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No, ending slavery was about liberating slaves and ending slavery's profound moral abomination on America's national character. And the North's view was that ultimately it was primarily the South's responsibility to reform and find ways to accommodate and freely and productively employ her liberated slaves.

Similarly, just because someone opposes abortion does not mean that they have to be able and eager to adopt unwanted children. Yet many who are pro-Life do in fact support and even adopt otherwise unwanted children. Similarly, after the Civil War, the North supported newly freed slaves in many ways.

Unfortunately, Darwin's "scientific racism" relegated Blacks to an inferior status and gradually dissolved the North's determination to protect the newly freed slaves. The, gradually, the fundamental American principles of freedom, equality, and fair treatment reasserted themselves through legal and political demands for civil rights.

And, to make the larger point clear, as bad as Black Lives Matter is, it is fueled by the profound misrule that Black Americans suffer from due to liberalism. Conservatives have spent decades proposing reforms. We should now put forward an urban reform agenda that smashes education bureaucracies in favor of vouchers and charter schools and liberates small business from excessive regulation.

The GOP should also reclaim its historic purpose as the advocate for reforms that make Americans more free and our country a better place to live and prosper in accord with our great principles.

"And the North's view was that ultimately it was primarily the South's responsibility to reform and find ways to accommodate and freely and productively employ her liberated slaves."

What to do with freed former slaves was indeed a dividing issue as the north tried to install policies that would keep them in the south. The north did not want blacks moving north and taking their jobs nor did they want blacks living among them. They were more racist than the south in this regard. The south did not wish to be used in this manner nor should they have.

Both sides knew the problems involved with freeing the slaves and one side, the north, wanted to keep those problems in the south. The north had become rich running the slave trade and using tariffs and dock fees, etc. to chisel out 40 cents out of every dollar earned by the south. They made almost as much profit off of slavery without the headaches of having slaves. These are the kind, benevolent folks who won the war and have been urinating on the U.S. Constitution ever since.