[Hugin]

It isn't my choice of verbiage to which you object, it is the fact that I have pointed out that Lincoln's principles, and therefore the cause for which he killed 750,000 people and destroyed huge swaths of land and impoverished millions of people, were "malleable."

That's more nonsense. The southern slavocracy was wholly responsible for the war, They whipped up a hysteria about Lincoln that painted him as an ape who was going to take their slaves away, something he had no power to do. They had largely seceeded before he took office, so nothing he did caused that. Then he specifically refused to initiate hostilities, and sought a negotiated settlement, his only condition at being that they stayed in the union. At that point he offered far more generous terms than he would have otherwise, specificaly to avoid a war. Hardly the actions of a warmonger. The south, in the grip of that phony hysteria, and ridiculously certian of quick victory, then initiated war anyway. Lincoln simply responded in the only way he could at that point. The death and destruction lies soley on the heads of those foolish enough to start a war they had little chance to win, not Lincoln.

The bottom line is the south's motive for secession and starting the war was fear of losing their slaves. That's understandable. They represented trillions of dollars worth of "property" in todays terms. In the north, the goal the vast majority agreed on was saving the union. Some wanted slavery abolished, others didn't, but they agreed on union. As time went on public opinion shifted and more people began to believe that all the blood and treasure spent would be wasted if the union was restored with slavery. Your attempts to say slavery wasn't the root cause of the war are simply a way for you to justify the south's actions without having to justify the indefensible institutiion of slavery and paint the side that started it all as the victim.

[jeffersondem]

“Your attempts to say slavery wasn't the root cause of the war are simply a way for you to justify the south's actions without having to justify the indefensible institutiion of slavery and paint the side that started it all as the victim.”

Quick review.

Slavery was enshrined in the United States constitution by the votes of New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland. And also Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Slavery was also enshrined in the Confederate States constitution.

Both the Union and Confederates had slaves.

During the War Between the States, both the United States and Confederate States had presidents who took oaths to defend and protect their respective pro-slavery constitutions.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the presidents added a slave state to his nation.

Do you know which?

[DiogenesLamp]

That's more nonsense. The southern slavocracy was wholly responsible for the war, They whipped up a hysteria about Lincoln that painted him as an ape who was going to take their slaves away, something he had no power to do

You say he had no power to do it, in complete defiance of the fact that he did in fact do it.

Then he specifically refused to initiate hostilities, and sought a negotiated settlement,

You speak to me of "nonsense" and then you post something like this? Lincoln absolutely refused to meet with any Southern Delegates regarding the disposition of previously Federal installations in Southern territory. He repeatedly pawned them off on Steward who kept leading them down the primrose path.

Also, Lincoln did in fact initiate hostilities. He sent a fleet of Seven Warship to Charleston with orders to attack the Confederates. Again, this is something that never gets taught in school, and I didn't even know about this until last year. The Confederates knew the warships were coming because they had spies and sympathizers in all the Northern ports, and it wasn't possible to hide the fact that these warships were being outfitted for a conflict in Charleston, and their known orders were to sail there and attack the Confederates.

It was the sighting of these Warships at their rendezvous point that caused Beauregard to began attacking Sumter. Because he knew these ships had arrived to attack him, he had to neutralize the fort or be caught between the guns of the Warships and the guns of Ft. Sumter.

Lincoln sent those warships and gave them orders to attack. Lincoln therefore initiated hostilities.

.

View from the deck of the USS Pawnee, one of the warships that Lincoln sent to attack Charleston.