Studying the Northern homefront has been as enlightening as learning about the Southern home front. In class we learned that the North wasn't necessarily as united as the South or even modern citizens would beleive. Instead, the war in the North was characterized by men and women with interests of their own and "attachments to individual states," which eventually cobbled together to build an "American identity" (p. 210). The focus on ordinary citizens, especially Northern women, was most appealing to me.
Document One - Isabella Duffield
In this document from 1861, the president of the Detroit Ladies Aid Society asks women to aid in the war effort via the "steady purpose" of providing for soldier's needs. Here she asks women to send mittens, caps, shirts, blankets, and so on to the soldiers and calls it a "noble mission," for "humanity sake" (p. 212). There is no talk of partisan views (though I suspect Republican over anti-war democrat alignment here?) and it is still early in the war. She references God in her appeal for help and also the saying that "women feel where men act" (p. 212). My interpretation of this is that she means women should both feel and act as two actions which go together and not just something to pay lip service to. Duffield also makes no class division, saying that the rich are in as much need as the poor and finishes in urgency and reerences to God.
Document Two - Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Though these two women were more well-known, I was excited to read their documents. These go along with Silber's essay about the charges that Northern women were disloyal to the cause, unlike Southern women .What is interesting is that this view must have been widely held and not just something men mulled over in newspaper "editorials" or privately with each other. Written when the war was already two or so years underway, Stanton replies to those charges by stating "facts" and asking women to define for themselves what loyalty means. Cleverly, she references Adams' mother and writes that theory and practice must be aligned. That is, all people, not just men, have the right to the blessings of liberty by abolishment of slavery. To do otherwise is to ascribe to a "backwards" way of caste and class, in her view. In my opinion, this is a call to mobilize and reject being "out of time and tune with independence" (p. 213). In the next document, both Stanton and Anthony call for a meeting with the Loyal Women of the Nation. The idea that the north is divided with unique interests is evident when she writes that neither policy nor other sectional interests should take away from women viewing a common goal of freedom and justice. I think this documentis radical for their day because it places women's political and work-productive responsibility on equal footing with men's responsibilities. "Woman is equally interested and responsible with man in the final settlement of self-governemnt," she writes on p. 214, and calls on them as "daughters of the Revolution" to mobilize in this united effort. For lack of better terms, this document seemed a lovely response to the doubts that Northern women were less dedicated than Southern women and I feel forward-thinking as well.
Document Three - Protest of Wartime Wages
This document was written to President Lincoln in 1965 shortly before his death and attests to unfair labor wages. It is signed by "wives, widows, sisters, and friends of the soldiers in the army of the United States" (p. 214). Curiously and bravely, it is numbered almost as would be a document of protest. In this lette, the women assert that they are indeed loyal and willing to do the work required of them, but ask in number two to cut out contractors, or the middle man. I calculated that those contractors were making 40% or so profit while women were getting paid peanuts, so to speak. I liked that they asked to work directly for the governement as a partial solution to this problem but that they wrote at all is cool. They seemed to understand that they had the power to provide a crucial service to the soldiers. It also seems that by adding words like "humble" and "prayer" they are both careful to appear loyal but ready to word their protest in an acceptable manner.
Document Four -Henry Bellows
In this document, Bellows explains the work and goals of the Sanitary Commission and its importance as a society in war time aid. He explains why the society is important and expresses here a sense of national unity and is not sympathetic to statish (in his words) or local governments, which he says created the war in the first place. However, if I understand correctly, Bellows thinks women to be withdrawn from partisan strife, as opposed to not really being allowed into politics (man's sphere). As a result, he feels there is more a "wonderful spirit of nationality" in women which porvides for the needs of soldier's through the society and their own productive labor.
Document Five - Lincoln's Address to the Central Fair in Philadelphia
The first paragraph speaks to war's destruction, which in 1864 had to be foremost on the president's mind. He says it is "deranged" business and proclaims that the "heavens are hung in black." It had to be quite depressing for him and his mind must have been preoccupied in this horrible war that caused not only death, but debt and destruction/ruin of property and the nation as a whole. He says that the benevolent societies are doing large things in aiding the soldiers , whom he praises. He goes on to say that while the aforementioned is patriotic, that he cannot say when the war will end and is determined to see its end only when his goals are accomplished. I didn't miss his description of women as fair and "tender" handed, or that any effort given limited resources was greatly appreciated under the circumstances. the object to be attained that he describes on page 217 is most likely the end of slavery and a united America. Though cognizant of war being "hell," he seems committed to doing whatever it takes including continuing for another three years if need be. His proficient oratory is evident when he poses a question to his audience which elicits "cries of yes," which is basically, will you aid us when we need you?
Document Six and Seven - Chase Appeals to the public for financial support (1861) and The N.Y. Tribune Supports Exansion of the Governement Bond Drive (1865)
Though written four years apart, the intended audience in both documents is the public. Public resources were ery important in a war which was draining the nation's economy. Chase uses national bonds "to transmute the burden into a benefit" on p. 218. These will benefit both the government and the people because it causes interest to be paid from the government three years from the time purchased. Aside from personal benefit, the citizens help themselves also by contributing to their nation. He also delineates a bond plan fully in the last paragraph. The last document explains how Jay Cook is now a leader in that effort, as described in Lawson's essay. The importance of this hits home in the last paragraph, whivch states that the "nation will be hooped" (joined together) via these bonds "stronger than steel" (p. 220).
The Essays - Silber and Lawson
Silber's essay was thought porvoking: why were Northern woman considered dispassionate or not loyal to the Northen cause? Women's patriotism was problematic at the onset of the war because it was viewed only through their husbands. That is, she writes women were not considered politically autonomous and were expected to "sacrifice" domestic focus in favor of support for men's public and political obligations (p. 221). Silber's focus on Northern women stems from the fact that certain conditions informed "the North's discussion of gender and patriotism" (p 222) more than the South's. Females as self-less martyrs were the day's views, which were couched in feminized forms. In other words, women were supposed to be "submissive" (p. 222). Yet, as the war progressed, women had to redefine who they were and what they believed while proving national allegiance. Her point about other issues clouding women's patriotism was so important because it helped illustrate that sometimes those worries were put off too specifically on women and their "failings" (p. 223). Silber touches on materialistic excess, classist ideas and how democrats viewed war protest akin to something unmanly and unpopular. The end of her essay observes that women "held themselves to a new standard of patriotism." She later asserts that what people thought about women's loyalty dissipated as they realized "women had to ground their own patriotism in their own individual understandings of the Union cause."
The second essay by Lawson helped me understand who Jay Cooke was, the crisis (financially) of the war, and how bonds were to be used to strengthen nation and self. Cooke became the government banker and began advertising what war bonds could do. Namely, they helped the country to flourish/stabilize by providing for citizen's self-interest. Acccording to the article, the word was put out by ads and circulars which urged "readers" take out war loans also. This was a way to support the government and one self. I never knew Cooke was the driving force, much less that there was so much bond literature. By appealing to self-interest, Cooke was promoting patriotism and much more. Men and women who did so were acknowledged publicly, which I also did not know. The essay also traces the impact of the war bonds, its success, and Cooke's construction of patriotism. Cooke, it is written here, was in fact less rooted in patriotism so much as a "classic liberalism" market model (pp. 243-244). It worked though, and the people in turn were presented with a government which could be depended on for loans as a "big bank." By advertising and selling this model to all people, then, Cooke helped solidify the vision of "democratization" by serving the common folks' material interests.
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