Waubonsee Community College

We have the war upon us, the onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861, William J. Cooper

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-315) and index

illustrationsmapsplates

index present

non fiction

We have the war upon us

819383405

William J. Cooper

Vintage Civil War library

the onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861

In this carefully researched book the author gives us a fresh perspective on the period between Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861, during which all efforts to avoid or impede secession and prevent war failed. Here is the story of the men whose decisions and actions during the crisis of the Union resulted in the outbreak of the Civil War. This book helps us understand what the major actors said and did: the Republican party, the Democratic party, southern secessionists, southern Unionists; why the pro-compromise forces lost; and why the American tradition of sectional compromise failed. It reveals how the major actors perceived what was happening and the reasons they gave for their actions: Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Stephen A. Douglas, William Henry Seward, John J. Crittenden, Charles Francis Adams, John Tyler, James Buchanan, and a host of others. Here is written a full account of the North and the South, Republicans and Democrats, sectional radicals and sectional conservatives that deepens our insight into what is still one of the most controversial periods in American history

"Is this not a remarkable spectacle?" -- "The future is . . . shrouded in the very blackness of darkness" -- "We need a statesman of nerve to meet the terrible crisis" -- "The prospects for the country are gloomy" -- "Up with Polly, down with wisdom is the order of the day" -- "You can still this storm" -- "Fraternity is the element of the union" -- "The quicksands that environ our ship of state" -- "Both sides marching to fields of blood"