Civil War

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 09/14/2001 12:41:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU writes:

> Does anyone know of any books or articles or dictionaries that discuss the
>  origin of the term "Civil War," in specific reference to the American
>  conflict of 1861-65?

I have a copy of the _Annual Cyclopaedia of the year 1862_ (New York: D.
Appleton & Company, 1863, no ISBN).

A brief, less-than-thorough thumbing through this book produced innumerable
references to "the war", "this war", and "the present war."  There are also
several citations for "insurrection" and "rebellion", e.g. (page 294) a
letter from Secretary of State Seward to the Senate, dated December 19, 1861,
contains "From the beginning of the insurrection..." and page 295 a
resolution offered by Senator Waltman T. Willey of Virginia, also on December
19, 1861, begins "Resolved, That the existing war, forced upon the county by
the instagotors of the rebellion without justifiable cause or provocation..."

However, I found the following:

page 277, article on "Congress, U.S." on December 4, 1861, in the House of
Representatives, William S. Holman of Indiana quoted a resolution of July 22,
1861 introduced by John J. Crittenden of Kentucky which included the
following words
"That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by
the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the
consititutional Government..."

page 270, article on "Congress, Confederate", Senator Lewis T. Wigfall of
Texas is quoted (apparently in paraphrase) as saying "the gentleman was as
much mistaken as Abraham Lincoln or William H. Seward if he thought this was
a revolution---that we were subjects fighting against an established
Government.  If we were we would be entitled to the term "rebels."  This is
no civil war.  It is a war of some sovereign States against other States.
There was civil war in Kentucky, where citizens of the same State were at war
against one another."

Page 726 article "Public Documents" Message of President Lincoln at the third
session of the Thirty-seventh Contress, December 1, 1862 includes the
following "The civil war which has so radically changed, for the moment, the
occupations and habits of the American people" and "A civil war occurring in
a country where foreigners reside and carry on trade under treaty
stipulations is necessarily frruitful of complaints of the violation of
neutral rights."  and (page 727) "The Territories of the United States, with
unimportant exceptions, have remained undisturbed by the civil war".

        - Jim Landau