SPRINGFIELD — After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861, considered the event that sparked the Civil War, then-President Abraham Lincoln needed to decide how to retaliate against the Southern states. .
The result was Project Anaconda, an important strategy used by the Union Army to cut off supply chains to the South, a strategy that would continue until the Confederacy's defeat in 1865. . This plan was Lincoln's first direct military action against a seceding slave state. , and it is officially codified in a document called the “United States Sealing Order for the Blockade Proclamation.”
On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his wife, M.K., donated the historical document to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. The couple bought it at auction for $471,000. This is one of his approximately 13 million documents and artifacts currently collected at the Springfield Library and Museum.
“This was an act of leadership that required careful consideration, but it also required courage and immediate action to do everything possible to keep our nation intact,” the governor said minutes earlier at the library. At the ceremony, he spoke to a small audience with his wife next to him. The framed document has been released. “For me, this document and the museum as a whole are a reminder of how far we have come as a nation. Despite our current divisions and challenges, we are still here more than 150 years after the terrible Civil War. Our country continues to endure.”
Ian Hunt, Director of Collections at the Library and Museum, explains the historical significance of this document, and explains the division within Lincoln's cabinet over how to respond to the attack on Fort Sumter and the decision to grant permission to Southern civilians. Discussed the plans of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Capturing U.S. cargo, an act that amounts to piracy.
The Anaconda Plan was developed by U.S. Army General and Commander Winfield Scott, who believed that it would prevent southern states from selling agricultural products such as cotton and tobacco to Europe, while denying the South access to arms and ammunition. Supported. And heavy machinery.
However, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles felt that the Navy was too small and poorly equipped to adequately patrol the approximately 4,500 miles of coastline in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Wells advised that if necessary, ports could be closed and law enforcement could search and seize ships carrying contraband, effectively imposing an embargo, Hunt explained. did.
U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates warned that the blockade was an “act of war” that recognized Confederate independence by default.
In the end, the cabinet was split down the middle on the issue, and Lincoln chose to order a blockade.
“This document asking the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to the President's proclamation was the final step in making the President's proclamation official,” Hunt said. “While this blockade may not be remembered for the dramatic moments of famous battles such as Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the key points were the same: It denied much-needed revenue and at the same time inflated the prices in the South of the limited supplies that were actually distributed.
Christina Shutt, executive director of the library and museum, called the April 19, 1861 document “a magical piece of paper” and said it represented a “terrible decision point” for Lincoln.
“Seven states have already announced that they would rather tear America apart than risk the chance of freedom for 4 million enslaved people,” Shutt explained. “They fired on U.S. troops and seized federal property. They stole weapons and began to raise an army. The president now has to act boldly to win the war the Confederacy started, or You have to decide whether to flounder and hope the crisis somehow fails. It was a moment like no other in American history.”
The document will be available for viewing in the Library and Museum's Treasure Gallery starting Wednesday and will remain on display until February, after which it will be moved to the Library and Museum's archives.
