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We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860- April 1861

William J. Cooper,  Alfred A. Knopf

Building on his earlier books, especially The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828–1856, which underscored the intransigence of Southern politicians on the slavery question, William J. Cooper’s latest work argues that the Civil War was not inevitable. The inflexibility of politicians and their unwillingness to compromise brought about both secession and the war itself. And foremost among the unyielding politicians was Abraham Lincoln.

According to Cooper, Lincoln was a Republican loyalist first and foremost, and his primary concern in early 1861 was the survival of his party—hence his absolute refusal to budge on the question of slavery’s expansion. From our vantage point, Lincoln’s worry seems baseless, yet at the time the Republicans controlled only the White House; they were a minority in both houses of Congress. Vital to the survival of the Republicans from the outset of Lincoln’s presidency, in Lincoln’s mind, was Northern public opinion, not the restoration of the Union.

By the beginning of April 1861, it seemed unlikely the seceded states would ever peacefully rejoin the Union. Leaders of the newly established Confederate States of America were delighted to have the opportunity to forge a destiny of their own free of abolitionists’ interference. Many in the United States, possibly even a majority, were not concerned about restoring the Union. It was enough to have the blight of slavery and its noxious defenders removed from the nation, better to allow them to go in peace than to use force to keep them. Lincoln could have abandoned Fort Sumter and blamed the necessity for doing so on his predecessor, James Buchanan. Instead, he chose war: conceiving and implementing the plan to supply Sumter that forced the Confederates to fire the first shot.

No one in the North, including Lincoln, had any conception of the horrific cost in blood and treasure it would take to restore the Union— reason enough, Cooper seems to suggest, for compromise to have prevailed. We Have the War Upon Us offers lessons about the dangers of unbridled political partisanship as relevant today as they were in 1860.

 

Originally published in the June 2013 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.