Max Longley

Max Longley is a writer in North Carolina. He has contributed to the publications HistoryNetU. S. Catholic HistorianModern Stoicism, TouchstoneFront Porch Republic, the St. James Encyclopedia of American Popular CultureUncle John’s Bathroom Reader, and others. His two latest books are For the Union and the Catholic Church: Four Converts in the Civil War (McFarland: 2015) and Quaker Carpetbagger: J. Williams Thorne, Underground Railroad Host Turned North Carolina Politician (McFarland, 2020).

A full listing of Max’s Emerging Civil War articles can be found here.

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Max is also a member of the Emerging Civil War Speakers Bureau. His available presentations are listed below:

“He likes to argue”: Catholic editor Orestes Brownson versus Archbishop John Hughes on slavery
Northern Catholics were divided over the war. One notable clash was between two Catholic supporters of the war – Archbishop John Hughes of New York, and convert-editor Orestes Brownson. Brownson, through his Review, advocated using the war as a chance to abolish slavery. Hughes thought abolitionism was madness. Then as Lincoln’s emissary to Catholic powers, Hughes had to explain away his stance to otherwise-sympathetic Europeans. Brownson split with most Northern Catholics, leaving the Democrats in favor of the Republicans and cheering emancipation.

The Reaper Man: Cyrus McCormick and the Civil War
Cyrus McCormick made his fortune with his mechanical reaper, which greatly improved Midwestern agriculture, much to the advantage of the wartime North. In his religio-political activities, McCormick spent the war, and the immediate antebellum years, trying to tamp down antislavery sentiment in the country and in the influential Presbyterian denomination of which he was a member. He did not succeed.

Civil War Stoic philosophy?
Stoicism – the philosophical school that teaches people to focus on what’s within their control and to accept what isn’t, is undergoing something of a revival nowadays. Stoicism also appealed to some soldiers and veterans in the Civil War and afterwards. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, abolitionist, Civil War officer, and all-around reformer, prepared a translation of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Lucius Verne Bierce, abolitionist and Ohio officer monitoring the home front, published an updated translation of some works of the Stoic philosopher Seneca. And Lucius’ nephew Ambrose Bierce, a combat veteran who wrote about the raw side of the war while experiencing his own tragedies, wrote to correspondents that he had some consolation from Epictetus the Stoic.

The great newspaper censorship of 1861
In August 1861, losing patience with what it saw as defeatist or Pro-Confederate newspapers, the Lincoln administration struck at several of these periodicals. Federal tactics included seizing newspaper equipment, forbidding papers the use of the mail, and even arresting editors. Some of the affected papers endured closure for several months, and some changed their editorial policy or staff under federal supervision. Ultimately, newspaper dissent continued, and so did censorship.

The M(a)cMaster brothers: On opposite sides in the Civil War and in the American religious divide
The Civil War has been called a brothers’ war. Let us look at two brothers of different faiths, different views of the war and slavery, and even different spellings of their last name. Erasmus McMaster was a Presbyterian minister and professor who was driven out of employment shortly before the war for his caustic criticism of his denomination’s softness on slavery. He spent the war farming and living with his family while preaching fiery sermons denouncing slavery, and saying the country needed to return to God. James McMaster, Erasmus’ younger brother, was a Catholic convert – much to his family’s horror – and edited the New York Freeman’s Journal and Catholic Register. In this weekly paper, James opposed the war and ended up not only as a full-blown Copperhead but as an associate of Confederate secret agents. there were limited contacts between the Catholic and non-Catholic sides of the M(a)cMaster family.

North Carolina’s pro-Northern “governors” on Cape Hatteras and the Coast
As Union forces occupied coastal North Carolina, two men emerged who proclaimed themselves to be the true, loyal governors of the state. One of these governors was self-proclaimed, the second was appointed by Lincoln. Marble Nash Taylor was a Methodist minister assigned to Hatteras Island. When federal forces captured Hatteras, Taylor, after raising funds for the islanders in New York, fell in with a schemer who persuaded Taylor to have a meeting of a handful of Hatteras’ Union loyalists, who proclaimed Taylor governor. As federal troops took over more of North Carolina’s east coast, Lincoln appointed a “real” Union governor: Edward Stanly, who had been an influential antebellum North Carolina politician. Stanly made Northern opponents of slavery indignant when he said that state laws against educating slaves were still in force, casting doubt on religious educational work among the slaves in the conquered areas. Stanly resigned after the Emancipation Proclamation, which he opposed.