The United States’ federal government was given the name ‘Union’ at the time when the American civil war was taking place. A total of five Border States and 20 Free States supported the war.
However, eleven states that were located on the southern part opposed the war. As a matter of fact, the southern states had threatened to form a Confederacy by seceding from the northern bloc. The term ‘North’ has been used to for a long time to refer to the Union. It is against this backdrop that this paper discusses how and why the Union was the civil war.
To begin with, it is pertinent to mention that the American civil war could not have been fought without adequate resources. The Union was deemed to be extremely strong both in terms of manpower and monetary resources needed for war. Moreover, the Union was extremely urbanized and industrialized compared to the Confederacy. In other words, the rural south had suffered from slave menace and as such, had no adequate resources to muzzle for the war.
As expected, there was a large number of the white population in the Union Sates. To be precise, the Confederate states had only five million non whites compared to the Union which had 23 million whites. These were adequate numbers for the white population to engage and emerge victorious in the American civil war. Needless to say, both the economic power and huge population proved to be vantage points for the Union in claiming victory against the southern states.
Perhaps, the most fundamental contribution of the Union in the Civil War was through finances. It can be recalled that the land sales and low tariffs were used by the federal government to fund small scale undertakings in 1860.
In regards to the Civil War, it was definite that these revenues could not suffice the total cost of the war. Hence, there was urgent need to redress sources of funding especially if the war could be fought fully. Nonetheless, Salmon Chase who was the under secretary of the Treasury Department sought alternative measures of financing the conflict.
Since there was need of protecting the stability of the economy, several new taxation regimes were introduced. Moreover, most of the supplies were paid by the government using actual money. This was a major incentive that enticed the population to sell their assets to the state irrespective of their political affiliations. As a matter of fact, the government used myriads of patriotic themes while imposing new taxes so that the population could be convinced that the treasury was doing the right thing.
On the other hand, the paper promissory notes that were issued by the Confederacy failed to lure property sellers in the south. Hence, seizing property with such notes proved to be a major failure on the part of the Confederacy.
Property owners opted to hide their assets instead of exchanging them with promissory notes that could not be converted into real money. It was vivid that a lot of success was witnessed in the northern financial system. The latter managed to trade patriotism with money. However, the southern patriots were impoverished by the Confederates.
It should be noted that the Civil war required approximately $3.1 billion from the treasury. There were several fleets and armies who were to take part in the war. In order to meet the huge budget, some form of the Value Added Tax (VAT) under excise taxes was introduced. This type of tax targeted manufactured goods.
In addition, the Morrill tariff laws also saw the hiking certain tariffs in order to raise enough finances for the war. Although taxation was the main source of targeted revenue for the war, government bonds also came in handy to boost the revenue pool. People were able to purchase small denomination government bonds.
The Union is also perceived to have driven the Civil war due to its superior leadership. Nonetheless, there were several aspects of good leadership among the confederates. Strong political leadership among the Unions fuelled the Civil War because it created a sense of determination among the northerners that they could indeed win the war.
The leadership of Jefferson Davis was seen to be less vibrant than that of President Lincoln. However, Davis was the best choice of political leadership needed in the south. He is known to have been a source of great inspiration to the southern population.
One of the most outstanding failures of the Confederate government was its inability to sustain the stability of the economy. Instead of seeking alternative ways of generating revenue just like the Union did, the southern government printed a lot of notes and coins. It consequently led to a serious inflation and rise in the cost of living. This scenario lowered the morale of the people.
On a final note, it is evident that the American civil war could not have progressed successfully without the economic and military might endowed by the Union. If the Union could not have raised additional funds and reorganized its large fleet and armies, then the Civil War would not have taken place. In other words, the Union was the real propeller of the war.
Bibliography
Henretta, James, and David Brody. America: A Concise History, Volume I: To 1877 (4th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
Marten, James Alan. Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2003.
Winston, Smith George, and Charles Judah. Life in the North During the Civil War: A Source History. New York: University of New Mexico Press, 1966.