The governor could draft for the state militias if the state militias had known that quote is. Had not met quotas. Most people do not realize what that militia act was really responsible for. But congress in march would ask for an roman act which was the first step toward a National Conscription act occurs the governors called on lincoln and the congressman, their senators we need a National Draft. The state draft is failing. We dont have enough money in the bank to incentivize volunteering and we are losing the war. How can we sell this . Well distribute the burden of , war to the other masses who have not participated. Convince them it is your turn. The governors cannot do this. If they can, it is very hard. They call for lincoln and their senators to pass legislation to enroll and call for a National Conscription act in april of 1863, which then will take effect some 90 days after that, if the quotas have not been met. One of the things i found early on, everybody when war is declared and every town puts up a little recruiting poster, thousands of people flocked to des moines, iowa. Thousands flocked to boston. The very next year it is a , trickle. People are not really interested in volunteering for war. They believed in many cases it would not be winning. The National Conscription act comes at an alltime low and are perception. Ic governors are hardpressed to sell this book enough to sell it as a way to the people who already gone forward that there was another constituency they can help share the burden and the labor of fighting the war and carrying on what you started so we dont buy anything we dont die in the early combatants dont die in vain. By sending provost marshals to every state, the National Draft is not that much more successful. I would argue it not successful as they expected to be. Within a year they would then return volunteering and incentivizing, getting men to join back to the state governors who recognized everything was related at that point i did what was going on in the field or to the politics in washington. And people read the newspapers. The subscription rates were at an alltime high. Hig, the bangor daily w these obscure newspapers went up and subscription. People read about the war. And newspaper editors were very effective. And you print on Christmas Day the list of casualties for the 14th maine, that is not frontpage news you want to read on Christmas Day. They really humanized the war and governors recognized they would have to find ways to incentivize volunteering, other conscription. That is why im saying this was such a hardfought contest on both fronts, both the against the confederates as well as the home fronts, trying to figure out, how can we win this war and maintain this sort of, you know, focus on local governance . Great question. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [crowd noise] this weekend on American History tv on cspan3, tonight at 8 00 eastern on lectures in professor reinhardt on Victorian Era culture in the u. S. In the last half of the 19th. These are the values the victorians are promoting. Restrain yourself, dont give into your urges and gluttony and your desires all the time, the modest, dont brag and make yourself the center of attention, and work hard. Do not be lazy. At 10 00 on real america, the 1984 film soviet active measures about the efforts use forgery, bribery and the spreading of fake news to further their cold war agenda. Time and again a diplomatic pouch would arrive with secret packages brought to my office. Almost each time there could be some forgery. Lichen spy movies. Sunday, historians talk about their roles as expert witnesses for court cases. As i see it, history is a sort of ad on. Is a source of evidence or context to which most judges and lawyers turned to the extent it is useful in a particular case. At 8 00 on the presidency, president ial historians on the most influential first ladies. Dolley madison, who really shaped informal politics in washington. That atly understood social gatherings you could get men to agree to what the or getnt wanted to do, two warring factions together over ice cream. For our complete American History tv schedule, go to cspan. Org. Sunday on q a, the house of truth, a washington political salon and the foundation of american liberalism. We talk with rad snyder on his book of intellectuals, felix frankfurter, Oliver Wendell holmes junior, Louis Brandeis and herbert hoover, who met regularly in the early 1900s today politics in the future of the country. I think everybody associated with this house, race was not a salient issue for them. They cared about the rights of workers. It took all of her when the holmes junior and some of his opinions, including a 1923 case known as more v dempsey were for the first time the mob dominated criminal trials of southern blacks violated the due process clause. Thes the First Time Supreme Court struck down a state criminal conviction under the due process clause. That was a huge moment in putting fair criminal trials on the liberal agenda. And the idea of fair criminal trials linked with race. Sunday on q a. 50 years ago on april 28, up next on history bookshelf, irin talksn dave z about his book whats my name, fool . Sportss the case that have long been tied to politics. It is about 45 minutes. Good evening ladies and gentlemen good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I had