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The Commonwealth of Massachusetts played a significant role in national events prior to and during the American Civil War. Massachusetts dominated the early antislavery movement during the 1830s, motivating activists across the nation. This, in turn, increased sectionalism in the North and South, one of the factors that led to the war. Politicians from Massachusetts, echoing the views of social activists, further increased national tensions. The state was dominated by the Republican Party and was also home to many Radical Republican leaders who promoted harsh treatment of slave owners and, later, the Confederate States of America. Once hostilities began, Massachusetts supported the war effort in several significant ways, sending 159,165 men to serve in the army and navy. One of the best known Massachusetts units was the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment of African American soldiers (led by white officers). Additionally, a number of important generals came from Massachusetts, including Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, who commanded the Army of the Potomac in 1863, as well as Edwin V. Sumner and Darius N. Couch, who both successively commanded the II Corps. In terms of war material, Massachusetts, as a leading center of industry and manufacturing, was poised to become a major producer of ammunitions and supplies. The most important source of armaments in Massachusetts was the Springfield Armory. The state also made important contributions to relief efforts. Many leaders of nursing and soldiers' aid organizations hailed from Massachusetts, including Dorothea Dix, founder of the Army Nurses Bureau, Henry Whitney Bellows, founder of the United States Sanitary Commission, and independent nurse Clara Barton. ==Antebellum and wartime politics== Massachusetts played a major role in Civil War causation, particularly with regard to the political ramifications of the antislavery movement. Antislavery activists in Massachusetts sought to influence public opinion and applied moral and political pressure on Congress to abolish slavery. William Lloyd Garrison of Boston began publishing the antislavery newspaper ''The Liberator'' and founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, becoming one of the nation's most influential abolitionists. Garrison and his uncompromising rhetoric provoked a backlash both in the North and South and escalated regional tension prior to the war. The antislavery wing of the Republican Party was led by politicians from Massachusetts, such as Senators Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, who espoused Garrison's views in Congress and further increased sectionalism. In 1856, Sumner delivered a speech on the Senate floor so scathing and insulting to pro-slavery politicians that Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beat him with a cane. More moderate Massachusetts political leaders adopted the views of the Free Soil Party, seeking to limit the expansion of slavery in the western territories. The Free Soil Party was eventually absorbed into the Republican Party, which became the dominant political party in Massachusetts. By 1860, the Republicans controlled the Governor's office, the state legislature and the mayoralty of Boston.〔 During the 1860 presidential election, 63 percent of Massachusetts voters supported Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, 20 percent supported Stephen Douglas and the Northern Democratic Party, 13 percent supported John Bell and the Constitutional Union Party, and 4 percent supported John C. Breckenridge and the Southern Democratic Party. Support for the Republican Party increased during the war, with 72 percent voting for Lincoln in 1864. The dominant political figure in Massachusetts during the war was Governor John Albion Andrew, a staunch Republican who energetically supported the war effort. Massachusetts annually re-elected him by large margins for the duration of the war—his smallest margin of victory occurred in 1860 with 61 percent of the popular vote and his largest in 1863 with 71 percent. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Massachusetts in the American Civil War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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