“But nowhere in his speech does he advocate a violent solution.”
This relates, of course, to my post 919 when I tried to accommodate your arguments and to see where it would all lead.
I wrote: “For the purpose of this post, let’s stipulate Lincoln could not get the necessary votes to amend the United States Constitution and abolish slavery peacefully.”
About voting to abolish slavery from the U.S. Constitution peacefully you have emphatically stated: “The answer is that it was mathematically impossible, and everyone knew it.”
If everyone knew it, then Mr. Lincoln must have known it at the time he gave the House Divided speech.
If Lincoln knew it could not be done peacefully, then to what was he alluding in his House Divided speech?
I know you don’t know the answer so I ask Brother Bull Snipe (who is knowledgeable about these things) to restate his reaction to the possibility that Lincoln used the military to violently overthrow the constitution and its slavery provisions.
Said he: “Always admired a man of action.”
Controlling it to where it existed peacefully. Limiting its expansion peacefully. Allowing states to outlaw slavery peacefully. You would know that if you read the speech. Nowhere in that speech is there a call to force an end to slavery where it existed, much less a call for violence.