Not in the least. Between roughly 1820 and 1880 practically every single nation in the western world abolished slavery by peaceful means. America was the only one where it came as a result of a massive war of conquest.
Not in the least. Between roughly 1820 and 1880 practically every single nation in the western world abolished slavery by peaceful means.
The war came because the slave power resisted a peaceful settlement.
Keeping slavery out of the national territories would have been a good foothold on a peaceful solution and the slave power was adamantly opposed.
Maybe President Lincoln was right when he said that if every drop of blodd drawn by the lash must be matched by one drawn with the sword, then no one could say that the judgments of the Lord were not true and righteous.
That is because the slave power was not willing to give up slavery without a fight. You'll not get the record fairly considered to say anything else:
"The Richmond Examiner stated their choice in unflinching language:
" 'It is all an hallucination to suppose that we are ever going to get rid of slavery, or that it will ever be desirable to do so. It is a thing that we cannot do without;that is righteous, profitable, and permanent, and that belongs to Southern society as inherently, intrinsically, and durably as the white race itself. Southern men should act as if the canopy of heaven were inscribed with a covenant, in letters of fire, that the negro is here, and here forever—is our property, and ours forever—is never to be emancipated—is to be kept hard at work and in rigid subjection all his days. ' "
-- "The Coming Fury" by Bruce Catton
"We have the Executive with us, and the Senate & in all probability the H.R. too. Besides we have repealed the Missouri line & the Supreme Court in a decision of great power, has declared it, & all kindred measures on the part of the Federal Govt. unconstitutional null & void. So, that before our enemies can reach us, they must first break down the Supreme Court - change the Senate & seize the Executive & by an open appeal to Revolution, restore the Missouri line, repeal the Fugitive slave law & change the whole governt. As long as the Govt. is on our side I am for sustaining it, & using its power for our benefit, & placing the screws upon the throats of our opponents".
- Francis W. Pickens, Governor of South Carolina, June,1857
No one at the time thought American slavery was on its last legs, although the slave power stumbled down the one road that would strip them of their human property the fastest.
Walt