Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppinjay
Slavery was already on the way out. The ruling class sold the war to southerners as a war for the right to operate freely, without government interference. Otherwise, most southerners didn't give a shit about slavery.
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True.
The war was all about States Rights. The fuse that blew the whole powder keg was what the South viewed as unfair taxes and tariffs imposed upon them by the northern states.
In fact, slavery really wasn't much of an issue until Lincoln made in an issue via the Emancipation Proclomation. Which, by the way, only freed slaves in states that were in open rebellion, and threfore, technically, not under his jurisdiction. He left the slaves in the border states alone, preventing the shift of more states (and their resources) into the fledgling CSA. Politically, the Emancipatiion Proclomation prevented official recognition of the CSA by Great Britain and France, who were sympathetic to the Southern Cause. More for their cotton than anything else...but still. Without that European support, the South was doomed to lose the war. It was a
tactic, and a successful one at that, employed by Lincoln.
Do some serious research into the 16th President. You'll find him an ass of major proportions. He really makes George W. Bush look like an Eagle Scout by comparison. While he is revered today, he was reviled, both North
and South, in his
own time. Only his untimely death, and subsequent press induced martyrdom, has elevated him to his current demi-god status.