The issue of civil liberties during wartime is as crucial today as it was during the Civil War. The detention of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay prison has led to endless debate and confusing equivocation regarding the rights of detainees and civil liberties during war time. The confusion is nothing new. Curbing civil liberties during war time is something the United States experienced not only in the Civil War, but also in World Wars One and Two. Is the introduction of internal securities measures curbing civil liberties ever justified? Is it necessary? Civil War historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mark Neely took some time to answer these questions for the House Divided project at our June 13th workshop.

Mark Neely on Civil Liberties

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative political think-tank, examines Lincoln’s restrictions of civil liberties during the War. The Hon. Frank J. Williams uses his article to examine also the restriction of civil liberties enacted by the Bush Administration as a part of the War on Terror. Williams acknowledges the unique situation of the rebellion faced by the Federal government during the 1860s, and draws a parallel between the uniqueness of that era and that of our current war.

Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties in Wartime

Exactly 150 years ago today, federal troops entered Salt Lake City in order to securely install federally appointed governor, Alfred E. Cumming, and removed the Mormon governor of nearly a decade, Brigham Young.  The article The Brink of War explains the Utah War and the history of how this Morman Zion gained its statehood.  What the article does not clarify however is the conflicting terminology of the Mormon War and the Utah War.  The Mormon War was a bloody and bitter conflict between the federal government and the Mormon population in the Utah territory, during Buchanan’s presidency.  What the article describes as the “bloodless” Utah War is the negotiations that occurred at the tail end of the conflict.  House Divided has several newspapers, letters, and other documents about the Mormon War.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates is a topic often written about and discussed, certainly in this blog, and certainly among teachers, historians, and political scientists. The Debates are always relevant in telling the story of the nation, especially of those steps into civil war. This year in particular, much has been said about the Debates, whether by students of the Debates or by politicians wishing to replicate them for a modern election. Allen Guelzo, Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, recently published a new book exploring the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. According to a Gettysburg College News Detail on the event of an interview given by Guelzo, the book “…dramatizes and underscores the historical significance of the 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois….” Professor Guelzo gave two recent interviews regarding the debates and his book, one with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, and another with WHYY, an NPR affiliate serving southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and southern New Jersey.

Guelzo’s Daily Show interview is perhaps one of the more serious conducted on the show, and serves to give basic context for the debates, while advertising the book.

The WHYY interview provides much more context for the debates, and proves a good resource for introduction to the debates, or good context for wide discussion about antebellum politics and the events leading up to civil war.

History Net is an online collection of history magazines that has daily posts of the latest articles from history magazine.  The site also features images, videos, and daily quizzes from all periods of modern history.  Under features for today there was an article about Confederate discontent following their defeat at Gettysburg.  The History Net also provides an RSS feed so you can be notified when updates occur.

The Civil War was not without political wrangling and electioneering. 1860-1865 saw two presidential elections, a number of congressional elections, and a great many local elections. Politics carried on, despite the war. The press is a great resource for viewing the politics of the era. Certainly not sources for cool, fact-based analysis and commentary, Civil War era press outlets were unabashedly partisan and sought at every turn to advance the platform of their particular parties. While partisanship is readily experienced in the writing of the time, editorial cartoons provide some of the more striking examples. Harper’s Weekly, a popular illustrated news weekly of the last half of the 19th century, provided a wealth of these cartoons to its readership. These cartoons can be revisited today through a new online database and website. HarpWeek is a digital collection of all Harper’s Weekly materials, but also includes biographies, glossaries, images, and even advertisements of the era. Although the database is only available through subscription, HarpWeek’s website includes a number of free feature webpages that are fine, free sources for biographies, overviews, and most importantly, editorial cartoons.HarpWeek’s Elections Homepage is a most useful source for political cartoons from the national elections of 1860 to 1912.

The Library of Congress has a number of interesting image collections that students might like to see. One I might use in my class next semester is on President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. They have pictures of Ford’s theater, the conspirators, the funeral, and a wanted poster. I’ve only included the top half of that poster, but you can see the full image here.

Galesburg, Illinois has decided to declare this the “Year of Lincoln” in recognition of both the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. An article was released today from Knox College in Galesburg, home of the 5th Lincoln-Douglas debate. The article discusses and describes many of the events that the historic city plans to present throughout the year.

There are several ways to bring history to life for students. Field trips to actual historical sites is a traditional way that teachers accomplish this, however that is limited to historical sites near the school. Several databases and sites provide virtual field trips. Some examples include Lincoln Net, where images and descriptions are provided along with other websites of a similar nature. The House Divided Undergound Railroad Classroom has more interactive field trips using Google Earth and historical maps to recreate events like the Lincoln-Douglas Debates or Harriet Tubman’s journies.

History Now has a great website on Lincoln under its “Interactive History” section. It contains a collection of images from the 1800’s as well as several political cartoons from the time period. What is also great is that each image has a paragraph or two describing the relevance of the image. It is definately worth checking out!

I found a lesson plan to go with the interactive map of the Lincoln Douglas Debates interactive map I found yesterday! Find more lesson plans at the House Divided’s Underground Railroad Digital Classroom.