Something like that
Not necessarily. 15 years ago, I would have been right along side them arguing the same points. I grew up thinking that Lincoln was a hero, and that the Civil War was over Slavery and all the usual things that most people believe because they have heard it all their lives.
My first inkling that things may not be as we have been led to believe was when one of my best and oldest friends (who is black and was then Majoring in History) told me that Lincoln engineered the civil war. At the time I didn't give a thought to the civil war, and I had no idea what he was talking about.
Suffice it to say, I was shocked after what he had told me. He made a compelling case that Lincoln used his talent for manipulating and predicting people to get the Confederates to do exactly what he wanted them to do. He laid a trap, and they stupidly blundered into it.
My friend was thrilled at what he perceived as Lincoln's cleverness, and I was horrified to think that such a bloody war could have been the consequence of someone's manipulation of other people's emotions.
I'll go into what he told me in a later message, it's a bit long to include in this one. Needless to say, I had a different way of looking at Lincoln after what he dropped on me.
Only because they wanted a war -- and wanted one more than Lincoln did.
Lincoln had to take some kind of stand -- if only on paper -- to avoid the reproach that he'd stood idly by while the country tore itself apart.
War didn't have to be the result. It turned out that way because Davis was even more willing to risk war than Lincoln did.
It sounds like you're letting one college experience carry more weight in your thinking than it deserves to.
Ah yes, Mind control Lincoln.
He forced Davis to resign from the Senate.
He forced Beauregard to fire on Ft. Sumter.
He forced Lee to resign from the Army.
That Lincoln....
South Carolina was too small to be a state, and to large to be an asylum. Slaves were a majority. They needed other states, particularly Virginia, the slave state with the largest population.
By starting the war, they knew that the president would have to respond by calling up the militia. They had a deal with the slave power in Virginia, if a war started, they would not use Virginia militia to fight against the slave power. Politically Virginia needed the war for secession, as they had reasonably refused secession because the US government had done nothing that violated the constitution. So the slave power started the war.
As poorly as you argue for the con-feds?
I'll go into what he told me in a later message, it's a bit long to include in this one. Needless to say, I had a different way of looking at Lincoln after what he dropped on me.
How progressive of you.