164-679: Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American novelist, essayist, poet and spiritual mentor to the Nation in the years following the Civil War . Born in Western Massachusetts, he was “the most successful man of letters in the United States” in the latter half of the nineteenth century and sold more books in his lifetime than Mark Twain did in his. Known often by his initials “J.G.,” Holland penned
328-522: A Baltimore newspaper editor, Frank Key Howard , after he criticized Lincoln in an editorial for ignoring Taney's ruling. In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted to remain in the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon , who chased the governor and rest of the State Guard to
492-647: A Cotton Plantation." They were well-received by a curious public. He wrote local news and essays, many of which were collected and published in book form, helping establish his literary reputation. Bowles encouraged Holland to publish under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb, which he did to great success. Under the editorial leadership of Bowles and Holland, the Republican became the most widely-read and respected small city daily in America. In 1851, Holland received an A.B. honorary doctorate degree from Amherst College ,
656-511: A Springfield church (North Congregationalist) that was frequented by abolitionists , freedmen and fugitive slaves though Josiah was not considered an abolitionist . Literary clubs in Holland’s honor formed in towns and cities across the country, especially in the Midwest . Newspapers published memorials on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. Fans obtained wood from maple trees standing in
820-525: A blockade of the Confederacy to suffocate the South into surrender. Lincoln adopted parts of the plan but opted for a more active war strategy. In April 1861, Lincoln announced a blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance, ending regular traffic. The South blundered by embargoing cotton exports before the blockade was fully effective; by the time they reversed this decision, it
984-553: A buzz-saw, and mix 'em up, and put 'em into a woman, that's jasm.’” The word was used to describe the "inexpressible personal force of the Yankee " and morphed into the word “jazz” in the early twentieth century. In the devastating wake of the American Civil War , Holland offered Americans spiritual guidance and ultimately, hope. That there was a Dr. Holland, a man who brought hope, reassurance, continuity and order into
1148-408: A certificate of completion. This was increasingly done at a ceremony imitating college graduation rituals. Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval for building public schools from modernizers, especially among fellow Whigs . Most states adopted one version or another of
1312-456: A chaotic, threatening world was itself a fact of great spiritual significance for millions of Americans. Unlike Henry Ward Beecher , whom he steadfastly supported, nothing even remotely suspect ever came near him. Instead, in such essays as "The Reconstruction of National Morality," published in April 1876, and "Falling from High Places," published in April 1878, he offered acute analyses of why, in
1476-412: A common learning experience. This would also allow the less fortunate to advance in the social scale and education would "equalize the conditions of men." Moreover, it was viewed also as a road to social advancement by the early labor movement and as a goal of having common schools. Mann also suggested that having schools would help those students who did not have appropriate discipline in the home. Building
1640-670: A confidant and intimate friend of Emily Dickinson . In early 1847, Holland begin publishing a newspaper, The Bay State Weekly Courier , but the attempt proved unsuccessful, as did his medical practice. He also published work in the Southern Literary Messenger . He left New England that spring for the South , and took a teaching position in Richmond, Virginia , followed by one in Vicksburg, Mississippi , where he
1804-653: A draft law in April 1862 for men aged 18–35, with exemptions for overseers, government officials, and clergymen. The U.S. Congress followed in July, authorizing a militia draft within states that could not meet their quota with volunteers. European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 in Ireland. About 50,000 Canadians served, around 2,500 of whom were black. When
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#17327809709261968-407: A factory to help the family. He then spent a short time studying at Northampton High School before withdrawing due to ill health. He tried daguerreotypy and taught penmanship from town to town, reciting "his own poems to his intimate friends." He saved enough money to study medicine at Berkshire Medical College , where he took a degree in 1843. Hoping to become a successful physician, he began
2132-617: A few miles north from his birthplace, where Edward Dickinson ( Emily Dickinson 's father) was treasurer. Holland's first book under his birth name was a two-volume History of Western Massachusetts (1855), the first book to feature a poem by a Black woman poet in the U.S. He followed in 1857 with an historical novel, The Bay-Path: A Tale of Colonial New England Life, and a collection of essays titled Titcomb's Letters to Young People, Single and Married in 1858. There were at least fifty editions of this book. He also published his narrative poem “Bitter-Sweet” that year. In 1857, he began touring on
2296-483: A firm hand by Lincoln tamed Seward, who was a staunch Lincoln ally. Lincoln decided holding the fort, which would require reinforcing it, was the only workable option. On April 6, Lincoln informed the Governor of South Carolina that a ship with food but no ammunition would attempt to supply the fort. Historian McPherson describes this win-win approach as "the first sign of the mastery that would mark Lincoln's presidency";
2460-551: A foreign land, would be the seizure of the descendants of that race, and driving them from the new home they had acquired. So great a crime as this second expatriation would be, could hardly be conceived unless by a mind that had prepared itself for it by participating in the commission of the first." Mann considered there to be three legitimate methods by which the Africans in captivity in the US could emancipate themselves, including, as
2624-570: A head when Abraham Lincoln , who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election . Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina . A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over
2788-483: A last resort, that "such as our revolutionary fathers adopted against Great Britain [...] not only with the justification but with the approval of the civilized world. For this there are two conditions: a sufficient degree of oppression to authorize an appeal to force, and a chance, on the part of the oppressed, of bettering their condition. The measure of the first condition is already full - heaped up - running over. The second condition will be fulfilled, either when
2952-479: A man until she died in 1915 at the age of 71. The small U.S. Navy of 1861 rapidly expanded to 6,000 officers and 45,000 sailors by 1865, with 671 vessels totaling 510,396 tons. Its mission was to blockade Confederate ports, control the river system, defend against Confederate raiders on the high seas, and be ready for a possible war with the British Royal Navy . The main riverine war was fought in
3116-576: A medical practice with classmate Dr. Charles Bailey in Springfield, Massachusetts . He then opened a women’s hospital in Springfield with his former roommate from college, Charles Robinson , who would become the first governor of the State of Kansas, but it failed within six months. In 1845 he married Elizabeth Luna Chapin, “the scion of an old and substantial Springfield family.” She would become
3280-467: A mother, and used his position to push for a feminization of the profession. The practical result of Mann's work was a revolution in the approach used in the common school system of Massachusetts, which in turn influenced the direction of other states. In carrying out his work, Mann met with bitter opposition by some Boston schoolmasters who strongly disapproved of his innovative pedagogical ideas, and by various religious sectarians, who contended against
3444-451: A patriotic fire under the North. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to field 75,000 volunteer troops for 90 days; impassioned Union states met the quotas quickly. On May 3, 1861, Lincoln called for an additional 42,000 volunteers for three years. Shortly after this, Virginia , Tennessee , Arkansas , and North Carolina seceded and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia,
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#17327809709263608-551: A person's character was just as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instilling values such as obedience to authority, promptness in attendance, and organizing the time according to bell ringing helped students prepare for future employment. Mann faced some resistance from parents who did not want to give up the moral education to teachers and bureaucrats. The normal schools trained mostly women, giving them new career opportunities as teachers. Mann believed that women were better suited for teaching, regardless of their status as
3772-425: A poor family struggling to make ends meet. He spent only a few years at the low-slung family farmhouse at Dwight and later quipped that he’d like to “burn it to the ground.” The youngest of six children, his parents were deeply religious and evangelical , from pious Puritan stock. His father moved the family every year or two: Heath , back to Belchertown, South Hadley , Granby and Northampton . Josiah worked in
3936-493: A popular Lyceum lecturer and wrote advice essays under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb as well as lyrics to hymns, including the beloved Methodist Christmas tune " There's a Song in the Air .” He helped establish and was editor of the middle-class flagship magazine Scribner's Monthly . Though Holland was a contemporary of the canonical and more renowned poet Walt Whitman and the novelist Herman Melville , neither “ever tasted
4100-467: A religiously passive stance. While Mann affirmed that "our Public Schools are not Theological Seminaries" and that they were "debarred by law from inculcating the peculiar and distinctive doctrines of any one religious denomination amongst us ... or all that is essential to religion or salvation," he assured those who objected to this secular nature that "our system earnestly inculcates all Christian morals; it founds its morals based on religion; it welcomes
4264-421: A republic, but a third challenge faced the nation: maintaining a republic based on the people's vote, in the face of an attempt to destroy it. Lincoln's election provoked South Carolina 's legislature to call a state convention to consider secession. South Carolina had done more than any other state to advance the notion that a state had the right to nullify federal laws and even secede. On December 20, 1860,
4428-599: A robbery trial by placing a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury by pointing out that the victim had previously identified someone else as the man who robbed him. The strategy worked, and there was a hung jury . Mann was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1827, and in that role was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of alcoholic drinks and lotteries. He established an asylum in Worcester , and in 1833
4592-464: Is common to all, and may, therefore, with propriety be inculcated in schools, and those which, being peculiar to individual sects, are therefore by law excluded; still it is believed that no practical difficulty occurs in the conduct of our schools in this regard." Rather than sanctioning a particular church as was often the norm in many states, the Legislature proscribed books "calculated to favor
4756-667: Is thus also known as The Father of American Education . In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education , Mann was elected to the United States House of Representatives (1848–1853). From September 1852 to his death in 1859, he served as President of Antioch College . Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn unruly American children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in
4920-501: Is “said to have reached a wider popular audience than most of the other minor poets.” Called "a poetic 'play' infused with the beauties of Christianity," Holland's first book-length poem Bitter-Sweet: A Poem (1858, 220 pp.) sold 90,000 copies by 1894 and remained in print four decades after his death. Thirty years after Holland's death, an "outstandingly authoritative commentator upon American literature" called Arthur Bonnicastle "the best" of Holland's five novels and another wrote that it
5084-533: The Springfield Republican . After the Civil War he reduced his editorial duties and wrote many of his most popular works, including the Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866), and Kathrina: Her Life and Mine, In a Poem (1867). Holland wrote an eloquent eulogy of Abraham Lincoln within days of Lincoln's death, prompting a commission for a full biography of the late president. He quickly pulled together
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5248-490: The 1860 presidential election . Southern leaders feared Lincoln would stop slavery's expansion and put it on a course toward extinction. His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South , all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that was cultivated by slave labor. Lincoln was not inaugurated until March 4, 1861, giving the South time to prepare for war during
5412-641: The Dred Scott decision was proof the Southern states had no reason to secede and that the Union "was intended to be perpetual". He added, however, that "The power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union" was not among the "enumerated powers granted to Congress". A quarter of the US army—the Texas garrison—was surrendered in February to state forces by its general, David E. Twiggs , who joined
5576-618: The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, ex-slaves were energetically recruited to meet state quotas. States and local communities offered higher cash bonuses for white volunteers. Congress tightened the draft law in March 1863. Men selected in the draft could provide substitutes or, until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used
5740-561: The Free Soil Party , and the same day was chosen president of the newly established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio . Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, which he continued until his death. There he taught economics, philosophy, and theology; he was popular with students and with lay audiences across the Midwest who attended his lectures promoting public schools. Mann also employed
5904-617: The Italianate villa style (also called a “ Swiss-chalet style”). It was located on a bluff overlooking the Connecticut River in North Springfield near present day 110 Atwater Terrace. Holland named the mansion “Brightwood”; it was painted Venetian red . The neighborhood today retains the name Brightwood . When Sam Bowles took an extended trip to Europe, Holland temporarily assumed the duties as editor-in-chief of
6068-695: The Lyceum lecture circuit , soon mentioned with Oliver Wendell Holmes , Bayard Taylor and George William Curtis . Gold-Foil: Hammered from Popular Proverbs under his Timothy Titcomb pen name came out in 1859. He published his second novel, Miss Gilbert‘s Career: An American Story , in 1860. It is considered one of the first novels of American Realism , anticipating “much abler and more penetrating realists” who would come later that century. The year following he released Lessons in Life: A Series of Familiar Essays (1861). In 1862, he erected an opulent home in
6232-710: The Springfield Daily Republican , with Sam Bowles and Josiah Holland as editors, published five, all unsigned, between 1852 and 1866. Some scholars believe that Bowles promoted her the most; Dickinson wrote letters and sent her poems to both men. Later, as editor of Scribner’s Monthly beginning in 1870, Holland told Dickinson’s childhood friend Emily Fowler Ford that he had “some poems of [ Dickinson’s ] under consideration for publication [in Scribner’s Monthly ]—but they really are not suitable—they are too ethereal.” Josiah Gilbert Holland published
6396-578: The Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union. The central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states , or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Decades of controversy over slavery were brought to
6560-592: The Virginia to prevent its capture, while the Union built many copies of the Monitor . The Confederacy's efforts to obtain warships from Great Britain failed, as Britain had no interest in selling warships to a nation at war with a stronger enemy and feared souring relations with the U.S. By early 1861, General Winfield Scott had devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with minimal bloodshed, calling for
6724-620: The Whig Party , for building public schools. Most U.S. states adopted a version of the system Mann established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers. Educational historians credit Horace Mann, along with Henry Barnard and Catharine Beecher , as one of the major advocates of the Common School Movement. Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Massachusetts . His father
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6888-476: The Whig Party , to legislate tax-supported elementary public education in their states and to feminize the teaching force. To justify the new taxes Mann assured businessmen that more education in the work force made for a richer and more profitable economy. Most northern states adopted one version or another of the system he established in Massachusetts, especially the program for " normal schools " to train professional teachers. Mann traveled to every School in
7052-521: The Wilmot proviso for the territories that the south—a part of them—will rebel; but I would pass it, rebellion or not. I consider no evil so great as the extension of slavery." During the first session, he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres , who were indicted for stealing 76 slaves in the District of Columbia , and at the trial was engaged for 21 successive days in their defense. In 1850, he
7216-564: The fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman , followed by his March to the Sea . The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg , gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond . The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House , setting in motion the end of
7380-481: The fireside poets such as contemporaries William Cullen Bryant and James Russell Lowell and his work appeared in anthologies, featuring domestic themes, messages of morality and focused on a historical romantic past. He is also categorized as among the ”minor” New England authors of the transcendental period . In the History of American Literature by Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr., and published in 1919, Holland
7544-453: The institution of slavery . Historians in the 21st century overwhelmingly agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict. They disagree on which aspects (ideological, economic, political, or social) were most important, and on the North 's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. The pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology denies that slavery was the principal cause of
7708-589: The ironclad warship , and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 698,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making the Civil War the deadliest military conflict in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming World Wars . The origins of the war were rooted in the desire of the Southern states to preserve
7872-492: The "ill-informed, ineffective reading instruction" remains the norm in American colleges of education and, accordingly, in American elementary schools. Upon becoming the secretary of education of Massachusetts in 1837, Mann worked to create a statewide system of professional teachers, based on the Prussian model of "common schools." Prussia was attempting to develop a system of education by which all students were entitled to
8036-471: The "word method" as one of the features of the "Progressive" system of education . As Nancy Millichap notes, "Despite the enthusiasm of educators for their new methods of teaching, the illiteracy rate remained high. Among American soldiers enlisted in World War I, 24.9 percent proved unable to read or write, and during World War II approximately the same percentage of British servicemen [who were taught using
8200-406: The 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who were conscripted. In the North and South, draft laws were highly unpopular. In the North, some 120,000 men evaded conscription, many fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 soldiers deserted during the war. At least 100,000 Southerners deserted, about 10 percent of the total. Southern desertion
8364-637: The 1859 commencement and died that summer of typhoid fever . Antioch historian Robert Straker wrote that Mann had been "crucified by crusading sectarians." Ralph Waldo Emerson lamented "what seems the fatal waste of labor and life at Antioch." Mann's wife, who wrote in anguish that "the blood of martyrdom waters the spot," later disinterred his body from Yellow Springs. He is buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island , next to his first wife. Historians treat Mann as one of
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#17327809709268528-424: The 2016 film A Quiet Passion about the life of Emily Dickinson , Steve Dan Mills portrays Holland. In the 2018 film Wild Nights with Emily , Josiah and Elizabeth Holland are portrayed by actor Michael Churven and actress Guinevere Turner , respectively. The Osage Nation politician Arthur Bonnicastle —named for the titular character in Holland’s 1873 novel —appears as a character in the 2023 film Killers of
8692-599: The American Quaker poet and abolitionist , consistently praised Holland throughout his life and upon his death. The New York Times referred to J.G. Holland as “one of the most celebrated writers which this country has produced.” Holland is buried in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts . His imposing monument includes a bas-relief portrait sculpted by the eminent American 19th-century sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens , and includes
8856-494: The American West - in which men like Frederick Douglass , Henry Bibb and Henry Box Brown "instead of making speeches might be making laws. Instead of commanding the types of a newspaper press [...] might be commanding armies and navies" and could more effectively organize the liberation of their enslaved brethren in the U.S. from these strongholds. In September 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by
9020-601: The Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Insurance rates soared, and the American flag virtually disappeared from international waters, though reflagging ships with European flags allowed them to continue operating unmolested. After the war, the U.S. government demanded Britain compensate it for the damage caused by blockade runners and raiders outfitted in British ports. Britain paid the U.S. $ 15 million in 1871, but only for commerce raiding. Dinçaslan argues that another outcome of
9184-566: The Bahamas in exchange for high-priced cotton. Many were lightweight and designed for speed, only carrying small amounts of cotton back to England. When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were condemned as a prize of war and sold, with proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen, mostly British, were released. The Southern economy nearly collapsed during
9348-400: The British response to the U.S. was toned down, helping avert war. In 1862, the British government considered mediating between the Union and Confederacy, though such an offer would have risked war with the U.S. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston reportedly read Uncle Tom's Cabin three times when deciding what his decision would be. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam caused
9512-621: The British to delay this decision. The Emancipation Proclamation increased the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. Realizing that Washington could not intervene in Mexico as long as the Confederacy controlled Texas, France invaded Mexico in 1861 and installed the Habsburg Austrian archduke Maximilian I as emperor. Washington repeatedly protested France's violation of the Monroe Doctrine . Despite sympathy for
9676-575: The Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent was over half the state, and it went into exile after October 1862. After Virginia's secession, a Unionist government in Wheeling asked 48 counties to vote on an ordinance to create a new state in October 1861. A voter turnout of 34% approved the statehood bill (96% approving). Twenty-four secessionist counties were included in the new state, and
9840-477: The Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River , while Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg . Western successes led to General Ulysses S. Grant 's command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to
10004-400: The Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. After that, about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons, accounting for 10 percent of the conflict's fatalities. Historian Elizabeth D. Leonard writes that between 500 and 1,000 women enlisted as soldiers on both sides, disguised as men. Women also served as spies, resistance activists, nurses, and hospital personnel. Women served on
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#173278097092610168-518: The Confederacy, France's seizure of Mexico ultimately deterred it from war with the Union. Confederate offers late in the war to end slavery in return for diplomatic recognition were not seriously considered by London or Paris. After 1863, the Polish revolt against Russia further distracted the European powers and ensured they remained neutral. Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed
10332-706: The Confederacy. As Southerners resigned their Senate and House seats, Republicans could pass projects that had been blocked. These included the Morrill Tariff , land grant colleges, a Homestead Act , a transcontinental railroad, the National Bank Act , authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862 , and the end of slavery in the District of Columbia . The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced income tax to help finance
10496-519: The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond . Maryland , Delaware , Missouri , West Virginia and Kentucky were slave states whose people had divided loyalties to Northern and Southern businesses and family members. Some men enlisted in the Union Army and others in the Confederate Army. West Virginia separated from Virginia and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, though half its counties were secessionist. Maryland's territory surrounded Washington, D.C. , and could cut it off from
10660-412: The District of Columbia by seizing prominent figures, including arresting one-third of the members of the Maryland General Assembly on the day it reconvened. All were held without trial, with Lincoln ignoring a ruling on June 1, 1861, by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney , not speaking for the Court, that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus ( Ex parte Merryman ). Federal troops imprisoned
10824-405: The Flower Moon . Bacon, Edwin Monroe. Literary Pilgrimages in New England to the Homes of Famous Makers of American Literature and Among Their Haunts and the Scenes of Their Writings. United States, Silver, Burdett, 1902. American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names ) was a civil war in the United States between
10988-416: The Hollands between 1853 and 1886 in which she shares “the details of life that one would impart to a close family member: the status of the garden, the health and activities of members of the household, references to recently-read books.” Emily was a poet “influenced by transcendentalism and dark romanticism ,” and her work bridged “the gap to Realism .” Of the ten poems published in Dickinson's lifetime,
11152-424: The Human Race." He learned Greek and Latin from Samuel Barrett , who later became a famous Unitarian minister. Mann studied law for a short time in Wrentham, Massachusetts and was a tutor of Latin and Greek (1820–1822) and a librarian (1821–1823) at Brown. During 1822, he also studied at Litchfield Law School and, in 1823, was admitted to the bar in Dedham, Massachusetts . Mann defended James Allen in
11316-412: The Latin inscription "Et vitam impendere vero" meaning "to devote life to truth". Although Josiah Gilbert Holland’s 23 books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry are rarely read today, during the late nineteenth century they were enormously popular and by 1894 more than 750,000 volumes were sold. Holland was born at the beginning of the period of romanticism in American literature . He is considered one of
11480-457: The Manse (1874), and The Puritan's Guest (1881). In 1877, Holland erected a summer house on one of the Thousand Islands in upstate New York, in Alexandria Bay , where one of its streets is named for him. He gave the mansion itself the name “Bonniecastle” from the name of the titular hero of his novel, Arthur Bonnicastle (1873). It is known as the Bonnie Castle Resort & Marina today. Josiah Gilbert Holland died on October 12, 1881, at
11644-407: The North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis , the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the U.S. population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the Western theater , the Union made permanent gains—though in the Eastern theater
11808-420: The North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and the formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism . Background factors in
11972-658: The North. It had anti-Lincoln officials who tolerated anti-army rioting in Baltimore and the burning of bridges, both aimed at hindering the passage of troops to the South. Maryland's legislature voted overwhelmingly to stay in the Union, but rejected hostilities with its southern neighbors, voting to close Maryland's rail lines to prevent their use for war. Lincoln responded by establishing martial law and unilaterally suspending habeas corpus in Maryland, along with sending in militia units. Lincoln took control of Maryland and
12136-461: The South's post-war recovery. Cotton diplomacy proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860–62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports critically important. It also helped turn European opinion against the Confederacy. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton," as U.S. grain went from a quarter to almost half of British imports. Meanwhile,
12300-545: The South. The Confederacy turned to foreign sources, connecting with financiers and companies like S. Isaac, Campbell & Company and the London Armoury Company in Britain, becoming the Confederacy's main source of arms. To transport arms safely to the Confederacy, British investors built small, fast, steam-driven blockade runners that traded arms and supplies from Britain, through Bermuda, Cuba, and
12464-500: The U.S. and Britain over the Trent affair , which began when U.S. Navy personnel boarded the British ship Trent and seized two Confederate diplomats. However, London and Washington smoothed this over after Lincoln released the two men. Prince Albert left his deathbed to issue diplomatic instructions to Lord Lyons during the Trent affair. His request was honored, and, as a result,
12628-512: The U.S. served as a counterbalance to its geopolitical rival, the U.K. In 1863, the Imperial Russian Navy 's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. Horace Mann Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education , he
12792-471: The Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although they came from all classes, most Southern Unionists differed socially, culturally, and economically from their region’s dominant prewar, slave-owning planter class. At the war's start, a parole system operated, under which captives agreed not to fight until exchanged. They were held in camps run by their army, paid, but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when
12956-456: The Union blockade. The Confederacy purchased warships from commercial shipbuilders in Britain, with the most famous being the CSS ; Alabama , which caused considerable damage and led to serious postwar disputes . However, public opinion against slavery in Britain created a political liability for politicians, where the anti-slavery movement was powerful. War loomed in late 1861 between
13120-464: The Union hospital ship Red Rover and nursed Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals. Mary Edwards Walker , the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor , served in the Union Army and was given the medal for treating the wounded during the war. One woman, Jennie Hodgers, fought for the Union under the name Albert D. J. Cashier. After she returned to civilian life, she continued to live as
13284-492: The Union would win if it could resupply and hold the fort, and the South would be the aggressor if it opened fire on an unarmed ship supplying starving men. An April 9 Confederate cabinet meeting resulted in Davis ordering General P. G. T. Beauregard to take the fort before supplies reached it. At 4:30 am on April 12, Confederate forces fired the first of 4,000 shells at the fort; it fell the next day. The loss of Fort Sumter lit
13448-433: The Union, this was never likely, so they sought to bring them in as mediators. The Union worked to block this and threatened war if any country recognized the Confederacy. In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war, but this failed. Worse, Europe turned to Egypt and India for cotton, which they found superior, hindering
13612-483: The Union-held Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is located in the harbor of Charleston , South Carolina. Its status had been contentious for months. Outgoing President Buchanan had dithered in reinforcing its garrison, commanded by Major Robert Anderson . Anderson took matters into his own hands and on December 26, 1860, under the cover of darkness, sailed the garrison from the poorly placed Fort Moultrie to
13776-702: The Union. A February peace conference met in Washington, proposing a solution similar the Compromise; it was rejected by Congress. The Republicans proposed the Corwin Amendment , an alternative, not to interfere with slavery where it existed, but the South regarded it as insufficient. The remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy, following a no-vote in Virginia's First Secessionist Convention on April 4. On March 4, Lincoln
13940-470: The United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in U.S. history . It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate . Of continuing interest is the fading myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy . The war was among the first to use industrial warfare . Railroads, the electrical telegraph , steamships,
14104-577: The West, where major rivers gave access to the Confederate heartland. The U.S. Navy eventually controlled the Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers. In the East, the Navy shelled Confederate forts and supported coastal army operations. The Civil War occurred during the early stages of the industrial revolution, leading to naval innovations, notably the ironclad warship . The Confederacy, recognizing
14268-579: The Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free . This had kept a sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives , as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for
14432-548: The age of 62, in New York City of heart failure . The evening prior, he “remained late at the office to finish an editorial tribute to the martyred President James A. Garfield ,” who had been assassinated a few weeks before. Most small town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies published memorial tributes to Holland, including journals that had often spoken scornfully of his “literary mediocrity, his triteness, and his intellectual parochialism.” John Greenleaf Whittier ,
14596-476: The alphabet and the sounds of the letters", though he may have been confused between "the alphabet method of learning letters through words and a word method, now called the look-and-say method, or learning to read through saying the word as a whole". Mann's endorsement of "word method" for reading instruction made a lasting impression on other reformers of the period, and "by 1890 the alphabet method had virtually died out". Francis Parker and John Dewey used
14760-409: The assertion by some that Christianity was excluded from his schools, or that they were anti-Christian. A devotee of the pseudoscience of phrenology , Mann believed education could eliminate or reduce human failings and compensate for any biological flaws. Mann also once stated that "it may not be easy theoretically, to draw the line between those views of religious truth and of Christian faith which
14924-604: The auspices of the board, but at his own expense, he went to Europe in 1843 to visit schools, especially in Prussia , and his seventh annual report, published after his return, embodied the results of his tour. Many editions of this report were printed, not only in Massachusetts but in other states, in some cases by private individuals and in others by legislatures; several editions were issued in England. Mann hoped that by bringing all children of all classes together, they could have
15088-521: The blockade was the rise of oil as a prominent commodity. The declining whale oil industry took a blow as many old whaling ships were used in blockade efforts, such as the Stone Fleet , and Confederate raiders harassed Union whalers. Oil products, especially kerosene, began replacing whale oil in lamps, increasing oil's importance long before it became fuel for combustion engines. Although the Confederacy hoped Britain and France would join them against
15252-492: The conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans . The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split
15416-508: The convention unanimously voted to secede and adopted a secession declaration . It argued for states' rights for slave owners but complained about states' rights in the North in the form of resistance to the federal Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their obligations to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. The "cotton states" of Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas followed suit, seceding in January and February 1861. Among
15580-767: The corner of Chestnut and Highland Streets. Horace and Mary had three sons: Horace Mann Jr. , George Combe Mann, and Benjamin Pickman Mann . It was not until he was appointed Secretary in 1837 of the newly created Massachusetts Board of Education that he began the work which was to make him one of America's most influential educational reformers. Upon starting his duties, he withdrew from all other professional or business engagements as well as politics. As Secretary of Education, Mann held teachers' conventions, delivered numerous lectures and addresses, carried on an extensive correspondence, and introduced numerous reforms. Mann persuaded his fellow modernizers, especially those in
15744-477: The crisis was Secretary of State William H. Seward , who had been Lincoln's rival for the Republican nomination . Embittered by his defeat, Seward agreed to support Lincoln's candidacy only after he was guaranteed the executive office then considered the second most powerful. In the early stages of Lincoln's presidency Seward held little regard for him, due to his perceived inexperience. Seward viewed himself as
15908-477: The daughter of former Brown University president Asa Messer . She died two years later on August 1, 1832; he never fully recovered from the intense grief and shock that accompanied her death. In 1843, he married Mary Tyler Peabody . Afterward, the couple accompanied Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe on a dual honeymoon to Europe. They subsequently purchased a home in West Newton, Massachusetts , at
16072-657: The de facto head of government, the " prime minister " behind the throne. Seward attempted to engage in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed. Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the Confederacy: Fort Monroe in Virginia, Fort Pickens , Fort Jefferson , and Fort Taylor in Florida, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces opened fire on
16236-485: The end of his career as at the beginning. Holland coined a term that later became the word " jazz ." The earliest tracing in the Oxford English Dictionary finds that “ jasm ” first appears in Holland’s 1860 novel, Miss Gilbert's Career : “‘She's just like her mother... Oh! she’s just as full of jasm!’.. ‘Now tell me what jasm is.’.. ‘If you'll take thunder and lightening [sic], and a steamboat and
16400-472: The end of his days is all too abundantly attested. His provincial ethical standards; his subconscious Pharisaism ; his incorrigible moralizing; his stubborn opposition to woman suffrage; his failure to distinguish between social drinking and debauchery, between light wine and strong whisky, between beer and rum, between the intelligent frankness of Walt Whitman and the vulgar pornography of The Black Crook —all these remained almost as irritatingly obtrusive at
16564-493: The ensuing guerrilla war engaged about 40,000 federal troops for much of the war. Congress admitted West Virginia to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginians provided about 20,000 soldiers to each side in the war. A Unionist secession attempt occurred in East Tennessee , but was suppressed by the Confederacy, which arrested over 3,000 men suspected of loyalty to the Union; they were held without trial. The Civil War
16728-430: The essential role of cotton in the European economy. The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic." However, a European public with liberal sensibilities remained, which the U.S. sought to appeal to by building connections with
16892-485: The exclusion of all sectarian instruction from the schools. As the Old Deluder Satan Act and other 17th-century Massachusetts School Laws attest, early education in Massachusetts had a clear religious intent. However, by the time of Mann's leadership in education, various developments (including a vibrant populist Protestant faith and increased religious diversity) fostered a secular school system with
17056-524: The first biography of Abraham Lincoln just months after his assassination, which was a bestseller. Holland was the first to publish the first known poem written by an African American . One of Holland’s novels was among the earliest examples of the genre that became literary realism . He published a few poems of Emily Dickinson ’s in the newspaper that he edited. Holland and his wife, Elizabeth Chapin Holland, were close friends with her. Holland became
17220-530: The first female faculty member to be paid on an equal basis with her male colleagues, Rebecca Pennell , his niece. His commencement message to the class of 1859 was to "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity". Antioch College was founded by the Christian Connexion , which later withdrew its financial support causing the college to struggle for many years with meager financial resources due to sectarian infighting. Mann himself
17384-439: The homefront economy could no longer supply. Surdam contends that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, costing few lives in combat. The Confederate cotton crop became nearly useless, cutting off the Confederacy's primary income source. Critical imports were scarce, and coastal trade largely ended as well. The blockade's success was not measured by the few ships that slipped through but by
17548-554: The international press. By 1861, Union diplomats like Carl Schurz realized emphasizing the war against slavery was the Union's most effective moral asset in swaying European public opinion. Seward was concerned an overly radical case for reunification would distress European merchants with cotton interests; even so, he supported a widespread campaign of public diplomacy. U.S. minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams proved adept and convinced Britain not to challenge
17712-459: The lecture method common in European universities, which required students to receive professional instruction rather than teach one another. Previously, schools had often had groups of students who ranged in age from 6 to 14 years. With the introduction of age grading, multi-aged classrooms all but disappeared. Some students progressed with their grade and completed all courses the secondary school had to offer. These were "graduated," and were awarded
17876-875: The lengthy Life of Abraham Lincoln , finished in February 1866. The 544-page bestseller portrayed Lincoln as an emancipator opposed to slavery and began many enduring myths about the slain President. He moved with his family to 46 Park Avenue in New York City in 1872. These years in New York were also productive for his own literary efforts. During the 1870s he published three novels: Arthur Bonnicastle (1873), Sevenoaks (1875), and Nicholas Minturn (1877), which first were serialized in Scribners (afterwards it became The Century Magazine ). His poetry volumes included The Marble Prophecy (1872), The Mistress and
18040-438: The letters of the alphabet as "skeleton-shaped, bloodless, ghostly apparitions". To him, teaching the alphabet was entirely illogical: "When we wish to give a child the idea of a new animal, we do not present successively the different parts of it,—an eye, an ear, the nose, the mouth, the body, or a leg: but we present a whole animal, as one object". Mann believed that "children's earliest books should teach whole words, skipping
18204-573: The minds of the American people the conception that education should be universal, non-sectarian, free, and that its aims should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and character, rather than mere learning or the advancement of sectarian ends. An important technique which Mann had learned in Prussia and introduced in Massachusetts in 1848 was to place students in grades by age. They were assigned by age to different grades and progressed through them, regardless of differences of aptitude. In addition, he used
18368-604: The most important leaders of education reform in the antebellum period. Many places around the world are named after Mann. Among them are more than 50 public schools in the United States. Horace Mann's statue stands in front of the Massachusetts State House along with that of Daniel Webster . At Antioch College, a monument carries his quote, which has been recently adopted as the college motto: "Be Ashamed to Die Until You Have Won Some Victory for Humanity." The University of Northern Colorado named
18532-607: The movement to abolish slavery and its influence over the North. Southern states believed that the Fugitive Slave Clause made slaveholding a constitutional right. These states agreed to form a new federal government, the Confederate States of America , on February 4, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from outgoing President James Buchanan , whose term ended on March 4. Buchanan said
18696-476: The need to counter the Union's naval superiority, built or converted over 130 vessels, including 26 ironclads. Despite these efforts, Confederate ships were largely unsuccessful against Union ironclads. The Union Navy used timberclads, tinclads, and armored gunboats. Shipyards in Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis built or modified steamboats . The Confederacy experimented with the submarine CSS Hunley , which
18860-418: The new Confederacy sent delegates to Washington to negotiate a peace treaty. Lincoln rejected negotiations, because he claimed that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government and to make a treaty with it would recognize it as such. Lincoln instead attempted to negotiate directly with the governors of seceded states, whose administrations he continued to recognize. Complicating Lincoln's attempts to defuse
19024-700: The oldest known work of literature written by an African American in North America. A 16-year-old named Lucy Terry (1733–1821) witnessed two White families attacked by Native Americans in 1746. The fight took place in Deerfield, Mass . Known as “ Bars Fight ,” her poem was told orally until it was published, thirty-three years after her death, first in The Springfield Daily Republican , on November 20, 1854, as an excerpt from Holland's History of Western Massachusetts , which
19188-417: The ordinances of secession, those of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia mentioned the plight of the "slaveholding states" at the hands of Northern abolitionists. The rest made no mention of slavery but were brief announcements by the legislatures of the dissolution of ties to the Union. However, at least four—South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas —provided detailed reasons for their secession, all blaming
19352-451: The post-war years, so many Americans, including prominent Christian leaders, had succumbed to the temptation of attempting to obtain great riches dishonestly. Such was the sanctity of Holland's own life that he seemed to offer a living, earthly warrant for the promise of eternity that he pictured in his writings. Of poets and their mission, Holland wrote: The poets of the world are the prophets of humanity. They forever reach after and foresee
19516-498: The religion of the Bible; and, in receiving the Bible, it allows it to do what it is allowed to do in no other system—to speak for itself. But here it stops, not because it claims to have compassed all truth; but because it disclaims to act as an umpire between hostile religious opinions." Mann stated that this position resulted in a near-universal use of the Bible in the schools of Massachusetts and that this served as an argument against
19680-427: The run up to the Civil War were partisan politics , abolitionism , nullification versus secession , Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism , economics , and modernization in the antebellum period . As a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war." Abraham Lincoln won
19844-463: The same address he opposed plans to forcibly deport freedmen from the United States to other nations: "The idea of forcibly expelling the American born negro from the place of his birth and residence, and driving him out of the country against his will, is as abhorrent to my notions of justice and equality, as it can be to those of anyone. The next most cruel thing to kidnapping a race of men, forcing them from their home and dooming them to slavery in
20008-437: The same content in their public classes. Mann initially focused on elementary education and on training teachers. The common-school movement quickly gained strength across the North. Connecticut adopted a similar system in 1849, and Massachusetts passed a compulsory attendance law in 1852. Mann's crusading style attracted wide middle-class support. Historian Ellwood P. Cubberley asserts: No one did more than he to establish in
20172-542: The same method] were found to be similarly handicapped. In 1940, one-third of high school students were incapable of mastering reading and writing well enough to profit from textbook instruction, and one half of the adult population in the United States was functionally illiterate ". The backlash against " word method " culminated in a 1955 book Why Johnny Can't Read by Rudolf Flesch , in which he condemned this method for "treating children as if they were dogs" and recommended returning to teaching phonics . Nevertheless,
20336-412: The secession, a view disproven by historical evidence, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents . After leaving the Union, Mississippi issued a declaration stating, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world." The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would expand into
20500-498: The slaves believe they can obtain their freedom by force, or when they are so elevated and enlarged in their moral conceptions as to appreciate that glorious supplication of Patrick Henry , 'Give me liberty or give me death!'" Mann's preferred method for the self-emancipation of the slaves was that free blacks should voluntarily form all-black communities of their own - either in Jamaica or in another Caribbean nation - or perhaps in
20664-495: The slightest forereach; ... the style of man ... who can tell the difference between a dime and a fifty-cent piece—but is useless for occasions of more serious moment.” The irony was that Holland wrote a bestseller after the “more serious moment” of President Lincoln’s assassination . All the same, even Springfield Republican publisher Samuel Bowles "thought Holland something of a prig.” A later biographer had this to say: That Josiah Gilbert Holland remained priggish and prudish to
20828-636: The southwestern corner of Missouri (see Missouri secession ). Early in the war the Confederacy controlled southern Missouri through the Confederate government of Missouri but was driven out after 1862. In the resulting vacuum, the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri. Kentucky did not secede, it declared itself neutral. When Confederate forces entered in September 1861, neutrality ended and
20992-532: The stalwart island Fort Sumter. Anderson's actions catapulted him to hero status in the North. An attempt to resupply the fort on January 9, 1861, failed and nearly started the war then, but an informal truce held. On March 5, Lincoln was informed the fort was low on supplies. Fort Sumter proved a key challenge to Lincoln's administration. Back-channel dealing by Seward with the Confederates undermined Lincoln's decision-making; Seward wanted to pull out. But
21156-446: The state reaffirmed its Union status while maintaining slavery. During an invasion by Confederate forces in 1861, Confederate sympathizers and delegates from 68 Kentucky counties organized the secession Russellville Convention, formed the shadow Confederate Government of Kentucky , inaugurated a governor, and Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in
21320-481: The state so he could physically examine each school ground. He planned and inaugurated the Massachusetts normal school system in Lexington (which shortly thereafter moved to Framingham), Barre (which shortly thereafter moved to Westfield) and Bridgewater , and began preparing a series of annual reports, which had a wide circulation and were considered as being "among the best expositions, if, indeed, they are not
21484-457: The substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and which should stay home. There was much evasion and resistance to the draft, especially in Catholic areas. The New York City draft riots in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the vote of the city's Democratic political machine , not realizing it made them liable for the draft. Of
21648-517: The sweets of success as Holland did, perhaps, because neither wrote what the nation’s readers cared so much about.” His writings are quoted by politicians and pastors alike though few today recognize Holland’s name. Born along the Hop Brook near the intersection of Federal Street and Orchard Road, in the village of Dwight , in Belchertown, Massachusetts , on July 24, 1819, Holland grew up in
21812-485: The system he established in Massachusetts, especially the program for "normal schools" to train professional teachers. This quickly developed into a widespread form of school which later became known as the factory model school . In the spring of 1848 he was elected to the United States Congress as a Whig to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams . His first speech in that role
21976-438: The tenets of any particular set of Christians." Like many nineteenth century reformers, Horace Mann believed that "children would find it far more interesting and pleasurable to memorize words and read short sentences and stories without having to bother to learn the names of the letters". According to Diane Ravitch , he condemned the alphabet method, claiming that it was "repulsive and soul-deadening to children". He described
22140-451: The thousands that never tried. European merchant ships could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade, so they stopped calling at Confederate ports. To fight an offensive war, the Confederacy purchased arms in Britain and converted British-built ships into commerce raiders . The smuggling of 600,000 arms enabled the Confederacy to fight on for two more years, and the commerce raiders targeted U.S. Merchant Marine ships in
22304-597: The ultimate good. They are evermore building the Paradise that it is to be, painting the Millennium that is to come. When the world shall reach the poet’s ideal, it will arrive at perfection; and much good will it do the world to measure itself by this ideal and struggle to lift the real to its lofty level. He also wrote: "God never said it would be easy, He just said He would go with me." Holland’s narrative poem “ Bitter-Sweet ” would become one of his most popular, and
22468-525: The very best ones, of the practical benefits of a common school education both to the individual and to the state". By his advocacy of the disuse of corporal punishment in school discipline, he was involved in a controversy with some of the Boston teachers that resulted in the adoption of his views. In 1838, he founded and edited The Common School Journal . In this journal, Mann targeted the public school and its problems. His six main principles were: Under
22632-478: The war . Lincoln led the nation through that victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into
22796-430: The war created jobs for arms makers, ironworkers, and ships to transport weapons. Lincoln's administration initially struggled to appeal to European public opinion. At first, diplomats explained that the U.S. was not committed to ending slavery and emphasized legal arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession. Confederate representatives, however, focused on their struggle for liberty, commitment to free trade, and
22960-478: The war due to multiple factors: severe food shortages, failing railroads, loss of control over key rivers, foraging by Northern armies, and the seizure of animals and crops by Confederate forces. Historians agree the blockade was a major factor in ruining the Confederate economy; however, Wise argues blockade runners provided enough of a lifeline to allow Lee to continue fighting for additional months, thanks to supplies like 400,000 rifles, lead, blankets, and boots that
23124-603: The war. In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed to re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, by constitutionally banning slavery in territories to the north of it, while permitting it to the south. The Compromise would likely have prevented secession, but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it. Lincoln stated that any compromise that would extend slavery would bring down
23288-436: The winter of 1860–1861. Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The U.S. government, under President James Buchanan , refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by the Confederacy. According to Lincoln, the American people had shown they had been successful in establishing and administering
23452-559: The works of Robert Burns or Sir Walter Scott . She cited the praise that it had earned from poet James Russell Lowell . Today, a Holland sentence or paragraph is still quoted by politicians, artists and spiritual leaders alike, including Martin Luther King, Jr ., though few recognize his name. In 1920, Holland’s novel Sevenoaks (1875) was adapted into the Goldwyn comedy-drama, Jes' Call Me Jim , starring Will Rogers . In
23616-478: The world" within a few years. Some European observers at the time dismissed them as amateur and unprofessional, but historian John Keegan concluded that each outmatched the French, Prussian, and Russian armies, and without the Atlantic, could have threatened any of them with defeat. Unionism was strong in certain areas within the Confederacy. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control served in
23780-563: The yard of his birthplace at Dwight, Mass ., to fashion into memorabilia such as penholders. The doorstone of his birthplace, which burned to the ground in 1876, was recovered in 1932 and placed at the Stone House Museum , which also displays first editions of his works. J. G. Holland and his wife were frequent correspondents and intimate family friends of poet Emily Dickinson . She was a guest at their Springfield home on numerous occasions. Dickinson sent more than ninety letters to
23944-506: Was a farmer without much money. Mann was the great-grandson of Samuel Man . From age ten to age twenty, he had no more than six weeks' schooling during any year, but he made use of the Franklin Public Library , the first public library in America. He enrolled at Brown University when he was twenty years old and graduated in three years as valedictorian (1819). The theme of his oration was "The Progressive Character of
24108-555: Was appointed one of the editors of the work and prepared its marginal notes and its references to judicial decisions. He was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate from Boston in 1835 and was its president in 1836–1837. As a member of the Senate, he spent time as the majority leader, and aimed his focus at infrastructure, funding the construction of railroads and canals. In 1830, Mann married Charlotte Messer,
24272-406: Was chairman of its board of trustees. Mann continued to be returned to the legislature as a representative from Dedham until his removal to Boston in 1833. While in the legislature, he was a member and part of the time chairman of the committee for the revision of the state statutes, and a large number of salutary provisions were incorporated into the code at his suggestion. After their enactment, he
24436-647: Was charged with nonadherence to sectarianism because, previously a Congregationalist by upbringing, he joined the Unitarian Church . Mann was also drawn to Antioch because it was a coeducational institution, among the first in the country to teach men and women in the same classes, Mann and his wife had conflicts with female students, however, who came to Yellow Springs in search of greater equality. The young women chafed at restrictions on their behavior, and wanted to meet with men in literary societies, which Mann and his wife opposed. He collapsed shortly after
24600-468: Was described in 1894, by biographer Harriette Merrick Plunkett , as, Dr. Holland’s reflections on the mysteries of Life and Death, on the soul-wracking problems of Doubt and Faith, on the existence of Evil as one of the vital conditions of the universe, on the questions of Predestination , Original Sin , Free-will , and the whole haunting brood of Calvinistic theological metaphysics . She declared it to be “truly an original poem,” and compared it to
24764-523: Was dying and his wife went to care for her. The following month he was offered $ 40 a month as assistant editor of the Springfield Daily Republican , where he began working with the younger, formidable and charming owner—the journalist and editor Samuel Bowles . On Wednesday, September 26, 1849, the Republican began publishing Holland's writing of plantation life in a seven-part series, though uncredited, titled, "Three Weeks on
24928-550: Was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster concerning the extension of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law , calling Webster's support for the Compromise of 1850 a "vile catastrophe", and comparing him to "Lucifer descending from Heaven". Mann was defeated by a single vote at the ensuing nominating convention by Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate, he
25092-408: Was high because many soldiers were more concerned about the fate of their local area than the Southern cause. In the North, " bounty jumpers " enlisted to collect the generous bonus, deserted, then re-enlisted under a different name for a second bonus; 141 were caught and executed. From a tiny frontier force in 1860, the Union and Confederate armies grew into the "largest and most efficient armies in
25256-476: Was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter, in December of that year, he said: "I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the South. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel." Again he said: "I really think if we insist upon passing
25420-405: Was made of bullion lost from mints. He stated that it would be US policy "to collect the duties and imposts"; "there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere" that would justify an armed revolution. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union, famously calling on "the mystic chords of memory" binding the two regions. The Davis government of
25584-566: Was marked by intense and frequent battles. Over four years, 237 named battles were fought, along with many smaller actions, often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. Historian John Keegan described it as "one of the most ferocious wars ever fought," where, in many cases, the only target was the enemy's soldiers. As the Confederate states organized, the U.S. Army numbered 16,000, while Northern governors began mobilizing their militias. The Confederate Congress authorized up to 100,000 troops in February. By May, Jefferson Davis
25748-535: Was named superintendent and implemented the ideas of fellow Massachusetts educator and reformer Horace Mann . In fall 1848, he and his wife were invited to a large cotton plantation in northeastern Louisiana and Holland wrote down his observations. Here he received word that his poetry would be published in the Knickerbocker Magazine and The Home Journal. In April 1849, Holland and his wife returned to Western Massachusetts . His mother-in-law
25912-512: Was not successful, and with the ironclad CSS Virginia , rebuilt from the sunken Union ship Merrimack . On March 8, 1862, Virginia inflicted significant damage on the Union's wooden fleet, but the next day, the first Union ironclad, USS Monitor , arrived to challenge it in the Chesapeake Bay . The resulting three-hour Battle of Hampton Roads was a draw, proving ironclads were effective warships. The Confederacy scuttled
26076-546: Was published as a book the following year. Holland, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman were born the same year. Holland, as associate editor of The Republican , was critically favorable to canonical novelist Herman Melville and as co-founder and editor of Scribner's Monthly , Holland turned down publishing the more widely read canonical poet Walt Whitman . Considered a writer and man of "Victorian virtue," J.G. Holland found Whitman's poetry “immoral.” Whitman later called Holland, “a man of his time, not possessed of
26240-460: Was pushing for another 100,000 soldiers for one year or the duration, and the U.S. Congress responded in kind. In the first year of the war, both sides had more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip. After the initial enthusiasm faded, relying on young men who came of age each year was not enough. Both sides enacted draft laws (conscription) to encourage or force volunteering, though relatively few were drafted. The Confederacy passed
26404-549: Was re-elected, serving from April 1848 until March 1853. Mann was a staunch opponent of slavery as a member of Congress; in a written address to an 1852 "Convention of the Colored Freemen of Ohio" he stated: [t]hat slavery is to continue always, it would be the grossest atheism to affirm. A belief in the existence of a just Governor of the Universe, includes a belief in the final and utter abolition of slavery." In
26568-769: Was sworn in as president. In his inaugural address , he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , was a binding contract, and called secession "legally void". He did not intend to invade Southern states, nor to end slavery where it existed, but he said he would use force to maintain possession of federal property, including forts, arsenals, mints, and customhouses that had been seized. The government would not try to recover post offices, and if resisted, mail delivery would end at state lines. Where conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of federal law, US marshals and judges would be withdrawn. No mention
26732-525: Was too late. " King Cotton " was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton. By June 1861, warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service. The Confederates began the war short on military supplies, which the agrarian South could not produce. Northern arms manufacturers were restricted by an embargo, ending existing and future contracts with
26896-494: Was “undoubtedly Holland's masterpiece." The novel remained in print into the 1920s. In 1875, Holland wrote a letter to be read at the dedication of a monument to Edgar Allan Poe , the poet and writer, though Holland wrote that the man and his poetry were “without value.” Holland was against Women's suffrage but donated funds to the New England Female Medical College in Boston. He was member of
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