[Grand Old Partisan]

Every Condederate soldier was a Democrat, and every rebel collaborator in the North was a Democrat. In the South, at least 40% of the people remained loyal to the U.S. Government -- the blacks (don't they count?) plus people in Appalachia and the Ozarks, whom the Confederates called "billy yanks in the hills" or "hill billies". How can people today condemn people in this country waging war (jihad) against the government today while praising those who in the 1860s killed 400,000 U.S. troops? For history from the Republican point of view, read "Back to Basics for the Republican Party" at www.republicanbasics.com

[Grand Old Partisan]

Every Confederate soldier was a Democrat, and every rebel collaborator in the North was a Democrat. In the South, at least 40% of the people remained loyal to the U.S. Government -- the blacks (don't they count?) plus people in Appalachia and the Ozarks, whom the Confederates called "billy yanks in the hills" or "hill billies". How can people today condemn people in this country waging war (jihad) against the government today while praising those who in the 1860s killed 400,000 U.S. troops? For history from the Republican point of view, read "Back to Basics for the Republican Party" at www.republicanbasics.com

[Aurelius]

"How can people today condemn people in this country waging war (jihad) against the government today while praising those who in the 1860s killed 400,000 U.S. troops?"

The soldiers in the latter case were defending their country against an invading foreign army. Seems a considerable difference to me.

[PatrioticAmerican]

To believe that the civil war was one of party is to misunderstand the reasons for the war. Not all the people in the South were Democrats at the time, as you state.

[pepsionice]

We can go back to 1860 and the election...and if the idiot Democrats had their meeting at some neutral point other Charleston, then they would not have splintered. The party met and a week later ended....with no presidential candidate. Douglas was the preveiling candidate and should have won easily but the Alabama delegation wanted an extreme view-platform on the new states and their being open to slavery. Douglas didn't want that...he wanted the northern state vote and could not afford to take major chances. So the Bama delegation walked out, and the next five days were total chaos....and they left. They met six weeks later in Baltimore and Douglas had all his men ready to step in...and the meeting was short...he became the Democrat candidat. However, the southern members of the party were unhappy...met at some bar down the street after this whole episode and decided to start their own Democratic party....and put Breckingridge as their man. Thus the split.

Douglas came in third place...getting almost no southern state. Breckingridge came in second...with strictly southern votes. And Lincoln won all of the north, which had grown greatly since the 1840s and they had the electorial vote advantage. Had Douglas won the initial convention and campaigned heavily in the north....he likely would won at least 3 northern states and the south...and Lincoln probably would have lost.

One must remember that the Democrats had the presidency from the early 1800s on....it was the party to be in...and certainly was the major player in southern politics. Lincoln winning the election, put the Republicans on the map and ensured their status for the next 20 years as the big player.