This collection uses primary sources to explore the secession of southern states from the US Government prior to the Civil War. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

The second in a series of caricatures criticizing the secession of several Southern states from the Union during the last months of the Buchanan administration. Here the young nursery-rhyme shepherdess Bo-Peep represents the Union. She stands at left wearing a dress of stars-and-stripes bunting and with an eagle beside her, watching as seven of her sheep flee into a forest of palmetto trees infested with wolves. (The palmetto is the symbol of South Carolina, the leading secessionist state and first to dissolve ties with the United States.) The wolves wear crowns and represent the European powers which some feared would prey on the newly independent states. They prowl about and say, "If we can only get them separated from the flock, we can pick their bones at our leisure." Back in the clearing, grazing about Bo-Peep, are the remaining flock, two of which are labeled Virginia (closest to her) and Kansas. An old dog "Hickory" lies dead in the grass while another, named "Old Buck," flees toward the left. Bo-Peep vainly calls, "Sic 'em Buck! sic 'em! I wish poor old Hickory was alive. He'd bring 'em back in no time." Buck is lame duck president James Buchanan, who proved ineffectual against the secessionist threat to the Union. "Old Hickory" was the nickname of former Democratic president Andrew Jackson, venerated as a champion of a strong federal union. Although unsigned, the print seems on stylistic grounds to have been drawn by John H. Goater, the artist responsible for numbers one, three, and probably four in the "Dime Caricatures" series.|Drawn by John H. Goater?|Entered . . . by T.W. Strong . . . New York.|Published by Thomas W. Strong, 98 Nassau St. N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 126-127.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-10.

An angered response to false Confederate peace overtures and to the push for reconciliation with the South advanced by the Peace Democrats in 1864. (See also "The Sportsman Upset by the Recoil of His Own Gun," no. 1864-32.) Confederate general Robert E. Lee and president Jefferson Davis (center) stand back-to-back trying to ward off an attack by Northern officers (from left to right) Philip H. Sheridan, Ulysses S. Grant, David G. Farragut, and William T. Sherman. Sheridan points his sword at Lee, saying, "You commenced the war by taking up arms against the Government and you can have peace only on the condition of your laying them down again." Grant, also holding a sword, insists, "I demand your unconditional surrender, and intend to fight on this line until that is accomplished." Lee tries to placate them, "Cant think of surrendering Gentlemen but allow me through the Chicago platform to propose an armistice and a suspension of hostilities . . . " The 1864 Democratic national convention in Chicago advocated "a cessation of hostilities with a view to an ultimate convention of the states, or other peaceable means" to restore the Union. Davis, unarmed with his hands up, agrees, " . . . if we can get out of this tight place by an armistice, it will enable us to recruit up and get supplies to carry on the war four years longer." Farragut threatens with a harpoon, snarling, " rmistice! and suspension of hostilities'.--Tell that to the Marines, but sailors dont understand that hail from a sinking enemy." Sherman, with raised sword, informs Davis, "We dont want your negores or anything you have; but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States."|Probably drawn by John Cameron.|Published by Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St. N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Gale, no. 6722. |Weitenkampf, p. 142.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1864-6.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio.|Inscribed in ink below title: Filed June 16 1865.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

 U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.Senior Contributing AuthorsP. Scott Corbett, Ventura CollegeVolker Janssen, California State University, FullertonJohn M. Lund, Keene State CollegeTodd Pfannestiel, Clarion UniversityPaul Vickery, Oral Roberts UniversitySylvie Waskiewicz

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Explain the major events that occurred during the Secession CrisisDescribe the creation and founding principles of the Confederate States of America

Northern fears of European intervention in the Civil War on behalf of the South are manifest here.Uncle Sam, in the form of a bearded Union soldier (closely resembling Abraham Lincoln), unceremoniously routs John Bull from a fenced garden where the latter has been poaching. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, Sam warns, "John, You lost your Non-interfering Principle. I'll lay it on your back again." The American wields a large stick "Principle of Non Enterference." John Bull has a handful of cotton plants, more of which appear at right, and wears "Armstrong's Patent" cannon on his legs. (The term refers to a type of English-made gun used by the Confederates.) The artist has hidden several Negro faces in his drawings of cotton plants here. A cock with the head of French leader Napoleon III watches from his perch on the fence at left. At right stands a large scarecrow from whose arms hang the lifeless bodies of Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. A plaque on the scarecrow reads, "All Persons Tresspassing These Premisses, will be punished according to Law." |The Library's impression of the print was deposited for copyright on June 22, 1861. |Title appears as it is written on the item.|Entered . . . 1861 by E. Stauch . . . Pennsylvania.|Weitenkampf, p. 132.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-39.

Horace Greeley's famous and widely ridiculed 1871 pamphlet "What I Know of Farming" provided the pretext for the title here. With the tail and cloven hoof of a devil Greeley (center) leads a small band of Liberal Republicans in pursuit of incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant and his supporters. Greeley heralds "General Amnesty," echoing his campaign pledge of amnesty for former Confederates. He is followed by his running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown (with a long beard) who calls for "Reduction of Taxes." Next follows bespectacled Missouri Republican leader Carl Schurz, who carries a flag "Reconciliation," and Massachusetts senator and civil rights advocate Charles Sumner who demands "Equal Rights to All." Grant, holding a liquor bottle, and his three companions flee to the left. One of them is Benjamin F. Butler, who grasps three silver spoons. (For the significance of Butler's spoons, see "The Radical Party on a Heavy Grade," no. 1868-14.) The man at far left is probably former New York senator Roscoe Conkling, a zealous supporter of Grant's administration and programs. Grant cries, "Let us have Peace," an 1868 campaign slogan.|Entered . . . 1872 by Morton Toulmin.|Signed: "M.T." and "Fizzle Gig."|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1872-9.

In February 1861 Washington was alarmed by rumors that secessionists planned to seize the city and make it the capital of the Confederacy. The print may have been produced in that context, or during Lincoln's call to arms and rather anxious military build-up of the capital in April. Here, General in Chief of the Army Winfield Scott, who engineered the Washington defense, is portrayed as a fierce bulldog. He stands guard defiantly over a large cut of beef representing Washington, as a greyhound wearing a broad-brimmed planter's hat and wrapped in a Confederate flag (Confederate president Jefferson Davis) slinks away to the left. Beyond the greyhound are bales of cotton, a bone, and an animal skull. A small snake coils threateningly in the grass. A palmetto tree, emblem of secessionist leader South Carolina, rises in the distance. On the right, behind the bulldog, are barrels of "mess pork," beans, beef, sacks of money, and a large cannon. The stars and stripes fly over them. Another version--a crude, slightly smaller copy of this or of a common model, but without the printer's imprint and copyright line--is also in the Library's collection (Stern Collection, portfolio 4, no. 2). Weitenkampf lists four versions. Grant (II, p. 5-35) reproduces several versions of the design on patriotic envelopes in use in June, July, and August 1861. Weitenkampf and Murrell attribute the design to Beard. |Entered . . . 1861 by F T B . . . Southern District of Ohio.|Signed: Friz del (Frank T. Beard?).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Vent, Starr & Co., West 4th Street, Cincinnati, O.|Murrell, p. 220.|Weitenkampf, p. 131.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-26.

Jefferson Davis's diplomatic overtures to France and Great Britain fail in an imaginary scene at court. Davis (right) bows before French ruler Napoleon III, extending toward him a tray of "bonds." Davis holds a plate of cotton and, under his arm, a batch of papers. His pockets overflow with more papers labeled "Ordinance of Secession," "Davis," etc. At his feet are a broad-brimmed hat and a satchel with more bonds, and behind him is a small dog named "Sech" (secession) on its hind legs, begging. Napoleon (left) turns away from him with a gesture of refusal, saying, "Not any we thank you, Mr. Davis." Next to him is a table on which lie a crown, inkwell, and "Proclamation." In the background stands British Queen Victoria, who displays another proclamation (probably Victoria's May 13, 1861, proclamation of neutrality). The print was obviously drawn by the same artist as "Strayed" and "Volunteering Down Dixie" (nos. 1861-31 and 1861-33). |Printed and copyrighted by Ehrgott & Forbriger, Cincinnati.|The Library's impression of the print was deposited for copyright on May 30.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 129.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-32.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)