The Enemy Within: Fears Of Corruption In The Civil War North (a Nation Divided: Studies In The Civil War Era)

Stoked by a series of major scandals, popular fears of corruption in the Civil War North provide a unique window into Northern culture in the Civil War era. In The Enemy Within, Michael Thomas Smith relates these scandals—including those involving John C. Frémont’s administration in Missouri, Benjamin F. Butler’s in Louisiana, bounty jumping and recruitment fraud, controversial wartime innovations in the Treasury Department, government contracting, and the cotton trade—to deeper anxieties. The massive growth of the national government during the Civil War and lack of effective regulation made corruption all but inevitable, as indeed it has been in all the nation’s wars and in every period of the nation’s history. Civil War Northerners responded with unique intensity to these threats, however. If anything, the actual scale of nineteenth-century public corruption and the party campaign fundraising with which it tended to intertwine was tiny compared with that of later eras, following the growth and consolidation of big business and corporations. Nevertheless, Civil War Northerners responded with far greater vigor than their descendants would muster against larger and more insidious threats. In the 1860s the popular conception of corruption could still encompass such social trends as extravagant spending or the enjoyment of luxury goods. Even more telling are the ways in which citizens’ definitions of corruption manifested their specific fears: of government spending and centralization; of immigrants and the urban poor; of aristocratic ambition and pretension; and, most fundamentally, of modernization itself. Rational concerns about government honesty and efficiency had a way of spiraling into irrational suspicions of corrupt cabals and conspiracies. Those shadowy fears by contrast starkly illuminate Northerners’ most cherished beliefs and values. Stoked By A Series Of Major Scandals, Popular Fears Of Corruption In The Civil War North Provide A Unique Window Into Northern Culture In The Civil War Era. In The Enemy Within, Michael Thomas Smith Relates These Scandals -- Including Those Involving John C. Fr?mont's Administration In Missouri, Benjamin Butler's In Louisiana, Bounty Jumping And Recruitment Fraud, Controversial Wartime Innovations In The Treasury Department, Government Contracting, And The Cotton Trade -- To Deeper Anxieties--jacket. Pt. 1. Fears And Fantasies. A Carnival Of Abundance And Pleasure : The Curse Of The Shoddy Aristocracy -- Pt. 2. Power-hungry Generals. The Beast Unleashed : Benjamin Butler, Corruption, And Masculinity -- Profligacy & Corruption : The Fr?mont Scandal -- Pt. 3. Traitors And Trollops. A House Of Orgies And Bacchanals : The 1864 Treasury Department Scandal -- A Burning Shame : Bounty Jumpers And Recruitment Fraud -- All Cotton Became Tainted With Treason : The Cotton Trade And Corruption In The Occupied South. Michael Thomas Smith. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Smith (history, McNeese State U.) shows how Northerners during the Civil War period responded to political corruption involving government contracting, power-hungry generals, sex scandals, and the cotton trade. In his analysis of the political culture of the era, he notes that citizens of the period believed that the misuse of power and patronage by the nation's rulers corrupted the virtue of the nation and led to tyranny. The author argues that these fears, such as the fear of a mythical class of nouveaux riche war profiteers, stemmed from anxiety over economic changes, modernization, and immigration. He contends that by understanding the importance of corruption to Northerners of the period, we can understand the values and beliefs central to Americans of the era, especially their attitudes toward republicanism and masculinity. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)