Reconstruction Efforts during the War
A Milestone Documents E-text
Table of Contents
https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844520.book.part.079

  You don't have access to this content. Please try to log in with your institution. Sign In

Abstract

From the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s administration was faced with a complex constitutional problem: What was the legal status of the states that claimed to have seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861? Was there a legal way in which states could choose to leave the Union, or was the United States more than just the sum of its constituent parts? Rhetorically, Lincoln insisted that the Confederate states had never left the Union and the war was actually a massive rebellion. In practice, however, both Lincoln and his generals recognized that the South would have to be changed drastically before a real reunion could take place.

Contents