United States History Lesson 14
Election of 1864, Lincoln’s Assassination, and the task ahead
Thursday, September 24th, 2015
Essential Question:
1) In what ways has the United States succeeded and struggled at being a model of democracy?
Objectives: Today we see how the Civil War ends, setting the United States up for more questions and
decisions – perhaps – than preceded the war. Before you leave class today, you should:
1) Consider the context for the end of the war, including how much it took from the country
(emotionally, financially, in human terms) and how little it resolved.
2) Predict the next steps once the fighting has ended and Lincoln has died. .
Activities:
1) Let’s go back and finish the Gettysburg Address, first.
2) Oh, by the way….
Pericles' Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE)
from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (edited for class)
When Pericles was asked to give the official funeral oration for the Athenian soldiers who had died at one
of the opening battles of the Peloponnesian War, he took the occasion not only to praise the dead, but
Athens itself, in a speech which has been praised as enshrining the highest ideals of democracy and
condemned as blatant propaganda on behalf of a warlike, imperialistic state, which--despite what
Pericles says--was heartily detested by its allies. It is unlikely that Pericles uttered precisely these words,
since it was customary for ancient historians to invent the speeches of the figures they wrote about,
based on what they knew about them; but it certainly reflects the attitudes of many Athenians.
This, then, is the kind of city for which these men, who could not bear the thought of losing her, nobly
fought and nobly died. It is only natural that every one of us who survive them should be willing to undergo
hardships in her service. They have blotted out evil with good, and done more service to the commonwealth
than they ever did harm in their private lives. They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their
own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepultures – not the sepulture in
which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men’s minds, always there on the right
occasion to stir others to speech or to action. It is for you to try to be like them.
3) So, skipping over the fighting, the war rages on. By the end of 1864, the Union will gain a
significant advantage and Lincoln will be reelected. However, this all leave the new United
States in a bit of a delicate situation. A classic jigsaw…
Group I: The election of 1864: What happened, who ran, how did Lincoln position himself? Now,
this leads to what happens after he is killed and the war has ended. What unanticipated situation will
arise?
Group II: Examine the Cost of the War – financial: How much did it cost each side, what
happened to the national debt as a result, what options might there be to pay for it?
Group III: Examine the cost of the war: human: How did the death and injury toll affect the
country’s ability to move forward? What other “human” costs were there to address (think former
slave concerns/challenges/issues)? How does this affect any plans for moving forward as a country?
Group IV: Examine the impact of Lincoln’s Assassination. In particular, prepare to use Walt
Whitman’s famous poem “O Captain, My Captain” to explain the situation the US faced as a result
of his death. Try to reconnect this to group I.
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
2
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
3
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
So, as Lincoln is buried, summarize the condition/status/situation of the United States and list the
questions it is facing.
Thursday, September Lincoln gets
24th
reelected…and
assassinated.
Monday, September Reconstruction – whose
28th
job is this? Should we
punish…or reconcile?
Wednesday,
September 30th
Monday, October 5th
Reconstruction fails…and
the union is saved. Is this
successful Compromise?
In class essay
Faith
Begin forming your
thesis, but the end of
this story will be
relevant to your essay.
Prep for an in class
essay.
Max
Persephone