The Union Army’s Struggle over the Limits of Confiscation in the West

Author(s):  
Kristopher A. Teters

From the beginning of the war to the summer of 1862, officers in the West adopted policies toward fugitive slaves that ranged from barring them altogether from their lines to aggressively liberating them. In August 1861, Congress offered some guidance on the issue with the First Confiscation Act, but the act’s limited scope led to minimal confiscation or none at all by top officers. Sensitive to the sentiments of border states like Missouri, who supported the Union but wanted slavery preserved, Lincoln was not yet ready to push for emancipation. At times, however, officers in the Border South still carried out the First Confiscation Act, but much depended on the dispositions and political views of the officers. Some Union officers, like William T. Sherman, Henry Halleck, and Ulysses S. Grant, held conservative views and pushed back against letting fugitive slaves enter Union lines and confiscating slaves belonging to Unionists. Officers, particularly in states like Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana, had very different ideas about how to handle fugitive slaves, and they were willing to pursue them even if it meant conflict with each other, their superiors or subordinates, or Washington.

2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-505
Author(s):  
EIRINI DIAMANTOULI

Ideologically motivated attempts to elucidate Shostakovich’s political views and to determine whether and how they may be coded into his compositions have come to characterize the Western reception of the composer’s works since his death in 1975. Fuelled by the political oppositions of the cold war, Shostakovich’s posthumous reputation in the West has been largely shaped by two conflicting perspectives. These have positioned him on the one hand as a secret dissident, bent and broken under the unbearable strain of totalitarianism, made heroic through his veiled musical resistance to Communism; and on the other hand as a composer compromised by his capitulation to the regime – represented in an anachronistic musical style. Both perspectives surrender Shostakovich and his music to a crude oversimplification driven by vested political interests. Western listeners thus conditioned are primed to hear either the coded dissidence of a tragic victim of Communist brutality or the sinister submission of a ‘loyal son of the Communist Party’.1 For those prepared to accept Shostakovich as a ‘tragic victim’, the publication of his purported memoirs in 1979, ‘as related to and edited by’ the author Solomon Volkov, presents a tantalizing conclusion: bitterly yet discreetly scornful of the Stalinist regime, Shostakovich was indeed a secret dissident and this dissidence was made tangible in his music.


1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dierk Lange

The Sēfuwa dynasty seized power in Kānem around 1075, but it was only in the beginning of the thirteenth century that the rulers of Kānem were able to extend their authority over Bornū. Prior to this move small groups of Saharan speakers had already established themselves among the Chadic speakers of the Komadugu Yobe valley. Towards the end of the reign of Dūnama Dībalāmi (c. 1210–48) the court of the Sēfuwa itself was shifted to Bornū, mainly as a result of disturbances in Kānem. Indeed, according to oral traditions of the sixteenth century, the Tubu, in alliance with certain members of the Sēfuwa aristocracy, staged a major rebellion against the central government, apparently attempting to resist the strict application of Islamic principles of government by Dūnama Dībalāmi. Towards the end of the thirteenth century powerful rulers were again able to establish the authority of the Sēfuwa on firm grounds: in the east, even on the fringes of Kānem, they brought the situation under strict control and in the west they extended – or confirmed – the political influence of the Sēfuwa dynasty over the focal points of interregional trade which began to rise in Hausaland. Thus Bornū became the central province of the Sēfuwa Empire in spite of the fact that several kings continued to reside temporarily in the old capital of Djīmī situated in Kānem. This major shift of their territorial basis affected the position of the Sēfuwa in their original homelands. Written sources from the end of the fourteenth century show that the increasing involvement of the Sēfuwa in Bornū and its western border states must have changed their attitude towards the people living east of Lake Chad: after having acquired the character of an autochthonous (or national) dynasty of Kānem – in spite of their foreign origin – the Sēfuwa progressively became an alien power in this major Sudanic state, even though the people of Kānem and Bornū were closely related. Furthermore, the rise of a powerful kingdom in the area of Lake Fitrī under the rule of the Bulāla became a serious threat to the Sēfuwa in their original homelands as the warrior aristocracy of the Bulāla state – which must have been of Kanembu origin – remained closely connected with the sedentary population of Kānem. When finally during the reign of 'Umar b. Idrīs (c. 1382–7), the Sēfuwa were forced by the Bulāla to withdraw their forces from Kānem, this territorial loss did not affect the future development of the Empire to the extent that has formerly been supposed, since losses in the east were largely compensated by earlier gains in the west.


Author(s):  
Kristopher A. Teters

During the second half of 1862, most Union officers in the West adopted more emancipationist policies. They routinely confiscated the slaves of rebels and employed many of them as scouts, spies, laborers, cooks, etc. This became the predominant policy across the several armies operating in the West. Official policy not only authorized confiscation but also made the practice more uniform. In July of 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which allowed for the seizure of any slaves belonging to rebels. At the same time, army commanders such as Samuel Curtis and Benjamin Butler began to realize how slaves could serve the Union army and the military necessity of taking them away from rebels, and developed pro-emancipationist policies and attitudes as a result. Though some radical officers, like John Phelps, were on a mission to eliminate slavery, Butler and many others were simply hard-nosed realists who shifted towards emancipationist policies out of military necessity. There remained conflict over the status of fugitive and confiscated states, mainly in border states like Kentucky and Missouri. Yet on the whole, by the end of 1862, Union armies were much more consistent and emancipationist in their policies.


1954 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Herz

DEEP crises in the life of a nation sometimes lay bare with lightning clarity those basic social ties, loyalties, and commitments which render possible some maintenance of order and control when everything seems about to break down or disappear. In 1945, year of the deepest crisis that the German people have undergone in modern times, groups and organizations like the Junkers or the Nazi Party simply vanished; others, like the military, disappeared at least temporarily or, like the industrialists, were gravely weakened. It was the bureaucracy which became the bedrock, the irreducible minimum of social cohesion upon which, first locally, then in larger units, society was rebuilt. Subsequently, confirmed in its traditional position of control by the occupation powers (certain measures of attempted political purge and technical reorganization notwithstanding), its actual power was enhanced by the innumerable tasks of postwar reconstruction, from the building-up of entire new administrations (in the new Länder as well as on the bi-zonal and then federal levels of government) to the handling of what has been aptly called the “universe of claims” arising out of Nazi, war, and postwar conditions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-57
Author(s):  
John J. Binder

The transportation revolution had several important effects on the antebellum political equilibrium. First, it caused western and southern political views to differ by bringing more easterners and European immigrants into the West. Second, it reduced the costs of rerouting western exports to the non-South, which decreased the expected costs to the West of conflict with the South. Third, it greatly increased western population, which brought more free states into the Union and changed the balance in the Senate. Fourth, it increased northern numerical superiority over the South, giving the North a major advantage if an armed conflict did occur. These changes led the West to ally with the East and caused the South to secede.


1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel P. Hays

Over the past three decades environmental objectives have emerged in the West with considerable strength and influence to reshape public attitudes. Until World War II agriculture and raw-materials extraction still dominated the region's economic and political views.' But in recent years the West has begun to change rapidly. New residents have brought with them new attitudes toward natural resources. Increasingly, those resources are thought of as an environment to enhance individual and regional standards of living rather than as material commodities alone. An indigenous environmental constitutency has become more vigorous in challenging the previously dominant extractive economy of lumber, grazing, and mining.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
M. Wiyono

Abstrack: Tjokroaminoto is a National hero and one of the pioneers of Indonesia’s independence. He was born and raised in a religious family which, to some extent, has influenced his thought and political views and activities. One of the most prominent ideas of Tjokroaminoto is the concept of Islamic socialism that has been well illustrated in his monumental book entitled ‘Islam dan Socialism’. The book is a response of Tjokroaminoto toward Karl Marx’s socialism in the west and Pan-Islamism in Turkey. Tjokroaminoto, in his book, significantly cites Quranic verses and hadith as the argumentative foundation of Islamic socialism, particularly on the concept of equality, brotherhood, and discussion for convention (musyawarah) as the main value of democracy. Due to the significant amount of Quranic verses cited by Tjokroaminoto, one of Islamic universities in Jakarta classify ‘Islam and Socialism’ as an exegesis book in the region of Nusantara. This means that the author is a Mufassir (the writer of a commentary on Quran). However, this assumption needs a further research and investigation in order to assure that the work of Tjokroaminoto can be counted as Quranic exegesis book. The investigation may include testing the work toward the valid criteria of authentic and reliable Quranic exegesis work, in terms of its method, type, and other significant features..الملخص :كان جوكروامينوتو هو الرائد إبطال تحريرة جمهورية الاندونيسيا ، ولد ونشئ في بيئة أسرية دينية حتى تؤثر على أفكاره فى فعلية السياسية والأنشطة. إحداها من مؤلفته عن مفهوم الاشتراكية الإسلامية التى تصب في الرسالة المشهورة بعنوان “Islam dan Sosialisme” هذا الكتاب يتضمن استجابة جوكروامينوتو على الاشتراكية كارل ماركس (Karl Marx) التي عامت في الغربية والحركة الإسلامية (Pan-Islamisme ) في تركيا في وقت واحد. و نقل جوكروامينوتو في مؤلفته كثيرة من آيات القرآن والسنة فى حجته, خاصة فى الحوار المساواة والأخوة والمشاورة فى ممارسة الديمقراطية. ولأجل عدد كثير من الآيات التي نقلت في ذالك الكتاب كان إحدى كلية دراسة العليا بجاكرتا، والإسلام والاشتراكية يدخل في تأليف تفسير الإندونيسي (Tafsir Nusantara) إن كان هذا الكتاب يعد من كتب التفسير فالمؤلفه يسمى المفسر . لتحصيل إلى هذا المفهوم يحتج إلى التحقيق العلمية للتأكدة بأنه من كتب التفسير .  وفقا نظرية كتاب التفسير من طريقته و منهجه و لونه ووشروط المفسر التي يجب إستوفيهاAbstrak: Tjokroaminoto adalah konseptor sekaligus pahlawan perintis kemerdekaan republik Indonesia, ia lahir dan dibesarkan di dalam lingkungan keluarga yang sangat religius sehingga mempengaruhi pemikiran dan aktifitas politiknya. Salah satunya adalah konsep sosialisme Islam yang ia tuangkan dalam sebuah karya monumental berjudul ‘Islam dan Socialisme’. Buku tersebut merupakan respon Tjokroaminoto terhadap sosialisme Karl Marx yang berkembang di Barat, bersamaan dengan sosialisme tersebut, berkembang pula Pan-Islamisme di Turki pada masa itu. Tjokroaminoto di dalam bukunya tersebut banyak mengutip ayat-ayat al Qur'an dan Sunnah sebagai papan bantalan argumentasi sosialisme Islam, terutama dalam konsep persamaan, persaudaraan dan musyawarah sebagai praktik demokrasi. Banyaknya ayat-ayat yang dikutip tersebut sehingga di salah satu perguruan tinggi negeri di Jakarta, Islam dan Sosialisme dimasukkan dalam deretan karya ‘tafsir nusantara’ yang berarti pengarangya adalah seorang mufasir. Perlu interogasi ilmiah lebih jauh untuk memastikan apakah karya tersebut sesuai dengan teori kitab tafsir dikaji dari perspektif metode, corak dan syarat-syarat yang harus dipenuhi oleh mufasir.


Significance Zapad-2017 has attracted unprecedented attention in the West, as media reports claim it will be the largest-ever Russian exercise and may be a precursor to stationing troops permanently in Belarus or even to invading the Baltic states. However, while alarming in scale and location given the context of Russia-NATO tensions, these war games are part of a scheduled annual military training cycle. Impacts NATO will be vigilant as Zapad-2017 unfolds but has deployed only modest extra forces. Ukrainian warnings that Russia will use Zapad-2017 to prepare an invasion reflect jumpiness rather than a real risk. Belarus will resume efforts to reach out to European countries and distance itself from Western tensions with Russia.


Author(s):  
Ihor SOLIAR

The article provides an analysis of the socio-political and diplomatic activities of Dmytro Levytskyi in 1914–1923, such as participation in revolutionary events in the Dnieper region in 1917–1918; directions of his diplomatic activity in Denmark in 1919–1920; priorities of emigration community work in Vienna in 1921–1922. It was noted that during the national liberation struggle, he, along with other leading figures of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), did his best to establish the statehood and unification of Ukrainian lands. However, numerous miscalculations of leaders of the young state in the domestic and foreign policies made it impossible to realize the primordial aspirations of Ukrainians. The author presents a review of Dmytro Levytskyi's political views and activities: he welcomed the formation of the Central Council of Ukraine, the proclamation of the independence of the UNR, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; as a member of the Galicia-Bukovyna Council he joined the Ukrainian National Union, which advocated the overthrow of the Hetman's power; due to his permanent stay in the capital of the UNR, he did not take an active part in the November disruption, 1918, and the formation of state institutions of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR). However, the ZUNR leadership used his acquaintance with prominent figures of the UNR for establishing bilateral relations with the UNR Directory with the further prospect of unification of two Ukrainian states. Keywords Dmytro Levytskyi, Ukrainian Revolution, Unification of the UNR and ZUNR, diplomatic activity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-85
Author(s):  
Vladimir A. Voropaev

Nikolai Gogol’s political thought was conservative. All questions of life — everyday, social, state, literary — had a religious and moral meaning for him. Recognising and accepting the existing order of things, he strove to change society through the transformation of human. The historical and political views of Nikolai Gogol are close to the views of Nikolay Karamzin and the Slavophiles. At the same time, he remained unsurpassed in the religious perception of the West. According to Vasiliy Zen’kovsky, no one else had such a deep direct feeling of the religious untruth of that time. In his interpretation of Russia as a theocratic state, Nikolai Gogol was at odds with Nikolay Karamzin and Alexander Pushkin, but the former was in solidarity with the latters in the sympathies for the nobility as an educated class. Nikolai Gogol came close to the main themes of Russian religious philosophy. He became the first representative of the deep and tragic religious and moral aspiration that had permeated Russian literature in the subsequent decades. The ideal of the churching of Russian life put forward by him is still profoundly significant for Russia to this day. Creators such as Nikolai Gogol, in their meaning in history, in words are similar to the Holy Hierarchs in Orthodoxy.


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