Hold it there son. You've stated time and time again, it could never have been over tariffs. But when my honorable friend GOP posts factual evidence you change to this?
In all the movement towards re-union, there was no mention of adjustments of the tariff as a reason for which the south would agree to acknowledge the primacy of the federal government
Well what happened to the four years in between? Better yet, what happened to the all fired argument of the cause of the war in the first place? You better not let your AOL buddies see this, you'll be kicked right out (BTW, I've seen some of those posts over there. To call yourself conservative is nothing but a sham)
Surely you couldn't be referencing this little gem of information over there from the poster known here as "WhiskeyPapa" and percieved here by SOME to be a conservative...
"If you non-U.S. citizens are wondering what the electoral college is and what bunch of ninnies thought it up: The US Constitution was written by rich white men like Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Randolph, and others. They wrote it for the benefit of rich white men like themselves. They didn't trust the common man --at all--, hence the college of electors, who didn't (and don't) necessarily have to vote for the candidate that carries their state. Here in Georgia, I didn't vote for Al Gore. I voted for nine Democratic Party hacks that promise to vote for Al when the college meets in December. Yeah, I know its crazy, but it works. Abraham LIncoln won the 1860 election with a clear victory in the Electoral College but only @ 40% of the popular vote." - Walt, explaining the electoral college to foreigners, AOL Newsgroup
Well what happened to the four years in between?
There were no four years in between. Lincoln throughout 1862 tried to interest -anyone- in compensated emancipation and colonization. No one was buying that.
The point is that he didn't seek a change in the tariff to placate the rebel states. It was all slavery, slavery, slavery.
Here is the famous Greeley letter of August 1862 so often partially quoted by the neo-reb fringe crazies. What do you see about tariffs here:
"Hon. Horace Greeley:
"Dear Sir,
"I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
"As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave anyone in doubt.
"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the neared the Union will be "the Union as it was". If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln"
No one was talking tariffs. Tariffs as the cause of the war are an excuse, a rationalization to avoid the nasty truth that all these southern heroes were fighting so they could get their bread from the sweat of other men's faces.
Walt