But There Was No Peace: The Aftermath of the Civil War

President Abraham Lincoln called for "a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Three years later, after the turmoil and violence of the early Reconstruction years in the South, General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the Republican presidential nomination with the words: "Let us have peace." The apparent irony of the Civil War's commander in chief and the nation's foremost military leader calling for peace illustrates the paradox at the core of what we call the humanities. The pain of warfare and the possibility of peace form the theme of this lecture. The road to a just and lasting peace often leads through violent and relentless war. This lecture explores this paradox with a case study of the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War.
Stanford University:
www.stanford.edu/
Stanford Humanities Center:
shc.stanford.edu/
Stanford University Channel on KZbin:
/ stanford

[@domukaz]

The little remark about the incivility of Congress in 2009 compared to the Congresses of the antebellum crisis might have been comforting then, but now, in 2020, it's just ominous.

[@tedosmond413]

Always enjoyable to read comments by believers of the myth of the Lost Cause and realize they didn't listen to a word the man said.

[@tomberlied7260]

I enjoyed this immensely! Thank you!

[@PatrickClarkin]

Excellent talk.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

A late 19th C writer, looking at the (alleged) outcome of the postwar years said, "the North had a choice between reconstruction and reconciliation [with the South.] They chose reconciliation. The work of reconstruction will continue indefinitely."

[@markteague8889]

The North really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

[@jasonmuller7074]

Fast forward to 6:49 if you want to skip the two introductory speakers

[@NathanDudani]

Who tf has two introductory speakers?

[@VtRD]

Jim McPherson should be called America's greatest living historian. He makes history exciting, alive, real--just what most of us did not get in school. His books read like novels. Try one!

[@joepuhel2428]

Marilyn E. Jess because they pretty much are novels!

[@carywest9256]

@@joepuhel2428 So right you are! I get tired of the nation constant beating of the South.If these so-called historians would tell the real history of the United States.People would not be so hard on one section of the country,and coddle the other. Even a layman can look at the dates of the founding of settlements,towns and cities. The slave trade was started in the North. Yes, the first blacks were dropped off at Jamestown,Va. What l have read is the ship that did this was Dutch and they need food and other supplies.The English settlers had what the Dutch wanted,but no money to pay for the supplies. The Dutch offered the 19 blacks in trade, the English refused this, for they didn't want to have to take more mouths to feed. So the Dutch pulled their weapons and forced them into acceptance,for they didn't want an international incident. Google books on Jamestown and you'll find what l am talking about. Using the electronic text devices will send you into a brickwall.

[@karencarter8292]

@@carywest9256 Well, the dominant ethnicity involved in the slave trade has not been recognized by most sources.

[@kennethmueller5840]

Thomas Sowell takes that honor.

[@Orehockey]

Well Done Professor. It's really too bad that the "Lost Causers" will not listen or even attempt to understand your presentation.

[@dencyladydee7519]

D

[@Orehockey]

@@dencyladydee7519 Thank You.

[@edwardclement102]

The cause the CSA fought for a federal government is far form being over.

[@Orehockey]

@@edwardclement102 Please check the Confederate States of America Constitution, the individual State Constitutions of the CSA, the Alexander Stephens Cornerstone Address. Then please explain your theory that the CSA was fighting for their rights. The “Lost Cause” is a myth that attempts to justify a fight by denying facts. Your Confederacy was all about using, purchasing, and selling human beings. No amount of distortions and lies will ever change that!

[@Orehockey]

@@edwardclement102 After re-reading your original comment I have a question. Are you saying that your cause is willing to re-start that war? Is that what you believe and desire? If so, “Be careful what you wish for!”

[@jamesanonymous2343]

if it's War you're looking for, you need not look much further, if it's Peace, keep your eyes on the far horizon.

[@lukaseichhorn4774]

There is a term in international relations and international law for someone who is beneath any law of war and who is basically anybody's to attack "Hostis Humani Generis" - Enemy of mankind. This term was first applied to pirates and later to slavers. The Confederates issued letters of marque in support of an illegal rebellion - i.e. piracy - and as to their status of slavers no doubt can exist. The most utter harshness should have been applied against the South, with the latifundia distributed among those loyal to the Union and those who had been forced into chattel slavery by the Southern aristocracy (or rather kakistocracy)

[@stacyMighty]

Very interesting

[@mcmchugh99]

Personally, I always agreed with Thad Stevens that the Southern planter aristocracy should have been destroyed, with all its land confiscated. In that respect, the Andrew Johnson policy of pardoning them was a disaster. He really was one of the worst presidents in history.

[@mrclarkson3812]

The worst President of all time was Grant,look it up! Oh its a good thing the south did not leave the Union,where would all the Yankees go ,when they destroyed their state economies??Maybe Canada??? :)

[@danielkaczmarski5688]

mcmchugh99 Lincoln wanted to pardon them as well

[@vickiemiller7490]

Personally we should have never went to Africa they shouldn't black people should never been bought and they never should have been sold over here in our country oh man works by the sweat of his brow we go back to what the word God says that's how we get fed and you know what our 16th President Abraham Lincoln knew in my mind I believe that he begged them to get on that ship and to go back because he could see what was going lionhead of what this country was going to be about I think it's a shame that he even took place it's somebody lies why should it be about the North and the South I'm a South Carolina I was born in South Carolina but I was raised in Michigan so what's that tell you you know the south is a very poor place especially in South Carolina but you had to go where there's work my parents did both in the in the late sixties God rest my father but one thing I can say I'm very proud of Rufus Oswald Collins my dad went to work for the first fish about a plant in Michigan and praise and praise be the god that we didn't have to eat hot dogs the rest of our lives my dad had two girls I work hard on 10 and 1/2 acre farm so I know because he didn't have boys and him being from South Carolina it makes it it makes it rough we knew how to grow everything from the south to the north it's just a shame that this war even took place nobody has the right to own nobody I pray this country doesn't have another civil war please if anybody takes a hold and reads this we should be loving to one another whatever color we are it's the time that we need to be focused on the high calling and that's the Lord Jesus Christ not the government not the president but the highest calling is the father of above put him first and everything in every decision that you make that's all I got to say

[@Xenu]

He does mention Stevens briefly at 18:30.

[@zabaleta66]

Excellent, James McPherson.

[@randyhelzerman]

Lately its been more like they have what we want, but yeah, you are right.

[@garyparris1713]

My great, great uncle Noah Parris was a sheriff in Fayette Co. Alabama he was shot in the back in 1876 in the town square. His murder was never solved and life went on as if nothing evered happened!!!!!!!

[@mcmchugh99]

And perhaps Gen. Sherman should have been sent down there again, just to teach the Confederates another lesson.

[@insidedigitalmedia]

That is precisely the type of hatred that James McPherson's distorted story of reconstruction promotes.

[@jeffscheiner1553]

Accurate, not distorted.

[@edwardclement102]

Joe Johnston would have stopped Sherman if left in command of CSA forces in Georgia.

[@Nick-yz9fd]

I would love to be directed to a good source of information on the incentives that may have been offered by radicals to Northern Republicans appealing for them to go south and become "carpetbaggers." Especially If there were any legislative incentives offered at all, perhaps to"rebuild the south," or integrate the south.

[@melvinlee5684]

Being a southerner, I have been personally targeted as a racist. This first happened to me while I was in the military. Since then it has also happened to me when I’m outside the south. My ancestors actually fought for the Union army and were too poor to have any slaves. I keep hearing that Southerners can’t let go that they lost the civil war. I find that it is just the reverse. Northerners can’t let go. It’s worsened now with the push to erase culture and the emergence of BLM. I see much more vehemence in the comments from people that dislike southerners than I do from southerners that dislike northerners. It’s amazing to me that there are people out there that still give a schit. Just let history be what it is, history.

[@markteague8889]

I’ve experienced precisely the ignorance and bigotry of which you speak. It is a byproduct of the post-war propaganda used to rationalize and justify it. I suppose when any civilization’s leadership chooses to go to war they must justify and rationalize it to the greater society at large via some overarching just and pious cause. In reality, the Civil War (like nearly all wars) was waged over what we might call the original sin, a lust for power!

[@Bartleby1701]

What he is describing is seemingly almost perfectly descriptive of the modern conservative movement (only now they're Southern Republicans) today. These people have been ruining this country for ages.... Sigh...

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Have you visited Venezuela lately?

[@bartlebyscrivener674]

@@indy_go_blue6048 are you joking? Is that all you've got? And you are replying to a comment from TEN years ago....lol. Venezuela....lol

[@ObservantHistorian]

@@indy_go_blue6048 Have you visited Mississippi lately?

[@youtubezcy]

The QAnon birther party is bananas.

[@mudpaws1228]

History repeats itself

[@NathanDudani]

hIsToRy RePeAtS iTsElF

[@edwardclement102]

The Republicans at the time used the freedmen for political purposes, just like Biden used covid, history repeats itself when you have a socialist, communist, or liberal using people.

[@MrThaddeusStevens]

Too bad he didn't mention Thaddeus Stevens, the architect of Reconstruction.

[@5kehhn]

Sounds mighty similar to today's america.

[@edwardclement102]

Politicians are out for themselves, not good of USA.

[@stacyMighty]

I am so happy the truth is coming out now, so I can make a honest decision on leaving the United States in the next year or 2

[@JRobbySh]

McPherson glides over the main political reason why Congress refused to seat southern representatives in Congress in the first post-war Congress: they were Democrats and with the Copperhead faction would be a powerful force in the new Congress. Further, despite his standing as the National Hero in the North, Grant only won about 52% of the popular vote in 1868 .

[@michaelm7560]

52% of the vote doesn’t sound like much, until you consider that Reagan got 50.7%

[@tedosmond413]

You never listened to a word he said.

[@paulbrasier372]

He addressed that very thing a couple minutes before that point. Go back a listen to him again.

[@hpritchard1000]

In all the videos and speeches about the cause of the civil war, there is one reason and probably the main reason that the war was fought that no one talks about. So for the record, I am going to state that the biggest cause of the civil war was that the white population of the South was deathly afraid of the slaves. When you have your foot of a man's neck for 300 years you are scared to death of what he will do when he gets up. Also, fear was a big seller for the politicians, all they had to do was point out the slave revolts, scare the men, but really scare the women (I'm thinking of Witney Plantation here). So please, if you are going to lecture of the Civil War put this idea at the start of your speech.

[@bbmtge]

The absurd, inane garbage contained in words such as "...no one talks about" or "the main reason" are nothing more than your foolish narcissism at work. Exactly for what record are you commenting? You must have missed the point of the speech that being relative to post-war America and not any cause of the civil war thus negating the concept of your comment and calling your comprehension skills into question. Before the white population could fear the slaves there had to be slavery which IS the principal cause of the civil war. Thus, you did nothing more, here, than make a fool of yourself. What's more, you write as if the presenter will see you ridiculous comment and act you as command. I'd tell you that you're not very bright and you should get over yourself but, you are too lost.

[@hpritchard1000]

@@bbmtge Whee, I never saw anyone get so upset over a comment. Control your reactions. And no, I consider myself very bright. Relax a bit.

[@andreabrown4541]

Unlike other countries that practiced chattel slavery, there was not 1 successful slave revolt in this country. Instead, slave revolts as well as attempts at revolts often resulted in the massacre of slaves.

[@JesusOfIskcon]

Richard Henry Dana's "fruits of victory.. grasp of war" about the Civil War not being over yet should be used for the Black Lives Matter movement: 16:25

[@paulbrasier372]

The older I grow the more I understand the scars the Democratic party has place upon this nation.

[@edwardclement102]

The Republican party also, Washington warned about parties.

[@9000Tempest9000]

CRAVEN

[@ttacking_you]

Crotch maven

[@matt605]

Radical Repubs used martyred Lincoln to punish the citizens of the South, with disastrous results. The same mistake was repeated in WW1 and led to the deaths of 60 million in WW2. It was not repeated in WW2, and peace endures. An entertaining example of a conquering culture selling change to the occupied (without a negative race theme) can be seen in KZbin episodes of "The Irish R.M." The PBS series from the 1980s is about an Englishman who supervises a locality in Ireland around 1900.

[@lupytuga]

...#It was not repeated in WW2, and peace endures..." really? what about war in the Baltic states, Greek Civil War, invasion of Czechoslovakia, Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Soviet attacks on Lithuanian, Ten-Day War, Georgian war, Bosnian War, Chechen War...and so many others and don´t forget that Prussia was simply dissolved...

[@tedosmond413]

"Radical Repubs used martyred Lincoln to punish the citizens of the South, with disastrous results. ". You never listened to a word he said.

[@insidedigitalmedia]

This is an inexcusably distorted interpretation of Reconstruction. 1. McPherson fails to mention that after the war the federal government imposed a tax on cotton that approximated 20% of its market value per pound. There was no similar tax on products central to the Northern states. 2. The cotton tax alone raised nearly three times the amount of money spent by the Freedman's Bureau during its entire existence. 3. For *at least* twenty years after the Civil War the South paid federal taxes to fund items that would be considered reparations if the Confederacy were an independent defeated nation. For example, after World War II Americans did not demand that Germany and Japan pay for the (1) interest on US war bonds, (2) veterans benefits such as the GI Bill, and (3) repayment of principal of US war bonds. Yet more than half of the federal taxes paid by Southern states were used to pay for *precisely* those items in the federal budget for decades after the war. 4. McPherson fails to mention that President Johnson modeled his Reconstruction plan after Lincoln's Reconstruction Proclamation of December 8, 1863, 5. Although McPherson harshly criticizes Johnson's Reconstruction Plan he fails to mention that it was approved by every member of his cabinet (all of whom were appointed by Lincoln) in May 1865. 6. McPherson fails to mention that there was almost no federal aid provided to the impoverished Southern states. From 1865 - 1873 the Federal government spent $103 million on public works, but less than 10% went to the former Confederate states. New York and Massachusetts alone got more than twice the amount of the entire South. The cotton tax alone generated more than seven times as much money as the federal government spent on public works in the South.

[@thomasjamison2050]

It is distorted. The reality was far worse than McPherson is willing to admit.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

War is Hell, you cannot refine it. Compared to what happened to the losers in Russia and Spain, the South got off lightly. Losing is a bitch.

[@luciferlaughs9859]

Nobody cares about your B.S. Confederates were ' let up ' to easily and they shat all over the Constitution and Bill of Rights all over again ! " those who deny freedom to others deserves it not for themselves" A. Lincoln

[@tinmanx2222]

@@luciferlaughs9859 That's your opinion. A. Lincoln was a tyrant and got what he deserved.

[@tinmanx2222]

Thanks for the information. The whole story of the civil war and reconstruction will never be told in a balanced way. Most of these so called historians rehash the same old stories adding their perspective which may or may not be biased.

[@Duseika72]

White african-american...

[@tommixx2880]

Not bad for the type of "revisionists scholars" that we have today. But not really all that good either. Much too anti-White. While he did mention negro militias, he never mentioned the Union/Loyal leagues, etc.

[@tinmanx2222]

The story is never told in a balanced way.

[@tedosmond413]

"During the Reconstruction era, Union Leagues were formed across the South after 1867 as working auxiliaries of the Republican Party, supported entirely by Northern interests.[citation needed] They were secret organizations that mobilized freedmen to register to vote and to vote Republican. They taught freedmen Union views on political issues and which way to vote on them, and promoted civic projects.[citation needed] Eric Foner reports: By the end of 1867 it seemed that virtually every black voter in the South had enrolled in the Union League, the Loyal League, or some equivalent local political organization. Meetings were generally held in a black church or school.[1] The Ku Klux Klan, a secret alliance of white supremacists that opposed civil rights and terrorized leaders of the African American community and African American voters, sometimes assassinated Union League leadership.".

[@edwardclement102]

@@tedosmond413 They were using freedmen for political purposes, the same way Biden used covid, and it was Northern shipping that brought slaves to the USA, Mcpherson does not tell the whole story.

[@tedosmond413]

@@edwardclement102 yeah....ok....