Benjamin F. Butler causes another controversy, this time by refusing to return fugitive slaves to their masters. This sets a wartime precedent.
Category: Slavery
Inflexible on the Territorial Question
Abraham Lincoln reiterates that he will not accept any compromise with the South that might spread slavery into the territories.
Compromise Efforts: I Am for Fighting Again
Senator John J. Crittenden introduces a complex program designed to end the sectional crisis and preserve the Union.
Barking dogs never bite
President-elect Abraham Lincoln tries to reach out to influential southerners to find some sort of rapidly vanishing middle ground in the unfolding sectional crisis.
Key Events Leading to the War Between the States
The United States of America had been in existence for less than a century when it was nearly shattered by the most terrible conflict in its history. Why did it happen?
Lincoln Visits Richmond
April 4, 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln visited the former Confederate capital of Richmond the day after its fall. Rear Admiral David D. Porter, commanding