Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis

532 Pages·1988·12.026 MB·English

by  Daniel W. Crofts

R E L U C T A N T C O N F E D E R A T E S
Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies
Reluctant
Confederates
U P P E R S O U T H U N I O N I S T S IN
T H E S E C E S S I O N C R I S I S
D A N I E L W. C R O F T S
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill and London
O 1989 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
9S 9* 91 90 89 5 4 5 * '
Library of Congress Catak>ging-in-Publication Data
Crofts, Daniel W.
Reluctant Confederates: upper South unionists in the secession
crisis / by Daniel W. Crofts.
p. cm.—(Fred W. Morrison series in Southern studies)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
»bn 0-8078-1809-7 (alk. paper)
1. Secession, a. United States—Politics and government—Civil
War, 1861-1865. I. Title. II. Series.
E459.C92 1989 88-6927
973-7—<ici9 cir
Portions of this work appeared earlier in somewhat different form and are
reproduced here with permission of the publisher, as follows:
MA Reluctant Unionist: John A. Gilmer and Lincoln’s Cabinet,** Civil War History 24
(Sept. 1978): 225-49. By permission of Kent State University Press.
“James E. Harvey and the Secession Crisis,** Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography 105 (Apr. 1979): 177-95* &Y permission of the Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography.
“Secession Winter: William Henry Seward and the Decision for War,** New York History
45 (July 1984): 229-56. By permission of the New York State Historical Association.
“The Union Party of 1861 and the Secession Crisis,“ Perspectives m American History 11
(1977-78): 327-76. By permission of Perspectives in American History.
For John T. Crofts and
Mary-Blanche Crofts

C O N T E N T S
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxv
Prologue i
1. Unionist Profiles 8
2. Political Parties in the Late Antebellum Upper South 37
3. The Political Origins of Upper South Unionism 66
4. Unionists on the Defensive 90
5. The Unionist Argument 104
6. The Unionist Offensive 130
7. Measuring the Unionist Insurgency 164
8. The Unionists and Compromise 195
9. The Unionists, the Republican Party, and
President-Elect Lincoln 215
10. The Unionists and President Lincoln—
The March 1861 Rapprochement 254
11. Reversal of the Hands-Off Policy 289
12. The Unionists, Fort Sumter, and the Proclamation for
Seventy-five Thousand Troops 308
13. Forced to Choose Sides: Southern Unionists after the
Proclamation 334
Epilogue: Rethinking the Secession Crisis 353
Appendix I: Multiple Regression—
Party, Slavery, and Secession 361
Appendix II: Ecological Regression—
Estimating Voter Behavior 367
Appendix III: Statistics, Secession, and the Historians 376
viii 1 Contents
Notes 383
Bibliographical Essay
457
Index 481
T A B L E S
2-1 Voting Patterns in High- and Low-Slaveowning Counties
in i860 46
2-2 Virginia: Correlation Coefficients, Whig Voting,
1848-1861 55
2-3 Virginia East of the Blue Ridge: Correlation Coefficients,
Whig Voting, 1848-1861 56
2-4 Virginia West of the Blue Ridge: Correlation Coefficients,
Whig Voting, 1848-1861 57
2-5 North Carolina: Correlation Coefficients, Whig Voting,
1848-1861 58
2- 6 Tennessee: Correlation Coefficients, Whig Voting,
1848-1861 59
3- 1 Vote Totals and Percentages, i860 Presidential Election 82
3-2 Virginia: Estimated Distribution of Voters, 1856-1860 86
3-3 North Carolina: Estimated Distribution of Voters,
1856-1860 87
3-4 Tennessee: Estimated Distribution of Voters, 1856—1860 88
7-1 How Virginia Slaveowners and Nonslaveowners Divided
Their Votes: Estimated Percentages for November i860
and February 1861 176
7-2 Virginia: Estimated Percentages of Slaveowners and
Nonslaveowners in Voting Blocs, November i860 and
February 1861 178
7-3 How North Carolina Slaveowners and Nonslaveowners
Divided Their Votes: Estimated Percentages for
November i860 and February 1861 180
7-4 North Carolina: Estimated Percentages of Slaveowners
and Nonslaveowners in Voting Blocs, November i860
and February 1861 182
x I Tables
7-5 How Tennessee Slaveowners and Nonslaveowners
Divided Their Votes: Estimated Percentages for
November i860, February 1861, and June 1861 184
7-6 Tennessee: Estimated Percentages of Slaveowners and
Nonslaveowners in Voting Blocs, November i860,
February 1861, and June 1861 186
7-7 February 1861 Patterns of November i860
Virginia Voters 189
7-8 February 1861 Patterns of November i860
North Carolina Voters 190
7-9 February 1861 Patterns of November i860
Tennessee Voters 191
7-10 Breakdown of Union Voters 192
8>i Proposed Secession Crisis Compromises in
Historical Perspective 202
13-1 Tennessee: Secession Crisis Correlation Coefficients 344
a-i Multiple Regressions: Virginia 362
A-2 Multiple Regressions: Virginia, East and West of
the Blue Ridge 363
A-3 Multiple Regressions: North Carolina 364
A-4 Multiple Regressions: Tennessee 365
a>5 Estimated Voting Behavior of Virginia Slaveowners and
Nonslaveowners, 1860—1861 368
a-6 Estimated Voting Behavior of North Carolina
Slaveowners and Nonslaveowners, 1860-1861 370
A-7 Estimated Voting Behavior of Tennessee Slaveowners and
Nonslaveowners, 1860-1861 371
a-8 Virginia: Estimated Distribution of Voters, 1860-1861 372
A-9 North Carolina: Estimated Distribution of Voters,
1860-1861 373
a-10 Tennessee: Estimated Distribution of Voters, 1860-1861 374