Congress Fights the Civil War

O' Be Joyful

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America faced its greatest crisis in 1861 as the nation literally unraveled and the rest of the world wondered whether its experiment in self-determination would succeed.


Books about the period have generally focused on the efforts of Abraham Lincoln and the military to fight the Civil War. Much less recognized is that for four long and unpredictable years, Congress played a fundamental role in the waging and winning of the conflict, sustained the Union effort, and gave it lasting meaning. What happened in the political realm is an epic as gripping and fraught with uncertainty as what took place on the battlefield between the opposing armies.


It’s a human story of how men faced the worst crisis in the nation’s history. As Rep. Albert Riddle, a radical Republican, wrote: “Mr. Lincoln, his cabinet, and the 37th Congress were elected to do anything, everything, except what fell to them to do—fight the greatest civil war of history. It came upon them as an utter surprise.”


After Lincoln was elected, a pall hung over Washington in January of 1861 as rain turned Pennsylvania Avenue into a muddy trough. Even in the best neighborhoods, yards stank from privies and putrifying household slops. The rooming houses where most members of Congress lived, and the halls of the Capitol itself smelled of wet woolen clothing, cigars, and the charcoal that struggled to warm the under-heated chambers of Congress. Slavery pervaded the city like the stink of horse manure that everywhere bedunged the streets.





 
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