You, sir, are obviously totally confused, having drunk deeply of the Lost Causer Kool-Aid.
You seriously need to read some real history, and learn a few actual facts.
DiogenesLamp: "my best friend who is black, and a History Major, told me that he had just learned that Lincoln had cleverly engineered the start of the civil war..."
Such a claim is, well, idiotic and demonstrates the abysmal failure of our education system.
The truth of the matter is that Lincoln did the best he could with the options presented him, given his long term goal of preserving the Union.
To say that Lincoln somehow "tricked" Jefferson Davis into assaulting Fort Sumter is to first, assume Davis was a total numbskull, and second that Lincoln had serious choices to do otherwise.
In fact, Lincoln's decision to resupply Major Anderson in Fort Sumter was just that -- a decision to resupply, not to start a war.
Davis alone decided to make it a casus belli.
Then Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops to restore Federal properties was also just that -- not a declaration of total war, but rather the minimum force necessary to return Federal properties.
It was the Confederates alone who responded by formally declaring war on the United States, and increasing their Army from 100,000 to 500,000.
And Confederates also sent military aid to pro-Confederate forces in Union states, making them existential threats to the United States itself.
In short, it began as a War of Confederate Aggression against the United States.
DiogenesLamp: "Feeling as if I had been there went a long ways towards making me feel revulsion at the idea someone would have intentionally caused it for any reason other than unavoidable necessity, and that is when I began to doubt Lincoln's motives."
Sorry, sir, but if you hadn't been drinking so much Lost Causer Kool-Aid, you would easily see that all the blame -- 100% of it -- for the death and destruction belongs on the heads of those who first provoked, then started, then formally declared war on the United States while sending military aid to Confederates in Union States, and finally they continued fighting to death, long after their war had become a hopelessly Lost Cause.
Frankly I’m a little embarrassed for our FRiend DiogenesLamp - the “Linkum done tricked us” defense is pathetically lame. Maybe he’ll try harder tomorrow.
Been reading everything you've posted so far. Perhaps you will eventually get to something relevant?
Such a claim is, well, idiotic and demonstrates the abysmal failure of our education system.
Modern college. What can you do?
The truth of the matter is that Lincoln did the best he could with the options presented him, given his long term goal of preserving the Union. To say that Lincoln somehow "tricked" Jefferson Davis into assaulting Fort Sumter is to first, assume Davis was a total numbskull, and second that Lincoln had serious choices to do otherwise.
My friend's claim was that Lincoln was given the option to quietly resupply the fort but chose not to do so. He deliberately sent a message to the Governor informing him that he WOULD resupply the fort and my friend believes that Lincoln knew this would prompt an attack on the Fort because a message had shortly before been sent to Major Anderson stating that he had permission to surrender if necessary.
He said his history professor had told him that it was a very clever and deliberate tactic for Lincoln to get the war he needed to reverse secession. That Lincoln had the "touch" for clever politics is indisputable. According to my friend and his conversation with the professor, Lincoln needed the support of the Northern Newspapers and populace, and as long as there was no conflict, he wasn't going to get it. Most of the North was perfectly content to let the South leave, and it is only BECAUSE of the attack on Ft. Sumter that they were roused to oppose it.
The person who most benefited from the attack was Abraham Lincoln, who would have gone down in History as the man who lost the South.
Had Ft. Sumter not happened, we would have very likely ended up with two separate countries. Peace was Lincoln's enemy and he had the most to gain by shattering it.
My friend believes that Lincoln knew his announcement would provoke the hot heads in South Carolina to give him the tool he needed to win, and they did. I don't know. It's hard to say what a man "knew" but it's probably safe to say that if any man of the time knew how to outsmart a group of people, Lincoln would have been that man.
The argument is circumstantial with no concrete proof, but it certainly is a plausible theory.
And Confederates also sent military aid to pro-Confederate forces in Union states, making them existential threats to the United States itself.
If you are referring to the "Union" state of Maryland, then I will have to point out that it was only a "Union" state because of the actions taken by Lincoln in Jailing dissenters and Pro-Southern sympathizers. From a pragmatic perspective, Lincoln could not let the Capital be surrounded by hostile forces, though he broke a lot of rules in putting his pragmatism into force.
Sorry, sir, but if you hadn't been drinking so much Lost Causer Kool-Aid, you would easily see that all the blame -- 100% of it -- for the death and destruction belongs on the heads of those who first provoked, then started, then formally declared war on the United States while sending military aid to Confederates in Union States, and finally they continued fighting to death, long after their war had become a hopelessly Lost Cause.
This notion that anything is 100% one sided is not an attribute of a serious thinker, but it is completely consistent with the behavior of a cheerleader.
I think the founders had it correct, and that people (even bad people) have a right to self determination. I think this is a fundamental right which is right up there with the right to keep and bear arms in level of importance.
You, on the other hand, seem to believe that the existing government cannot be dissolved without permission from the existing government. You have taken on the mantel of slavery of a different sort. The forced compulsion to remain under the control of people whom you don't want controlling you.
You would think that you might have gotten enough of that stuff coming from Modern Washington to induce you to stop defending old Washington.