Lincoln didn’t have to wage that war. The only threat to his Union was Southern port cities out-competing northern port cities through low tariffs.
What are you talking about, Beth? SC seceded because they were unable to accept the results of the 1860 election.
From historian William C. Davis’ “The Cause Lost Myths and Realities of the Confederacy” (Davis, BTW, is a descendant of Confederate soldiers):
“A reading of the congressional debates for the decades prior to the war, of the editorials in Southern newspapers, of the speeches of leading regional statesmen, produces no list of rights endangered: only one right, slavery. No one at the time complained that the federal government was interfering in state taxation, road builidng, internal commence, militia, elections,…,or anything else. In fact the states right defense of secession in 1860-61 did not really appear in force until after 1865 as builders of the Lost Cause myth sought to distance themselves from slavery.
In the past Southern politicians had shown themselves rather indifferent to the whole business of states rights in any context in which slavery was not involved.”
Davis gives a long list of issues, dating from 1812 onward, in which the South was perfectly happy to accept federal authority: issues which did not involve slavery.
I like Southerners and the South. The overwhelming majority of Confederates did not own slaves. They fought bravely to defend their homes from what they considered a foreign invasion.
I admire their bravery. I am also glad they lost. And I believe Lincoln to be perhaps the greatest president for the incredible fortitude he showed during those terrible years.
